I was just poking some friends in Facebook and adding some song lyrics to MySpace.
Just kidding! My sense of propriety dictates that there is only so far this 59-year-old grandfather should push this social media thing. No fool like an old fool, they say.
But it makes me wonder. I’d love to hear what the members of the More With Les learning community think. Please share your thoughts with me on the reasons why people use Facebook and MySpace. What is their real value? In the grand scheme of communication, what purpose do they serve? How dramatic (or not) is their impact in terms of the social media revolution? Are these legitimate tools in the professional communicator/PR practitioner’s tool bag?
Hi Les,
I linked over here from Steve’s blog. Thanks for having me.
I think the social networking sites serve a different purpose for everyone. I also have to say it is just one more league into the voyeuristic rabbit hole we are plummeting down as a society. Reality TV opened the vein of privacy to bleed dry and Web 2.0 is making sure it stays dry.
MySpace serves two purposes in my life (I despise FaceBook, the functionality is a mess and defies everything I fight for as a corporate web editor). To connect with old friends and share my musings which are not fit for corporate consumption with the blog functionality (some will contest that my blogs are not fit for human consumption much less corporate, but alas it is my free time so I will write what I please).
Let’s also not forget the ability to share pictures, search schools for old classmates and connect through the groups function to people of similar interest (My two loves are theater and comic books – I belong to a group for each).
Is it for everyone? Certainly not. My 60 year old Father incessantly asks what satisfaction I get from posting my thoughts for the world to see. I wish I had an answer…it’s just fun.
I know little of Facebook, but a friend of mine, a singer/songwriter working on her 2nd CD, is on MySpace. She uses it to promote herself, but also to connect with other musicians, singers, writers, both here in Denmark and abroad. My sense is that the community is more important to her than the self-promotion.
Not to be snarky, but my response to your questions is to ask “Real value for whom?.. Purpose for whom?”
For the users who are using it to network, as my friend is, there’s considerable value and purpose. But a company trying to sell into her network? I don’t know. Certainly it would have to approach the community on its own terms.
But, Les, you pretty much wrote the book on that… successful communication in the social space follows most — all? — of the rules in the traditional space. Have a strategy. Know your audience. Respect them.
I keep saying to peers… if you were an effective, good communicator before, social media holds little mystery — it’s just what you always wanted. On the other hand, if your gig was sending messages in quantity to as many passive recipients as possible…. you might find “going organic” a tough nut.
Hmm…MySpace and Facebook are kind of a strange space for strategic marketing communication. Or at least, they haven’t been well handled, to date.
In my own experience, the many ads flashing everywhere on MySpace are incredibly aggravating, but that’s not really news. I don’t think the “obnoxious banner ad” strategy is working well anywhere in cyberspace. Occasionally, I do receive some kind of marketing message through MySpace and Facebook, which I delete right away with a groan.
But as Mr. Jenkins has suggested, “if your gig was sending messages in quantity to as many passive recipients as possible…. you might find “going organic” a tough nut.”
Perhaps these sites could be better used by targeting opinion leaders? I nearly took a job with a company that maps social networks in order to sell that information to marketers, who would in turn target opinion leaders and sell them medical equipment, and such. I imagine that a similar notion is what fueled MySpace and Facebook in the first place.
Maybe a better approach to marketing in this space would be to send a personalized message to an identified opinion leader, perhaps offer them some kind of product sample, but overall offer them some kind of genuine message that they might adopt for their own needs. Facebook has a Groups function that allows people to come together over mostly ridiculous issues. Perhaps businesses can target messages to leaders of groups with some tie to their product.
What never works well is the “plant” approach. Some organizations have a practice of placing ostensibly “regular folks” into message boards and online communities of strategic relevance. These “plants” typically reveal themselves by issuing some kind of message that only a company stooge would have the cajones to speak. This deceptive marketing practice is a surefire way to ruin clout with whatever community you think you’ve snuck into.
It’s a strange landscape. And like Mr. Jenkins said, it’s going to take strategy, honesty, and respect to make any headway with online audiences. But if you try sneaking into people’s private spaces, you’re only shooting yourself in the foot.
I have found facebook to be a much more efficient marketing tool than myspace for campus activities. As Matt stated, facebook has a groups section, some which are ridiculous such as, “People in Columbia Can’t Drive in the Rain,” while others include student groups on campus. Facebook users may also create events and send out an invite to a list of people. When various organizations that I am part of hold an event, it is easy for me to create an event post and send out a message to everyone, and you can decide if it is a closed event or if they may invite their friends.
The aspect I like most about facebook is that I have contacted several fiends I lost contact with when I moved from New York to Maryland in 11th grade.
As for myspace, I don’t use it too much, but as Mr. Jenkins said, it is useful for musicians. My brother who has recently started in a band uses it to network with other bands and advertise their music and name.
I believe in the PR field, these sites should not be used, unless your focus is towards college students. It might be important for college administrators to learn and get the word out though. A good majority of students probably delete the Daily Digest, which Towson sends out each day, and other colleges may do similar things. However, most students log on to facebook at least once a week, and it has become a more effective tool to market events. Although, many organizations have found that facebook is effective for marketing their event, I believe both sites have become more of a stalking tool than networking or marketing effort. Facebook even added a “news feed” tool where you see who your friend just got into a relationship with, who joined what group, and what event John Doe might attend on some given date.
I joined MySpace on a whim last year, then was quite shocked when old friends whom I’d lost contact with found me. I think if they hadn’t, I would have long since forgotten I’d even registered, but now I leave it up to see if anyone else I used to be friends with is going to track me down.
