Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation, Peggy Duvette, WiserEarth and Manny Hernandez, Diabetes Hands Foundation

For a nonprofit organization, finding passionate people who are receptive to your message is the difference between getting your message heard and having it fall on deaf ears. Niche networks are smaller, more specific networks that can provide you with targeted, passionate audiences ready and waiting to hear what you have to say.

Whether you're looking to join and participate in niche networks for outreach purposes, or you have a network idea that you'd like to test out, niche networks should not be overlooked. The trick is to balance working with larger networks and some of the more specific networks to create a very useful and strategic approach to community building.

The Value in Smaller Networks

We all dream of having a billion fans on Facebook and gobs of Twitter followers, but for those who are active in the social media space, we know that the end goal should always be quality over quantity. We don't want thousands of disengaged supporters -- we want everyone we interact with to be engaged.

The benefit to investigating smaller networks is that you will find people passionate enough about something to want to build a community around it. The value added from smaller networks is that people are self-identifying and communicating something important to them in a public and approachable way.

If you're debating as to whether or not to start a niche network, think about whether the current online communities already serve a similar purpose. The point of a niche network is to be meaningfully unique and help foster a community that could benefit from an online presence.

Ask Yourself These Questions

• How much time do I have to build out this community? (average 10-20 hours a week)
• What is our niche?
• What will keep people coming back to the community?
• How can I make it easier for them to visit and update the community?
• Will the benefits outweigh the costs?

These are all questions that will help you determine whether or not you are ready to invest the time it takes into starting your own niche community. 

The Facts Are These:

A majority of online niche networks are based around:

• Location
• Passion
• Interest
• An Existing Community

Understanding why you're thinking of starting a niche network, or what reason a network started is a good way to understand the community on a different level.

Maintaining a Niche Network

Successful niche networks, like WiserEarth.org, a network built around sustainability and solutions for the world, and TuDiabetes, a network that gathered together around living with Diabetes, are great examples of networks that could provide value to your organization. These two networks fill a niche for passionate users concerned about specific issues.

Here are some of the tips from those successful networks:

• Engage with your community: imagine going to a party without a host!
• Empower your top users: those are the people that will bring not only value to your community but also very valuable feedback
• Interact with people where they are: don't expect people to automatically come to your site

Finding a Niche Network

If you're active in social media, you've probably gotten used to searching for what you're looking for. In your search engine of choice, type in keywords -- whether it's audience related, issue related or a location -- and make sure to add "social network" or "list". You may be surprised at what specific networks already exist. The more comfortable you become with searching and locating your ideal audience, the easier joining the tool they use will become.

Once you join a Community, Please Have a Soul

Don't just immediately broadcast your message once you join a community follow these steps and be respectful of the community:

1. Listen. Read forums, conversations and posts from the active members of the community. Try and take notes about the more active members and extend a note that you are new and are looking for advice. 
2. Join the conversation. Start commenting on posts and forums to establish your organization or self as a member that cares. Makes sure you're not self-serving—but offer up a perspective.
3. Test and adapt. As you stay active you will eventually develop a good understanding of what works and what doesn't in the community -- now you can finally start adding value to the conversation.
4. Add value --  rinse and repeat. These things take time, but once you have decided to be a part of a passionate community they can me great focus groups for issues and usually have passionate leaders. Keep investing and it will be worth it!

What will Outreach to the Community Do?

Outreach to a niche community can be a very effective way to spend your time. Here are a few benefits the National Wildlife Federation has seen from our niche community outreach:

• Better website traffic quality
• Enthusiastic participants who listen to what you're saying
• Relevance to your topic: greater impact with your messages
• Great way to engage with thought leaders

So now that we have established some benefits, it's up to you to decide what to do next! Feel free to reach out to Peggy, Manny, or myself and we'll be happy to give you tips on finding or creating a network for you!