MySpace seems to be the Brangelina of the online world. Hardly a day goes by without another batch of stories about kids posting there, marketers advertising there or predators stalking there.

But how many people actually use MySpace?

On episode 11 of Cranky Geeks, John Dvorak and his fellow cranks repeatedly said that MySpace has 50 million users. Back in February, MSNBC said more than 54 million users. MySpace itself claims north of 82 million.

The numbers suggest a certain level of MySpace hysteria. But what do they really mean for marketers like Burger King or you or me? Not much, I suspect.

How many MySpace pages are spoof pages of friends and celebrities (like this one of George Bush)? How many pages are created and abandoned? How many people have multiple accounts? How many are created by other marketers large and small (like this one of Shakespeare)?

And there’s this: A close look at the results of several random searches of MySpace users suggests to me that about 25% of all registered users haven’t even logged in over the past year.

What really matters for marketers is: How many active daily users does MySpace have? How many users are genuinely engaged in the service? How many people reside in the geographic area where the marketing message posted on MySpace has any relevance? (There are thousands of MySpace users in Latvia, or so their profiles claim.)

Or maybe these more practical questions don’t matter at all. The cost of a company setting up a MySpace profile is negligible. It gives the trade press a hook to say the company is on the cutting edge. It gives the ad agency a hook to say they’re reaching the kids. It builds buzz … or does it?

Takeaway for marketers: Getting involved in the MySpace space? Don’t take any numbers you hear at face value.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 9:57 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Marketing Takeaways, Social Media.