Remember when MySpace was the social network of choice for everyone from teenagers and college students to musicians and celebrities? It was definitely the best way to get in touch with childhood friends, as well as to hear new music from up and coming bands.
According to an article on CNET, not only is Google considering not renewing its ad space contract with MySpace this year, but MySpace is also planning on laying off up to 750 people to afford to keep the network alive. So, can MySpace really survive the flourishing of Facebook and the awesome invasion of online music sites like Pandora, Imeem and Hype Machine?
Matt Rosoff, who writes for CNET’s music and technology “Digital Noise” section, offers his advice on how MySpace could try to save itself from social media catastrophe with a few tips:
- Offer free online music streaming that instantly takes you to a real artist’s page instead of guiding you through a maze of advertisements and fake musicians impersonating real bands.
- Stop allowing pop up banners and tons of glittery advertisements to show up on a page. If you follow the layout of Facebook pages, which puts all ads on the right-hand side of the page, people will be more likely to stay on a page rather than veer away from ad annoyance.
- Apparently when you search for a band you have to include every “a” or “the” in order to get the right band. If MySpace can fix this search mishap then people may actually find what they’re looking for.
Okay, these are some great tips from Matt, but can they really help MySpace get back on the social network track? It’s highly doubtful when an article in The Washington Post says that Facebook :
- Has seen 26.6 million unique monthly visitors
- Has visitors spending at least 186 minutes on the site per month
- Has seen the number of registered users age25-34 jump 181% over the year
I guess we’ll have to see what new MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta will do with the future of the site.
Source: CNET news
Trish Smith
http://www.otonetworks.com
