Jerry Rizzo has a background in professional sports new media and social media marketing. You can learn more about Jerry’s social savvy on Twitter.
Welcome to the new Myspace! Gone are the days of feverishly stalking your latest crush, spending endless hours creating bulletins and filling out surveys that include the important questions such as “What was the last thing you touched?”
The new guys over there at Myspace have taken our old friend, added a dynamic user interface, loaded it with a robust music library and enhanced profiles to appeal to designers and musicians alike. By selecting your intended use upon registering, your New Myspace profile will enable the appropriate functions for you to do your thing (e.g. video upload for filmmakers and music upload for musicians).
Bigger and more brand friendly
Brands will have no complaints with the creative opportunity New Myspace’s 1600 x 1024 profile image yields. The new profile layout also features a 130-character allotment to describe yourself/brand.
Despite the site being deeply rooted with it’s music browsing and sharing capabilities, users are still very much able to produce text (1024 character limit), photo and video posts that can be viewed on user’s connection feeds. Posts can then easily be shared to Twitter and Facebook.
User news feeds are pleasingly eclectic highlighting top content recommended by your connections or suggested based upon your most recent activity. All of this is easy to navigate with the revamped gliding interface.
A healthy host for AV content
If you’re creating content, whether it be a weekly podcast or daily video segment, New Myspace may be the perfect place to host it. With easy to use uploaders and the ability to create shareable audio mixes with 1024×768 cover photos; it’s worth considering the New Myspace as an avenue for hosting and distributing your audio and video content.
Currently, Myspace supports sharing to Facebook and Twitter, which is always helpful for driving traffic back to the content on your snazzy profile.
Top 8 Takes a Turn
There is no doubt New Myspace is strikingly different, but I was surprised when I saw that the infamous Top 8 feature had been migrated into the platform. Top 8 may be an old familiar friend to most, but for brands the feature can be approached similarly to an endorsement for other brands, artist or producers you have worked with or are currently working with. Associate yourself with leaders in your space and let others know what they can expect from your brand as you thoughtfully implement your Top 8.
Where it falls flat
Now that I’ve laid out a few ways you can implement the New Myspace into your current content strategy by optimizing its revamped web features, I should naturally explain its mobile offering. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much success logging into the New Myspace mobile app and have found few others who have. All I know about the app’s development is that it’s coming along and users can expect something in the future (vague much?). The mobile situation is bummer city after all the nice features the web version has to offer.
The takeaway
Despite being widely viewed as the alternative social media site and lacking a reliable mobile presence, the New Myspace is a legitimately revamped platform that does have something to offer. There is no question digital music marketers are sinking their teeth into this as we speak, but brands outside of the music space should be considering Myspace as well.
