Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

As marketers, we need to understand that there is no such thing as "Mass" media anymore. It hasn't existed since the introduction of cable tv decades ago.

So when I was reading about the reality that YouTube (GOOG) only has around 30 million of its 133 million users located in America, it made me think about this again.

Now your first response may be that 30 million is a large amount of people, as far as U.S. users goes. While that's correct, it doesn't deal with the marketing problem of who they are and what they represent. YouTube still has to deal with the problem of unwanted videos by advertisers as they begin to break down the demographics. That alone will get rid of a lot of users, as many of their uploads will have no interest to marketers.

The point in bringing this up though is to encourage all of us to continue in our various niche initiatives. No matter how many people a web site attracts, they are not a mass anymore. They don't have the same interests, ideas, thoughts or pursuits. They can't be reached in that way, unless there is a certain type of product that everyone in the world does use, which is some cases will be true.

For us niche marketers, this isn't of much interest to us. Because traditional media companies still think in terms of "mass" they still have difficulty in putting together ad campaigns based upon niche interests. This will always be a competitive advantage we have.

The minute we go niche, it is more difficult to compete because we go deeper and wider than someone thinking in terms of mass can or is able to go. The time will come in the not too distant future when advertisers will also realize how important those of us serving niche markets are. Once they do, the rewards will go far beyond what we're even taking in now is.

Don't be too concerned when you listen to all the stories about the big numbers going to certain types of sites, it won't have much effect at all upon our specific customers and serving their unique interests.