Micromedia is a broad term for a new breed of media created by companies, brands and individuals that is housed on an online channel in public view. Literally anyone with access to a smartphone or computer and an Internet connection has the ability to become a content provider. From personal blogs to corporate sites that invite fans and industry leaders to contribute, micromedia outlets are gaining significance as they grow large audiences and begin to sway public opinion. They represent a new way for messages to be spread without the control of traditional media gatekeepers.

So how does incorporating micromedia bolster your marketing efforts? With micromedia, you can be super targeted in your outreach to reach a niche target audience.

How micromedia drills down to a niche audience:

Micromedia may have a small audience reach by quantity, but the quality of the audience is often much stronger.

Let’s say we are trying to target sales professionals. A generalist business publication like Forbes may have 98 million unique monthly visitors (UMVs) to it’s online publication, while the podcast Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul has only 12k-17k estimated monthly listeners — a much smaller number in comparison to Forbes. 

However, Andy’s podcast audience is made up entirely of sales professionals. So although his audience is smaller by comparison, every single one of his listeners is within our target audience. Forbes, in comparison, may also be read by sales pros but is targeted more realistically to a general audience. 

Podcast listeners often listen to every single episode. Are people reading every single article Forbes puts online? Probably not. So in the case of micromedia, you’re often better off targeting a niche publication than an established brand name.

This same philosophy can be applied to trade publications for B2B businesses. A business that sells flooring to commercial real estate contractors would not want to target a consumer publication like Better Homes and Garden (12 million UMVs) — they would instead be much better off targeting a trade industry publication that contractors read such as Floor Covering News (5,704 UMVs)

How to find the right micromedia

For trade publications, a quick Google search for your industry’s publications can be a good place to start. You might also reach out to industry colleagues to see which trade pubs or newsletters they keep up with. You can also look at who is running any awards programs in your industry — often, the trade pubs are behind these. Lastly, many professional organizations have their own trade publications. For example, Texas Bankers Association, a professional organization for bankers in Texas, publishes their own trade publication called Texas Banking Magazine.

As we’ve discovered, one of the most popular forms of micromedia today are podcasts. There are two million podcasts on the market today, with 80 million Americans tuning in on a weekly basis. Podcasts are growing in popularity, which means the podcast landscape is growing increasingly difficult to navigate. 

Again, researching which podcasts your colleagues are keeping up with can be a good first step. You might also look at where your competitors are interviewing. You can also use a free version of the podcast database Podchaser.com to search podcast episodes by keywords. This keyword search allows you to search for super niche topics and see which podcasts have done episodes on that topic before. 

How do you find and keep up with your favorite micromedia? Let me know in a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!