I do think, though, that as I pursue “real” career possibilities, I need to delete it as it has some unremoveable links to my blog, which I’d like to keep away from the eyes of future potential employers 🙂
Les-
I was actually just discussing this topic with some friends of mine in the PR industry. Facebook is more of a tool specifically for college kids. It has “groups” that people can join and gain more contacts at college (example of group titles are “Towson University Communication Dept.” or “I hate tests”). People can even send out invitations to tell their friends about a party, but not good for after college. The layout is not designed for a working professional nor would it be a good public relations form of communication. Anytime one of your “friends” adds a comment or adds a new friend to their list, it tells you the minute you log on what actions all your frends have done. Personally, I don’t care who my friends are leaving messages for, who they added as a buddy, or any other information it gives me when I sign in. Anytime I do anything it tells all my friends what I am doing online and who I leave comments for, it is more annoying than fun to me. I do currently have it, but it will be deleted as soon as I find time to erase my profile.
Myspace however works. It is manageable, functional and allows specific privacy settings. A person can block their account and only allow their friends to see their profile, or leave comments. Myspace offers the same as facebook to the public, but it has more features but it is easier to find friends and manage the site. It offers a comments section for people to send to all their friends and the design works for all ages. It is also a good networking tool. I personally use myspace to keep in touch with friends from college and from back home in DE.
More and more people in the communications industry are setting up myspace accounts. Every morning on the radio I hear the talk show hosts talk about their myspace accounts and encourage the listeners to comment. It is a good way, just like blogs to have personal interaction with the media. I do not feel that myspace is for everyone in the communication industry, but for radio, promotions and music it is great.
I think to the same end, one could ask: Why do so many people put up such bad web 1.0 websites? Answer: because they can
Social media sites like myspace and facebook are a result of the “use case” being applied to the Internet. It is a natural evolution of observing user behaviour and meeting observed needs with improved functionality. People want to engage with other users online…..and the myspaces of the Internet enable that…better than email, better than going to a 1000 different personal blogs, better than going to a 1000 different personal websites and better than the telephone!
As far as these sites being serious tools for the communications or PR professional, it would depend on the particular communication goal of course. There are certainly some problems that will make a professional seriously look at how these sites might form part of a solution. Any place with X’000000’s of people virtually wandering about in a proactively communicative mode will of course be of interest to many with a message to share. Heck, if non-profits can raise real money on SecondLife…..the story has just begun.
When MySpace and Facebook first came out, I was still a college student looking for ways to procrastinate. So, when I should have been writing term papers, I gladly joined the social networking fray.
To me, these sites seemed to serve essentially the same purpose during my college years that having a pager/beeper did while I was in middle school – they let friends get a hold of each other virtually all the time and, at the same time, stamped their users as “cool kids.” That being said, when the first blog posts and news items about these sites being part of the “social media revolution” and “constituting new approaches to PR and marketing” began to surface, my response was, “you’re kidding, right?”
Today, as someone who’s still getting her feet wet in the world of public affairs and PR, I do see some limited applications for these tools. If you’re a communications professional marketing to (a) college students (Facebook) or (b) 13-26 year olds (MySpace), these sites could certainly be a component of your campaign, but they will never be the silver bullet. Why? Well, because you’re talking about fickle audiences. Young adults want what’s hip now and they get bored easily – both of which are primary reasons why MySpace and Facebook overtook Friendster – Friendster just wasn’t “cool” anymore and these other sites had nifty new toys to play with.
I think we’re starting to see a tiny bit of that boredom now. Fact of the matter is, when preteens and high schoolers discovered MySpace a few years back, the ads and content started being geared toward that demographic – and the 20 somethings (at least, the ones that I know), who actually have some level of buying power, just stopped using it. Sure, they have a profile up, but the amount of time they actually spend on the site is nil compared to just a year or two ago.
Overall, this is a long-winded way of saying: For most communications professionals, social networking sites simply are not the valuable marketing tool they’re purported to be.
I just wanted to jump in and thank all of you who have commented to date. This is the richest, most insightful and educational dialogue I’ve seen in a long time. I am also happy to note that at least two of the people who have commented here are making their first ever blog comment. It makes me really happy that they chose mine.
Thanks again to all of you,
Les Potter
Being involved in ministry, I use MySpace for the purpose of networking on both a personal and professional level. MySpace has become a great tool for finding people all over the world who share common interests or fit certain demographics, as well as quickly and easily communicating with those people. My ministry’s MySpace can be found at http://www.myspace.com/hopefortherejected.
Here’s a link that works for those who don’t like to copy and paste: http://www.myspace.com/hopefortherejected .
I was immediately attracted to this post because of a conversation at the dinner table over the weekend. What is the point of Facebook? This was the topic of the conversation. The conversation started because of a local news story involving Facebook.
A few weeks ago, a couple got married in Bel Air, MD. However, instead of kissing after the priest said, “you may now kiss the bride,” both the bride and groom took out their cell phones and changed their relationship status on Facebook to Married! During the conversation, my boyfriend’s aunt said her best friend’s daughter changed her Facebook status to Engaged before she told her parents. I could not believe what I was hearing. As a college student, I am on Facebook regularly. However, I still thought these stories were ridiculous and it made me think twice about its use and abuse.
I believe the original idea behind Facebook had good intentions. It was designed to keep friends in touch after high school. However, most people live on Facebook now. The story I shared is a prime example of that. Has Facebook become more important then the traditional marriage?
As a user of Facebook, I still cannot see the merit some people give it. I use it because I am still a student. However, I do not see using it as an adult or as a way of communication in the business world. I do not think creating an event for a business luncheon would go over to well in the corporate setting. I believe it has value in a personal social setting to some degree. However, there is no value to Facebook in the professional business world. Facebook is not serious enough in today’s world nor should it ever be considered serious enough from a professional standpoint.