I agree with so much of what Raven says -- dead on!

I'm one of those people who was very skeptical at first. I come from a very corporate/structured background (in marketing, hi-tech products mostly), and frankly I really didn't "get" myspace. However, my marketing sense was intrigued by the sheer numbers. I figured that there must be something to it that I wasn't getting. So, I let go and decided to give it a whirl.

I have come to realize that in order to "get" myspace, you really have to be open-minded, not have pre-judgment, and you have to PARTICIPATE on MySpace to understand how it works. Like many other things, there is a learning curve. But once you've been on for a while, long enough to understand the ins and outs and how to manage your friends and create the network that you want, it can be very fun and rewarding. I like what Raven pointed out about getting to know the people behind the businesses, not just a corporate face.

It's not possible to judge by visiting a few profiles, or visiting the site without participating. Is there a bit of tackiness? Undoubtedly. But, as Raven pointed out, a lot of that is because myspace has empowered people who don't have graphic designers or branding experts at their disposal to create a place to network. Social networking is a bit more free-spirited than the traditional methods of marketing communication (too much to get into in this one post, though). That being said, there are also many professionally branded myspace pages, and if you *do* have a graphic designer that knows how to manipulate the CSS-based myspace layout, you can have your page look as professional as you want it to.

Myspace is definitely what YOU make it. It's a platform for connecting...and it's free!

Here are some ways that it can be utilized for exposure:

1) Bulletins

- Once you've accumulated friends, you can post bulletins. Those are kind of like emails that go out to everyone in your friend's list simultaneously -- everyone in your friends list can view them. Though, the bulletin space is separate from your Inbox on myspace, so a community board is a better analogy. On one profile, I have over 3,000 "friends". When I post a bulletin from that profile, it has the potential to be read by 3,000 people.

2) Comments on friends' profiles

- When you comment on other myspacers' profiles, your comment/photo is viewed by everyone who visits their profile. Those numbers can add up...especially if you are commenting on heavily-trafficked profiles. I typically have a banner or flyer or something that I post, and that links to my website(s) and displays my website address(es). The image of the banner or flyer is hosted on my site, and I can change the image whenever I want to. When I change the image on my site, it automatically changes that image everywhere on myspace that the image is posted (i.e, every comment, or bulletin or anywhere that I have that image on myspace). Pretty cool for free.

3) Blogs

- You can instantly have a blog on myspace that people can subscribe to. So, if you are posting "subject matter expert" type of posts, that can be a way to create exposure and drive traffic.

I can tell you that Myspace is the #1 FREE generator of traffic to my website(s). The more work I do (i.e., participating, commenting, posting, etc, the more the traffic goes up).

Most of my participation on myspace is entertainment-related. However, if I had a small business that I wanted to promote (even a local, or geography-based biz like a restaurant...service-based businesses, etc.) I would definitely consider utilizing myspace as part of my online strategy, especially if I had a limited budget. If you know how to use it, it can definitely create exposure and awareness. You can also add friends based on geography (radius from a zip code, even). There are plenty of people on myspace who are over the age of 13 and professional!

The cost is your time -- about an hour a day on average.

There are certainly some things that could be better, and things you need to protect yourself from (phishers, scams, etc) -- but that goes for the whole Internet, not just myspace.

I think there are some types of businesses where myspace probably wouldn't be a good investment of time -- high-end B2B types of businesses probably wouldn't make sense.

I've just scratched the surface. Feel free to message me if anyone has any myspace questions that I might be able to answer.

Dina

You can have a free account (I use blogger.com) and publish the blog to your own domain -- kind of best of both worlds.

It just requires that you set up a folder within your domain to publish the content to. Then after you make entries to your blog on blogger.com, you "publish" the latest content to your own domain. For example, I just have a subfolder on my site called "blogs", and I publish the blogger content to that folder.

In blogger.com, the option is in your publish settings (basically, ftp info to your own domain so it can post the content).

It's nice to not have to install/maintain any software on my own domain. People can also subscribe to the content from my domain, because the xml feed is also published there.

I use both blogs and newsletters (blogger.com for the blog, although I've also heard great things about Wordpress).

Although newsletters and blogs are both ways of communicating to an audience, there are definitely some key distinctions, biggest ones being:

• Blogs are capable of being syndicated
• Blogs are capable of reaching far more people than your finite email list of opted-in subscribers. People can find your blog when browsing the web, so the potential audience is much larger typically and can include many anonymous visitors (who aren't necessarily subscribers to your email list or your blog)
• When you blog, people can potentially view your content without ever visiting your actual blog or site (through RSS syndication and reader clients). This means that you have a lot less control over how things appear graphically -- the content can be separate from the presentation. With an email newsletter you have a bit more control over presentation -- so, an email may be more suitable for certain types of communication, like special offers/marketing.

I think they both have their place, but recognizing the key distinctions is important to getting the maximum impact out of either medium.

Okay, I rambled enough. ;-)