MySpace and the Major Players

As part of a research project, I had to stop by the MySpace pages of Organizing for America and the Republican National Committee.  As these are two of the largest political organizations in the country, I expected both to have a robust presence on the previously dominant social networking website - but I was shocked to learn that neither have been posting meaningful updates.  While the groups Twitter and Facebook pages were filled with activity and issue-specific content, it was completely absent from the MySpace profiles.

Barack Obama hasn't updated its blog or content on MySpace, apart from adding information about their health care video contest - but the link itself is broken.  This is rather surprising for Obama and Organizing for America, as they're regularly hailed for their web savvy communications strategy.  But what's more, if you look at the page, they haven't approved a comment since March 26; the videos that are posted are older and outdated.  They haven't updated their message for the issues driving the current political debate: there is only the broken link about health care, and nothing about Afghanistan or the ongoing economic situation.

The Republican National Committee is far worse.  There is - quite literally - nothing noteworthy about their MySpace profile.  They have NINE friends.  NINE.  Explain to me how the RNC has nine friends on MySpace.  I honestly have no idea how that's possible.  I guarantee you more than nine people were involved with getting the GOP on MySpace in the first place.  Seriously - would it be better for the RNC to be off MySpace entirely than it would for them to have a profile with nine friends?  MySpace is a network that is built off friend collection; status on MySpace is often tied to how many people you are connected to (just ask Tila Tequila).  So nine friends?  How does that happen?  Well, the fact that there isn't any content might have something to do with it; but I've seen bands without songs on their pages end up with more than nine friends.  Christ, my mom would have more than nine friends if she joined MySpace.

So what does this mean for Rupert Murdoch's social network?  Well, when you couple it with the latest news that the drop in digital traffic for MySpace is likely going to shave $100 million off the deal they cut with Google for advertising, it seems to mean that MySpace is a quickly sinking ship.  When two of the largest political organizations in the country don't see your platform as meaningful, odds are, it isn't.  Especially when one of them is the most savvy online political networker of all time.  Perhaps it is time to abandon the idea of MySpace entirely when considering what digital strategies to utilize - it seems the major players already have.  Hell, even Tila Tequila is now using MySpace simply to advertise another website.  The ship, it seems, has sailed.