Too unhip for the Facebook and Myspace "Mashup"?

I got an email about the happy new union between Facebook and Myspace (see below). As a copywriter, I've definitely cranked out this type of marketing copy in the past, but something about it sounded like it was trying a little too hard to define a hip new brand personality. Then again, maybe I'm just not the demo they're talking too. Great, now I feel old. And unhip. Thanks, Myspace.

It's true, the new Myspace and Facebook are friends. And now, the new Myspace comes with Facebook Mashup!

Along with our sweet new logo and layout, Mashup turns your Likes into real content on Myspace, creating a personalized entertainment stream full of videos, music, and more just for you.

Mashup with your current Myspace account or start fresh with a new one. We think you’ll dig it.

My Space Smooshes with Facebook

My Space, woops, that's Myspace now that it's been rebranded as an amazing entertainment portal, has officially joined forces with Facebook. They've added a "Connect with Facebook" button on their page.

It's a brilliant move on Myspace's part to go back to their musical roots and try to define themselves as something other than a failed Facebook. It's pretty clear that they were KO'd by Facebook.

But it does make me wonder if there will be another site that takes Facebook head on? Is it possible considering all of the users and content they've accumulated and continue to accumulate? Anything's possible in the world of the interwebs, I suppose, especially if Facebook makes some kind of huge privacy mistake, or misses out on the next innovation. Now only if I could come up with that next idea...

Drinking from the firehose

Ever since the Facebook announcement last week on the updates to their Messaging platform I have been doing a lot of thinking about how we choose to create, share and digest content online. The information overload has passed the point for anyone to reliably normalize it and yet we continue to drink from the firehose as we add communication streams which require organization and prioritization.

The Facebook move recognizes this need and is building a way to centralize the communication around people whether the format is SMS, chat, email (now everyone can have an @facebook.com address), etc. Of course, by centralization they mean on the FB network and users will get their choice of which methods they want to interact with.




Google has also taken a swing at the concept of aggregated communication focused mostly around their popular email platform, Gmail. With features like Buzz, Chat and priority inbox now built in the Gmail interface is really more of a communication portal page.

Despite the different options out there on how to unify the different messaging formats I agree with Alexia Tsotsis in her recent TechCrunch article. As he puts it:

"Right now I wouldn’t Facebook message a potential client just like I wouldn’t @reply a relative with the details of what my family is doing for Thanksgiving."

I feel like the key to this statement is that right now it doesn't seem right that anyone would use a single method to communicate. But right now in the current environment doesn't last long.

If you think about the different types of folks we interact with each day you start to realize that there are different categories you could fit people into. Those people can be sorted by a) the different roles they play (family, friend, business associate) and b) the point when they choose to adopt internet technologies as a part of how they interact. For instance, teenagers today have not yet had to communicate in a work environment and exist in a generation where sharing every detail of ones day is common. Therefore email alternatives that are less formal like SMS, social networks and chat are all preferred. Compare that with those of us in our 30's and 40's who grew up without these choices and by the time we reached our 20's email was the only option.

Of course, what Facebook and others are betting on is someday the gaps will disappear and it will become the norm to keep in touch with everyone in your world through their platform.

Twitter Analytics Coming Soon

According to Mashable, Twitter is going to launch a free analytics tool at the end of 2010. Sounds like it could help some companies figure out how to use Twitter as a marketing tool. What tweets make people "unfollow" them? What tweets do people like the most? Who actively engages with their tweets? Identifying those active individuals could help them identify brand ambassadors to spread the word about their products. A free analytics tool may also nudge some companies to join the Twitter fray who have been hesitant in the past.