Fall of the Myspace Empire

I know some might consider it macabre but I find it interesting to find out what causes the demise of any once great corporation. From the massive steel corporations that dominated the regional landscape to ever expanding realm of the internet there are lessons to be learned for every collapse of any major entity. Myspace was at the pinnacle of the social media boom, at one point being the largest and most used of any of the social media networks. So what happened to this fore father of the social boom?

I found a nice bullet point article one http://socialmediatoday.com/jasonbaer/176830/6-lessons-learned-demise-myspace It was nothing fancy just nice succinct points that the writer felt were the overall cause of its down fall. The first point was one that I wasn't sure I agreed with at first till I gave it some thought. Myspace lacked authenticity is what the author felt. Hmm interesting point to bring up. The site allowed users to use specialized screen names that he felt made it lack any credibility. Internet trolls could hide behind their persona and if they needed they could just start all over again if they got found out. The lack of real names being used just kept the site in the realm of the internet chat room.

The next two points I will combine into one as they both deal with development and implementation. While it was great to be able to customize your own page with grpahics and custom fonts; this made for nightmares not only for users but the site overall. Pages would crash and users would be come frustrated and look for other avenues to continue their social networking. The other was a lack of a mobile application. This was one of the biggest mistakes in my view. People love to be mobile and like to stay in contact no matter where they are. If you don't' cater to this desire then you will be left in the dust in this new era.

A lack of vision can be the down fall of many great companies. This was very true for Myspace. They stayed too focused on their roots (music being the primary) and neglected the value and potential of what they had created. People just didn't want to be connected by a common like of a topic but to extend beyond that and deal with the real people around them. They needed to embrace business and the "formal" world to ensure their continued exsistance, yet the ignored the value in both of those and forged ahead to their slow implosion.

I did hunt around for a few more articles about the down fall, but most echoed this writers sentiments. Getting to look back at my own experiences on the site and the power of hindsight, I can see how all of the authors points are very valid and should be studied if you want to begin to have the clout that Facebook now has.