Welcome Back, Myspace
Date: December 7, 2012Category: Author: Danielle Azar
Who remembers Myspace? I certainly do. It was the precursor to Facebook and wildly popular for a time. Then, Facebook came into the picture and blew Myspace right out of the water although both platforms had basically the same functionality. Personally, I never had a Myspace profile like all of my friends so I don’t know much about the user experience. However, according to analysts, Myspace was slow, built on poor technology, and more focused on making money than optimizing the user experience. These are only a few of several factors that led to it’s demise but the most crucial one is that the Myspace team wasn’t thinking of their consumers and how they wanted to play and interact online. So they died.
But now they’re back with a major makeover. This week, Myspace started accepting beta testers to its new interface (invite only), which looks and feels nothing like Facebook. As you can see from the video below, the new Myspace is highly visual and appears to be a mash up of Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Mashable (the new design). The video certainly looks intriguing and this couldn’t have come at a better time. I think Facebook has reached or will soon reach the point where they can’t grow anymore. I know several people who have abandoned Facebook because they are tired of the futility and of it. Facebook’s design really isn’t too compelling. Nowadays, the main reasons people are on it are to manage a company page or because everybody else is on it and they want to keep in touch. If people start joining Myspace and find it to be more user friendly, fun, or inspiring, they will obviously make the switch.
As a social media manager, I am soooo ready for the next new platform. Facebook is fine but it’s intrusive and not fun to work with. Google+ is too confusing; there’s Google+ profile pages which are undifferentiated from Google+ business pages which are separate but somehow connected to your Google+ Local listing. Besides, Google already knows way too much about us. Anyways, judging from the video alone, I think that Myspace may have some potential. I would like to see a video of the branding capabilities of the platform before I go all gung-ho. However, if people start joining Myspace in droves, the companies will follow no matter how good or bad the branding capabilities are.
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