Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google + we know all the big names don't we?
But what if I was to tell you the potential of getting new readers to your blog could be higher in some smaller named communities? All of a sudden size doesn't matter does it? Blog Engage, Blokube, BizSugar, are some of my favorite social communities on the internet.
You're probably asking yourself, why would anyone like these small little communities over the big guys like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google +? I find it's easier to build strong relationships on the smaller communities then it is to on the larger ones. I also find these smaller communities have more article based content as opposed to personal opinion or status update like mentions.
When I join a smaller community I feel as if I belong more then just another number on the big sites. Let's face it, we are never going to be the Brad Pitt of Twitter, but we can be of the smaller communities. Let's take a look at some of the benefits we can find by joining the smaller sized blog communities.
Benefits of Small Communities
- Targeted Audience
- Known by first name
- More one on one Exposure
- Higher Quality Links
- Easier Relationship Building Process
In fact when you sit and think about what I'm saying the benefits continue to grow stronger. Some small communities, like Blog Engage and Social Buzz Club, have private Facebook Groups where you can engage on another level with like minded bloggers.
All I'm saying is perhaps it's time to rethink your marketing strategy. If you are frustrated with the long hours and days on the big sites maybes it's time to start using a smaller community to feel more accomplished. I still use all the big sites as much as I can but I far prefer some of these smaller sites.
Feedback and Discussions
I hope to see you all on the smaller sites! If you see me, make sure to add me as a friend I'm very social and love sharing on all the social media platforms! Let me know your thoughts on small and large communities. Do you share the same feeling as me and if not let us know why!
Interesting point of view, Brian! I’ll check small communities too, including those you have mentioned. Thanks for sharing.
Hi James, thanks for the feedback! I think you will find after spending a little time in the smaller communities you will soon see it’s much like living in s small town. Thanks again for the comment! I hope you enjoy your journey!
True Brian, living in a small town is much more fun than living in a big, polluted city:)
You know James, I’m from a small town, I’ve always enjoyed my visits to the big city. But your right, I’m a small town man.
This is very true, Brian =)
Nice reminder. There are lots of smaller, interesting communities out there which can provide excellent services. I remember using gather.com in the past and the results were good. It can also be easier to market yourself as an expert in the smaller communities, which cam do wonders for your online presence.
Hi Rick , thanks for the comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the article. I’m going to be connecting with you now as I visit your blog it’s a pleasure meeting you.
Hey Brian,
I agree with you. In these social communities it’s easier to make strong relationships. It’s easier to find people similar to us in small communities.
Hi Abhi, I know you understand the power I always see you at blog engage hanging out and meeting new bloggers! well done my friend! Keep up the hard work it will pay off! It always does!
Hi Puneet, thanks for the comment. I like how you think, just like me! Make sure to subscribe to Ileanes blog for updates and more great posts 🙂
Thanks for the information. I learned a lot and will apply it in life to make the most out of it
Hi Sanjay, perhaps for my next guest post I can look at some smaller communities and put together a nice article explain the benefits of each one. I’ll do a little research to see if it’s worth doing an article. As you know some of the smaller sites are hard to find.
Hey Brian,
I agree with you 🙂 Smaller communities are much better for building your audience (but you would also want to engage in big communities – get the best out of both :D).
Blogengage, especially has helped me to teach myself of my niche, get great friends like you and Ileane and write better blog posts 🙂
Hi Jeevan, yes you have it right! Small communities help you become a better blog in your niche and help you meet great people like Ileane and money others! Glad to see you stoping by and posting a comment! Thanks for the support!
Hey Brian,
No problem 🙂
After all, it was your community that helped me to get where I am – in the blogging industry 😀
Thanks to you!
Hi
bbriano17 .I agree with you.
keep it up!
Thanks
Thanks for helpful article. I have been using the larger sites, but I don’t see much traffic from my efforts. I think I will give the smaller one a good look.
