Specialist social media

Discover specialist social media platforms.

Mainstream social media include Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and we are seeing several specialist social media platforms gain some traction. Specialist social media platforms enable organisations to better understand the specific needs of very targeted groups and can be useful to identify product opportunities and service ideas, as well as the degree to which competitors are working in the same field.

Here are examples of three specialist social media platforms and for the wider social media platforms check out the 2017 social media map.

Specialist social media – Wanelo

Wanelo was launched in 2012 and stands for ‘want, need and love’. The focus is positive retail therapy.

Originally Wanelo was available only as a social media app but now it is available as its own app and their website. They claim over 550,000 stores and 30 million products, sold by major retailers and independent artists and producers. It’s easy to create your own bespoke wish lists and saves which are a popular feature. The bottom line is all about buying but by connecting with your friends, we say that shopping has never been as much fun!

Wanelo is popular with: Females between the ages of 18 and 24.

 

Specialist social media – Yik Yak

Founded in 2013 by two university graduates in South Carolina, 2017 is set to be the year that Yik Yak makes the leap from the campus from the mainstream. The USP of the platform – launched as a web app last year after initially only being available for mobile – for businesses is the fact that Yik Yak is location-based, meaning that you can offer incentives and advertise special offers to drive more traffic to your bricks-and-mortar location.

Initially focused on being anonymous, as a specialist social media platform, Yik Yak are trying to encourage users to create a profile name. We wrote about the secret web a while ago, but perhaps secret is no longer in vogue!

 

Yik Yak is popular with: Students

Specialist social media – Line

Started as a web based app, Line began in Summer 2011 as a communication system for employees of NHN in Japan. It became popular and was released as a standalone app. It’s now a mobile app only. Similar to WhatsApp and Snapchat, with more stickers, animated profile pics, group video chat and the ability to send lots of images and videos at the same time.

What’s also different is that Line is making money. Lots of it. 200 million monthly users and generating millions of dollars due to the sale of stickers, animations and other kit in the creators market.

They experimented with pop up stores ‘Line Friends’ and several were so successful they have have become permanent stores.

Line is popular with: Young females, especially in Japan, Thailand and India.

It’s worth exploring whether there is a specialist social media platform for your organisation. The social media map provides an indication of the primary platforms, but search and ask customers what they use to ensure you’re at least listening, if not part of the conversation.

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