Andrew Hargadon blogged about MySpace and other social networking sites.
So what is MySpace?
Is it the next media platform–a new company with the reach and influence of an NBC? Does its phenomenal ascendance and enormous population of demographically perfect users mean it is the platform that will usher in a new golden age for marketers. What they last saw in the 1950’s with television and its ability to reach 75% of the viewing audience at a single moment? Is MySpace the next television?
Or it is not the network but rather the hot show–the Mickey Mouse Club or Davy Crockett that sold millions of mouse-eared hats and coon-skin caps. The kids across America who watched these shows were the canaries in the marketing coalmines (pardon my own metaphors), giving advertisers a glimpse into the power of that new medium to create and drive buying behavior from the ground up. Before then, kids were an elusive target and, a few decades later, were so bombarded with advertising that no one message carried as much weight. Is MySpace a glorified, 24/7 Mickey Mouse Club?
I had this conversation with Andrew when I bumped into him on a plane last summer. It boils down to MySpace being just another “hot spot of the week/month/year”. I agree but disagree. (You can read my feedback and the conversation in the comments section of his post.)
I really think social networking sites are just like any other site on the net. Google wants to stay the dominant player in the online-office suite of tools. Even though they already bought Writely, the just recently purchased Jotspot. This is their move to buy up or trump all other online-office technologies.
In the same way, social-networking sites such as MySpace should not just focus on new features, but on new products or other ways to serve the evolving demographic. Just as Gap Inc. owns all four retails chains: Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy, and Fourth & Towne, so should social-networking sites be looking to service all the demographics.
Why hasn’t MySpace bought up LinkedIn or launched a competing service with better features? How about kids.myspace.com, teen.myspace.com, and college.myspace.com? Where is the corporate instances of social networking? Why not turn it into a CRM tool to compete with industry products? These things will happen eventually.
November 1, 2006 at 2:06 am
Isn’t ‘Social Networking’ in danger of ending up like KM or TQM? Driven by a wave of techno hype that turns out to be commercially flawed and, more importantly doesn’t add much value to what people have been doing anyway. ‘Social Networking’ seems like The Emperors New Clothes…haven’t people been using the Web since day one as an extention of their ‘Social Networking’, news groups, forums, IM, even dare I say it email.
Regards
November 1, 2006 at 7:36 am
I agree with this line…in it’s extreme, social networking sites are just another kind of chum to draw users in. Prodigy (one of the first ISPs) started life thinking they were part mall and part newspaper–meaning they thought they were going to make money by selling ads and getting commissions on third party internet sales.
Instead, users flocked to their message boards and email and, in as many words, used it as a social networking site. Prodigy’s response was to begin charging by the email and by the hour for their message boards. Users left, and Prodigy never got them back.
One of the challenges I was trying to raise by questioning MySpace’s metaphor is what business they’re in–and what value they’re in the business of creating. Are they the new lounge, the new TV show, or the new network? It’s up to them to think past their own initial metaphors, and to use their current traffic to shape a new form that is more defensible than the current one.
November 1, 2006 at 11:20 am
I agree with your assessment of asking “what business is MySpace in?” That really is the important question.
The world is changing and to brand things with terms like “bubble” or “revolutionary” are very broad stokes that don’t mean much. We need to take a look at each company (or would be company) and ask ourselves: are they satisfying their customers? Are they willing to change and adapt? These answers will determine their fate much more than their current “fad” status.
November 1, 2006 at 6:29 pm
[...] This conversation started with Harga-blog talking about the decline of MySpace as the hot-spot for socializing. I responded and Andrew replied with evolving metaphors. [...]
November 2, 2006 at 9:08 am
you ask:
>Where is the corporate instances of social networking? Why not turn it into a CRM tool to compete with industry products? These things will happen eventually.
There are some thoughts on this here:
The Top Ten Ways Businesses and Associations Can Use Social Networking
http://www.socialcustomer.com/2006/09/the_top_ten_way.html
Also, here’s an example of putting a laser-focus on the business side of social networking, for businesses and associations:
http://haystack.cerado.com
November 2, 2006 at 5:28 pm
These are all great things, but I don’t seem them being implemented by too many of the large players in the game.
For example, why has Flickr not implemented some of the geotagging features that Zoomr has?
Why hasn’t MySpace fought back to regain the college student market from Facebook? (For that matter, why is Facebook so over valued?)
I’m glad to see that companies are entering the business market. This just erodes the potential market share that MySpace currently holds. I think that if MySpace continues on this course they will be yesterday’s fad in a few years. People will think it was just an Internet-fad-thing, but we will know it was poor business practices.
June 25, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I’m a wrestler and I’m not into Social networks but as far as I know MySpace.com is heading to it’s end and I’m not, I’m still wrestling!
- The Phenom