Is MySpace growing up?

Filed in Social Media, Statistics by Matt McGee on October 7, 2006 • 0 Comments

MySpace logo There’s been a lot of talk this week about the comScore study showing that more than 50% of visitors to MySpace are 35 years of age or older.

How’d that happen?

1. More parents visiting it as a means of keeping an eye on their kids.

2. More teachers doing the same. A good friend of mine is a high school teacher in California, and he has a MySpace page not only to keep an eye on what students are doing and saying, but also simply so he can use it a line of communication — a means to connect with his students on their turf, outside the classroom experience.

3. And speaking of connecting on someone else’s turf, small businesses left and right are jumping on the MySpace bandwagon because they think they see dollar signs in all that traffic. And in the name of participation marketing, I’d say a lot of small businesses probably should have a MySpace page.

A couple stats / facts related to #3 above:

Some of the most popular referrers to this site are searches such as “market on MySpace” and “how to market on MySpace”, which lead to this old post where I bring up the subject of small businesses marketing on MySpace. (and I’m still working on that article…)
I currently have 11 pending “friend requests” related to my SBS MySpace page. Of those 11, seven are from small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to add to their contact list and increase their networking opportunities. That’s a big change from just a few months ago, when nearly all of the friend requests I received were from single, young, attractive females who had no obvious connection to small business marketing, SEO, SEM, etc.

So, yeah, I’d say MySpace is growing up. That means the opportunity to reach a younger audience is fading fast, and businesses which target that demographic should already be considering what’s next. As the grownups push their way in the front door of the MySpace party, where are the kids going as they leave out the back?

[tags]myspace, small business, online marketing, participation marketing, social networks, social marketing[/tags]