Social Media Marketing With MySpace.com

Using MySpace to promote a business and/or solicit users is a violation of the MySpace user agreement. However, creating a community for interested parties to come together and express interest in a business or industry is part of MySpace's sole purpose. This gray area defines the difference between an ethical MySpace marketing campaign and an illegal nuisance to the site's users. Having said that, the following are guidelines for creating an ethical MySpace marketing campaign:

Creating a profile that adds value for MySpace users is crucial for a campaign to be successful and ethical. One campaign I recently created was for an Ultimate Fighting gym in the Portland Metropolitan area. To add value to their profile we uploaded videos of their fighters competing in local events. The videos are exciting, allow the gym to display their fighter’s skills, and are free for users to watch.

Using automated friend adding and messaging software and MySpace’s browse feature, we spread the word about the profile and videos to men between the ages of 18 and 35 who live within twenty miles of the gym. We never solicited anyone about joining the gym. We simply let people know that we upload new videos regularly and post bulletins regarding local events. Within one month the profile received over 3,500 views and 800 friends all from individuals who fit within the demographic parameters. The profile began receiving messages from dozens of people interested in joining the gym.

Since this campaign had such strict demographic parameters we eventually ran out of people to add and message. This is where the grunt work began. We started to post bulletins and make public comments on our friend’s pages. Using the bulletin feature we posted messages about upcoming events, new videos and photos, and publicly congratulated the competitors who won their fights the previous weekend. Using the comment feature we sent similar messages to people who contacted us regarding joining the gym. These comments were visible to the profile owner, as well as all of their friends. To avoid seeming like a nuisance we limited our bulletin posts to once a week and our comments to bi-monthly.

For many businesses, being an active member in groups is a great way to promote your profile and your offerings. Find groups that cater to your niche and contribute insightful posts to their discussions. You can also use automated software to message or add all the members of a particular group.