MySpace as a Marketing Tool

Posted from my blog.

MySpace.com is the worlds largest social networking site. Basically, people register for their own profile page which they can then change the design of, or use to communicate with friends, family, or others with the same interests. Over the past year many marketers have found out how much of a gold mine MySpace is for advertising.

Automatic or Manual
There are many programs which can be used to gather “friends”, and build up your contact list, so you have a wider audience to advertise too, this is a 100% automatic method of gaining friends – apart from maintaining your profile that is.
Many people find the “personal approach” works better however - this works very well for niche sites or businesses. This basically means browsing through MySpace, and individually Friend Requesting those who seem to fit your target audience. It may take a lot longer, but for certain niche’s it has worked out very well for some people.

MySpace Trains
A MySpace Train is a script that allows users to post their profile on a page, for other users to add them. After the train is full, it is reset for a new Round and you can join again. It may sound fair basic, and a waste of time, but joining trains is probably the best way to get friends on MySpace. Why? There is a limit to how many friend requests you can send, but with trains you are getting requested, and there is no limit on that.
This method is not recommended for those looking to advertise a Niche, as the friends are completely untargeted.
To collect friends effectively with trains you will need to use a program to automatically do it for you. There are many programs like this and they are outlined at the bottom of this article – they will allow you to be the first on many of the most popular MySpace trains, and maximize your friend requests. You can receive 500+ friend requests a day if you leave it running 24 hours a day.

Real or Fake?
There is no law against making a fake MySpace account to gain extra friends (some find a Bikini-clad female to receive more attention, than a 45 year old business man), in fact no one will ever know – it is more of a moral, or even business plan issue.
Moral Issue? Some people simply disagree with being untruthful, and having a fake profile will not be acceptable, for the profile creator, or it’s viewers. Even if you have no problem with it, if one of your “friends” finds out, you can say goodbye to your marketing days.
Business Plan Issue? Basically, this means that you may or may not need a real or fake account. You simply have to decide what will work better for you and your company. If you are advertising a Golf company for example, having a surf chick in your profile is neither convincing, or useful.

Maintaining your Profile
You can’t just fill out some basic details, and leave your profile sitting there while friend collecting – people will see something is not right (and not appreciate it). You do not need to do much to maintain your profile, and these few steps can help:
Update your blog at least once every 3 days.
Fill out as much of your profile as you can before you start friend requesting.
Change your Profiles design to give it a more personal feel – many free templates are available around the internet that are perfectly fine.
Include photos of yourself, or at least have a few pictures in your gallery.
Comment on your friends profiles occasionally, so they know you are still there.
Reply to as many messages as possible.

Maintaining your Profile – Automatically?
If you use automatic methods to gain large lists of friends you will probably not have the time or patience to comment on all their pages, or respond to their messages.
Firstly, attempt to at least comment on a few profiles yourself, to show that you care (or are at least trying to care). There are no automatic ways to respond to messages, randomly click about 20 messages a day, and give a simple response – this just makes sure that they won’t remove you off their friends list.
The good thing is, there are many auto-commenting programs, which can’t be tracked by MySpace. In your comment just say something like “Hey, how you doin? Just thought I’d say Hi!”, this will lead the friend to come back to your profile at least once, and you in turn will get more exposure.

The Beauty of Bulletins
Bulletins are similar to forum posts, but you cannot reply, and they can only be seen by the people on your friends list – they are great marketing tools if you have a highly target list of friends.
People frown upon you if you spam advertising bulletins, so try to do them as little as possible – we recommend no more than 1 each week. You can use HTML, CSS, Flash, and Graphics in your bulletins, so try to make them stand out.

Mass Messaging
Recommend usage? This works better for those with a niche market – you won’t have to send out as many messages, and the messages will be more relevant to your friends.
Using an automatic messaging program, write a personal yet informative message, with a link to your site at the bottom of it. Not only should the user find it useful, they may appreciate it enough to tell their friends about it, and so the chain of viral marketing begins.

Warning! Sending mass messages is known as spam, and as stated in the MySpace Terms of Service you will be charged $50 per message if caught spamming – I haven’t heard of anyone being caught, but this is just a warning.

 

I think people are abusing myspace I dont use it anymore because I was getting spammed by a fake profile of a webcam site. His/Her Site was getting major hits I dont know if they were all from myspace or other sites. I think myspace will only be a fad and will only peak for 12-24 months and then there will be something new and myspace will become a thing of the past.

 

unlikely, as myspace gets 250,000 sign ups a day.

 

Didn't friendster used to be number one and now they are not even in the top 10 of social networking sites?

 

Social networking will continue, Now whether it is Myspace or HI5 is a question only time will answer

 

Im pretty sure its gone way past the original intentions of finding friends etc, many web developers just use it to promote products/services.

I still don't like it, but eh, probably will be there for a while

 

I don't tihnk myspace will die out but I do think over time they will start making people pay for the service, because newscorp have taken it over and I know they are real money hungry people think if they already have the database of people already all set up then they will probly make people pay like 9.99usd a month or something to keep it...People will pay because they will want to keep their friends/accounts...

 

Yea this strategy will make them a KILLING for a little while, then as soon as they implement this structure someone will create a new free snws and takeover myspace within a year or 2 unless they of course drop it back down to free

 

btw it is violation of myspace to do these kind of stuff.
Just feel how much there is pain in butt of myspace with these kind of things.

 

believe me newscorp are money hungry they own most of myspace now it will happen...but yeah some one will then set up a new free friends thing and the cycle will keep on going I guess...

 

Out of that 250000 how many do you think are human signups and how many are bots?

 

Anyway, myspace is a good place to see if what you di is interesting to others. I know people there who attract lots of visitors just being themselves.

Musical bands use myspace very frequently to promote tehir music. There at mysace, they find their audience and ask people to tell each other about the band.