Comparison and Contrast of FaceBook and MySpace - SWOT Analysis and Marketing Mix - Case Study Example

Preface FaceBook Year Founded: 2004 Markets Served: Global Active Users: 150 M Global Alexa Page Ranking: 5 (Shih, 2009) MySpace Year Founded: 2003 Markets Served: Global, especially United States, Canada, Europe Active Users: 110 M Global Alexa Page Ranking: 7 (Shih, 2009) Report on Internet Marketing A Comparative Study of Marketing Campaigns utilized by FaceBook and MySpace Social Networks Executive Summary This report aims to study the effectiveness of ‘Internet Marketing’ with specific reference to the ‘FaceBook’ and ‘My Space’ networks. These social networking sites have gained immense popularity in recent times and taken on the role of a cultural phenomenon. Today, social networking sites seem to have become an integral part of our everyday lives. We will first look at defining a Social Networking Site. Next, we will look at the growing importance of Internet Marketing and conduct a step-by-step analysis of the marketing mix employed by the two social networking sites, FaceBook and My Space. We will first conduct a detailed review of the two sites and do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, opportunities, Threats) analysis. We will then compare the Marketing Mix employed by these two networking sites. The report will also look into the areas where FaceBook and My Space are lacking. At the end, the following recommendations have been made. Not to make too many changes to the FaceBook layout when the new and improved privacy policy is set in place To take steps to allow FaceBook users to customize their profiles MySpace to increase monitoring of the content on their site. MySpace to take steps to encourage people of the older demographic to start using the site Table of Contents Pg Preface i Title Page ii Executive Summary iii Table of Contents iv 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Aims 1 1.3 Scope 2.0 E-Commerce 2 3.0 Analysis of FaceBook and MySpace 3 3.1 About FaceBook 3 3.2 About MySpace 3.3 Comparison and Contrast of FaceBook and MySpace 3 3.4 SWOT Analysis – FaceBook & MySpace 4 3.4 Marketing Mix– FaceBook & MySpace 6 4.0 Conclusion 8 5.0 Recommendations 8 References 9 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background Social Networking Sites or SNS’s as they are more commonly known, allow ‘individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system’ (Boyd & Nicole Ellison (2007). The classification and nomenclature of these interactions vary from one Social Networking Site to the other. These sites enable an individual to establish connections with complete strangers on topics of common interest. However, this is not what is primarily practiced on these sites. What sets these sites apart is the fact that they allow individual users to articulate and share their social networks. Hence this translates into connections being made between individuals who also share offline connections or a past history. Users of these SNS’s are not necessarily looking to make new connections and networking, they use these sites as a platform to communicate with people who are already a part of their extended social network. 1.2 Aims These sites have set in place a wide variety of technical features and the main format is that they consist of visible profiles that also display a detailed list of ‘friends’ (who are basically also users of this system). A profile may be defined as a unique page where one can "type oneself into being" (Sundén, 2003, p 3). The visibility of a profile that one posts on a Social Networking Site differs from one site to another. Some sites, such as Tribe.Net and Friendster make profile information public, while others such as LinkedIn restricts what will be viewed. FaceBook allows viewers of the same network to access each other’s profiles, unless permission to view has been denied by the user. MySpace provides the user with the choice to decide whether they want their profile to be public or ‘Friends only’. SNS’s allow for unique profiles, connecting with friends, posting comments and private messaging. In addition, some allow for photo-sharing and video-sharing, blogging and even Instant Messaging Technology. __________________________________________________________ 1 The aim of this report is to analyze the Marketing Mix employed by two of these sites – FaceBook and MySpace Scope The report will first define e- commerce and Internet Marketing and its role in today’s world. We will then do an analysis of the two networks FaceBook and MySpace. A SWOT Analysis will be conducted. We will also examine the Marketing Mix with regard to advertisement employed by these two sites and how effective they are. This will allow us to come to a decision on which of these sites are more effective and also enable us to put forth a few recommendations on the way forward. 