Why MySpace Should Focus on Music

If you’ve received any email from MySpace lately, you may have noticed that there is an air of desperation in the tone and perhaps for good reason. Since setting the social media world on fire, MySpace has fallen hard and fast from press darling status to red-haired step child in just five short years. Much of this can be attributed to the poor user experience, which one blogger recently described as “organized spam.”

It seems that there are three types of people using MySpace nowadays: 1) teens who seek to hide info and relations from their Facebook-savy parents, 2) the creeps who stalk them, and 3) musicians and fans of independent and popular music. Captivating the former audience segments clearly has its downfalls, yet catering to the music crowd is certainly within reach, as few social music networks have the reach and familiarity that MySpace still enjoys.

Simply re-branding MySpace is clearly not the answer, as feedback on the recent Read Write Web post can attest. While MySpace has issues with marketing, it would appear that their problems are more operational in nature. Despite their leadership stumbles, the fact remains that MySpace still has about 57 million users in the U.S. alone. That’s nothing to turn your nose at, which is why the opportunity to create a robust music social network platform is now.

More artists are creating music now than ever before. This is spawning a new music consumer who is overwhelmed with choice and under-informed on content, while fostering a new type of artist who is dependent on touring and DIY marketing, yet forced to be much less protective of creative product than in the past. With the exception of niche audio geeks, one of the key music information hubs – your local record store – is all but obsolete. Retailers can duplicate the transaction online all day long, but they will never replace the purchase experience.

When independent record labels went mainstream in the early 90s, it left a huge void for fans and artists alike. But what is happening on MySpace Music today is not unlike the proliferation of independent artists that resulted in the advent of punk music and less conventional means of marketing in the early 80s. Providing marketing and distribution services to artists; fostering more formal user-created content; harnessing the power of crowd source recording efforts; showcasing popular regional music pockets; and creating a solid offline event experience are just a few of the things MySpace could do to leverage their power on the Internet and claim a space that no one has. For their sake, I hope they focus.

Make Your Social Media Call-to-Action Worth Following

I got my start in marketing by working as a graphic production jockey. While understanding that the technical aspects of the work were important, using the tools effectively was critical. Basic guidelines meant that logos were to be sized properly and in proportion, and that cheese-ball gradients, price bursts and obligatory clip art were off limits. Now, with the proliferation of social media icons, I’m left wondering why designers and marketers are shifting away from the basics?

It’s as if the rules of design have been conquered by NASCAR. The presence of social media just means new ways to engage customers and another call to action on the part of marketers. Yet sadly, the graphic execution is becoming the visual equivalent of an MC at a monster truck rally.

The good news is that good creative direction can still apply and with a little bit of up-front work, including social media clip art doesn’t have to toss your ad off balance. If you’re serious about getting more followers on your social media networks, take time to work the appropriate graphic treatment into your executions – whether it’s print, TV or outdoor. A few tips:

• Work your social “follow icons” into a graphic treatment that allows for enough white space in your ad. Avoid cramming icons up against other graphic elements such as photos, logos or borders.
• Amend your brand style guide to accommodate consistent and proper use of social network logos in a manner that will complement – not compete with – your current brand guidelines. Continue to own what is yours.
• Test “follow icon” placements to determine the best results. Especially if you are running the same ad in the same spot in the same publication on a regular basis – there’s room to change it up and measure.

Finally, give your consumers a reason to follow. Asking to follow is a call to action, but more and more, users are being asked to follow this, become a group member of that, etc. It’s not enough to ask unless your brand has serious cache, so make sure you give ‘em what for.