How Myspace Opened the Door for Today’s Influencers
By Kassandra Lopez, Global Strategic Communications graduate student at the University of Florida
Myspace laid the foundation for my life’s social media journey! Who could forget our first friend? Tom! As with most people who fall within the age range of the mid to late 20s currently. Myspace was the first introduction we had into social media. With its HTML based and highly customizable backgrounds, everything was possible. From changing your mouse pointer to be a little fairy, setting your own intro music(very important), or even deciding to make your page cause epilepsy-induced seizures (a pet peeve of mine!). The sky was the limit with MySpace.
MySpace was created in 2003. As the name would lead you to believe, members were able to create custom pages, that would represent them to their potential friends. Once you gathered all these friends, you could only display a handful on your page. This brought about the dilemma of the “Top 8” which was the maximum amount you could display on your main page. Do you keep, Nick, the guy helping you with homework for math class? Or your childhood friend, Jessica?
Somewhere down the line, it became a trend to update these top eight people based on recent incidents, or once a week like clockwork. I remember making new friends and checking to see if I have been bestowed with the honor of being in their top eight. There was subtle nuance to whom you chose to display, which became a form of social currency. For example, you’d sacrifice your cousin Carl, to display the new hottie you were dating. No worries, Carl would do the same to you!
Myspace became the place to be to connect socially. From stalking how often your crush was online, to seeing the new friends they added, to even reading open diaries people displayed. The ability to inbox others was a tool that middle schoolers should have not had! In my opinion, Myspace began an upward trend in showing off individuality through social media. This sprouted a need for companies and individuals to brand themselves thoroughly! Victoria Secret PINK being one of the first big companies to jump on the platform and sell lacy items set to the appropriate soft pop music. From there you can imagine how very company scrambled to get the right song to match their online personas!
It also served as a platform to advertise bands, musicians, and other local events. In that way, Myspace managed to become everyone’s best influencer. This seamless integration of advertisement and enjoyment was a cornerstone of digital marketing in the modern age. Myspace was ahead of many current trends, they included everything from micro-influencers to macro-influencers! Don’t believe me? Back then you could virtually befriend your favorite celebrity, and establish a relationship (mostly of admiration from afar!). This was our first example of influencing displayed in social media.
