MySpace Opens the Marketing Floodgates with New Developer Platform

Mashable announced yesterday that MySpace has followed in Facebook’s footsteps and opened the door to application development for the nation’s largest social networking site. While this move is not the least bit surprising, the implications are huge. We all knew that MySpace would have to do something to continue to compete with Facebook’s recent boom in popularity.

MySpace and Facebook have fractured the social networking community at large. It’s very much a Coke vs. Pepsi polarization (though in Texas it’s all about the Dr. Pepper). While many people have profiles on both, everyone I know prefers one over the other.

It will be interesting to see if MySpace’s popularity increases with the general public, or only with the gamers and marketers. The average joe won’t be the one developing new apps, obviously. If MySpace can rebound from the loss of “coolness” over the past two years, it will be tough for Facebook to compete. But if the people look at this as a wannabe move (a.k.a. poor imitation of Facebook), it will only reinforce the image of second-rate social networking that it has already earned.

The possibilities for marketers and advertisers, however, are worth exploring. Given the right image and support, a well-designed application or two could usher in a MySpace marketing renaissance. For all the difficulties people have had with privacy and pedophiles on MySpace, it has zipcode specific information on each member, and allows marketers to hone in on a target audience much more easily than Facebook does. Let’s face it: MySpace was built for marketing and promotion. Now the question remains as to whether that will be its strength or its undoing.