by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
If you watch Dateline, you’ve probably come away with the impression that MySpace is a place where underage teens lie about their age and dirty old men solicit them for sex. But MySpace has been and will continue to be a tool for marketing, whether it be for an upcoming movie, an individual or a band.
Making a MySpace page is so easy that I’m positive an inebriated chimp could do it. Because it’s so easy, business owners that would normally be intimidated by setting up a website have set up pages on MySpace.
As to adding all the bells and whistles like an interesting background and photo albums, there are sites that offer free codes. People should be careful though, because some of the codes are buggy and can be used to hack your account.
Nightclubs, restaurants and other events based venues make use of the bulletins feature in MySpace. When a user posts a bulletin, it goes out to all of the posters friends (or a portion of them). In this way, a business can advertise events to an audience they know is already mildly interested in what they have to offer.
Even more unlikely businesses, like a clothing shop or a salon might have a MySpace. Clothiers can announce sales on bulletins and can stay connected with locals. For salons and other businesses that would like to have a web presence, but just don’t have time to maintain a website, MySpace is a perfect fit. Also, when a business is added to a friend’s list, others click the business’s MySpace out of curiosity, whether they are people on a person’s friend’s list, or just random visitors.
MySpace first earned its fame as a haven for music marketing. Every band, from crappy cover bands to mega stars, simply must have a MySpace. It’s become a musical requirement.
Bands can post their music on their MySpace site. MySpace users can click on a song and add it to their page. I’ve added a song from Goldfrapp. Anyone who goes to my page will hear the song when it loads. Other MySpace users can click the song and go to the Goldfrapp page, where they too can add it to their MySpace page.
Some users, looking for some new musical flavor, might search MySpace for a particular genre of music or specific local bands. Even if you don’t have a MySpace account, you can search MySpace.
Bands also post a schedule of whatever tour they’re on; complete with all the cities and venues the band will be visiting. If you “friend” a band, you’ll get their bulletins as well, letting you know when they have products out on their other websites, like a new release or t-shirts.
Besides musicians, other artists use the site as a marketing tool. If they’re going to be showing at a gallery or if they have new work they want their friends to see, they can always post on the bulletin space. In the same manner as musicians, other artists have found the site to be a great tool to draw fans and expose a larger audience to their work.
The Jacksonville based band, Summer Obsession, caught the attention of the music world after Tom Anderson, the master of MySpace, posted them on the opening page. Their MySpace friend’s list is at a huge fifty-seven thousand —and that’s without the add-bots other bands use to boost their numbers. Over five-hundred thousand audio streams have been generated from their MySpace (myspace.com/thesummerobsession ).This ready-made fan base is what partially convinced record execs to give the band a listen. After multiple showcases, the band settled on Virgin for their first record. They’ve since dropped the label because, according to their MySpace, “the label sucked a big one and tried to steal our souls, so we got off and are looking for a new one.” A fan base of fifty-seven thousand is sure to attract another label in the future, but, because of MySpace and new recording techniques, they can self-promote and don’t necessarily need a label to be successful.
As strange as it may seem for a social networking site, people have started to use MySpace in their search for jobs. MySpace Jobs is just one of many places to search for employers in your field.
These days it is standard practice for a company to make a search on MySpace if they’ve interviewed you for a position. If you’ve got anything on your MySpace that might offend a potential employer, you might want to set it to private.
Companies are actually using the site to actively recruit as well. Users can make sure they belong to job-related groups (type in your profession and join the related group). If you’re in the right group, you just might find yourself with a job offer from a company that’s using the site for active recruitment. Companies also passively recruit, by putting up their own MySpace page. It’s surprising, but many large companies have a MySpace page, not just for marketing, but also as a way to garner web savvy employees.
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