The MySpace Series Part III: A Critical View
MySpace is a unquestionably a boon to music marketers, but it has it’s flaws and limitations as David Devore of Jambase and FanMailMarketing.com points out:
MySpace is a great resource and has some real value to artists in connecting on a one to one level with current and potential fans.However, there are also some real issues that come with a MySpace centered marketing strategy.
1) MySpace owns the fan relationship. If you ask MySpace if you can get a database of your fans and friends the answer will be a big NO. Your relationships with your fans can only exist within the MySpace context. The value to MySpace of owning your relationships is in driving their advertising dollars.
2) MySpace is a microcosm. Darwin said that inside a closed environment survival of the fittest would reign. As the MySpace landscape grows and the visitor "noise" increases and people grow their "friends" into the thousands, it will be increasingly difficult to be "heard" in the communication din. What will matter most is the quality of the fan relationship and the necessarily the quantity.
3) The band as a "brand" never really is developed inside of MySpace. Instead, the branding and messaging is diluted as a subset of the MySpace advertising machine.
4) Prediction: MySpace is a fad. It is dangerous to build relationship marketing around a fad. The danger is that as the fad fades so does the relationship rather than empowering ever increasing fan loyalty.
5) MySpace does not substitute for a real online presence. MySpace is only really accessible to other MySpace users. Although there are a lot of people on MySpace, there are many more that are not. Why would any growing artist only want to be accessible to a relatively very small population of people that requires a login to access?
6) MySpace is low in tangible return on investment. "Time is Money". People can spend huge amounts of time devoted to MySpace marketing, but it is almost impossible to see a tangible return in tickets sold or downloads generated for that time. Instead, the overwhelming metric seems to be comments and "friends" which is really rather vague.
Smart music marketers know that MySpace can be a great way to find and engage fans. They also know that it is only one slice of a much larger online pie that will ultimately drive long-term success and quality fan relationships.
Tomorrow – The MySpace Series Part IV: More On MySpace’s Limitiations
Future of artist sites, pt. III
I partly got my inspiration for this series from Hypebots series about MySpace. Todays posting is especially relevant to thoughts Ive had on here.
MySpace owns the fan relationship.
That one quote plus all the other points m…
The problem I see with some of these statements is they imply MySpace is the only or main promotional tactic an artist/lable employs. This is not going to be the case. I can’t think of one label that centers a marketing strategy on MySpace. It’s one of many parts in a promotional campaign. Labels know this. Labels should and do have their own database of fans.
Of course MySpace doesn’t promote a brand. It helps in branding, I think there’s no doubt about that. There are too many components that make up a brand for MySpace to do this alone. It is a way to great new fans, keep in touch with them and get your music heard, and that’s about it.
One absolutely correct statement: It’s difficult to track the actual impact of MySpace activities. But here’s the thing: You can’t track print ad campaigns, and online campaigns track impressions and click throughs, not the sales that result from increased awareness. Advertising is an act of faith. One has to have faith that increased awareness is good for the brand and will see a payday eventually. Same with MySpace. If you have faith it’s doing some good, then keep doing it.
MySpace a fad? I really, really doubt that statement. The word fad implies a fleeting popularity, and we’re already well beyond the point where it’s success would be fleeting. Until somebody comes along and does it better (with even more money in the band) MySpace will be just fine.
meh, mySpace is interesting, but it certainly isn’t as scary as that guy is saying.
I mean seriously…”database”? Obviously this schmos didn’t use firefly, ICQ, amazon.com… or whatever other service that track user far more precisely than My space.
probably half of myspace users are dummy account, account created to sell viagra, virtual hooker, get rich quick investor, and …..A&R people.
Once there is another cool place to hang out, people will move on.
“relationship database my foot” That’s like trying to patent “Studio 54 scene” There is no such thing.
I doubt that MySpace is a “fad”. Certainly, if it does die out, it will be because one of the many similar sites out there somehow gained enough critical mass to push MySpace out of their market-dominating position.
Calling MySpace a fad would be much like calling Google a fad while it was still fairly new.
As for tracking and measuring the impact of your MySpace campaign — like many other online campaigns, it’s actually easier to track and measure the impact than it is with print, radio, and television ads.
MySpace promotion links can have embedded campaign codes that will help you understand clickthru and conversion rates. The number of friends can become a key metric, as well. It may help to measure a friends|conversions ratio to measure your targeting success, for example.
The real downside to MySpace is that it generally takes a long time to get enough friends to make a notable impact. 1,000 isn’t going to do it. You’ll need on the order of 20,000+ before you start seeing your MySpace success on the bottom line.