Marketing Podcast Chapter 9: Marketing on MySpace
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Hello and welcome to Tactical Execution, an information series exploring innovative marketing and strategic business positioning for entrepreneurs and small businesses in an increasingly competitive world. My name is Patrick and I’m your host. You can find written versions of these podcasts at TacticalExecution.com and I encourage your candid feedback at the same location. Today, we’ll be talking about how to market your business on MySpace.com so let’s get started.
As of June 2006, MySpace had over 84MM registered users and was adding over ¼MM more each day. The site was the second most popular destination on the web at that time and had over 15MM unique logins each day. The site continues to boast staggering statistics at all levels. In the United States, it has the third highest web traffic on the internet, behind Yahoo and Google. In fact, over 8% of Google traffic points to MySpace accounts and over 50% of YouTube videos are referred by MySpace users. And those statistics are more that a year old! Indeed, MySpace has become a cultural phenomenon.
In fact, MySpace is far from the only game in town. Facebook is another player that’s quickly gaining ground but the list of top social networking sites also includes Windows Live Spaces (formerly MSN Spaces) for blogging, Orkut, Hi5, Friendster, Classmates.com, and Bebo. These sites all fill a very real need for today’s younger generation. The fact is; these younger people have embraced social networking websites as a place where they can hang out and socialize with friends.
Today’s younger generation has grown up sharing their lives publicly and these social networking sites give them a metaphorical platform from which to display their personalities and their individuality amongst their peers. It gives them a place to call their own, a place to decorate as they wish and a place to hang out with friends. And the growing influence of these sites has drawn people from all age groups as well. Every year, the list of “older” users with MySpace profiles hits new heights.
Even still, an estimated 79% of users are between 18 and 40 years of age and I’m willing to bet more than half the remaining 21% is younger than 18. So for the most part, we’re really NOT talking about the Baby Boom generation here. We’re really talking about their kids – the Echo Baby Boom generation. We’re talking about the tech savvy youth that will be redefining the way we do business in the future, just as their parents did before them.
These online communities have become extremely large but they’re also a lot more interconnected than the offline world. That means a clever gimmick can quickly spread through the community and generate tremendous exposure in a very short period of time. It’s called viral marketing and we’ll talk about it more in a later chapter. Point is; MySpace is a place where the right stunt can launch a person, an idea, a concept or a business into the stratosphere at lightening speed.
Fully aware of this potential, there are over 1.5MM bands – music bands – registered on MySpace, all trying to gain exposure for their tunes. These bands all see the potential and they’re motivated by a few incredible success stories. They all know the right song can spread like wild fire and launch their careers – literally – overnight.
There are also over 50,000 groups on MySpace, all built around one topic or another – virtually anything you can imagine. And people join these groups to network with like-minded individuals and – in many cases – build exposure. Many of them are trying to add friends in the process. We’ll talk about that in a second. So people are definitely trying to tap into the potential in various ways.
Of course, MySpace was originally launched for artists and musicians, or at least with the intention of catering to peoples’ creative instincts. The pages can be significantly customized to showcase your true colors and the layout and features can all be modified to suit your personal preferences. All that being said, MySpace caters more to some types of people than others. And the creative types are definitely positioned to gain the most.
A good friend of mine has a successful graphic design business and does a lot of fine art painting as well. His ambitions lie in fine art but he currently pays the bills with revenue from graphic design and product photography. Point is; MySpace has been a great place for him to showcase his talent and gain exposure. He’s connected with a number of other well-known artists and gets a lot of art-related traffic as a result. People visit the profiles of these well-known artists and then browse through their friends, looking for other hidden treasures. And in many cases, they stumble onto HIS page. He’s also incorporated graphic slideshows of his work so visitors can see his talent quickly. Of course, his MySpace profile cross-references his websites and the traffic funnels through.
Now, one of the keys to this type of marketing is to have a good lead picture. That might sound crazy but it’s true. On MySpace, every profile has a lead photo and that photo carries your first impression along with it. In John’s case, he had a great black & white shot of himself holding one of his “darker” paintings. In the photo, he’s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and the effect is almost intimidating. I hate to say it but he really looks twisted in that picture. He looks eccentric. He LOOKS like an artist! And that photo drew a ton of people to his page.