Hi v, well if you decide to start using some of the smaller ones make sure to check out blog engage I’m the owner and we would love to have you.
In fact I like promoting websites on both small and big communities. The best advantage of small one is that it can attract more targeted readers and create close relationships. However, larger communities could give my site more new readers as well. In overall, I think we should take advantage both of them. 🙂
Hey you got it right there Tuan, using both large and small communities will be the best out come! What I like to do is fine the contest on the small sites and share it on the big ones.
What a write up.. Wow, but let me tell you the size does matter, be it small or large… Lol.
Hey Eddie good point, great blog by the way, I’ve went and connected with you on all your social network profiles!
Hi,
I agree with you that smaller communities are much better that the large communities.
Thanks for this.
Absolutely right Brian. Size does not matter. Small communities are also helpful. Brand does not work all time.
Hey good point I never looked at it like that. If you want small or if you want larger it does matter, to you! Nice work lol that was a good one.
Brian,
You are totally correct. While everyone want to be a big fish in a big pond… most people simply cannot and never will achieve that with all of the other people working the big pond (Twitter, facebook, G+ etc.)
It is far easier to make a splash and be the big fish in the small pond. The same amount of effort that would never get you noticed in one will make you a player in the other.
Hi Steve, my point exactly. This is why I spend so much time in the smaller communities as it’s easier to build the long lasting relationships. Thanks for posting a comment and stopping by.
This is really interesting. I haven’t thought about it before but it does make sense, with big sites like Facebook things can get lost among the much bigger pages. Small may be best then!
Hi Harriet yup sometimes it may be better! thanks for the comment.
Hi Brian!
I hate to sound stupid, but I have not heard of any of the small communities you have mentioned except Blog Engage. The only reason I know about it is because of Brian Hawkins at Hot Blog Tips.
I was even over at Blog Engage today, but I just don’t understand it. I may have to get Brian in a Google Hangout to help me understand how or why it works.
As far as small communities…I fully agree that most times you can get to know people a whole lot easier. I have always loved forums for that very reason. Yet, I still love my Youtube and G+, they just seem a bit harder to get people to engage as most people are there only for themselves or to play with the “big boys”.
Hi Sheryl, with all the new websites popping up it’s impossible to keep track of them all. Let’s face it there’s millions of websites available to us now. The ones I mentioned are smaller with I would say maybe a few thousand members active on a month. I don’t know about the others but I can say that about blog engage.
Sorry if you visited while I was having services issues today. Seems I’ve been having a very serious issue without a fix. One man show here ya know? Dedicated servers sound cool but there not lol.
This Monday Feb 13, 2012 @ 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST I will be hosting a lice UStream event doing a demo/ presentation of blog engage if you can make it that would be fantastic. Or if you can’t wait I’m @bbrian017 on Skype and would love to chat.
Nice blog post Brian.
I like small communities (minus the one i am a super moderator on) because i can mingle more and also learn more about people on the smaller ones. Also on the smaller communities, no one is there to push there products but usually there to spark up a good conversation or provide an opinion on something. Sometimes i like not having to talk to the “experts” in the industry because they tend to talk differently to us nobody’s. I’m not a big guru but the average Joe who likes to say what’s on his mind.
Wait a second, i’m talking to ramble on right now.
<—- Can tend to talk to much and confuse people but that's just me being me and not trying to be someone else that i am not. Time for a beer!
lmao Derek, I’m glad I came back to re visit this article your hilarious! I know the forums your at and I’m a fan of the site in fact it’s in my top 3. Thanks for the comment I appreciate it. p.s. if I’m in the site you know somethings being sold hehe…
It’s wonderful when you can find niche social outlets that support the niche you’re in. You sort of have a built in audience because you know people are already there for your type of information.
Brian,
You pointed out a very good point. It might take you longer to see great results in the large sites if you spend the same amount of effort as in the smaller communities. It really depends on the strategy you setup and the time frame that you hope to see some results.
