We've talked a lot about the problem that all social-networking sites might encounter if they are turned into some type of hybrid amateur/professional site with advertisers creating fake profiles for their brands. The problem is already being discussed at a pretty good rate online; most of it not being positive.
A lot of us have seen this problem lurking around from the time that News Corp. (NWS) bought MySpace and we knew that they would definitely use it for a marketing tool. The only question that remained was how the users would respond to the infiltration of ads to their experience, and how hard the response would be.
The first stage of the response has been filtering in, and it's not looking great for MySpace.
Peter Blackshaw--chief marketing officer for Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which monitors online "chatter" said: "Advertising can be a huge turn-off if over-deployed, as advertisers try to figure out the CGM space, they're kind of blurring the line between authentic content creation and advertising. That could definitely backfire. MySpace is introducing this more blended form of advertising, in which brands can create their own pages and have their own friends list, and that's the zone that is sort of unproven, it potentially has a higher turn-off factor because consumers may perceive it as 'over the line.'"
He added that he has already found a number of users pushing back and resisting the changes already being made. This isn't going to be some type of an avalanche at this time, as far as people leaving in droves, but if they get fed up and it goes viral, it could drastically reduce the number of people using the service.
One thing that may help all social-networking sites is that users will eventually learn that there's nothing for free. Even if there is a proliferation of new sites offering a more user-friendly experience, how long will it be before they have to have some type of a business model to survive? Somebody has to pay the bills.
While this is true, it doesn't mean that users won't simply migrate to new sites and use them until they start changing the model, and then do it again. There are still a lot of questions about this being a business model that will work that haven't been answered yet.
Do you think it will dilute MySpace and other sites that are making deals to use ads on their sites? Will you still use them if they do? Or do you believe that if it is done right you won't mind sifting through some ads to continue with the experience? Are you marketing on these sites and getting results that make it worthwhile? Let us know your thoughts.
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