Social networking is no different from the offline networking.
All of us have done, or are still doing, offline networking – it’s just that we never call it networking. It had always been like being with a bunch of friends! Be it the old school times, or high school friends circle, your co-workers, the neighborhood and so on.
The very same principles do apply with online social media as well; we just need to figure it out based on our needs and tastes.
So, here is a list of social media sites, based on what interests you have, you can join the right one! Just make sure to be active, network and connect with the fellow members, post your comments and share your views. Don’t be a stranger with the only intention of dropping a link.
18 Niche Social Media Websites for Bloggers
For the women who likes to network:
Pinterest – Pinterest is a growing social network for women. It is already huge and with a great visual interface it attracts new users all the time. If you are a women blogger, or your blog audience is targeted to women, then this is the network that you should follow.
And what about Men?
GentleMint – This is the men’s answer to Pinterest. If you are looking for an audience that targets primarily men, this network can sure help. This is not as big as Pinterest, but growing all the time.
For those who likes to share amazing images:
StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is not new, but most people complain about huge bounce rates and that the stumble bots do not stay on the page for even one second. From my experience, the users at stumble upon do not like to read, text is boring for them. Try StumbleUpon if there are a lot of images on your page – creative, funny, awesome images go viral on StumbleUpon a lot.
For those who are too professional:
LinkedIn – Linkedin is more for professionals. If you offer a service, if your posts are about getting jobs, having skills etc. then Linkedin can be a real asset.
Most bloggers ignore linkedin because they think it is not directly on their niche. However, when it comes to bigger social sites like linkedin, you should do what you do on facebook – that is make the most out of it.
Q) What really works on Linkedin?
Ans) Skill.
That is perhaps the shortest answer I have ever given! But yes, linkedin is all about jobs and professionals. And one thing every job requires, and that is skill. Target your content towards the various skills required to do various stuff – and see it go viral on Linkedin.
Watch this video about Tracking Conversions From Social Media
BlogEngage – My personal favorite, this social community is just the right place for any blogger out there.
Here is how blog engage works. First thing's first – BlogEngage is a paid blogging community and the standard account starts at $30 a month! However, you can join a contest or a giveaway and get a free blog engage account. For more details, contact Brian, the owner of BlogEngage.
Once you have an account, go ahead and make a contributor account on the community blog of BlogEnage. Once your account has been upgraded to a contributor, submit a blog post introducing yourself to the community.
Just like any other social network, the more active you are, the more you will gain from the network. If you want to see how active people are at blogengage, check out our very own – Ileane's profile.
BizSugar – If you are a small businessman or you cover topics related to business and marketing, bizsugar would be your ideal target.
BizSugar has a lot of traffic and people out there are not just bloggers but they have good advertisers too. Every time one of my submitted post hits the front page of biz sugar I get 20 to 50 very interested visitors from the site.
Another thing we love about bizsugar is the giveaways and getting featured. Currently they are giving away tablets for being active on their community. The contributor of the week is a regular feature for bizsugar, just be the most active member and get featured on their blog.
Blokube – A smaller variant of BlogEngage – if you are looking for more social love for your blog, this can help.
Inbound – Inbound is backed with powerhouses like Moz and Hubspot. It is growing at a very fast rate and a powerful profile on it can be really helpful.
If you are looking for a really strong social niche in this niche, inbound might just be the one. However, this is not like the other social sites we have mentioned thus far – it is far more serious and active. If you want to gain anything out of it, would suggest you to build a really strong profile first before trying to submit any content of your own.
They do appreciate good content. Here's a small tip – submit some of your guest posts that you did for some strong A-list blogs. That should help you to build up your reputation on Inbound.
My Seo Community – Requires Facebook connection for creating an account.
For just about anyone:
Facebook – Facebook is for everyone as everyone is already on Facebook! This is one network that caters to everyone. If you are looking for more PPC options, this one can be a real alternative for AdWords.
Google+ – The social network powered by Google, it is fast gaining recognition and everyone is joining in. This is going to be the future of social for search, so make sure you are active on it.
For the travelers:
Travel News – A niche social site for travelers, share your best travel posts and see them go viral on this site. Submit a few articles every day, try to contribute in terms of making comments etc. you will see some very targeted traffic coming from this site.
So far, from what I have seen – list based articles works best on this site. Try not to spam it with low quality content, as there aren't too many alternatives for you on this niche.
Good articles like 100+ points list does really well, could end up getting into the all time famous submissions on the site. Try it, the traffic is worth it.
For the designers:
Design Float – Design is a very popular niche, if you are a blogger on this niche, you should join Design Float. Niche sites are the best places to gain targeted traffic.
Like to spread your opinion in the social media, be the critic:
Reddit – Do not try to spam, reddit is very strict – they will catch you. If you already have an account, give your profile link to a friend and make sure he can see it. Most people on reddit who have tried to post not-so-good submissions in the past, have their account ghost-banned. If your account is ghost-banned, only you will be able to see it. In that case, the best option for you is to create a second account and build it up rather than spamming again. Buy the Reddit Pro it only costs $4 a month. Make good comments on other’s submissions and build up your karma. Do not submit your own article till you have built a really good profile.
Digg – Digg is one of the oldest social bookmarking website, it still is good but dying slowly. Ages back, Digg was very much capable to send so many visitors that a website with an article on Digg’s front page could run out of bandwidth within an hour of it hitting front page. Things have changed though, Digg is no longer quite that big but it still is there, so make the most of what is left with digg.
Digg has almost stopped taking public submissions, they still have the submit page though. The new owners of Digg wants to change this social media site back to a startup – and from what it seems, they are pretty successful in that.
Slashdot – Another popular social media site, slightly directed towards the tech niche. Ages back, just like Digg, we used to hear the phrase – slashdotted! It was like a horde of visitors visiting your website when you hit the front page of Slashdot and even the most powerful servers used to fall apart. It still exists, so why not give it a try?
Are you green?
Care2 – For those who like to stay green, do organic and stay away from plastic – care2 is just the right social network for you. Do not think it in terms of a social bookmarking site to drop your link, if you are on the organic and Eco-friendly niche; try to network with other like minded people. The members there are very friendly and easy to network with.
Want more social networks? You got it!
Let's see how many of these you have tried so far?
http://instagram.com/
http://www.fark.com/
http://chime.in/
http://www.scoop.it/
https://www.tumblr.com/
https://www.pheed.com/
https://delicious.com/
http://www.newsvine.com/
https://www.diigo.com/
http://www.kaboodle.com/
There are a number of other social media networks out there, but this list is for bloggers. So, like I said above, try to contribute something to the community but we cannot forget the fact that our end goal is to get traffic, visitors, visibility for our own blogs. So it is mostly like – give and get, and thus we have only covered those networks where, once you are an established member, you can get something back for your own blogs as well.