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W ord reached my eyes this week that MySpace is about to launch an Aussie version.
Rupert Murdoch’s digital news arm, News Interactive, has been working with various major sponsors and advertisers to prepare for the launch.
Whilst I was initially interested in taking advertising on the front page of the site, finding out that it would cost me $750,000 per day somewhat quenched my thirst for media exposure.
But opening up a local ’space’ makes sense, seeing as how there are reportedly 800,000 Australians already registered to use the U.S. site, a figure increasing by 5-6,000 a day.
According to one media strategist, Leanne Brinkies, social networking is about to hit the mainstream.
“It’s the latest trend for online; we’ve passed the level of early adopters and it’s now reached the level of early majority in the market. There are good opportunities for some of our clients [in being involved].”
The U.S. site claims around 68 million members world-wide, which is nothing to sneeze at. Companies who still hold on to the antidiluvian idea that the blogosphere is of no real interest to them should take note. Nothing travels faster than bad news, and the blogosphere has shown itself extremely adept at turning a molehill into a mountain.
If you are a company that’s wondering if you should be considering monitoring or participating in the blogosphere, the simple answer is ‘Yes. Now!‘
Get online before those who would spread ill-feeling about you do. Build up a reserve of online goodwill before some crisis comes to challenge you.
Want help with this ‘Brave New World’ as Aldous Huxley might have said? .
p.s. The ‘Bloody Hell’ bikini girl, Lara Bingle, is a full-time model - here’s her agency details.
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Andrea Weckerle 05.09.06 at 12:55 am
Lee, will you be one of the first to join?
Lee 05.09.06 at 8:58 am
Possibly: depends on the timing of its release, if I’m near a computer, and so on.
With a family (as you know) there is so little time in the day to read blogs and media properly, and post sensibly oneself, that *another* channel has to slip down the priority list a bit. But I’ll have a quick peek so that I know what it’s about.
Lee 05.09.06 at 3:15 pm
I’ve quickly gone and created a profile — I presume when the Aussie space officially opens it will be ported across or flagged somehow…
http://www.myspace.com/bettercomms
I did try the username leehopkins, but if you go to http://www.myspace.com/leehopkins you will be greeted by a very scary photo that’s NOT ME!!
Andrea Weckerle 05.10.06 at 3:05 am
Yes, the *other* Lee Hopkins is a bit scary looking. Too bad your name was already taken. I did notice your BetterComms page already has 1 friend. It’s a start
Kare Anderson 05.10.06 at 6:20 am
Lee
This is not about MySpace but another media-attracting battle around a tourism-attracting campaign - not re Australia, but Maine - and the power of blogging is evident… a messy story, well-covered by Wendy Davis at MediaPost.
Her lead, “Warner Kremer Paino Advertising, the ad agency that last month filed a puzzling lawsuit against a blogger for having criticized the agency’s online ad efforts, has folded. After widespread media coverage, Warner Kremer Paino Advertising, or WKPA, withdrew its suit–though too late to escape near-universal derision.”
See
ttp://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=43184
Lee 05.10.06 at 12:15 pm
G’day Kari!
Did you listen to Monday’s ‘FIR’ — it would appear that all is not what it seems, and that the agency is not as guilty and the blogger not as innocent as the blogosphere would have you believe