Why MySpace marketing is still relevant

15 May

Posted by: Christopher S. Penn in: Advertising, Marketing, MySpace, New media

A lot of folks on the cutting edge have already written off MySpace and headed to different online communities. This is perfectly understandable - MySpace has been plagued with spyware, usability issues, and an image problem that Madison Avenue firms would cringe at. The cutting edge has left, and the hip crowd has left for greener pastures.

So, who’s left?

Everyone else. MySpace is over its Dip, if you’re a Seth Godin follower, and is gaining widespread, mainstream adoption. When the cashier at the supermarket, when the 47 year old account, when the woman on the street is talking about MySpace, it’s hit the mainstream, and the reality is that the bulk of your market - unless it’s cutting edge technologists - is in the mainstream.

Now is the time to refocus your MySpace marketing efforts. The bots and scripts are slowly coming back, the service is more aggressive about spam, and the numbers of mainstream users are swelling every day. As of this morning, approximately 4 profiles were being added PER SECOND.

Marketing to MySpace members now also needs to take a more mainstream-friendly approach. If you’re a podcaster, telling people to copy your RSS feed’s URL won’t fly with the mainstream crowd. One click is the limit - make it so easy for your new MySpace audience to get to what you have to offer.

If you follow powerlaw distributions, about 80% of your potential audience is in the mainstream, and they’re just arriving at the party now. Late to the party, perhaps, but they’re bringing spending money, and at the end of the day, that’s what counts most.

Popularity: 17% [?]

11 Responses

Vergel Evans
15|May|2007 1

Alot of the early adopters have left to continue the conversations they’ve started on myspace in other environments, or on their own website. But for generating that introduction, mySpace is hard to beat. But having a place to take fans that is outside of myspace is the real secret.

I consider mySpace a feeder site to funneling traffic into the projects or web destinations that are less crazy… 5000+ friends on mySpace doesn’t have much value unless you can get them past that “1 click” call to action you’re looking enact.
Amber
15|May|2007 2

In your opinion, what constitutes good “MySpace marketing” beyond just putting up a MySpace page, adding a bunch of friends, and posting a bulletin or two? (Without going into ’stop spamming me you annoying SOB’ territory.)

Or is that pretty much it?
Christopher S. Penn
15|May|2007 3

Adding a bunch of highly relevant friends, subscribing to their various blogs, and using said friends for demographic information for your podcast and/or blog. If you can direct your audience to your MySpace page, you don’t need to do things like Kiptronic podcast surveys - all the information is self-identified in their profiles.

And bulletins & such help. Also, comments that are highly targeted and link-rich.
Clarence
15|May|2007 4

I don’t know if I can really subscribe to it being a viable marketing tool, bruh — even for the mainstream. Consider that they have to find you before being able to get down with your hustle & flow.

Once they do, are they looking to capitalize on your format online? (i.e. clickin’ past the initial page to get down with the crux of your brand?) It’s a tough sell, really.

You could be talking about marketing where you are the initial contact (i.e. adding friends who have to accept the invite) — if people accept, then the model you posit is on-point. I’m thinking the mainstream might be about collecting, rather than connecting or being marketed to. Thoughts?
Christopher S. Penn
15|May|2007 5

They don’t find you, Clarence. You find them. Check this out:

On Google, type in:

“comic book” site:blog.myspace.com

Results 1 - 100 of about 13,800 from blog.myspace.com

These are all the people who blogged about the term comic book on MySpace. Narrow it down:

comicazi site:blog.myspace.com

Results 1 - 13 of 13 from blog.myspace.com

13 people specifically talking about Comicazi. These are people you need to add as friends, and connect them to your hustle.

Pick any superhero and do the same. Find the people who are talking about what you’re talking about, and connect up with them - and then connect with their friends. The power of a social network isn’t just the raw number of people out there - it’s also who they network with and who you DON’T know that they do.

Once connected, get them off MySpace as quickly as possible as Vergel said - to a place where you control the marketing and content.
Amber
15|May|2007 6

Also, comments that are highly targeted and link-rich.

With that point, I think it’s a really delicate balance. To be honest, I find those kinds of comments annoying. It smells like a sell. It smells like someone just trying to get their message out and not really giving a crap about who they’re talking to. Yeah, sure, they decide which friends to send the comment to. But it still seems really phony, and I usually delete those comments. My MySpace profile isn’t anyone else’s marketing platform.
Christopher S. Penn
15|May|2007 7

Except Rupert Murdoch’s
Amber
15|May|2007 8

Touché
Matt Searles
17|May|2007 9

I’m sorta with Amber accept that I think how you market has got to be congruent with the values of your brand.. and if you’re the brand, your own values. 90% of how I get marketed to on myspace alienates me from what’s being marketed to me.. but there are a few who do it well.. well I think “wow, that’s cool.”

The other thing I’m thinking is.. when you think about viral marketing.. there’s the question of the value of your mark.. to put it a certain way.. Do you think that the people leaving MySpace.. they could be the more valuable people in terms of being the more opinion leader types.. I mean I suppose it depends on what your target segment ought to be and all that good stuff.. but just as a general thought…

The other thing I think.. which sorta goes against what Amber is saying.. is that I kind of feel like MySpace is the land of crass marketing.. I mean the crap that’s being sold to you all the time… that creates a kind of ecology where I imagine you can be pretty bad, value wise, and still not alienate people.. just cause there may be a higher threshold for this.. though I’m basically speaking out of my butt.. not really knowing.. just my sense…
Ron
16|Jun|2007 10

I think that myspace can be a good source for promotion. It certainly is free, and the number of people who could potentially listen to your music is mind blowing.
Media Driving with Jay Moonah » Post Topic » Social Media Technologies and the Fishbowl: What’s In, What’s Out?
06|Jun|2008 11

[...] important to remember that it still has larger overall traffic than Facebook or Twitter. As Christopher Penn pointed out in a blog post last year “Myspace is over its Dip.” It may not be relivant to those interested in the cutting edge, but for marketers, musicians and [...]