Using Myspace for PR and commercial reasons

[purple]

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I was talking to a PR agency who said they use Myspace a lot to get a message across to the public.

I have dabled with myspace but as a 30 something it has slipped me by.

I now see it as a good opportunity to get hold of the 16-25 market.

Has anyone used myspace for promoting their website / business.

I want to also modify my page is there any free programmes which can amend them.

I can't get my head around it, do I need to get loads of people to become "my friends" how do I get my messages accross to my target market.

is there any websites which discuss social communities and website promotion.

I know brendon was going to write a case study is there any others.

[Christoph]

I wouldn't bother unless you are an unsigned band looking for PR, MySpace isn't actually that good for business promotions TBH. People don't go on there looking for products/services for a start and they generally react quite negatively to any sort of promotions (I have a profile and I block bands and comedians from contacting me for example)

There are loads of free MySpace editors out there anyway - it's just a simple bit of html you paste into one of the fields in your profile.

[flippinfishster]

Refreshingly honest answer thanks Chris I'm tired of everyone spamming the **** out of myspace in an effort to try and make money.

[Christoph]

Haha no problem, I'm just telling it how it is!

Maybe Purple could start a band and have a legit MySpace band page that way LOL

[purple]

The myspace profile I have is relevent to the target audience 16/24 and not some hard business sale.
I want to build a "community" rather than try to push them a loan or something.

Although maybe i could set up a spoof band hehe

[Mogga]

There've been some spoof bands and singers already so you wouldn't be the first.
Could be fun though

[aaclapham]

I tried advertising cosmetics from my profile and sending out daily bulletins. I used a friend adder to get as many friends as possible. In the end myspace blocked me from adding any more friends (think there must be a daily limit).

I had a couple of decent sales but got fed up all the messages I was getting from girls with spots, vampires and suicidal maniacs.

So to be honest not worth the hassle, but least I gave it a try.

[kier]

As with most areas on the internet, you can use MySpace in a useful way which does genuinely add value, or you can use it for spam. I believe there is currently a lawsuit in the USA against affiliates and networks who abused it.

When I worked at EBTM we created a page for the company which you can see here (I warn you the background isn't very easy on the eye). As you'll see they have lots of links to various sections of the site, with tracking references to see how much business comes through it. Simply by adding friends (who were interested in metal/rock/indie) manually we got a decent amount of business each month that otherwise we might not have. Of course the target demographic for EBTM is very similar to those who use Myspace (as anyone who's used it knows, Myspace often seems to be populated almost entirely by emo kids).

As well as gaining new business through the medium we also used it to communicate with existing customers. The page is linked from the homepage so users can leave comments there, make requests for new merch etc. We'd occasionally send out 'myspace exclusive' discount codes and offer users the opportunity to model for the company.

You can get software that automates the friend adding process now but there is a limit on how many you can add a day and Myspace will take action against those people who it feels are abusing it.

It can be a great method of promotion, but its trickier to master than perhaps more traditional methods.

[Christoph]

Wow that page looks like someone has eaten 5 year's worth of Kerrang! then thrown up!

Didn't you find it was a very labour intensive way of getting traffic? How would you rate it in terms of return on investment Time Vs Benefits?

[kier]

Yeah I didn't design it that way believe me!

If you do it all manually then yes it takes ages, for us it was just one of those things you dabble with when got the time and the results were good. The company was very small at the time so every little helped! However I doubt it would be that easy in other sectors, we had the advantage that Myspace is already chock full of metal and rock loving youngsters, so they were ripe for being approached. I doubt it would be as easy to use to market loans for instance.

[Bruce Wayne]

MySpace can be used effectively if you have an appropriate product. I've used it to promote an environmental product as there are thousands of people on there with an interest in environmental issues. The likes of WWF and Greenpeace have thousands of subscribers (friends). All you need to do is add as many related friends as possible and then send out regular bulletins, write regular blogs etc.

Thus far something like 2,500 get our weekly bulletin/newsletters and it's helped promote the product a great deal.

[Brendon]

>> I know brendon was going to write a case study is there any others.

Actually, it was Dean Hunt

>> is there any websites which discuss social communities and website promotion.

graywolf (http://www.wolf-howl.com/), stuntdubl (http://www.stuntdubl.com/), Andy Hagans (http://tropicalseo.com/), NickW (http://clickinfluence.com/)

[purple]

Thanks for those links I will check it out, sorry for linking you to a report I remember now it was dean after the Digg success he had.

[ninadbe]

Hello,
Hi purple..I read your topics and replies to them about promoting products through myspace..So finally what you did to promote your products?? Did you use myspace or used any other communities/Forums for marketing??
Let me know..
I would greatly appreciate ur answer..
Thanks

Regards
ninad

[purple]

I am actively using myspace to build up my websites brand. Myspace is not right for all niches but hopefully will work with some I work in. I am trying to build up a database "list of friends" focused tightly on the demographics i am targetting.

It is early days so time will tell how it will do,