2.0 E-Commerce Electronic Commerce (commonly referred to as electronic marketing or eCommerce is basically the buying or sale of products over the Internet and other computer networks. E-Commerce allows for supply chain management, electronic fund transfer, automated data collection systems and of course Internet Marketing. Internet Marketing is also known as web-marketing, online marketing, i-Marketing and eMarketing. The main benefit that advertisers get with Internet Marketing is lowered costs and greater distribution capabilities to a larger and wider audience. Another very important aspect of Internet Marketing, is the fact that it is an interactive medium that elicts instant response. ______________________________________________________________ 2 3.0 Analysis of FaceBook and MySpace 3.1 About FaceBook FaceBook began as a by-invitation only site strictly for college students, and today it has taken on the form of a cultural phenomenon the world over. In fact FaceBook is the ‘Top Ten REVIEWS Gold Award’ winning social network and comprises networks based around businesses, colleges, schools and regions. The site is more focused on social activism. Users must be at least 13 years old in order to register on FaceBook. The site does have a policy in place with regard to offensive content, although they state that monitoring content on the site closely is not their responsibility. They encourage members to report inappropriate content. The site provides a ‘Report this person’ link on all profile pages (FaceBook, 2009) 3.2 About MySpace The Social Networking Site MySpace is also extremely popular and comes in at Number 2 in terms of popularity. The site allows users to upload image, audio and video files and also encourages blogging, to an extent. MySpace is primarily a social networking site. Users must be at least 14 years of age to register on MySpace. Again, this site too has a policy in place with regard to sexually explicit and other offensive content and they too encourage members to report inappropriate content with a ‘Report Inappropriate Content’ link at the bottom of the page (MySpace, 2009). 3 2.3 Comparisons and Contrast of FaceBook and MySpace Let us now examine the basic differences between the two social networking sites, MySpace and FaceBook. MySpace utilizes a more entertainment-based interface when compared to FaceBook. The Interface on FaceBook is more clean and basic and less flashy (Feldman, 2007). FaceBook has managed to get the buy in of people in various age groups whereas MySpace is targeted mainly at teenagers. MySpace allows for slideshows and other picture options, FaceBook on the other hand has nice picture album settings. The content on the MySpace site can be rather open and this means that controversial content is likely to be up on MySpace. This is not the case with regard to FaceBook. Lack of adequate privacy settings also means that MySpace is more prone to spam mail in comparison to FaceBook. 3.4 SWOT Analysis – FaceBook and MySpace _____________________________________________________________4 STRENGTHS FACEBOOK MYSPACE Clean Layout Tabbed Browsing Integration of Wall and Minifeed Ease of sharing photos and videos New Features constantly added – blog subscription service and profile badge etc. FaceBook Notes One of the best privacy options available on the Internet Excellent Networking Features Comprehensive Help Section Legitimate Friend Focus Focused on social networking and non-professional blogging Exceptional music and video section. Can post comments and sometimes even become friends with the band. Easy to find friends. Extensive FAQ section. Legitimate Friend Focus Roped in popular celebrities (Ryan Seacrest, Madonna etc) to set up spaces (Gray, 2009) WEAKNESSES FACEBOOK MYSPACE Harder to customize the blog posts Too much focus on advertisers Flash Distractions Cannot Share applications Does not encourage the serious blogger You can send the direct link of the blog to someone, but if they wanted to search for it, they cannot do so The celebrity pages need to be more defined – it needs to be clear that these pages carry authorized information ___________________________________________________________________5 OPPORTUNITIES FACEBOOK MYSPACE FaceBook Pages allow for targeted advertising Powerful Marketing Tools like polls and Markets provide valuable information to potential advertisers Allows the integration with other services or social networking activities Convert users into Youth Noise THREATS FACEBOOK MYSPACE Many members want the old FaceBook layout back and this could result in them moving out of this Social Networking Site Orkut was a rage before FaceBook and soon another new networking site could become more popular resulting in users moving out of FaceBook Many people may not want to send their families or business associates to a site with the sort of blogging MySpace has. Focus on teenagers and this restricts the user base. Content is controversial and hence proves to be a little risky for advertisers to spend their money. Another popular networking site could take the place of Myspace as the new rage in Social Networking Sites 2.5 Marketing Mix – FaceBook & MySpace November 2008 saw FaceBook draw 200 million unique worldwide visitors. This meant that over in five people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. Again in December 2008, 22% of the world’s Internet Users were also on FaceBook. If one were to analyze the page view difference as well, it comes to FaceBook having 80 billion monthly page views as compared to 43 billion for MySpace. 