Ari Rosenberg: It's About Marketing *IN* MySpace, Not *ON* It
Frenchy sent me an article from media post yesterday entitled "Get Out Of MySpace", by Ari Rosenberg (free reg req).

Wow, did Ari ever miss the boat

I will try to take his article point by off-base point correcting bad assumptions and delving into the real issues along the way.

Early in the article, Ari says, "However, beyond the "massive reach and engagement" that MySpace delivers, advertisers do not like what they see."

He was on track with his analysis of the recent press about sexual predators and that the news is hurting the MySpace Brand. He also discusses the MySpace Spam issue which is a growing concern among users.

He should have stopped there and stayed away from discussing the value of MySpace as a marketing channel.

The real problem is that advertisers do not yet understand how to harness the community in MySpace.

This is especially a problem for the ones who need streamlined processes on every marketing channel they offer their clients. The reason its difficult for them is not because of porn or spam. It’s because they just don't understand that is not about just people and interests.

It's about value and community

If you create a MySpace page to sell a product to a demographic you lose. If you create a MySpace Page to foster community conversations, you win.

For example. The new superman movie is not marketing *on* MySpace, they are Marketing *in* it.

They created a page for the movie but also pages for it's characters and are getting lots of reaction from the community.

It's not easy and requires out of the box thinking but there are a lot of products and services that can be marketed well through community interaction.

Again, it's not just about products and services, it's about interacting with a community and facilitating value added conversations.

After all, that is what people are on MySpace to do anyway of which Ari barely scratches the surface here, "You create your own MySpace page, and then you can quickly become networked to those with similar interests."

So how should companies market in MySpace?

I have some opinions on the subject but will delve into a new example for the sake of argument.

Let's say you sell Scion mod kits.

You should create a profile for your company with links to good mod resources and in your profile blog about things that you - as the Scion enthusiast you certainly must be - are interested in. Then use the many resources available to mine MySpace for people with similar interests and invite them to be friends.

Write a thoughtful product review in the blog area with a link to buy it at a discounted price on your site. If you wanted, you could even create a profile for a particularly hot kit to incite discussion on that the page about it.

The key is that you are there to create useful interaction and build a community, the products are secondary.

MySpace is just another marketing channel but the rules are all the same. It's all there, Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The only thing that changes is Place.

This brings us to my next point

Ari mentions that, "The publishing business model at MySpace by definition lacks a clearly defined content strategy and the guiding principles of authenticity and credibility. The rates for the inventory sold currently on MySpace are indicative of a lack of perceived value."

This is true from a traditional advertising standpoint. However, it's the lack of a "clearly defined content strategy" that enables people to be authentic in the space, and his assumption that content strategy provides the "guiding principles of authenticity and credibility" is absolute bull crap.

For instance, I can tell by the content of Ari's article that he lacks credibility and authenticity when discussing the subject of MySpace despite his clearly defined content strategy. I hope it is clear to others as well in his closing paragraphs where he starts with a completely ill informed assumption and jumps to a more disturbing and misguided question.

"MySpace is less like a publisher and more like a property owner for what appears to be a gigantic online flea market for young adults to sell their wares. Web cams, mortgage rates, music, or just their own self worth--everyone seems to be selling something. So it begs the question--if MySpace is crawling with sellers selling to sellers, does it make sense for advertisers to advertise in an arena with no buyers?"

Every seller is a buyer, every buyer is a seller. That's the whole point of a market economy. MySpace can be a great marketing channel if only more people know how to use it.

The Core MySpace Problem

All that being said, the core of all of this which Ari wasn't even on the same planet with, is that MySpace itself doesn't currently realize the potential of the movement they have harnessed. Because of this, they have confused the value proposition for themselves and for potential advertisers.

It is this confusion that has led Ari and so many others down such an awry path.

What's happening is that MySpace is still looking for a way to entice online marketers to advertise with them.

To date they have only been able to allow buyers to purchase impressions across the whole network leading to a string of very limited advertising campaigns for movies, bands and dating sites.

The value of MySpace is not across the whole network at once but in the inch wide and mile deep interconnected communities within the 40 Million + users on MySpace.


And... Here is MySolution for Marketing *IN* MySpace

MySpace needs to set up a bid system much like AdWords where people could bid their placements on highly-targeted individual MySpace profile pages (exact match) and all of the friends of that profile (broad match).

Advertisers could get help selecting whose profile to advertise on through contextual or demographic suggestion tools - surely this information would be easy for MySpace to mine.

The owners of those profiles could even get a small kick back on the advertising revenue generated by their page, fostering even more user generated content creation and community building.

That's it. It's simple and concise.

The trick is to stop looking at MySpace as an impenetrable forest and start to harvest the value of the trees.

For more on facilitating market conversations read A Market Conversation Strategy Guide for SMBs: Driving Search Presence through Industry Participation.

Let me know what you think? Leave a comment or email me.
Adam Schultz - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |