If someone asks me who I would recommend to assist them with Social Media, what would I answer? I know dozens of bloggers with social media expertise.
When I searched for Social Media Events on EventBrite today there are 2,359 worldwide as you can see from the image in this post – and that is only one of many sites that list events.
Here are the numbers of results for other Social Media searches on EventBrite:
- 113 Social Media Events New York
- 112 Social Media Events San Francisco
- 62 Social Media Events Chicago
That doesn’t even count the events that don’t happen to be listed on that one site. What I’m getting at is that this is more proof of what I keep telling bloggers about focusing on geo-targeted niches.
If you want to be recommended – by me or anyone – you have to give us a reason. A reason to single you out. A reason why you are just the person for a particular business to contact. What marketers and Web designers have always recommended:
YOUR USP – Your Unique Selling Proposition.
Why You Must Differentiate or Die!
That applies to every small business, every blogger and every consultant. Make a name for yourself in something SPECIFIC – not just social media, or blogging, or whatever your business does.
You must answer this one question:
Why should I recommend YOU over everyone else?
As I explained further in BLOGGERS: Position Your Blog Where the Money Is, I believe the answer you find will be a combination of location and specialty. Like these:
- Adam Toporek who recently decided to specialize in tips on how to offer Good Customer Service Experiences
- Rohan Gilkes who brought together the Washington D.C. Food Bloggers and launched Washington D.C. Influencers @365thingstododc
- Maritime Social Media Marketing @JensenMaritime
You can’t be the best or most famous or any other adjective for a niche as huge as social media (or web design) This has been true as long as there has been an Internet! And it is still true today.
Those who have a specialty
become known in their industries
and become the go-to people
who get the recommendations
and the business.
That can be you. Find a passion. Become the best in that niche. Add a geographic location because there are still some people who want to only do business with those who are located physically near them (and because it never makes you less interesting nationally or internationally either!).
Freelance writer Donna Anderson @SheWritesaLot who is a regular contributor for Examiner.com provided some exceptional tips on how to cover local in your blog in her recent guest post here: Bloggers And Small Businesses Can Conquer Cyberspace With Collaboration.
Do you know (or are you) someone who has a specialty? Let me know in the comments of this post so I can add them here – and they’re on my radar (and others’) so we can recommend them when opportunities arise.
Gail Gardner
Social media is really a trendy and very best way to increase your web traffic and social promotion of your service or product. Thanks for the nice post I’ll back for more details in future..:)
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i agree..it;s trendy and also one of the easiest way to get your brand out there
thanks for pointing out the importance of specialization in social media.
I think social media is the wave of the future and will soon overtake search engines.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Social media sites has a great influence in generating traffic to your website and to gain more publicity over the internet which nowadays people are more exposed to it. Social media sites like twitter and facebook can be a great source of traffic considering the million or shall we say billions of users who logged in to it everyday.
Specialization is a great idea. Then we can work with our own terms and gain great revenues. Almost every good firm needs expert advice and are willing to pay the fees as asked. In addition, after specialization we can write books and blogs and earn through those means too.
It is a good idea to specialize in social media. We can land up having our own site to counsel people and have a profitable venture. We may write blogs and solve various queries of people around the world. Social media is a great field and would be there in the market till we have the internet. This fact is quite reassuring.
I didn’t know it is a good field to specialize. Would give that a thought now. Thanks for the great post. I have learned something new by visiting your site today.
some very good points made here…
Social media expertise is necessary for my business marketing. People are being highly influenced by social networking sites and many people visit them at least once a day. Without expertise, we may not use them well and hence not make enough profits. This is not something we would like to risk upon. Better to have experts and have great marketing tools for social media.
Social media is powerful and an effective strategy for a webmaster to reach target audience.
Thanks for some good insights on it.
Social media is important and I am defining “important” here as an effective strategy for individuals and organizations to achieve their objectives because it makes it fast, easy, and in most cases free for you to create and share content.
The benefits of specializing is a good profit and popularity..nice post
I’d agree to specialize and carve out your own place in your niche. Also, call me a Renaissance man, but I also believe on getting your hands on every aspect of your site and it’s marketing. SEO, for example, permeates through every design and promotional aspect of websites these days. It’s more effective and efficient to put together a campaign with a real punch if you have the know how and ability to coordinate all aspects of a campaign – site updates, choice of content, social media usage, etc.
I think you’re spot on there Ben. So many social media experts who push SMM as the be all and end all of marketing online, it can be a great customer relationship tool, but it wont get you more customer until you integrate it into a full marketing strategy. Search is still king, and it’s now all about incorporating social media into your seo strategy.
Its ok if I cannot specialize in social media, I can at least hire one and get my work done by paying them!
Specializing has too many benefits. It increases the market value of a person and revenues can be awesome!
Nice, very nice indeed very to the point and exactly what I would of said.. thx for the share..
