Can MySpace resurrect before it starts to decompose?
My understanding was that MySpace was originally intended to follow your favorite artists locally as well as (new, old, and up & coming). You could visit their pages to listen to music, read articles, see new pictures, and find out tour date information. If being a musician/singer was your dream, you could count on MySpace to allow you (in most cases) to upload your music for the world to hear. If you wanted to create your own page and post information about yourself pics/videos/etc you could, and connect with friends.
So what happened?
Facebook launched and MySpace lost many of its followers. Was too much maintenance required? I remember researching "Yahoo" at the time to look for web codes to insert into my MySpace page to create templates, add pictures, clip art etc. This took a lot of time and many of the codes didn't work. I know I was frustrated. What I did like was that it was almost like a beginners guide to web page development. So what else went wrong? Advertisement was random and clustered pages. There was no real connection between the user and the advertisements that appeared on their pages. Facebook and Google have both done a great job at targeting advertisements to users. I was looking for a car and searched 2009 Civic's and for about a week I would see Honda advertisements in my Google mail. It was actually quite helpful.
Besides the fact that the typical human being will get bored eventually and will want something new and exciting, MySpace may have been too difficult for older users to follow and upkeep. Facebook on the other hand gives clear instructions on how to upload pictures and steps when creating your page. The minimalist layout was sure to attract users of all ages and it has and continues to do so.
Suggestions?
Optimize advertisement, which should be easy now that they can follow in Facebook and Google's footsteps. Re-brand MySpace and make it a hot place to visit, a one-stop shop where you can find restaurants, music, stores, event information etc by location. Re-create the site so that it is more user-friendly and tailor to the niche communities. Include categories where people with the same interests can mingle. In the right hands, MySpace can be resurrected.
The Cheese
There can only be one
Save MySpace article from 2009
You bring up some interesting points about how Myspace started, Allyson. I agree with that it was more for bands to connect with more people online to share their music. With Facebook, artists are also able to share their music in a much more user-friendly environment. Myspace may have come up with a more unique idea at first, they have lacked when it has come to staying with the times. Myspace was very popular at first, but then they just couldn't keep up with the ease and convenience that Facebook was able to offer. To me, I don't believe that Myspace would be able to be resurrected because it is very hard to come back from the very slow and painful death they are currently facing. I agree with you that they should fix the way that they offer their advertisements because it only makes sense to show advertisements that are relevant to the user. It would make advertisements way more effective as well. Another thing that Myspace could do would be to add the syncing capabilities with the other social media websites in order to gain more users. I believe that the easier it is for users to use the websites, the more users the websites would have.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a valid point about the issues Myspace had in it's users being able to customize their own pages. i strongly believe that they missed the ball when facebook emerged on the scene. facebook has evoled to where you can get connected with artists and vacation spots. Even big company's are using facebook as an avenue of advertising. Myspace being successful after revamping its site mey not produce the results it's looking to gain if they do not do their research. Nonetheless anything in business has an oppurtunity to regain its popularity and market share. It's the strategies behind the ideas that will make it really have an impact on the market.
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