He’s since experimented with a variety of other photos and they each have a different effect. They attract different people. It’s weird to think of the impact such a simple thing has but if you’re marketing to the masses on MySpace – in other words, if you’re trying to attract people you DON’T already know – the impact of that lead photo is huge. And it’s worth noting, by the way, that creativity stands for a lot more than aesthetics. You don’t have to be a supermodel to make this work. John’s a great guy but I wouldn’t call him a supermodel. But he had a great creative photo and it worked like a charm.
So, John’s experience on MySpace is just one example of how to market yourself on MySpace but believe me; there are plenty of other strategies. That’s what we’ll be talking about today but it’s important to understand that there’s no silver bullet. There’s no all-encompassing set of tricks that’s going to work for everyone. MySpace is a dynamic community that’s actually quite protective of its privacy and doesn’t want to be overtly marketed to. It’s a community where people want to meet other people and see what makes them unique and special. If your marketing objectives fall within that cultural paradigm, you could see a lot of great results. If your objectives are more aggressive, you’ll probably end up spinning your wheels.
Websites like MySpace are communities of people, just like a group of friends hanging out at a coffee shop. These people are NOT in a classroom. They’re not shopping for anything (except a coffee perhaps). They’re not necessarily looking to meet new people. They’re just hanging out, socializing with each other. So if you want to TELL those people something, imagine doing it in real life.
Imagine walking up to these people in the actual coffee shop. If the approach you’re planning would meet with laughter from the group in real life, it probably won’t get very far on MySpace either. If you’re approach would leave them rolling their eyes, it’ll have the same affect online. Think about how you would approach the real life audience and let THAT guide your activities on the platform.
Remember, the people on MySpace are NOT working. Yes, they may have jobs. But when they’re on MySpace, they’re not at work. They’re hanging out with friends. And what do people enjoy when they’re socializing with each other? Well, generally speaking, they like to laugh. They want to be entertained. They want see something unique or learn something fascinating. And of course, they want to be cooler than all their other friends. So if you can find ways to deliver those benefits, you’ll be successful on MySpace. But if your approach is too salesy, too pushy, too slimy – you won’t get anywhere.
Remember as well that MySpace gives its members a way of identifying spam within the community. So in many cases, you won’t get a second chance to do this properly. Once you’ve been labeled as spam, you have to start from scratch and create a new profile. It’s important to do this right the FIRST time. Have good intentions and don’t pester people. That would be a good start.
Let’s look at a few specifics. Well, getting back to my friend, you should do a few advanced searches for your business-related keywords and find other people in the same field. Your goal should be to add these people as “friends” on your profile but don’t jump the gun. Before you start soliciting friendships, you want to ensure you’ve got a reasonably nice profile yourself. These people won’t just add you as a friend for nothing. They don’t want to be associated with someone with a weak profile; someone who doesn’t look reputable themselves. So you have to start at the beginning.
Building an effective MySpace profile can take some time. Do a few Google searches for things like “MySpace layouts” or “MySpace customize” or “MySpace graphics”. You’ll find endless resources designed to help you make your page unique and special. The code can actually be a bit complicated but the effort is well worth the time. If you’re marketing objectives relate to a professional business, I would try to construct a clean professional profile. If your business is more casual, you can get more creative. Generally speaking, I always find that “cleaner is better”.
The text you put in your profile all needs to support your objectives but make sure you don’t make it an obvious sales pitch. Again, you’re in a community. You want to be a person; a human being. You want to be a person with a passion for what you do; a person with true expertise in your field. But you’re NOT a slimy salesperson trying to sell something in a social setting. That’ll never fly. You have to find a balance here. I realize that. But it’s important to be a little subtle with your intentions. Its important be a person first, and a business second.
Show people who you are. Give them a glimpse into your personal life. Show them you’re a normal person, just like them. But also show them you have a passion for what you do. Give them a way of seeing your expertise. Find a way to give them some value. Perhaps you can describe one of your free informational resources and link directly to your website where they can find it for themselves. Visitors to your MySpace page can then click directly through to your regular website and learn more about you and your business. Once they’ve reached your website, they’ll be more open to a sales pitch. When people are at a website, they’re expecting a sales pitch. It’s all about expectations. Just don’t jump down their throat when you’re still in a social setting; when you’re still on MySpace. Instead, make yourself useful and find a way to provide value.
