Sports Marketing 2.0 | Pat Coyle

My dad used to say, “…people have no sense of humor about money.”

Another case in point: MySpace is blocking photobucket

On the one hand, I totally understand MySpace’s actions here. It’s not saying it won’t allow Photobucket photos anymore. It’s merely saying it doesn’t want Photobucket’s sponsors gleaning page views (and making money) off Myspace without Myspace sharing in the revenue.

With so many users on its side, is Photobucket thinking it has leverage enough to bring down Myspace if it doesn’t allow its sponsor supported content?

I don’t know the answer, but it is interesting to watch how Myspace, the “lucky sperm” of the social net world, built on the backs of open to all, user generated content, suddenly close ranks when someone tries to make money off “their” network.

Whose network?

Why has Myspace been so successful? They had a good idea. They were in the right place at the right time. And people supported them. But I wonder how they’ll navigate these waters now that protecting quarterly earnings is becoming more important than “free’ user experience?

After all, the content creators (i.e. people) aren’t sharing in the revenue, are they? Yes, they’re getting free use of the Myspace service, but will that always be enough? How much “inconvenience” will Myspacers tolerate so that Myspace can control the revenues??

The average Myspace user won’t understand WHY they can’t use their photobuck photos anymore. They’ll just be frustrated with Myspace. And if they find out WHY their Photobucket photos are being blocked, they MIGHT end up resenting Myspace.

I’m not saying this one conflict will cripple Myspace. It’s far too big for that. (After all, Myspace has lots of customers and Dad also used to say: “it’s good to have lots of customers because it’s not likely they’ll ALL fire you in the same day…”). But it’s interesting to watch as these “big boys” of social media duke it out…as they try to find ways to make money by giving away they’re services.

I don’t want to ovestate, but I wonder if Myspace’s lifecycle could be shortened by its “need” to make money?

Here’s what I mean. I just finished a book called “Spider and the Starfish,” which talks about the power of “leaderless” organizations. The book cites several examples wherein decentralized organizations thrived simply because they did not have a central leader nor a focus on MONEY.

On the other hand…centralized organiations are focused on making money and therefore can become vulnerable to decentralized organizations that are motivated by ideology (i.e. passion).

The Internet is chock full of businesses, people and Websites that build things because they can and because they feel like it (see the Long Tail).

Ironically, MONEY is the very thing that can cripple the decentralized organization.

Kevin Kelly observed, “the Web runs on love and not greed…” (read his article here).

It seems in business we are being called to walk a tight rope..between serving people and making money. If we let our greedy gimmies get the best of us, we become vulnerable to the “long tail” crowd who seek to give everything away. Yet if we don’t find ways to make money, we cannot sustain any business.

I’ve been hard on Myspace here, but I shouldn’t be. I don’t know that I’d handle things any differently;and in fact we’ll be faced with the same set of issues as we build our social network. We will need to work with the “myspaces” of the world if we hope to gain user acceptance. We cannot expect to “take market share” or significantly change user behavior. The best we can hope for is to compliment the systems and tools (like photobucket and myspace) that are already established on the Web. We need to find our place in the ecosystem.

I suppose the reason I react negatively to Myspace’s reaction to photobucket is that while Myspace has grown HUGE and has lots of power, it didn’t create the ecosystem. And since this is an “ecosystem” all players are dependent on others. Not even myspace can go it alone,

Yet it is so human to react with greed when someone else is making money off our efforts. How quickly we forget that we would not be positions to make money if others hadn’t helped us. And NONE of us would be here to enjoy ANY of this wonderful world in which we live and work with out GOD, who created it ALL: It reminds me of this Bible verse that says, “every good and perfect thing comes from God…” (paraphrase). The more I want to take credit for MY talents, the more I need to remember that.

BTW - Yes, the “galloping greedy gimmies” is from the Berenstain Bears. I’ve got 4 kids 7-years and younger…so not every book I read is about business