I have been writing and advocating specialization for quite some time now and would be the first to agree with you. Better to be a master of one than jack of all. Off lately I have begun writing a book on the same topic and hope I can convince people to specialize and grow in life.
Social Media is now most powerful in online world
learn how to use effective is very need for everyone who want impact blog
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“Interesting”I really enjoyed your blog post, i always got good, relevant and useful information from your new and unique posts, i m sure your blog will keep us continues update. Thanks for providing us such useful information..
The three most important factors in social networking are audience, audience, audience. Identify what kind of people you’re trying to reach and pay attention to what they’re saying. Build RSS feeds and monitor conversations using listening tools like TweetDeck, Social Mention and Seesmic. Great resources 🙂
There was a time when people were jacks/janes-of-all-trades and were good at it but then division of labor was implemented so that profit can be maximized. I believe that we can be experts in any fields if the will is strong enough. But then again not every one has a will that is strong enough to master all trades. So we specialize. It’s advantageous to be an expert in your own niche, than spreading yourself thin. But we shouldn’t focus solely on our own niche, we should still keep abreast with what’s going on with the rest.
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Hi Reese,
When you’re talking about traditional tasks you can learn many because they don’t keep changing. That is not true of computer related skills. It is impossible for anyone to learn and stay current on everything.
The main reason to specialize though is to maximize your productivity and generate referrals. The more time you work in one industry the more you learn and the better you can apply that experience.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Media Sharing – How to Make It Fast and Easy
Well, I think social networking sites like FB can be used on a small scale using features like FB Pages to drive targetted traffic. However, I think these sites are a long ways off from providing buyers like the search engines. In my opinion, people searching for a product or services using a search engine will always be a superior lead than people seeing ads, etc on a social network website.
Hi Mark,
You are absolutely correct that content clicks – what I call ‘curiosity clicks’ – rarely convert as well as search traffic because someone searches when they are ready to buy.
There are a few exceptions such as blogs that write about new products and link to where you can buy them and REAL review blogs that have high quality content and readerships.
growmap would love you to read ..Case Study: How to Deal with a Negative Review on Google Places
It can really be a balancing act… I have seen successes who are offering a very broad range of services.. On the other hand, I think *generally* the best advice is to hone in on a very specific niche that best suits you!
agree with you. An information regarding social media is important to get success in online field. best post for newbies who starts working without learning anything about social media.
i used to blog everyday and when i am bored i just get a pen and paper and i just write and then end of the day when i read it back it come up to a good article,I have been wrestling with this a lot because while we do Web Design with a large focus on SEO, Small Business Promotion, Copywriting and Social Media.so far so good though.
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Social Media has been part of every online business site, some have lay their trust them so much so that it has yield plenty of results. Geeting the right social media tutorial this days is not that easy. i recommend you read this article for more. thanks
According to me you should also decide the niche which you want to explore in social network..No doubt its a wonderful platform to maximize your profit margin but specializing in one particular section will help you more.
Specialization does have its rewards, but would it not also cause you to be limited in how people perceive you?
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This is obvious that no one can specialize in the whole medical field or in the hold engineering field, similarly a life is also short to get expertise in whole social media or blogging thing. You need to choose a niche of interest, if you want to be expert and always remember that without interest one can never become an expert
Branding your self is very important. Branding is how you present your self to the public and make your self standout among the crowd who offers the same service that you provide.
Without the knowledge of social media non of the online can be successful. For success of your brand always try to learn new tip of social media.
I had never thought of specializing in social media, but was always interested in knowing more about it. Reading it here made me feel this is exactly what I want to do in life. I would and should use my skills that suit social media so very well. Thanks a ton guys!
Thanks for another great informative post, I just subscribed to you so I can see all your great articles. Thanks again for your input on specializing in a social media niche.
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This is an interesting post. I think so many people jumped on the social media bandwagon and attempt to cash in by offering a full spectrum of services (or claiming they can). In anything, sometimes occam’s razor prevails. Stick to what you know you can do, learn it, and be able to do it better than most. People that attempt to learn every aspect of social media won’t be as effective, in my opinion. However, I believe it’s better to know a lot about a little vs a little about a lot.
Local SEO is where it needs to go anyway. The maps are key for running a successful SEO operation.
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Hi Gail,
Thank you for the many recommendations I’ve received from you. (This is a good opportunity to remind others when they get recommendations that culminate in new business, try giving a token of their appreciation, maybe even a “finder’s fee”! 😀 )
My primary niche is Technology Consulting for offline business, and online business systems (customer referrals, billing, and project management). both of these areas include assessment of needs, selection of appropriate tools/systems/services to fill those needs, training of staff, resolution of any technical difficulties, and on-going evaluation.
Prior to the last few years, my work took me all over the Southeast, with clients as widespread as New York and Massachusetts (Sherryl Perry’s backyard). But more recently, geographically I have focused on local businesses in my area. Now — after hearing your repeated encouragements to geo-target — my strategy is to specifically add “Boone, NC” and what is known as the “NC High Country.”
