The MySpace Nuclear Option

Transform MySpace into a dating site.

The signs of MySpace problems go way back but really surfaced when CEO Owen Van Natta resigned. I won’t dwell on the many reasons why MySpace is declining (declining market share, shrinking revenue, loss of key employees, etc), instead I would propose that MySpace reinvent itself and become a dating site. Yes, I said it. A dating site. The demographics are there. 50-50 male/female ratio (at least in U.S.), MySpace is huge in the 18-34 age range (very pop culture), and nearly 40% earn an estimated $30-$60k/year. Plus you have the MySpace freaks, strippers, gamers, nerds, and everything "Twilight". Most importantly, the online dating industry is worth $1.049 Billion. Customers of dating sites spend an average of $239 per year. The average visit per site time is 22 minutes. 22 Minutes! Think advertising revenue as well as pay wall revenue right from the start. International revenue (specifically China) would be HUGE. The MySpace brand (like it or not) is formidable. MySpace should integrate the Twitter API with profiles and dating ads. I could go on and on again, but the main point is that MySpace trigger that nuclear option and become a dating site. Take all that revenue away from eHarmony, Match.com, and the adult dating sites. Do this ASAP. The revenues will be terrifyingly enormous. Game over.

See breakdown below.

The Number 1 Twitter Retweet Tactic

The easiest way to get your business message across Twitter is to follow the people in your niche with below average followings and get them to retweet.

Think niche Tweeters. Go for the long tail Twitter strategy. These below average niche tweeters give you more of a chance to get "retweeted" and follow you back. It takes between 3-4 retweets to get this momentum up to a "tipping point". The problem with following MASS twitter power players & celebrities with such a huge following is that they will probably not follow you back, thus never retweeting your message. This is good whether your promoting something, selling, branding or reputation management.

Another good "best practice" is to unfollow the people that don't follow you. Pretty simple. Get rid of the deadweight.  Its a< 1% chance they will actually read and retweet messages. Do this twice a month.

Random Musings. Cisco, Dell, YouTube, Streaming.

• Is it me or does every one (platform) now have an app store?
• Cisco's huge annoucement this week was a total let down. Yes, the technology is cool, but I was hoping for an "Apple" like change the world annoucement.
• The time to kick cable TV out the door is near. Wii gets Netflix and streaming soon. YouTube gets live sports streaming. The new generation of streaming TV set-top boxes are finally going to make traction.
• Looking forward to the Dell Mini 5. Looks good on paper and the specs. Love the colors.
• I don't think Twitter is all "Tweeted out". In fact, lots more features coming. IPO in 2011?

Will HTML5 Destroy Flash?

Maybe. Too soon to tell. SEO people will prefer HTML5 rather than Flash. Flash is not SEO friendly. In fact, Flash is search engine-invisible. HTML5 will eventually do everything Flash does plus the added search engine optimizations such as Improved page segmentation, A new article tag, A new section tag, A new header tag, A new footer tag, A new nav tag.

In order for HTML5 to overtake Flash, browsers must have to support it, right? Full browser support will happen in 3-8 years? The full HTML5 spec wont be finished (probably) for another decade. Your starting to see improved support for HTML 5 elements in Opera 10.5, and possibly IE 9. Chrome and Safari do support HTML5 video. Firefox is still behind, although I think there are add-ons to Firefox to support HTML video?

HTML5 allow a standards-based pathway to busting those Flash barriers with canvas graphics, drawing video onscreen, Web Forms 2.0, and local storage for private data. So who needs Flash? The only drawback I see now in HTML5 is that it has very basic support for sound. Who will win? Who knows? This may play out in about 1-5 years (depending on who adopts HTML5). Personally, I think they can both coexist, but I would rather use HTML5 for search engine reasons.