Nick's Tech/Multimedia Marketing Mash

Seeing as I’m not quite sure whether or not my first blog post counted as a “Marketing” post I’m going to post another delightful tidbit of concentrated wisdom. To whoever happens to be reading – (probably only the marker with the dreadful job of having to slog through all of these at some point) prepare to be mildly interested.

I was thinking, maybe I should start to consider having more informative blog post titles… I know! I’ll put a dash in after the number and provide some relevant sort of title there! Enough unrelated stream of consciousness babbling for the moment. Onto the good stuff!

With all the frenzy over social media I figured a great sujet du jour would be the complete reversal of roles between our favourite new constant companion. The internet giant, Facebook and it’s disgraced, downtrodden former rival, MySpace.

Now, I came late to the Facebook party (compared to my more integrated high school friends) joining the social media hungry horde on the 20th of July 2007 (in before the stalker grannies though!). But I think that this little excerpt from my life illustrates an important point. I’d heard of MySpace and Twitter before that (heard of Twitter from Icefrog, one of the custom map developers for Warcraft 3 and remember being confused and a bit intrigued by this new site) but never signed up or ever really considered participating in either of them. Which brings up the question, “How did Facebook pull me, the reluctant social media convert, in?”. And that’s where I think the power of Facebook lies.

It pulled me in by using the connections I had with my friends who were already part of it. It was built to accommodate the needs of the user not force them to acclimate themselves to it. And, finally, it kept me in by providing actual value and use rather than relying on its novelty. This is a case which can serve as an important lesson for the introduction of any new product.

How are you going to get the consumer to adopt it?

What needs of the user should you take into consideration when designing the product?

How are you going to provide enough value that the consumer sticks with you and not some other competitor?

Its best to consider or else you might find yourself in the same situation as MySpace. Once the dominant market leader, now relegated to the margins and desperately seeking relevance.