History of Social Media, Integrated, & Inbound Marketing Thought Paper
MySpace.com is one of the first popular social media sites introduced to the public. There’s no doubt there were a few rising stars before MySpace. However, social media didn’t gain popularity and wide use until the early 2000s, allowing users to do more than just send messages. MySpace.com was one of those sites that offered extra features and capabilities beyond sending messages. I selected MySpace because it’s one of the social media platforms that gained buzz during that time, allowing users to exchange personal information about themselves between friends and family members.
As it was beginning to gain popularity, users became lax in sharing their personal opinions, good and bad, which might be one reason why it became popular. The right to exercise freedom of expression on a wide scale. It appears there were minimum restrictions in place on what a user can say or share, generating more curiosity and use on the social media app. The lack of guidelines around social media use is probably why many users are propelled to share too much personal information about themselves. But just as there are disadvantages to using social media, there are advantages as well. Social media was first used as a platform to keep in contact with friends and family. To this day, it’s still used as a way to stay in touch with people, but it’s also being used for sharing photos, videos, and news, networking for career opportunities, sharing status updates, participating in discussions, marketing purposes, and engaging with customers” Vamp Brands. (2020, Feb. 28). The Evolution of Social Media.
I also selected this social media app because just as individuals and businesses are expected to grow with time and technology, so should social media apps if they want to remain relevant and profitable. MySpace was popular and relevant in the early 2000s and now they are almost obsolete, replaced by other popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. The few social media sites introduced before MySpace are Six Degrees and Friendster. These sites being new on the scene, offered limited capabilities such as creating profiles and sending messages, encountering many technical glitches. However, MySpace became known as an ‘addictive platform’ offering more capabilities than the other two sites by allowing users to curate personal profiles within blogs, photos, music, and videos. From 2005 to 2009, it was the largest social networking site in the world Vamp Brands. (2020, Feb. 28). The Evolution of Social Media
I conducted a google search on Myspace.com to find out where they stand in today’s world of social media sites. When landing on their homepage, I found a mix of celebrity news, music, and video content tightly dense in which appear to be divided into four sections. I didn’t find the site appealing, piquing my interest to delve further into the content. I was expecting a landing page with simple content, user-friendly instructions on how to create a profile, and various capabilities on how to navigate and maximize usage of the site. The homepage looks like a website of someone advertising music and video content as opposed to advertising the business of the site itself. I concluded this is one reason for the rise and fall of this social media site’s existence.
In a nicely written article, ‘Instagram’s Growing Problem: Staying Relevant,’ the author noted the effective decisions and steps the popular social media app made over the years to remain relevant in today’s society with millennials and Gen-z’s. Instagram offers various feature capabilities to engage users. They are dedicated to learning about users’ daily activities and their interests. “With the constant shifts in consumer behavior, businesses have to recognize the importance of staying sensitive to changing needs and expectations and updating their business models and/or offerings accordingly to stay competitive” LabbrandGroup.(2018, Aug 1).Instagram’sGrowingProblem:StayingRelevant. Although these trends weren’t considered during the height of MySpace.com’s days, there’s no excuse for why they cannot be implemented today.
