- 31
- May
I’ll admit it – I am one of the 24 million members of Facebook. I joined Facebook after I graduated to keep in contact with a younger sibling still in college whose only form of communication at the time seemed to be on Facebook. I didn’t really want to join – the thought of having another site to check seemed annoying. But something happened – I got hooked on it. It’s neatly organized and easy to navigate. As an avid picture taker, my favorite application is the picture section that gives the user the ability to tag people and have people tag themselves. Also, with the applications recently released, you can now add Flickr and other photosharing site streams to your profile. Recnetly, Facebook has been gaining popularity - since it opened up to more than just college users, it has enjoyed a flood of new users, boosted further by the launch of the new Facebook platform.
However, when you think of social networks, you probably think of MySpace. There are a lot of negative opinions about MySpace – I’ve read many complaints from current, former, and non-members. Spam seems to be a big problem. With such an “open” approach – there are just way too many users. Facebook, even with fewer users, seemed to have the upper hand in the online chatter.
MySpace vs. Facebook
I was quite surprised to read an eMarketer report done by Hitwise in June that stated MySpace is the #1 most visited website – beating out Google (which came in second). Facebook came in 10th. Naturally, MySpace is also the #1 social networking site, with a whopping 79% market share - boasting over 180 million users – with 300,000 new users per day. MySpace seems to have the number advantage over Facebook. However, according to Neilsen/NetRatings, Facebook is growing three times as fast as MySpace. I’d like to discuss a few things about these sites…
- Design: Many argue that the layout and design on MySpace looks messy. At times you have to highlight the entire page just to read the profile. Sure- you design your own page on MySpace - that is, if you know some HTML. There are a lot of inconsistent and ugly layouts. MySpace is huge in terms of size capacity, and you can do a lot more with your profile, but the chaos associated with this makes it a lot less useful. Facebook has consistent box-like designs with softer colors. As mentioned before, the organization and usability is what makes the design on Facebook more adaptable.
- Community: Not all the ‘friends’ on MySpace are really your friends. Come on – who really has 10,000 friends? Typically, MySpace is more of a popularity contest to see who can have the most ‘friends’. In return, you’ll just end up with more spam. I guess you can say MySpace is just more for meeting people, and Facebook is a way to keep in touch with the friends you already have. MySpace has always been open to the public. Up until last fall, Facebook was only available to college and high school students.
- What’s New: The launch of the new Facebook Platform. Facebook has positioned itself to be a “platform” for third parties such as advertisers & individuals to build applications within Facebook. What’s the appeal? It typically comes down to exposure. Word of mouth is essential here – the goal is that your platform (created by an individual, business, etc.) will generate buzz within the network’s community, which will lead to increased usage from millions of Facebook users. Also, Facebook Marketplace was recently introduced – very similar to Craigslist. And since I’m a fan of Craigslist, I will most likely give Facebook Marketplace a try.
- Opportunities for Social Network Marketing: Microsoft is Facebook’s ad partner in the same way that Google is for MySpace. Relationships on MySpace aren’t solid, as most people’s friends are celebrities, athletes, musicians, and the like. People who spend time on MySpace are there to be entertained, advertised to, and promoted to. Companies create profile pages with short videos, flash, and links back to their website. As of mid-May, Facebook invited more than sixty companies, such as Amazon.com, to participate in Facebook’s new features. Founder Mark Zuckerberg insists that it’s not just big corporations that can create these applications. Facebook intends to allow any members to develop new features for the site. With the launch of the new Facebook platform, Facebook has positioned itself to be a “platform” for third parties to build applications within Facebook. What’s the appeal? It typically comes down to exposure. Word of mouth is essential here – the goal is that your platform will generate buzz in the network’s community, which will lead to increased usage from millions of Facebook users. There are already several partners on the new platform which include such diverse names as Jobster, Amazon, Microsoft, Washington Post, Forbes, SideStep, and Feedburner, just to name a few. I would imagine the list has grown since I’ve written this.
Still, one thing advertisers must remember is that social network users have a different mindset. They are not there to search with an intention to buy, or even research a product. They are there to people-search and catch up with friends. While there is an opportunity for great exposure, advertising on these sites could also provide potentially negative results – especially with the free flow of uncensored opinions – that can either make you or break you. Advertisers must break through their old marketing tactics if they are going to succeed in this medium.
- Winner: In my (somewhat biased) opinion – Facebook. Their bold new approach to the social network site has received many rave reviews. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is handing over the keys to marketers and allowing them to experiment and be innovative. It will be interesting to see how MySpace retaliates. My guess is that they will either follow in Facebook’s footsteps, or take a different approach to maintain and attract new users. Word on the web is that MySpace will just fade away. The battle is on – who will conquer the social network space?