Promotional Pointers: Publicizing Your Web Site on MySpace

Social networking is big-time booming business! How can you use this white-hot trend to your best advantage, as you seek to promote your own website? Once just an adolescent cyber-playground, MySpace may now be an effective marketing strategy for your online business and website!

The following guidelines and practical pointers will guide you through MySpace, but similar procedures and strategies may be employed on other social networking sites, such as Classmates, Facebook, Friendster, Minti, Yuwie, and others.

Produce a personal profile.

Avoid corporate-sounding profiles, in favor of a more personal approach. This is considerably more attractive to MySpace browsers. Unless you are a musician or part of a professional music group, you will gain the most visibility and networking success by creating a personal profile on MySpace. This is free and easy to do.

Make your page as inviting and intriguing as possible. Employ design elements from your website, such as colors, borders, photos and more. Consider adding a photographic slide show, if you have products or people to promote.

Unless your purpose is to network wholly within your organization, a real photo will suit you much better. If you would prefer not to paste your own face into cyberspace, you might include a cartoon, avatar or other personal artwork item. However, a corporate logo or product photo will smack of spam and send potential friends and page viewers clicking for the hills!

Find some friendly traffic.

MySpace page traffic is driven by online friends. If you send and accept invitations to friendship, you will build a base of influence on the site. Merely listing web-links, ads and promotional pieces on your page is not enough, unless you can attract visitors and viewers!

Of course, this means you will have to visit your friends' pages as well, leaving courteous messages and comments. Why not create a graphic link comment, so you can publicize your site while passing good will to your friends? As long as this is a friendly and tasteful greeting, rather than outright promotion or spam, it can be done with class.

Obviously, racy and potentially offensive comments and images should be avoided. Why risk offending potential customers?

Be sure that you have identified your audience. Is your website targeted for children, teens, men, women, seniors or whom? MySpace is not just for teens anymore. With a little advanced searching, you can easily find the demographics you seek for your promotional efforts.

Blogs away!

MySpace offers members the opportunity to post blogs on their own page. You can choose to share your blogs with the entire MySpace user community as well. If you are promoting, this is the choice to make!

Post blogs regularly, even daily, if possible. Don't just spam. Create a weekly or daily newsletter, if you can. Include worthwhile content, but add your website link whenever it is relevant and appropriate. Include photos or illustrations, as these tend to draw blog readers. Add helpful tag lines for surfers to spot.

Be a bulletineer.

As a MySpace user, you can send bulletins to your entire list of friends. This is simple and speedy to do! You can copy and paste the content of each blog entry you post into a bulletin. Again, be sure to include your URL link for your website!

Bulletins are helpful, because they appear on each friend's home page. Unfortunately, not everyone will read your MySpace blogs, but they certainly will be alerted to each new bulletin you post!

Groups count.

MySpace offers special interest groups, which can offer targeted audiences for a countless variety of niches. From bicyclists to bookworms, and from computer programmersto cookie bakers, there seems to be a MySpace group for nearly any topic. Join the ones that fit your market niche, be it sporting goods or software, and you will meet folks who may be interested in what you are marketing.

Of course, you will need to show some etiquette in this. Posting shameless self-promotion or advertising may cause you to be banned from a group, if the group leader is paying attention! However, contributing helpful and informative comments, while including your link when it fits the topic, can be a marketing asset.

Find the forums!

MySpace has a forum community as well. Reading posts and responding, or even introducing your own discussion threads, may be a strategic means of building interest in your market niche and your website too! As with group posts, however, spamming can get you ousted, so be careful!

Know the limits.

MySpace currently blocks URL links from AC and certain other online publishing sites and writing communities. However, it is possible to obtain new links from several conversion sources, such as Decent URL and Tiny URL.

However, MySpace tends to frown upon external weblinks. Users who click on hyperlinks now will be redirected to an intermediate screen, warning them about password pfishers. At the same time, this screen posts a pause, deterring readers from leaving MySpace to view an external site.

Personal space can be profitable!

Essentially, if you produce an interesting and informative page, with pleasing graphics and strategic weblinks, you can certainly increase interest in your own website through networking on MySpace and similar sites. Stay clear of spamming, and you may reap the rewards!