5. The Website:
Bulletin board
“Who I’d Like to Meet”
Interests
Details
Zodiac Sign
Recordings
www.myspace.com/mandamwright
6.
7.
8. MyPotential:
The Good: The Bad:
Mass Reach Small Niche Market
Targeting Strongly opinionated fan base
User interests &behaviour Skeptical fan base
Personalization Not as effective for ‘Main Stream’
brands
Video and Audio hosting
9.
10. Follow Me:
Mandamwright @ Twitter
All photos are taken from Creative Commons through
Flickr and/or the MySpace website.
Editor's Notes
Is MySpace Dead?
Launched in 2003 with a much different look, MySpace grew exponentially for years. MySpace was THE most visited social networking site in the world from 2005 – 2008 and as of 2009 began it’s dangerous decline.
Competitors came into the picture and what happens to most societies that over-expand, MySpace began to collapse. No longer the strong empire that is used to be, MySpace was now vulnerable. Due to it’s new found vulnerability, and the strong competition MySpace needed to adapt to the time. “Adapt or Die”
As you can see MySpace got a make over. In June of 2011 MySpace was purchased by Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for approx. $35 Million and in August of the same year MySpace had 33.1 million unique North American users. Instead of fighting the new tyrants (Facebook and Twitter) for the masses MySpace identified its strengths and found it’s niche.
The new look for MySpace wasn’t too far from the original, with a strong emphasis on personalization and fun. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, MySpace has a Bulletin Board (FB Wall) where all posts and updates are located. Profiles are also completely customizable using HTML/CSS coding. The profiles also ask for more fun information such as your Zodiac Sign, Details about you and “Who I’d Like to Meet”. This requires MySpace to be more laid back and a relaxing fun atmosphere. And if we follow this link we can quickly explore MySpace and how it allows you to customize your profile: http://www.myspace.com/mandamwrightIn 2008 ksolo.myspace.com was launched which allows used to upload audio recordings and post them into their profile pages. Ex: Songs/Recordings/Podcasts
MySpace’s only revenue is generated by advertisements on the website. The user model possesses no paid-for features. Similar to Facebook, MySpace ussdbehavioural targeting from the users generated information gathered on the website. MySpace is second only to Yahoo! on its data collection capacity. Some of these case studies explain how IMW style advertisement has worked on MySpace but we want to talk about Social Marketing.
MySpace hasattempted to go above and beyond to keep its users by listening and reacting positively to what the users complaints are. Many users were uploading Music Videos to the site and because of MTV copyrighting the videos had to be taken down. Obviously users were not pleased by this and MySpace responded by re-uploading all of the videos and adding advertisements to the beginning of the videos which would have the ability to generate revenue for all companies involved. This also showed MySpace that the focus of many of it’s users was Music and Music related interests.
Case: A party was hosted by a 16 yr old in Australia, the party was publicized on MySpace and attracted over 500 people to his small home. Police cars were attacked. The dog squad and helicopter was called in. The incident resulted in international coverage, Many other incidents like this have occurred resulting in worse publicity for MySpace but how is this good? It proves that a simple post or event can reach hundreds and has the potential to create a strong response. (notes on slide) But who can utilize MySpace the most?
MYSPACE RECORDS! Large names and indie bands are granted with the ability to truly promote themselves and create a strong and loyal following on MySpace. Musicians are able to upload their MP3 songs onto their profiles and unsigned artists are able to sell their music using SNOCAP through MySpace. Many artists have even found their ‘break’ on MySpace such as Lily Allen and Sean Kingston. Over 8 million artists have been discovered on MySpace which allowed MySpace to launch MySpace Transmissions in 2007. This is a live in-studio broadcast of recordings by well-known artists to help promote the particular brand, MySpace’s involvement and promote brand loyalty with the fan base.
Ultimately MySpace has similar utilities to MySpace and Twitter with a strong influence on the niche market of entertainment and an even stronger influence on Music and Artists. Quesiotns?
