I need my message sent to myspace users!

Hi,
Im currently running a new image host forum site. If you want the address, just PM me.

I want to start a contest, where people must upload a picture to my site, then add the picture to their myspace profile, and post in a thread on my forum.

When they do that, they will have a chance to earn prizes every week.

I would like to advertise this contest to a lot of people on myspace, that is why I am currently buying myspace bulletins.

I also didn't put this message in the Buy/Sell forum, because it says that I currently do not have the privilege to do it.

If you have big myspace accounts and would be interested in selling me a bulletin from it, please PM me with the url of your myspace profiles and the price you ask for each bulletin sent.

Thanks in advance,
Prookle

 

If you don't have permissions to post buy/sell/trade posts, you probably shouldn't be trying to "get around" that in the first place.

Aside from that, you're not going to reach "a lot" of people on myspace no matter how many friends the people you buy bulletin posting from tell you they have. They're usually spam accounts who use bots to add as many people as possible...

A lot of those people only add others b/c they want their friend count up. They won't read the bulletin. Estimating that 10% would open it is probably a very generous estimate. On top of that, even fewer will follow a link from a bulletin these days b/c of all of the account hacking, and other issues with automatic bulletins from their name if they do. So you'd be extremely lucky to get even 1% of the total number of people it's sent to who would actually both open it and click to your site.

If you want to market to a lot of people, do it legitimately. Either create your own myspace account and only target people with a sincere interest in your niche rather than any joe schmo who clicks yes to every stupid add request they receive, or use something more effective... like press releases to announce the contest, PPC to get targeted traffic, etc. You'll find a lot of ideas here on DP. Just take the time to research how to do it right. Anything else is a waste of your time and money b/c you won't be getting anywhere close to your possible ROI.

 

How many people you reach is a function of how many friends you have. The more friends you have the more reach/excposure you will get - there's fact in the numbers.

That's just the way all marketing works and the numbers shouldn't discoruage anyone. A 1%-2% response rate to direct post mail is considered decent. A 1% response rate to a bulletin is kind of high for myspace though, it's probably lower than that and getting lower as time progresses.

Prookle, the worst thing you could probably do is spend most of your time advertising on myspace. It's great for a traffic boost but if you lean on it too much you'll have no longevity.

Also, you probably shouldn't have a bunch of requirements for the contest unless the prize is going to be well worth it - otherwise you might just be wasting $$$ that could be better spent elsewhere.

 

Actually, it's not the way "all marketing" works. It's the way "direct marketing" often works. Big difference. That's why I gave some examples of other methods that would likely be more effective for his needs.

And, yes, quite obviously the bigger the number of friends, the more will respond. But I wrote in terms of a percentage for a reason. 1% is 1% no matter what the total number. It's pathetically low, considering that the majority of people selling bulletins on Myspace accounts have no targeted viewers whatsoever. 1% was a high estimate used for hypothetical purposes, b/c it's cleaner for demonstration than talking in fractions of percentages.

But if you want to look at more realistic numbers, you have to factor in even more. If you want to factor in actual targeted viewers who bother clicking to have a look, it's a fraction of that. If you want to factor in how many of those actually care about a contest and participate, it's even lower still.

The original poster specifically said they want to reach "a lot" of users. Unless they're willing to fork over a small fortune for obscene amounts of bulletin posts, it's not going to happen. It's better to be realistic and find alternative methods worth the time and money to actually reach a targeted audience than to just jump into some fad b/c someone tells you they'll reach a number when they're either a) lying or b) naive.

So yes, it certainly should discourage someone. The key is in doing the research and understanding a little bit about how it works before you jump into something thinking it's a great marketing method. Doing otherwise is probably the single most common marketing mistake made in business... online and off.

 

not to mention this is against the myspace TOS

http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx

 

Jhmattern, you're right, that's how direct marketing works. I made a broad statement and you can pick it if you'd like, however, the point I was trying to make that when it comes to online marketing there is usually more failure in the numbers than success (Pareto's Principle 80/20 rule). Basically, to get the gold you have to dig through a lot of sh-it, right?

Yes, it would be easy to take a dump on MySpace a spend a small fortune on myspace bulletins, but I don't think this would be the right avenue.

You're right, you have to do the research before you dive in a understand a little bit about how it works. If you research social networking you'll realize what makes them so powerful: the community. Myspace is so powerful because it enables community and word-of-mouth in the most powerful way (well from what we've seen thus far). To pass community off as fad is, well, silly.

I also did the research on www.adderrobot.com about 2 months ago. That $17 dollar investment netted me $600 the month I tested it on MySpace.

Nonetheless, the people that visit MySpace are people just like you and me. And I'm sure as long as this remains fact there will always be a guerrila marketer out there trying to reach those people in the most effective way.

I think there will probably be a time when MySpace will die out and something else will rise in it's place. I don't see that anytime in the very near future, though.

Shadav, so...???

 

The fact that it will eventually die out and something else will take it's place is precisely what makes it a "fad." Something more interesting will always come along. And don't put words in my mouth saying community is a fad, when you know fully well that I was talking about one limited site/technology.

And I'm sorry if you thought I meant he should spend a small fortune on bulletins. My point was that that's what it would come to to do things as the op said they wanted, and that they shouldn't be doing that when something else would provide a better roi.

I'm well aware that Myspace can be effective in some ways. It's been very effective for me to market to bands for a music zine I run. But I also don't need to spam people, use bots, or buy bulletins to do that. It's completely natural, and the artists choose to come to me; I don't go looking for them.

And I'm well aware of social networking and "community." That doesn't mean the traditional ways a lot of webmasters try to use it is effective or even ethical... hence the crackdowns on these accounts tailored precisely for marketing purposes.

 

I agree with Jennifer completely.

What she actually said was he'd be better served becoming a legitimate member of the community (in his specific niche), rather than be a pinhead auto-friend-adding robot.

This way he can actually "build a business", rather than try and grab some faddish revenue.

 

Friend adders can target certian demographic's if you know how to use them correctly. For instance I only target online users in certian teenage demographics.

As for using a freind adder they take's time and effort to use, to get any where near a 40 000+ friend account it takes days to months of hard work, I only build quality friend networks on myspace.

 

How will myspace ever die out its backed by newscorp interactive, they will always be adding new features to the site to keep it interesting and keep market share.

Myspace's network is soo large that it will always have large fan base, even if other sites take its place, I don't think it will ever "die out",

It will only shut down certian implements, for instance I think html in bulletins will be wiped out soon, I also have heard myspace is brining in its own profile generators this in part will wipe out large segments of the MSRS yet still people will look for custom layouts so their should still be a market, yet it wont be as large.

 

Sorry, I think you missed my point. The model MySpace is built on is amazingly powerful and it won't ever go away. Yes, Myspace may die and something else will take its place rebranded. However, you can be sure that whatever takes its place will probably be strikingly similar to MySpace and any other social networking website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

For this reason, what we're talking about here isn't a fad and won't ever go away (MySpace = community). It would be in the best interests of all of us to try and figure out how to properly and ethically leverage something like this early in the game.

I think we can liken MySpace/social networking marketing to anything else. There's a right way and a wrong way.

 

What goes up must come down. This is just a natural. People will get sick of MySpace eventually and move on to something fresher/cooler.