The answer is so simple. what other network site became a verb? NONE! it is a lot easier to tell someone, Hey, facebook me than asking them to check out your page on Myspace. It is just not COOL. I'm sorry but when I've heard the word Myspace, I go back to the memories of glittery fonts, dancing dolls, endless music uploads depending on your mood, and all the other advertisement i didn't want to see.
Tom Anderson created Myspace as a gateway to his midlife crises and his need for attention, (ok not really, but that's what it looks like) he didn't have an especific target. He just created a platform where people could just do whatever they wanted to do; ok cool, but not for too long. People need structure and limits. If you give them too much freedom they get bored and lost and eventually they won't come back. That is exactly what happend to Myspace. IT WAS BORING and BUSY!
Mark Zuckerberg found a better strategy. Who are the ones who decide was cool and what's not? who will give the approval and buzz needed for my success? US, the college related population that doesn't have time to change to glittery fonts, change a song. We want to know what happened with our friends and not so friends... "What's on your mind", what's your status and so on. He had to win our hearts first and make it hard to get by giving only access to the network by having a .edu email account.
Myspace has little to no chance in coming back from the ashes, only because you can't force something to be different and cool. It just is! Myspace could try to explote their music advantage as much as possible, but still, it will be a very steep hill to conquer. Not all of us are logging into Myspace just to check out some artist that are asking us to "Find them in Facebook or follow them in Twitter"
I agree with you about "you can't make something cool, it just is." But Myspace was once cool from what I remember. It's true all those extras on myspace made it lame but with a lot of thinking it could still have some hope. Myspace just needs to re-think itself and focus on simplicity.
ReplyDeleteThe glittery fonts is exactly what comes to my mind when I think of MySpace, that is why it will be hard for them to come back because of the image that we all have in our minds of them. But I also believe that Facebook is also getting very boring. Who wants to just read what their friends are writing? Most of those people aren't even our "friends". If MySpace gives people less freedom with their profile editing but doesn't limit you as much as Facebook's boring look does then I think they can definitely come back. Who wants to stare at a white page all day? People love to personalize their things so they can be unique. If Facebook doesn't allow us to be unique soon then they too will fade away.
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