Ming it’s so funny how things work, I just left a comment on Facebook on your shared blog article and was thinking to myself I haven’t seen you using blog engage much I hope all is well my friend!
Brian,
that’s a pretty catchy title you’ve created. Size does matter, because a woman judges a man by it, and I’m talking about more than just one thing… LOL
lol I was cooking dinner last night and told my wife the name she giggled… don’t worry it’s what were all thing!
Small communities are great because there is not so much noise. It is easier to identify real people, make connections and identify quality stuff!. Thanks for your suggestions Brian, I’m already on all of them 🙂
this is very true, Jane. And besides, with small online communities, it helps to keep people tightly woven, in keeping meaningful relationships at bay 🙂
Your welcome Jane, I know your on them I vote for your stuff all the time and send ya tons of tweets! Thanks for the comment.
I am actively participating on those sites except blog interact. I will definitely take a peek on this site. Thanks Brian
Blog Interact is a must man, Bryan has rocked that site out! It’s a great place to meet other bloggers!
Nice write up Brian!
I couldn’t really agree more to what you just mentioned- size doesn’t really matter! And in-fact the smaller communities are more compact and closer than the larger ones, which makes it easier to interact and connect with each other.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Harleena, thanks for the kind compliment. I know you have similar feeling as I do because I see you in many of the sites I’m at. It’s that reason I recognize you today.
Great Information! Agreed that in small communities it is quite easy to build PR, compared to big communities! one of the most prominent feature in my opinion is targeting niche based audience! From Small communities you can easily capitalize good amount of Niche based audience!
Very true, good post. People are so stuck on high numbers that they forget that even though you can potentionaly reach more people, you have much more competition and are probably reaching a lot of none targed people.
Using smaller networks is a good idea and even though your network may not branch out that far with one avenue in particular, using many can help establish yourself.
Good post
I like to Register every single community I can find which matched with my interests,I am on Blokube and BizSugar and don’t forgot the Name Triberr , I love the engagement of these communities….
Interesting. Quit my FB account a few years back (personal choice), and after I started this blogging thingy, I’ve had second thoughts (I mean: engage, engage!) Pretty sure, though, that I won’t rejoin. So, your suggestions about more intimate communities really makes sense. Need to start investigate (read: procrastinate) those.
especially your article title is very nice , and article also very nicely explained brian .i’m also recently heard about your giveaway . . now i’m going to participate in your Blog Engage giveaway .. hope i will win in this giveaway 😉
Hi sai that’s so cool to know your participating in them! I am doing one everyday on the blog engage blog so don’t miss out! Thanks for the compliments! Hope to see you engaging with us soon. I have added you on twitter.
I have trued blogengage before and i discovered that they favor blog on internet marketing more than any other niche blog.
My blog was on relationship and there was little response or feed back i got for the space of one months of using blog engage.
I agree Brian. Being in small communities has its perks although I’m not totally crushing out the big names. But it’s the targeted audience and great relationships that you develop with smaller communities and if i may put it this way, here we can find the “quality” audience, so that really counts to great benefits.
Hi there Felicia, I agree and think the smaller communities do bring more quality to relationship building but after hearing a few comments from other members I’m starting to think I should be focusing a little more attention to the bigger sites. But I don’t know I like the small ones. I’m torn lol… Right now I use the big ones to promote other peoples content when I share it from the links on blog engage.
We need both. lol. It’s not like you go for one and then disregard the other completely, it’s a matter of discerning what’s best at a given content at a given time, I guess.
Thanks for writing this post, Brian. I’ve been looking for small communities where I can promote my blog and grow my readership.
Hey your very welcome Kevin, perhaps we will be lucky enough to have you join blog engage. I just went and looked at your bog ti’s really great! We would love to have you as part of the community.
Hi Brian,
Yes I agree that smaller communities can have their benefits and we’ll get to know people on a better level, which in turn can help our learning. But would we be getting the same exposure as we do on the larger ones?
