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June 29, 2007
The Chris DeWolfe Perspective
At the Edelman Annual Leadership meeting this week in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to interview Chris DeWolfe, founder and CEO of MySpace (disclosure: Edelman client). Here are a few of his key comments:
1) We are aiming to involve our members in important issues of our time. There was a period when parents discussed the issues of the day with their kids over the dinner table. That does not happen now, so we feel we should initiate these conversations. We are encouraging the US Presidential candidates to utilize our platform; we do not endorse any views, simply to engage them in the dialogue. We are going to sponsor offline town halls, hosted by celebrities, so that our members can see and question the candidates in person, then put the content on line. We will also be initiating a global effort to raise money for malaria control called Malaria No More, to fund the purchase of mosquito nets for African communities. Our members want to shape a better world.
2) The social platform is multi-local, not multinational. There are important local customs, such as the buying of gifts in Cyworld in Korea. MySpace is already localized in 18 countries. There will only be a few social networks in each country. We localize our product when we go into a new market.
3) The social network user is moving from digital photos to digital video. MySpace is doing a beta test with a video platform that will enhance sharing of consumer generated content.
4) We are building custom communities for our advertisers, premised on discussion. As PR counselors we need to persuade companies to let go; to give up control of the message; to learn from consumers who want to co-create the brand. The Axe promotion with Unilever is a good example of how this can work.
5) The mainstream media will have to go where the users are. That means publishers will have to make their content available on mobile devices, in short form, with compelling video and photos.
6) My vision for social networks is participatory, visual, based on dialogue. It is not quantitative and targeted per the search engines. It is spontaneous and constantly inventive. We will see an even greater blurring of the offline and online worlds.
Chris is an amazing guy, utterly unaffected by his great success in business, determined to keep his entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity and optimism. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. He is pointing the way for the PR business, to incorporate video into our work, to appreciate the power of the horizontal axis of communications which is premised on the voice of the people and to look for causes that allow our clients to get involved with projects that have a larger purpose. I would appreciate your comments as always.
Posted by Edelman at June 29, 2007 10:55 AM
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