John S. Wolfe

This is another in a series of reports about the Social Media Marketing 2010 conference, held June 17 in London.

Fans of the inventor of through-the-wall radar.

If there were ever a niche community for the 21^st century, aficionados of the technology would have to represent it.

Luke Brynley-Jones, co-founder and director of Influence People, used the group – and there is one, on LinkedIn – to demonstrate that in today’s connected but fragmented world, a marketer needs to identify (and sometimes create) audiences.

Brynley-Jones, who organized Social Media Marketing UK in London on June 17, told the audience that marketers need to be proactive.

“If you can’t find a niche community, create it,” he said.

Luke Brynley-Jones at the June 17 Social Media Marketing event in London.

He offered an example of several lawyers introducing a LinkedIn group for attendees of a huge conference. Participants wanted to join and – whoosh – there’s a niche audience. Are there businesses that would pay to reach that audience? Of course.

Once you have an audience, then the trick is to create compelling content for them.

“Amazingness is relative,” he said. “To some people – I’m imagining ex-SAS members – the radar guy is interesting.”

There are all sorts of niche audiences.

Suma Technologies’ video of a squeezable mouse has had 8,827 views on YouTube, he said.

Once you’ve created a niche community, publicize it through social media and traditional media.

He also recommends a spin on vanity marketing.

“Talk about people,” he said. “They’ll come to you.”

If a company is going to succeed in social media, it needs to identify an evangelist among its ranks, not outsource the responsibility. And it needs to look beyond the PR and marketing departments and involve actual participants in the company’s business, he said. And don’t give the responsibility to the intern because she knows what Twitter is!

“Middle managers are the best people for the job,” he said.

He noted how one consulting company lives its approach, with virtually every member of the team blogging, posting videos to YouTube, using Twitter hashtags aggressively, and going to events and connecting.

Brynley-Jones said the linear approach to marketing has been replaced by a spiral, with customers touching the business at various times – and coming back if they find the content valuable.

“For inbound marketing, you need to create great content, optimize it for the search engines, and then market the hell out of it through social media,” he said.