First MySpace, then FaceBook, then…

If you haven’t read it, read Danah Boyd’s conference paper on MySpace. It puts MySpace’s success in historical context – “initially, it was the home to 20-somethings interested in indie music in Los Angeles.” That’s the key – MySpace dominates teenage internet use today not because it was tailored to teenagers, but to the group that a lot of teenagers look up to, the independent, rebellious, indie 20-something crowd. Those ‘cool’ 20-somethings were what initially sucked the ‘cool’ high-school kids in, and then that crowd brought the rest. Now, MySpace no longer needs the 20-somethings to keep its control over the high-school set – it’s hit critical mass and as children hit adolescence and begin attending high school they adopt it in order to emulate their older, cooler peers. A self-perpetuating cycle that has little to do with the feature set. I strongly suspect that if MySpace had tried from the beginning to sign up high school students, they would’ve fallen on their face – the initial 18+ policy undoubtedly drove their success! If competitors with higher-quality feature sets (for example, MyYearbook) stumble, it’ll be because they’ve got the messaging wrong – ironically, by marketing directly to the group they aim to attract!

There’s only one other company I know of that dominates a demographic like MySpace, and that’s FaceBook, which has sewn up college students (according to TechCrunch, 85% of them.) Why? I don’t know how FaceBook got started, but it perpetuates itself in the same way that MySpace does – young people arrive in a new location, need to get socialized, and see their socially-successful, more-experienced peers already using the service. New college students quickly learn it’s not cool to talk about high school; just as they cast off their high-school friends for college ones (sweetheart-dumping time), they cast off their old social networks for new ones (MySpace-dumping time). FaceBook’s attempts to expand into MySpace’s high school turf raise questions – since every campus is separate from every other one, teens using FaceBook lack direct access to older influencers. Will the ability to use the same platform as college-age influencers be enough to persuade teens to switch?

So – first MySpace, then FaceBook. But on graduating from college and/or entering the work world – what then? LinkedIn? Tribe? FriendFinder? Human experience diversifies rapidly post-college, and no one service seems to fit. My choice of network may not necessarily be yours. But we can still steal a page from MySpace and FaceBook if we remember two things:

• People join social networks because they need something social, and the network’s a route to it. MySpace & FaceBook = socialization to an unfamiliar environment. LinkedIn = career connections. FriendFinder = love interests. If a social network doesn’t fulfill an obvious need, it’s hosed. No one is social for the sake of being social.
• Marketing and building a service for the broad group you want to attract is a mistake. Instead, market to and build for that group’s influencers. To get music fans, build for the musicians. To get corporate peons, build for CEOs. To get single-and-looking men, build for single-and-looking women.

Keep those two points in mind and identify an under-served niche, and you’re good to go. If I was starting a social network today, I’d target born-again Christians by building a service for their ministers. A great opportunity – the target audience is rebuilding their identity in a fundamental way, the ministers are motivated to communicate with and sign up their congregations, and the demographic is both huge and painfully overlooked. I’d feel a bit like Faith + 1 – but I think I could live with that.