I was looking around the MediaPost blogs, which are great by the way, and came across a piece by Morgan Stewart: 3 Things about Social Media That May Shock You.

He writes:

More teens check MySpace than Twitter first thing.

For many teens, the first place they check in the morning is MySpace — four times the number that start their day on Twitter.

But isn’t MySpace dead? No, it’s just that MySpace is no longer top of mind — at least not on the coasts, where marketers and market researchers tend to be concentrated. According to Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, associate professor at Harvard Business School, MySpace hotbeds are in states like Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia and Oklahoma. Even California, but in Fresno.

Teens’ preferred social networks are a function of the school they attend. You’re more likely to find MySpace schools in rural areas. While Facebook spread in urban areas, where students are more likely to interact across schools, it has been slower in rural areas, where schools are more isolated.

This presents challenges for national and regional marketers alike. Social networks are fragmented. We need to understand which social networks are most prominent in which areas. Figuring this out can give you a leg-up in certain markets while saving money.

The important point for us here is not about Twitter being less dominant, but about MySpace still having relevance.

We’re inspired here at SnapDragon to look into this–especially since Natalie, our SnapDragon colleague, has been asking all her friends to share their “first in the morning” tech habits.  And we clearly need to remind ourselves not to forget MySpace in the work we do.

MySpace also needs to do some branding work.  It’s clearly falling off the marketing radar and discussion.

It seems like they have an opportunity here to get some attention and new traction.