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This is a guest post by Joseph Gustav.

Go back to 2006. MySpace was crowned the most popular social networking website in the world, capturing nearly 80% of all social networking traffic online and celebrating the creation of its 100 millionth account in August. Then the site was bought by News Corp for $580 million, considered a bargain at the time. Everybody had a MySpace account and was using it actively, even obsessively.

Flash forward to today, and the site is an afterthought, a relic from the early days of social networking like Friendster, overcome by slicker, newer, cooler sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, a lot of people are still using MySpace – over 66 million worldwide in fact. MySpace may no longer be the golden child of the Internet that it was just four years ago, but it still can be useful to the right people. Here are some of those people and why it helps them in their endeavors.

Musicians

MySpace is still the destination for music fans to check out new music, and so it is still a must for any serious musician or group to create and maintain a slick MySpace page. Why MySpace over other sites?

• Musician profiles are different than regular profiles. Musicians can create more fluid, easy-to-read pages getting out the information they want such as upcoming tour dates than on other sites.
• Artists can sell MP3s directly off their MySpace page using SNOCAP’s MyStore widgets.
• MySpace is a free host – artists can essentially create their own mini-websites with no money or, often more importantly, knowledge of how to do so.
• Users can upload a ton of songs onto the page for streaming, entire discographies if so desired, and have the ability to add and remove songs at will.
• Artists have become famous off MySpace – something that can’t be said yet for Facebook or Twitter. Lily Allen, Sean Kingston, Tila Tequila, and others grew their fan bases off MySpace – shoot, Panic! At the Disco was signed based on the four songs they had on their MySpace page without even having a single live show under their belt! MySpace has worked in the past, and fans still go to artists’ pages to learn more about both newly-discovered and established acts. It’s necessary to have a MySpace page, and it just simply is not yet to have something on Facebook.

Bars and Clubs

Clubs and promoters still love using MySpace to get the word out about their events, even more so than other sites.

• Because MySpace is much more customizable than a Facebook page, venues can create pages that better utilize their promotional creativity and capture the vibe they want party-goers to experience.
• Clubs and promoters can get in touch with artists directly via MySpace, and there are a lot more musicians and performers on MySpace than on Facebook.
• A lot of people still view Facebook as more exclusive or stuffy because of its previous requirement that users be in college. Many avowed MySpace users view themselves as more freewheeling and fun-loving, the kind of people who are bar-flies and club-hoppers, and so nightlife venues can better connect with their constituents over MySpace.

Non-Profits and Political Organizations

Going in a bit of a different direction, a lot of non-profits and political organizations still use MySpace to gain support for their missions, seek donations, and also find people to help.

• Political groups need to reach out to as many people as possible to find support for their causes, and so cannot overlook any opportunity to do so. MySpace has way too many people still using it for it to be ignored.
• MySpace as a site makes sure to highlight worthy causes/organizations on its front page.
• As stated earlier, what social networking site someone uses does seem to have class connotations, and a lot of lower or working class users prefer MySpace to the purportedly pretentious Facebook or other sites. Social change and outreach organizations have been successful in offering help to those in need and getting them to take advantage of their services via MySpace.

Yes, MySpace is seeing a bit of a decline from its hey-day, with even the ubiquitous Tom, who used to be every user’s first friend, no longer actively using his account. However, Tom’s absence is more a matter of business politics than personal preference, and even with a diminished user-base, the site still has millions upon millions of users. If you need to get the word out about something, particularly as a musician, club owner or promoter, and non-profit or political organization, MySpace cannot go unused and ignored.

Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online schools and universities for Guide to Online Schools.

Further reading:

1. The New Boss of MySpace (13.5)
2. Social Networks: Who’s The Top Dog? (10.4)
3. The Difference Between Business And Online Social Networks (9.8)
4. Facebook Applications – Necessary Or Useless? (8.4)

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