Connor Young from YNOT posted an interesting news piece about MySpace and its standing in the social media universe:

News Corp Exec Miller Talks Fate & Future of MySpace.com at Web 2.0 Summit
by Connor Young

YNOT – Jonathan Miller is a chief digital officer at News Corp., and when he took the stage at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week, he had a simple message for why MySpace.com lost its position as the dominant social networking destination on the Internet.

“I think that what you see in the space more than anything else is if you don’t keep innovating and moving forward you get in trouble,” Miller said on Thursday. “You can’t stop … and MySpace stopped.”

Miller said that when looking to the future of MySpace.com, the company would need to return to a focus on music and entertainment, two important components in the site’s early success. However he cautioned that it wouldn’t be productive to think about “fixing” MySpace.

“Fix implies something was broken and you just put it back together the way it was and [consider] it’s fixed,” he said. “That’s the wrong way to think about it. You have to think ahead.”

“MySpace started with an essence around certain things, and one of them was music, and meeting new people,” he added. “We’re going back to basics in that sense, but you’ve got to make it relevant to today and going forward.”

Miller acknowledged that gaining ground on a well-entrenched social website like Facebook.com will be a daunting challenge for MySpace. Online users don’t easily change from familiar and comfortable surroundings to something unfamiliar without significant incentive.

“Everybody in the company is upset that we didn’t keep going when we had the real momentum,” he admitted. “Regaining momentum is always much harder than keeping momentum going.”

This is a problem that a lot of people encounter, in any sort of business. They forget to always test, retest, innovate, adapt. Instead, they shift directions so often that momentum is lost. What they perceive to be forward motion is instead a frantic wandering with no progress.

Are you prone to this sort of business ethic? With so many recently-unemployed workers entering the entrepreneurial world, there is obviously bound to be some trial period while you are feeling the market out. What are people spending money on? Is this get-rich-quick scheme, or that affiliate program, or any other endeavour with a perceived profit something that you should be embarking on? Do you have an amazing idea for a business that you are sure no one else has thought of before? If you don’t know anyone who’s done whatever it is you are planning on doing as your new career (because, after all, you want to be innovative, and ahead of the curve, right?), then how are you to really know whether a plan you’ve hatched will actually net a profit? If Plan A doesn’t work, do you make a hard right to Plan B, then a hard left to Plan C, and so on and so on, until you start using double-letters? Or do you try to see what about Plan A didn’t work, and what did work, and try to create something bigger, better, and more creative and innovative than how Plan A started out?

Yes, there are times when you should abandon a potential project. But if you feel that your business, project, or concept is worth something of merit to you, then I suggest you not be so hasty when it comes to assessment and judgment. Upon closer inspection, you may find that there is a kernel of an idea that can be used from your original plan. Don’t be so quick to toss it into the trash.

Every time you stop and have to start over, you lose momentum. As Miller said, regaining momentum is harder than keeping it going. It’s a law of physics as much as it is a law of business. Starting a project, then dropping it and starting something else, and then dropping that…in time, you’ll find that you haven’t progressed much at all. In the entertainment world, the same thing can be said for someone who retires, then come back, over and over again. In time, they lose their worth in the medium in which they work, since they have lost momentum. Producers and directors tire of actors who are perpetually retiring. Instead, take a vacation. Or a sabbatical. Or shift into another capacity. But never use the word “retire” unless you mean it. Adapt. Stay visible. Stay in the game, so to speak.

In business, always research what consumers are interested in, where the money is flowing. That way, if you have to make any changes in what you’re selling or how you’re selling it, adaptation is easy and can be done gradually.

So before you take on a business plan, take the time to think all of the aspects. Don’t jump in without checking to see if there is water in the pool first. Do your due diligence. I think you’ll find that the time spent researching before as well as during your project will be rewarded when you hit a time when you have to consider shifting gears – you’ll be able to do so without losing much momentum.

Have you recently had to change the direction of your business? Did you have to stop, reorganize, and shut down temporarily? Or were you able to see the changes coming your way and make continuous adaptations? Is your business in a different place than it was a year, 5 years, or 10 years ago, and was the change abrupt or seamless?

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