Making the Most Out of Myspace

Myspace.com is one of the most revolutionary networking ideas to come along in at least twenty years. Everyone who is anyone has a myspace these days, and not only that: anyone who is REALLY anyone has at least five people pretending to be them on myspace (by my last count, there were five David Boreanzs and six James Marsters). There's the bad, the good, and the just plain silly about myspace: bad, underage children exposed to predators and racy dating ads; silly: I think there was actually a big to-do recently about a "myspace wedding".

Despite the loads of bad press myspace gets, there's a lot a good that goes on there. With its unique combination of email, blogs, page creation, instant messaging, bulletins, (sending out announcements to those on your "friends list"), and the ability to comment on your "friends'" pages, myspace offers an almost unprecedented opportunity to connect and interact in ways previously unthought-of. For all those Sci Fi movies portraying people living their lives on the Internet, (Johnny Mnemonic comes to mind), myspace could easily be the precursor to such a society.

However, myspace is no longer just for "hip" kids looking to have some fun behind their teachers' and parents' backs, or for people trying to connect across long distances. Businesses and professionals alike are recognizing the networking power of myspace, especially with its two greatest selling points: it's free, and very easy to set up and maintain. With the ability to update friends through the bulletin function, post announcements on a blog, and post comments concerning updates on friends' pages, folks can get some quick and fast marketing, basically for free. Plus, unlike a free website at geocities.com or bravenet.com, or even a paid web domain, a page at myspace is guaranteed an audience, especially once you start building up a friends list.

But, just like the Internet when it first made its big splash, there are right and wrong ways to create myspace pages, especially if you'd like to market either yourself or a product. Remember the days when early novice web-page designers burned our retinas out with an overload of animated graphics that had no purpose whatsoever? Well, a lot of myspaces make the same mistake, too. I remember trying to get onto the myspace of a writer friend the other day so I could post my review of his book, so all his "friends" could see it, and I was never able to because the background on his page was so funky, my computer - an 80 gig, Athelon Processor Dell laptop - kept freezing up.

Without stifling your individual creativity, there a few pieces of advice and tips that will help you create an attractive, appealing, yet professional-looking myspace page. It won't require a huge amount of HTML knowledge, and any needed HTML tips can be easily found for free on the web.

Personal Data: When you first create a myspace, you're asked the usual litany of background data: birthdates, location, schools attended, employers, etc. You don't need to give away your personal history, but if you'd like to remain on the professional end of things, you'll at least truthfully give the state and your name. If you're looking to be taken seriously as an agent, writer, or photographer, displaying a name like: www.myspace.com/funkycoldmedina is not the way to go. Also, if you attended any post-secondary institutions, make sure you look them up and add them using myspace's "add schools" function, this lends a little credibility.

About me: Your Bio: when you write your bio, try to be as truthful, professional, yet as unassuming as possible. You don't want to come out and shout: "YO! I'm the best writer ever; buy all my self-published books now!", but at the same time, be as confident as possible. "Just the facts, Jack", as they used to say. Also, myspace allows the use of HTML TAGS, so you'll want to format your bio correctly, or it will all come out in one big paragraph. To separate your text into blocks of paragraphs, begin each paragraph with a

and end it with a

. See http://www.boogiejack.com/ for a bunch of free tutorials on how to do this. You can also use some basic HTML coding to put pictures on your main myspace page. You'd need to upload your photos to an online source, preferably a free one like http://photobucket.com/, which creates HTML tags for you, and then you can put banners or photos on your myspace, even in your bio.

Your Interests: Again, be yourself, but if you're eyeing myspace for its networking and marketing potentials, make sure your interests don't read like a personal ad. Try to keep them related to what you do or what you're marketing. You can also use HTML tags here as well to place images.

Page layout: Seems like everyone and their brother has a "myspace page" layout page, with such colorful names as "Myspace Pimpers/Hackers". I would advise against using those - especially because usually, you then have to put their ads all over your myspace. Either stay with just the plain background, OR, if you are going to choose a background, make sure its something that won't take a long time to load - like my unfortunate author friend. Even though your computer may be comparable to a Ferrari, a lot of potential markets are still driving Fords and Yugos for computers. Whatever you do with your page, make sure it's something the "middle of the road computer guy/gal" can load. A good page with very nice, professional myspace layouts can be found at Mike's Industries.