6 This clearly shows that Social Networking Sites, in particular, FaceBook and MySpace, are an important medium for the use of Internet Marketing Strategies. Today the consumer holds more power. “This means, consumers have an edge over the organizations where their demand for better products at lower prices rules. Hence, the additional 7 Ps – People, Partnership, Productivity, Personalization, Physical image, Protocols, and Privacy, are to be adopted by all marketers to meet the changing demands of consumers and survive the competition” (Tehrani, 2008). Social Networking Sites like FaceBook and MySpace have already got the buy-in of market moving companies like Nintendo, Nike and Toyota and allow companies to expand market reach and viability. “Both sites rely on advertising revenue (though they have the potential to make money through e-commerce). The problem is that eyeballs don’t simply translate into ad click-throughs as FaceBook knows too well. MySpace’s reaction has been to bombard its site with — at times — intrusive ads, which hasn’t gone unnoticed” (O’Hear, 2007). Social level These sites build communities around ‘common pursuits and appeal to broader demographics – Here FaceBook stands to gain over MySpace as they attract a broader and older demographic in addition to teenagers. For the first time, over half of the population of FaceBook is over 25 and 60% MySpace is still under 25 (Dickman, 2009) Freedom MySpace gives more freedom to marketers as compared to FaceBook. MySpace lets one market whatever they want to market on the site. Aside from the groups on FaceBook, there are not many other marketing opportunities. FaceBook restricts the number of friends on a day etc. and does not allow people to send out bulk messages to too many people. (Arizona Home Based Internet Businesses, 2009). MultiMedia Interface The launch of FaceBook Connect in December 2008 is what propelled FaceBook to the front of the pack with regard to Social Networking Sites (Marketing Profs, 2009). FaceBook could be accessed on the web, on the iPhone and on the Mobile Web. 7 4. Conclusion This report has made an attempt to understand the significance of Internet Marketing with specific reference to the Social Networking sites - MySpace and FaceBook. We first looked at defining eCommerce and Internet Marketing. Following this, we did a thorough analysis of the two sites and compared and contrasted the both of them. Next, we did a SWOT analysis and also looked at the Marketing Strategies that were employed by the two sites in order to set one apart from the other. We have thus arrived at the following conclusions. FaceBook is clearly the leader in terms of being a great social networking site and provides the best security options on the Internet. It is the go-to site for a no-nonsense attitude of being in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. MySpace, is the site to be on in order to be connected to the thriving music industry. It is a site that provides a great deal of entertainment for teenagers through music, TV shows and user-generated videos, thus proving to be a great entertaining site. 5. Recommendations As recently as August 2009, FaceBook has announced that they will be taking more steps to increase the privacy of users. While this move is a necessity, it is recommended that this does not result in a great deal of changes on the layout of the website as this could in turn, put off users (Miller, 2009). FaceBook should also look at allowing users on their site to customize their profiles, as this is something that could be improved on the site. MySpace needs to take steps to beef up the security on content on their site In addition, if they are looking at attracting people from older demographics as well onto their site, they should look at focusing their entertainment (viz. music, video and TV shows) on this section of the populace as well. 8 REFERENCES Arizona Home Based Internet Businesses (2009), Viewed September 16, 2009, < http://arizonahomebasedinternetbusinesses.com/marketing-your-home-based-internet-business-facebook-vs-myspace/>. Webpage. Boyd, Danah and Nicole Ellison. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. University of California-Berkley. Viewed September 12, 2009. < http://www.danah.org/papers/JCMCIntro.pdf>. Webpage. Dickman Matt, (2009), Techno Marketer, viewed on September 12, 2009 < . Webpage. FaceBook (2009), viewed on September 12, 2009 < http://www.facebook.com/facebook?ref=pf> Webpage Feldman, J. Barbara (2007), SURFING the NET with Kids, viewed on September 16, 2009, . Webpage Gray, Michael (2009), ‘Marketing Examples on MySpace’, viewed on September 12, 2009 http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/marketing-examples-on-myspace/. Webpage. Marketing Profs, (2009). Viewed September 12, 2009. http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2009/3008/facebook-connect-lifts-facebook-past-myspace>. Webpage. Miller C. Claire (2009), “FaceBook Moves To Improve Privacy and Transparency”, The New York Time. Viewed on September 12, 2009. . Webpage. MySpace (2009), viewed on September 12, 2009, < http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.aboutus>. Webpage. Shih, Clara (2009), The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference. Report. O’Hear, Steve (2007), FaceBook and MySpace are Like Chalk ‘n’ Cheese, viewed September 16, 2009, < http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=216>.Webpage. Sundén Jenny, (2003) Material Virtualities: Approaching Online Textual Embodiment. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Book. Tehrani, Nik, (2008) Contemporary Marketing Mix For The Digital Era , Authorhouse. E-Book. Top Ten Reviews, 2009, Viewed September 12, 2009 < http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/facebook-review.html>. Webpage 8 8 Read More