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Do you remember these social media failures?

by Liane Palaschak | Oct 22, 2013 | Digital

With the success of many social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, many people forget about all the social media sites that didn’t pass the test. Just because you have a great idea, doesn’t mean you will be successful.   Many of these once famous social media sites have seemed togo the way of the floppy disk.  What do you think?  Can any of these social media players be successful again?

Friendster, otherwise known as the grandfather of social media, was launched in 2002 by Jonathan Abrams.  It has been said that Abrams first created Friendster as a way to meet girls. This was the first site to introduce the idea of being “friends” with people online.  Performance issues, lack of pleasing its users, and the creation of MySpace aided in the demise of this social media network.  Wonder if they regret not accepting the $30 million buyout from Google?

MySpace:  Before Facebook and Twitter, MySpace was the go-to social networking site. It was originally launched as a place for musicians to show off their work but later emerged as a site where anyone could have a personal page.   MySpace took a turn for the worse when it became polluted with ads and flashy banners.  It was also created for a younger generation and never diverted from that age group.  It was not a good idea for a business to create a profile on MySpace.  A company profile stood out like a penguin in Africa!

ITunes Ping was Apple’s biggest failed music-oriented social network.  Ping allowed users to follow and view short postings by artists and friends. One of its biggest downfalls was only allowing users to view 30 seconds of a song.  What really killed Ping?  Most would say the lack of integration onto the biggest social network out there, Facebook.   Ping lived a short life, only making it to age 2.

Eons was a social media site that targeted the baby boomers era.  Eons was launched by Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor in 2007.  Taylor found out quickly that it’s a bad idea to target demographics based on age.  Just think if Facebook never expanded to let anyone but college students use their site?  It would have flopped, too!  Perhaps, Eons would have been slightly more successful if launched now, considering 60% of the older generation is now using social media networks.

Diaspora was created as an answer to Facebook’s privacy issues.  It was a simple way to connect Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr accounts.  The downfall was it only allowed you to post updates from Diaspora and it took forever to load.  Diaspora was ultimately overshadowed by Google Plus.

There are many other social networking sites that didn’t make the cut.  What are the social failures you remember the most?

In 10 years, will Facebook and Twitter be outshined and make this list?

Liane Palaschak
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