A number of companies, looking to gain exposure on MySpace, have provided fancy pre-programmed layout templates for free on their websites. That way, they’re catering directly to their MySpace visitors and giving them something they can use right away; something that might make them cooler than their friends. Done properly, this is exactly the type of stuff that can really boost your campaign. And in most cases, you can hire some 18-year-old kid off of Craig’s List and he’ll probably have better ideas than anyone else. Those are the people you’re trying to attract and they’re also the ones who really know the medium. Don’t be afraid of tapping into their inbred expertise directly.
So, once you’ve built a good profile, start visiting the pages of other people in your field or those representing your target market. Write them an email. Introduce yourself. Be personal and respectful. Write something that makes it obvious you already know something about them, even if it’s only by reading their MySpace profile. Add them as a friend. If it’s done personally, you’ll be surprised how quickly you accumulate friends. Think about it. If one out of every four friend requests is accepted and you send out 20 messages each day, you’ll have 150 new friends in a single month! And remember, every friend you add to your profile is another “front door” to your page. Just like inbound web links, each one of your friends gives OTHER browsers another way to find you.
As I mentioned at the beginning, there are over 50,000 groups on MySpace. Take a look through them. Do some searches. See which groups might contain people from your target market. See which groups you could add value to. Once a member, you can browse through the membership and contact people individually. You can also use software programs like FriendBlaster Pro to communicate with large groups of people all at once. But always be aware that your messages could be labeled as spam if you’re not careful. Write your messages with this in mind.
Last but not least, do some advanced searches using keywords. You can quickly find thousands of people. Again, you can contact these people individually or you can use programs like FriendBlaster Pro to manage the process. Either way, these are ways of expanding your list of friends, thereby increasing the number of “front doors” to your profile and your business. Think about it as a funnel. There are a series of steps and at each step, you have to give your audience an incentive to take the NEXT step. Guide them along until they reach your website. Even there, give them an incentive to stick around. Give them a reason to browse. Give them a reason to get to know you better.
Just quickly, I want to spend a second on these programs; programs like FriendBlaster Pro. MySpace is obviously trying to limit the impact of these tools and will probably require you to validate friend requests after your first 50 requests. But the other things is that MySpace users will quickly label you as spam and your entire profile will be wiped out as a result. MySpace will literally just delete your profile and they won’t even tell you they’re doing it – so you really have to be careful. What a lot of people are doing is creating dummy profiles, identical to their ACTUAL profile – and sending messages from there. You can go in and change the code so an “accept” would add them to the ACTUAL profile, not the dummy profile.
The user would never know the difference because both profiles look identical but the beauty is that a spam label would only affect the dummy profile. If the dummy profile gets deleted, you only have to create a new dummy profile and start all over again. Meanwhile, you keep accumulating friends on your actual profile. This stuff is totally sleazy but it’s being done all the time. Personally, I do NOT recommend that type of approach but it would be irresponsible for me to record this podcast without at least mentioning it.
My approach is this: if you allocated an hour each day to browse through profiles and send messages, you’ll have a huge funnel in no time. And indeed, there are businesses whose only marketing is on MySpace. Yes, it requires time. Yes, it requires effort. But many of these business simply hire someone straight out of college (or even high school) and pay them $10 per hour to fine tune their profile and send friend requests all day.
The reality is: there’s huge potential out there to build a funnel that can bring people right to your front door. Think about it. Once these people reach your site, perhaps they’ll request one of your free resources and give you their email address in the process. At that point, they’re on YOUR email list and you can stay in touch with them directly. Once you’ve got them on your list, you’ve achieved your objective. Anyway, you get the point. You don’t have to do this forever but it’s a great way to directly boost your marketing efforts in a hurry.
Marketing on MySpace is just like marketing in the real world. Worded differently, in today’s world, MySpace IS the real world. The thing to remember is that people on MySpace are NOT expecting to hear a marketing message. In other places, it’s expected. On TV, it’s expected. At a seminar, it’s expected. Reading a magazine, it’s expected. But on MySpace, people are there to socialize, have fun and relax. And marketing to people who are relaxing is always a bit harder than marketing to people who are expecting a marketing message. Be subtle. Be sensitive. Be part of the fun. Be part of the relaxation. Be REAL and you’ve got a chance at gaining huge exposure.
It’s worth noting there’s a similar category of online networking websites devoted directly to business contacts. Websites like LinkedIn come to mind. These sites are far less creative but are also more tolerant to business marketing activities. Visit these websites. Take a look around and see which ones would work best for your particular objectives. As always, the web addresses have all been added on the Links page.
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Stay tuned. There is a lot more to come. In the meantime, think big, take action and market strategically. Bye for now.
