I happened to attend the MySpace Developers launch party back in February at their new San Francisco office. Nice party. Nice dreams.
Overture
People in the ad business were drooling at the possible access to over 60 million users, or whatever number they want us to believe this month, they have on their social network. I’m not here to argue numbers on who has more users in the social net world. We know that even though Facebook was just reported to be surging upwards, MySpace still is the biggest player on the block.
Reality hit quickly when MySpace launched to the world their open developer platform a few months later. Apps didn’t take off as everyone thought. There was no viral way to promote your application. Basically developers were writing MySpace off as a place to only toy with. Every application developer I chatted with said they were waiting.
Reality Check – Your app sucks!
Here is the reality. Most developers need to think closer to the box than so far outside of it that the only people that enjoy their app is the developer team and 5 of their nerd buddies.
That is what I see more times than not. People are out there developing apps just because “they can”. Instead of thinking what would work and what would interest a diverse audience, they end up thinking – “what is the coolest piece of code I could write that would make this float here and there… etc.. etc.. “.
What ends up happening is the app might totally rock, but no one gets it. See above 5 nerd buddies and the coding team. You are not going to be able to utilize any ad network to make you money on an application that no one “gets” or knows what it’s suppose to do.
Think Musician
You have a choice, be the musician that is winning the local awards as the best singer, best songwriter, best local top dog – or be the musician that figures out the business. You can’t play the business of music if you stick too close to your guns. The same thought process should go into the app writing business.
Before you start writing that next great MySpace (bigger audience) or Facebook application, look around you. What is hitting, and why? Is it something that is cross cultural accepted? Is it something enjoyable to visit? Is it basically ripping off the long time favorite “Hot or Not” with a new name and twist?
After you figure that out, you need to answer the next question. If I rip off someone else’s idea that worked once, will it work again? This part is another of the lessons you learn as a musician. Just because you wrote “Livin’ On A Prayer” part II, it doesn’t give you a license to a #1 hit.
The Point
The point is really quite simple. MySpace does work, and now is more viral with built in inviting turned on. It can be some place to really make some serious money. The first thing you need to do is look around to see what is working.
I can tell you what works. I received a free t-shirt at that party above. It says “MySpace – Makes work FUN! (thumbs up)“. Things that are familiar and fun are what works on either social network. I have yet to see a totally confusing, but really well coded app, make it.
How do I know this? Well of course I view statistics everyday. Up until recently, our publishers who had MySpace apps had very little traction. It was like MySpace was a cursed place and their developer platform was a joke.
Technically Speaking, the joke really is the number of talented developers that are not thinking through what they are writing for social networks; Keep It Simple Stupid and FUN! Maybe I should start a conference called “KISS and FUN!“?
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