Update: TechCrunch has a post (May 19) that suggests MySpace may be in “real trouble” if its pageview declines don’t reverse. Nice to see, MET is ahead of TC.
As you can probably appreciate, I spend a lot of time – probably too much! – exploring social media services, and talking to clients about how they can leverage these tools to improve the way they communicate, market and sell their products or services.
Within the scheme of things, one name that rarely comes up is MySpace even though it is the world’s second-largest social network. Clients talk about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr but never raise the idea of using MySpace.
MySpace seems to have become “meh” to many people because they mostly see it as a place for bands to promote their music, and for people to listen to music or download free songs. MySpace has become, for whatever reason, a niche service, albeit a large service with 55 million unique visitors a month.
This “meh” attitude probably has a lot to do with why MySpace’s unique visitors in over the past year have declined by 11.4%, while Facebook has soared 195% and Twitter 1,202% (albeit from a small base).
From a marketing perspective, MySpace offers a large, but narrow, audience of young consumers. This makes it appealing if you’re selling products that appeal to that demographic. But if you’re looking for a wider audience, you’re not going to find it on MySpace.
Meanwhile, Facebook continues to be intriguing to marketers because it’s attracting a broader demographic base. The fastest growing groups within Facebook are between 35-to-59-years-old.
This explains why so many companies are spending so much time trying to figure out if Facebook has marketing potential. That said, Facebook remains a marketing mystery/enigma given Facebook seems to have little, if any, interest in looking at advertising.
It’s clear that News Corp. hasn’t been happy with the way MySpace has been going given the senior management overhaul recently. The challenge facing new CEO Owen Van Natta is figuring out how to re-invent MySpace so it’s more than just a one-trick pony.
The good thing is MySpace has a huge audience so it’s not like the company is desperate. But reality, however, is MySpace doesn’t appear have much sizzle or, for that matter, growth potential.
More Reading:
- Jason Calacanis on the 10 Things that MySpace’s CEO needs to do, including the purchase of a search engine.
- Reuters on how MySpace needs to be re-invented.
Here’s a Compete.com chart showing Facebook (blue), MySpace (green) and Twitter (orange) over the past year in terms of unique visitors.
2 Comments
Wow – that's interesting. I would be interested to see how BEBO would look on this chart
I still prefer to adwords as a campaign as we can targeted base on keywords, not like facebook or myspace that only display at sidebar.
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