Before there were Facebook and Instagram, there was MySpace. At the height of its popularity in 2006, Myspace surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States.
The Decline of MySpace
Two years later, Myspace was overtaken by social media stalwart Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors and was surpassed in unique U.S. visitors in May 2009. As of today, Myspace ranks 4,153 in total Web traffic, and 1,657 in the United States. [Wikipedia]
Despite its fall from grace, could MySpace be resurrected from the dead? In a time where Facebook is considered uncool by the younger generation, could MySpace make a comeback?
In this article, I will give my opinion on how a media company could purchase the social media site from the Meredith Corporation, the parent company of Time, and flip the platform to become a Generation Z darling.
Could MySpace ever make a comeback? What would it take for this to happen?
Six Ways to Resurrect MySpace
Here are my six ways to reboot MySpace [and maybe help spark your campaigns]:
1. Recruit Generation Z Influencers
Despite some people’s “cool as ice” persona, we have all at some point been influenced by an individual. Forbes describes influence as a force. An age-old spell. A tool with the power to persuade. And in 2020, it does not necessarily need to be an A-list celebrity to convince us to do something. It’s usually someone on the rise. It’s often someone on the fringe of becoming a household name.
In a previous article on this blog, I shared that a recent article by Adweek confirmed that cosmetic company Estée Lauder spends 75% of its marketing budget on Influencer marketing, and most of those dollars are on social media? Why? Because when influencers speak, people listen. By amassing the right influencers, MySpace can grow its community and win.
What Influencers will make a difference? Influencers that have the pulse of the Generation Z community, but are not too famous for deterring audiences by Myspace being too thirsty to win an audience. Here is a list that might work:
- Zendaya – Spiderman fame
- Charli D’Amelio – TikTok fame
- Sasha Hostyn – female eSports star
- Benjamin Kapelushnik – The “Sneaker Don”
Who resonates with Generation Z? find those players and you have found a base for the rebrand of the MySpace platform? Who resonates in your community among your parents and students? Could thy help with your rebrand or campaigns for your school district?
2. A Dose of Generation Z
And speak about what resonates with Generation Z, have you thought about trends surrounding your students? What are their interests? Most likely, they are not a generation that is highly influenced by mainstream movie stars and rock stars. What once worked with the youth of the 1980s and 1990s does not work with today’s young kids. The rock stars of the present are entrepreneurs and online YouTube stars.
How can MySpace inject what’s hip in 2020 into their platform? What is ahead that will wow Generation Z?
My advice… integrate a platform like StockX, a sneaker stock exchange, or an eSports streaming platform on MySpace. Capture the enthusiasm of these platforms into the core of MySpace. These apps or platforms form a community. A community with shared interests and goals. If you give these groups a process to get together, they will grow and be your ambassadors.
3. Exclusivity is Special
According to Google, the definition of exclusivity is the restriction to a particular person, group, or area. Generation Z does not want to share a platform with generations that do not have the same thoughts and ideas. They want a platform that resonates with their ideals.
If you build a club exclusively for Generation Z, they will join. Facebook has gotten a bad wrap because parents and grandparents decided to join. It became uncool. If you build a platform around the Generation Z platform, it will become a Generation Z platform.
4. Kill the Spam
In my opinion, the main reason MySpace died is that it got taken over by spam. Every profile was a mess. Everyone’s timeline was a mess. MySpace became a junkyard of color, flash and glitter. It became overwhelming.
Sometimes regulations are a good thing. Sometimes brand guidelines work in your favor. You need to give freedoms and allow the community to become the member’s platform, but it can’t get crazy. Simple is better. Too many options can ruin a platform.
5. Boomsday is a Good Day
What if MySpace had an age limit. What if we restricted the site from people over the age of thirty?
According to Wikipedia, Boomsday is about Cassandra Devine, “a morally superior twenty-nine-year-old PR chick” and moonlit angry blogger, incites generational warfare when she proposes that the financially nonviable Baby Boomers be given incentives to kill themselves at 70.
What if users were removed from MySpace when they turned thirty? What if they were kicked off when they got too old?
A virtual Boomsday would guarantee to the users that MySpace would stay fresh and be relevant to young users. It would guarantee that their parents would not be on the platform.
Teens on TikTok are more open, and create honest content because they know their parents are not on the platform.
6. Nostalgia Worked for Jurassic World
Nostalgia is a strong force. People love a familiar vibe. It makes them feel comfortable. Bringing back the MySpace name could be huge in convincing young adults to jump on the platform.
Yearning for the past, a comfortable time in someones life, can be a strong force to start a movement. Nostalgia can be a driving force to drive young people back to the Myspace platform. How can they use this force to build the platform? How can you do the same to build your platform. Star Wars… Jurassic Park… Friends… are all being fueled by nostalgia. How can you tap into this to drive your campaign?
Conclusion
Can MySpace be resurrected from the dead? Can you use these ideas to drive your own campaign. What can you do the revive your brand?
