Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Marketing to the Young and the Restless

MySpace is the current hot social network, but I'm not convinced it has staying power. The great BusinessWeek article about social networking points out that a year ago Friendster had similar traffic, but visits are down by an astonishing 95 percent. The same fate could befall MySpace when (inevitably) something better comes along.

Social networking sites centered around music are of great appeal to passionate youth, but their love for anything is often fast, furious, and fleeting. Sustaining membership and interest in clubs that are free to join and easy to leave is a challenge because tastes can change so quickly. Today's star is tomorrow's MTV guest on "Where are they now?"

While the young demographic is desirable to many marketers, it also is of limited value to others. For example, Allstate advertisers on MySpace, but what will the click through rate be if half of the audience members are either on their parent's policies or too young to drive? Marketers like to establish brand loyalty early, but one misstep in messaging could have them banned by the in crowd in a hurry.

These sites may also need to adopt commerce platforms that include credit card alternatives, such as PayPal, or a "points" system that starts off with cash, such as Microsoft is doing with Xbox Live. An innovate platform for buying stuff (prepaid cards?) and access to music libraries could have people buying, and not just talking about, music. (Perhaps Apple will absorb a social network or start its own.)

These sites will also have to continually recruit new members as their audience will eventually mature, change their musical tastes, and have families that will greatly reduce their free time to chit chat online.

By Jason Dowdell at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

Post a Comment

Name:
Email:
WebSite:
Comment:
Remember Me
Subscribe