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With the flip of a switch, TruMedia’s sports-fan social network sites could be in every major sports media market in the country, the company’s web developers claim. But that’s not going to happen, and that’s the way they want it.
TruMedia is just one of the social media companies in Massachusetts that have come up with strategies to tackle the problem of drawing members and establishing credibility based on targeting a specific niche.
Earlier this year, Boston-based TruMedia Networks LLC bought the online properties Sawxheads.com, Patsheads.com, Celtsheads.com and BlackandGoldHeads.com from North Adams-based Boxcar Media LLC. To gain credibility among fans, and reach a critical mass of participants, they plan to focus exclusively on the New England sports fan base.
In six to nine months, an expansion is possible, although to no more than five other cities, and the company plans the same intensive outreach and network-building in each, said CEO Rafe W. Anderson.
“It’s not exactly the most cost-effective thing to do, but it’s really important to build credibility (showing) that you’re not another cookie-cutter site,” said Anderson, a former Boston Red Sox front-office employee. “We’ve learned that fans can see right through marketing gimmicks.”
TruMedia has hosted events at Fenway-neighborhood bars, sponsored discounts at the Red Sox team store, and attracted marquee names like NESN sportscaster Jerry Remy and local Sox blogger Jared Carrabis.
However large or small the niche a social networking site is targeting, credibility is key, said social media consultant Chris Brogan.
“They have to have somebody on there that’s, quote, ‘one of us.’ You will not get skateboarders to a new site if you don’t have skateboarders writing on the site,” he said. “They can smell it if it’s just a business moneymaking opportunity. People just aren’t going to want to play into that.”
Another niche play, GamerDNA Inc., launched a site with automated functions like tracking what video games users play the most, to help them connect with other gamers and find new games they’ll like.
But identifying and attracting community leaders is still a key part of the Cambridge company’s strategy, CEO Jon Radoff said. In gaming, that has been relatively straightforward, he said. World of Warcraft and other massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have “guilds” and first-person shooting games like Halo or Call of Duty have “clans.”
“Any time there’s a real-life or other social organization that knits together people, if you can locate the people who are leading those groups, that can give you an immediate forklift,” Radoff said.
In addition, targeting a niche can sometimes be the best way for a social media site to make money, said Gaurav Tewari, a principal at venture firm Highland Capital Partners LLC.
“I think about it in terms of sheer size, but I also think of it in terms of monetization potential per user,” Tewari said.
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