In my traffic sources I always see the larger social media sites: Twitter and Facebook are always in my top ten while YouTube, Stumble upon and LinkedIn are starting to make an appearance.
I’ve been using BloKube for about 6 months now but have to admit that I don’t visit as often, or as sociably, as I should.
One thing for sure Brian, you’ve certainly got me thinking about it now.
Thanks mate,
Barry
Hi Barry, is it safe to say you’re spending an extremely larger amount of time on the other sites as opposed to Blokube. See what happens here is obviously if you log into Blokube, submit an article vote for a few other and leave there’ no real engagement there what so ever. The more time I spend in one place the more traffic I get. Also I’ve noticed the smaller communities do take some extra time to build the relationships but are more meaningful in the end.
A Very tempting title, I love it.Size Does matter according to me, sometimes bigger the better, sometimes smaller the better.
Hi Gautham, yes I did well with this title in fact I think ms Ileane will be impressed with the search engine traffic she gets from it LOL
I’m new to blogging and think I should probably check out the smaller sites. Thanks for the post.
Thank you for sharing these resources. I learned about BlogEngage and Biz Sugar from Ileane, but hadn’t heard of the others. I think about go small.
Hi there Marcie , your very welcome! Nice meeting you.
Hey Brian,
I wouldn’t disagree with you but I wouldn’t completely agree either (I am pretty confusing at times! 😉 )
The way I see it is that smaller communities are a power to be reckoned with. They bring in stronger knit closer networking and meaningful interactions. They relationships over there are a source of direct communication to quite a large extent.
But aren’t the smaller communities soon on the climb and with the goal of becoming a larger one. The communities you mention here have largely to do with blogging in particular. Bigger communities like FB, Twitter and all have a much greater reach than blogging in general. They bring in variety, maybe even a greater exposure, but they have the potential to bring in a huge chunk of audience. And that is when size might just matter a little bit more.
Well traffic and community both matter. And for them both, we just might be needing the power of the big and the small! 😉
This should make for a very interesting debate!
Hello Hajra, you make excellent points. It’s very obvious the lager sites will be largest contributors to meeting new people, specifically out side the blogging realm. I’m from a small town so perhaps that’s why I’ve always enjoyed a smaller community. But your right in the end the idea is to be big… like the big sites. Thanks for the comment and for making me think. I’ve also taken the liberty to connect with you on your social networks.
Feel free to stalk me everywhere 😉
Your post made me think too! Are we always in the run for something big and miss out on the value of smaller meaningful communities!
Glad to be connected with you! 🙂
See you around!
I think the key is “potential.” It doesn’t matter if 1 million people see you out there blogging, if only 10 care and want to come visit your blog to see what you’ve got to offer. This is why good targeted marketing is so important – if you reached 50 who cared, that’s an improvement – but if it cost you 1 million dollars to do it, would you bother?
Even on Twitter and Facebook, our real “communities” may be fairly small – and that’s where actual networking and relationships take place. Friends and acquaintances sometimes look at me in horror and laugh at my having nearly 3000 followers on Twitter – they’re kind of impressed and think I’m a big deal – what they don’t see is those big guys with 50,000+. Because guess what? They’re following ME, not those “celebrities.” Your job is to be interesting enough people want to read – and to follow folks who genuinely interest you. And if a small community gets to know and genuinely like and interest each other – it’s much more manageable and certainly more powerful than all the POTENTIAL in the world.
This is a well argued point. At one point or another we are all going to get sick of these big social media sites and we are going to want something more personable. I look forward to working with these platforms. Thanks for the great information!
Quality of quantity. That statement works in all aspects of life, I think. Great post! Really puts things in to perspective.
Cool name you have there, not as cool as mine though brotha!
You make a great point about feeling like you are just a number. Hence why I started my own companies, the bozz man never recognized my work.
There have been many blogs where I just say to myself “Why am I here?”, “Does anyone even know I am here”?
To tell ya the truth I don’t know why it is I skip over this blog everyday, I have it bookmarked.