Adding Music/Video: for bands, adding our music is obviously a given, but what about other folks who are not necessarily part of the writing world? I would advise only adding music if it has to do with something you're marketing: especially if it's film or writing. Make sure it enhances your site, not detracts. Adding video, on the other hand, is something everyone should take advantage of: within reason. Using Windows Movie Maker, (free part of Windows XP), or PhotoStory, (Also free), it's pretty easy to make a picture slideshow for book trailers, or slideshows of the product you're marketing. And of course, if you're a comedian, actor, or fledging film company, the world of digital video - which can be easily rendered in Windows Movie Maker - allows you to create your own comedy bits, movie trailers, and acting profiles. For a good example of a comedian using myspace to the fullest, visit one of my top friends and former college friend, comedian Paul Morrissey.

Uploading Pictures: You have the chance to upload pictures for others to view and comment on. This is great for folks promoting themselves, their work, or a product. You can upload anything - personal works of art, book covers, pictures of the product you're marketing, publicity photos at some sort of marketing event - you name it. It's okay to upload a few personal photos as well - this shows folks you actually ARE human - but it might be a good idea to leave out the picture of you in a Speedo on your vacation to Cancun. NOTE: someone posted early on in my myspaces days to be careful of uploading personal artwork, because then myspace can steal them and use them. I don't know much about this, but a good way for artists to protect themselves would be to put watermarks with their name or website addresses over them. Two folks using the myspace picture function successfully are freelance artist Andy Slocum, and a book-promotion agency called the Christian Fiction Bloggers Alliance.

Gathering Friends: If you're looking to target a specific audience, then make sure you "add" folks who might be interested in what you're promoting. Once you get a big enough friends list, you'll have plenty of random folks to add later: that's how the networking works; the more friends you have, the more lists you're on, the more folks hit your page, add you - increase the lists you're on, and so on. Myspace boasts a plethora of search functions to help you find folks you'd like to encounter, and it CAN be both personal and professional. While having 384 friends made up mostly of those in the writing or arts, my top 24 folks are people I actually know in RL (real life) or from previous Internet excursions/endeavors.

Myspace etiquette: No one likes a 'stick in the mud', but to be taken seriously, you've got to exude a certain presence. Once you've built the myspace and have some friends, avoid re-posting the inevitable and often annoying bulletins that are about any of the following: myspace becoming too fake/answer back or I'll delete you; missing child/kid dying of cancer; terrorist threats/please repost; Tom (the progenitor of myspace) is shutting down myspace because it's too expensive. These things are just digital chain letters, and you don't want to get caught up in them.

Early on in my "myspace career", I was embarrassed by several myspace faux pas: one time, I reposted the whole "kid dying of cancer", only to be alerted that it was a "chain mail" scam. Another time, frantic that folks were going to delete me, (I soon got over my "friend deletion anxiety"), I reposted the whole "myspace is getting too fake" bulletin, and didn't read the bottom, which said something along the lines of: "anyone not responding is retarded". I promptly got an email back from one of my close friends who is in my top 24, a little miffed because I'd reposted the bulletin and therefore indicated that he was retarded.

Also, avoid the surveys that get passed around. At first, when I wasn't sure what I was doing with the whole myspace thing, I had fun with a few of them, but after awhile, they just didn't strike me as something I'd want my publisher, editor, magazine, and writer friends to see in their bulletins.

Protect Your myspace: You'll want to change your password frequently, because like anything else Internet related, myspace can be and has been hacked. There a lot of different methods, and if you're looking to establish a serious marketing presence on myspace, the results could be disastrous. A "friend" on my list was recently hacked; he's the parent of one of my former students, and I can remember being shocked one day when I started getting bulletins from him announcing "free games, hot pics, and hot videos" - all of which led to porn sites (and yes….I ONLY clicked once. HONEST!). This went on for about three weeks, and I can remember thinking to myself: "Wow. I never realized that 'so and so' was such a dirty old guy". Then, he finally posted a frantic apology, realizing he'd been hacked, and those racy bulletins ceased. Protect yourself: change your password often.

Join Groups Aligned With Your Market: Another great thing about myspace is its community aspects with forum and group blogs. You can either start a group and invite like minded folks to join in, or search for groups to join. This is another level of exposure for your myspace, and also allows you to post in certain topic threads, or start ones of your own. This is the magic of myspace: instead of having a website at geocities.com, a blog on blogger.com, a thread on a forum somewhere else, and an account on an electronic bulletin board system - you can have it all, right in one place.

Enjoy myspace, and take it for what it's worth: free marketing tools to create your corner of the web. It's not a gateway to instant success and fame, but in the marketing game: anything free with the potential for limitless viewers is always a leg up over others.