Responsibility is a Marketable Quality, As MySpace Proves
By Gaffney, John
Gaffney on America “MySpace makes site safer for kids.” That was the general gist of all the headlines over here recently. However, the press got the story wrong. By setting age guidelines and building in parental controls, MySpace made its site safer for marketers.
Not a bad thing, and not totally separate issues, actually. No one wants to market their wares on a property that is so blatantly encouraging a digitally misspent youth. I just don’t want anybody hanging the “moral statesman” tag on Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch cares about content as a revenue vehicle. I’m not naive enough to think the world works much differently than that anymore, but I’m also not naive enough to think he’s basing business decisions on making his content safer for kids. And you shouldn’t either.
Basically, MySpace is going to get tougher on age restrictions for parts of the site and it’s going to give parents an email registry to block kids from getting unsolicited emails. As a marketer, I like that. If I haven’t set up a MySpace page or pages for my brand, maybe I’ll be more comfortable now. And if I’m concerned as a marketer that I’m going to start to see traffic and unique users slowing down on MySpace (110 million and counting) this strategy only adds to the old 90s goal of achieving “exponential growth”. Finally, MySpace got out there and showed its cooperation before any competitors. Good move.
The question for marketers is not: “How do I get MySpace to be more socially responsible?” The question continues to be: “How do I use social media?” If you wanted to collect email addresses from MySpace, go back to your old career, please. If you want to tell a brand story, then now we’re on to something. The beauty of MySpace continues to lie in the fact that the visitors that go through MySpace to your site are seeking something. Maybe it’s your brand. Maybe it’s the cool video that represents your brand.
To me, MySpace is not as much social media as it is destination media. I don’t see how technology can control those destinations. That’s up to the marketing community to regulate. Kudos to MySpace for its effort to control the unwanted emails. And big ups to marketers that address those 100 million (and growing) properly.
The question for marketers is not “How do I get MySpace to be more socially responsible?” The question continues to be: “How do I use social media?”
John Gaffney is executive director of Peppers and Rogers Group Email: john.gaffney@haymarket.com
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Feb 2008
(c) 2008 Revolution. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.