Everyday I see Ileane on Google Plus and of course +1 her stuff, and then just don’t make it here.
I see a couple of bloggers on here I frequent their blogs….OKAY ILEANE I’m sorry, I will be back.
Thanks Brian!
Hello Bryan Ring thanks for the comment ti’s so nice that I cam back here to see the comments. I’m glad I connected. I tweeted your latest article and connected with you on all the popular social sites! thanks for the comment.
I like the positive spin on it. Sometimes it’s easy to feel “small” compared to the big sites that get a lot of traffic. But every time I have felt that way, I got a really personal comment or email from a reader who thanked me for my website and my story. Having that more personal connection with people, whether they speak up often or not, means more than having a huge “corporation.”
My reply to you would be quality is far less important than quantity. So if you can get quality targeted audience with a small community then nothing is better.
That’s an interesting point of view bbrian and true to some extent. But still you cannot leave twitter and Facebook after all we all accept them at great seo tools.
I came across blog engage the other day and that was one of the first so called smaller blogging communities and must say really like it as you say you aren’t flooded with new stuff every minute giveing you chance to accually read some of the decent content on there.Very much a fan of Blog engage now,will have to check out the others thanks very much for the info.
You must grab every opportunity that you encounter. These small communities may be the source of the best help that you can get, and there might be people there that are a lot more people in your field that can answer you in a flash than those in the big social media sites. Let’s take Twitter as an example. If you’re going to follow Matt Cutts on Twitter, what are the chances that he’ll mention you in a Tweet, given that there are a ton of people following him and trying to reach out to him?
= Gerald Martin =
In most cases quality is much better than quantity.
I suppose there is only one tiny problem wasn’t noticed – the smaller social platform is, the lesser members it has, that means it’s not popular or known much (i don’t consider advantages or disadvantages of small and big ones). Was Twitter or Facebook or anything else a huge social networking? I guess no, it wasn’t. So, when many people rush into smaller social platforms to create small communities, this communities will become another strong ones. Moreover, most of people log on every day to socialize, so it means, they dо want it and they will have to move in with all their relatives and inner circle.
To some extends I agree, but for sure “big boys” may bring more traffic and target wide audience, but it pretty much depends as the quality of traffic from small communities may be much better.
Your right Kaloyan, the big sites work great too but you will never build the solid relationships like you would on the small ones. For example in the big city you don’t ask your neighbor for nothing, in a small town you ask for sugar when your out and they lend it. Thanks for the comment I’ll connect with you now online.
Some big sites are look intimidating but if you see their pages there
is no quality from articles.
Exactly what i was pointing out to most of my blogging friends. Yes, you’ll get much exposure when using big social networking sites, but you’ll get much authority if you build it from small social networking sites first
Grace,
What you’re saying here makes absolute common sense. The smaller the better 🙂
hi Brian,
I’ve been meaning to stop by and let you know that I wanted to make a post about blog engage on my site soon. when you get a chance, please get my e-mail address from this comment and hit me up with an e-mail, so I can get more information about your company before posting information to my site. I think blog engage is a really awesome service, and I like to help you get the word out about it 🙂
Drewry
Hi v I have sent you an e-mail based on the e-mail used to comment here.
hi Brian,
I just got your e-mail and responded 🙂
I bet your laughing at my copy paste fail? You know when you copy a bane and hit v instead lol. v should be your name in my previous comment.
LOL@ copy & paste fail 🙂
it’s all good. Everyone fails once in a while copying and pasting… LOL
Wow that was a new perspective. I guess it’s time to get active on these new “small” communities.
Well i cannot agree with you any more , small communities are good to start up and take over rather than wasting time on big communities and get nothing out of it.
Smaller has its benefits, but not like a larger group. This can get you a whole lot more exposure.
Quality always matters not quantity, if we get targeted visitors from small communities then we should join them because a group of targeted readers is good than a huge list of one time visitors. Thanks for the post!