If you’ve been around social media long enough, you’ll have definitely had someone tell you that you need to niche down if you want to build a successful business online. Heck, I even said it here myself in this article. However, after recently watching the following video clip from Gary Vaynerchuk’s Instagram (@garyvee), it got me thinking.
Gary’s point was that you should branch out as wide as possible in terms of social media content, as “You have no idea what everybody wants to hear from you yet” and you know what, I do agree with him, but only partially.
To his credit, Gary does cover a lot of topics in his content, such as Pokémon cards, Empathy wine, sneakers and the New York Jets, however, he can afford to do that because he’s already amassed such a huge following on social media.
That’s not to suggest that he’s never mentioned these things while he was still growing his brand, or that it hasn’t been a contributing factor towards his impressive following, however, the main reason why he initially became a success was that he narrowed down on one skill, business and/or product before moving onto that ‘next big thing’.
Now that he’s got millions of followers, and built many successful businesses for himself, he can freely talk about anything and everything that he wants to on social media, and people will love him for it.
I love him for it.
Problem is, that scatter-gun approach wouldn’t quite cut it if nobody knew who he was.
So, I should niche down?
Well… Yes and No.
IF you’re a small business owner and you know exactly 1) what you do, 2) who you help and 3) how you help them then YES, you should focus on one specific product or service and master your messaging for it.
IF however, you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or creator and you don’t quite yet know what you want to do yet then NO, you don’t have to narrow down your content.
For the latter, I do recommend widening your content range and letting the marketplace tell you what it does or doesn’t like.
You may even find a passion for something that you hadn’t even considered in the beginning. If that happens, narrow down on that one thing and find a way to monetize it.
Niching down makes it abundantly clear as to what you do, who you help and how you help them.
Mike Walters
I speak from experience when I say that niching down will save you a lot of time, money and stress when trying to find clients online.
I wasted a lot of time advertising all of my known skills when in reality it would have been far easier to just nail down one of them, such as email marketing or Facebook advertising.
Check out how niching down has helped this graphic designer to acquire new clients every single day!
Conclusion
For those that aren’t sure what they want to do in terms of social media or business, I would recommend taking Gary Vee’s advice and post whatever takes your interest.
Use this scattergun approach as a way to test what both you & your audience enjoy.
If however, you run an established business that knows what they want to offer, and whom you want to offer it to, it’s crucial that you narrow down and really master your messaging. In doing so, you will greatly improve your chances at both attracting & acquiring the right clients.
Once you’ve mastered your product offering and you’ve got all of the systems, processes, nuts and bolts figured out, you can then begin to venture into other products and business. Albeit, this is far easier to do if you have a personal brand with a big following.
Have any questions or feedback about the above post? Let me know in the comments below!