I am seriously considering a collaboration with business bloggers in those 2 areas (actually Boone is a sub-area of the High Country) — just trying to wrap my head around which specific niche to collaborate on. I’ll be talking about this with you. 🙂
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I read you blog post I put pen to paper to see if I could come up with a Tweet that Conveys what sets us apart and WHY Someone should recommend or hire us.but i guess to give a try maybe it would be okay.
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Hi gail,
I was surfing around and found this blog of yours. I do believe that we cant be expert in different fields. Specialization is very important to come up with better outcomes. Also in the field of social media. Experienced is one factor to gain expertise about the matter. Is was a great post.
Gail,
It’s great to read an article that brings us back to basic marketing strategies. We don’t see many people talking about USP’s these days. Bottom line, it comes back to differentiation. This is a great reminder that I need to clarify what makes my coaching and services better than the rest. Great job!
Sherryl Perry would love you to read ..How Did Kathy Ireland Build a Brand Worth Over 1 Billion Dollars?
Thanks for the mention Gail. Find a unique message about a specific niche and then add a geographical component. That has really worked wonders for me and put me in position to do some fun things in our city. Add collaborating (Your other mantra) to that mix and the sky’s the limit.
I’ll add that I do think the geographical component is so important because you can truly dominate in a local niche if you bring big website best practices to the local arena . If you read Growmap and sites like copyblogger, chances are you’re already better positioned than your competition.
You’ll also find that a lot of the local competition may be trying to market themselves as ({insert niche} to the world) instead of (Top notch {insert niche} in Topeka Kansas). Again, you’ll find it easier to dominate in your chosen niche.
Local is still wide open, and the folks who are able to differentiate geographically while applying techniques that you learn about on the Growmaps and Mashables and Copybloggers of the world, are going to be the winners.
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Much as we would like to concentrate on our hard lines, we also recognize the need to reach out to all customer bases for maximum exposure. Social media has really taken over from many standard forms of information media, such as radio, television, print, etc.
It’s a fast paced world and it requires immediate attention.
Excellent points. When we found our social media expert we decided to ask around in our area. When we asked a few of our associates they each had individuals they recommended. Our goal was to stay local. After a little bit of searching we did find a local person who does seo locally. And that group has concentrated locally. so I find this to be great advice.
Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. I agree that specialization is crucial for business success but most people can’t specialize in anything. That’s why there is so little experts and so little success stories.
Its hard to say ‘no’ to work that lies outside your specialty when a client is waving a cheque book under your nose, but in the long run it saves you money and your reputation. As your blog says “Find your niche by looking inwards”
Gail, as you know, specialization was behind my recent shift in blog focus, so I strongly agree with the idea. Past that, you’ve definitely given me a lot of food for thought about the advantages of refining further.
Thanks so much for the mention!
Adam Toporek would love you to read ..Does Your Business Need a Customer Referral Program?
Hi Gail, good points. Here are two recommendations:
Jessica Sellers, Logo Design. Chrysalislogos.com – she differentiates by bending over backwards for small business owners on a tight budget.
Cathy Miller, Business writing. simplystatedbusiness.com- she differentiates by specializing in white papers and applying simplicity to the written word.
In this busy support industry, it really does matter that we know about as many available resources as possible!
Cheers,
Mitch
Having a specialty is necessary to stand out in today’s digital landscape. That being said, your USP is a must. It should should be short, to the point and highlight the benefit of what you do. Think of a elevator pitch.
This is an area I struggle with daily. My businesses are too scattered and my main business, The Media Mix, involves Media & Marketing Strategy from soup to nuts. I have been wrestling with this a lot because while we do Web Design with a large focus on SEO, Small Business Promotion, Copywriting and Social Media, we also do Direct Response TV DRTV Marketing Consulting and all forms of Media Buying. And I write a Marketing Strategy Blog that also seems way too broad.
The Media Mix tag line for 20 years has been:
Solving your Media Marketing Puzzle is In The Mix!
A nice tie-in and something I believe strongly in.
Just last week I changed my Facebook page tag to:
The Media Mix – Spreading the Word
because when you boil it all down that’s what we do. A client gives us their situation and we find a solution that uses a mix of media. It varies with each client and campaign.
When I read you blog post I put pen to paper to see if I could come up with a Tweet that Conveys what sets us apart and WHY Someone should recommend or hire us. This what I came up with in 140 characters:
Why Recommend Us? We excel at Spreading the Word while we stretch Marketing budgets with Media Strategy to Increase ROI Profit.
I believe we do that better than anyone else!
But now that I re-read this I’m wondering if its better than our original in conveying our USP. I am a bit concerned that Spreading The Word sounds a bit too much like PR Public Relations .. which we DON’T do.
Your thoughts and feedback will be most welcome .. as my head is spinning about now.