Anyone who uses MySpace can attest to the ridiculous volume of spam, most notably when it comes to so called “friend requests”.  You aren’t a fool, and you see the tremendous marketing potential that lies in these social mega sites, but you don’t want to waste your time and energy only to be labeled as a spammer and subsequently banned from the site altogether.

So what’s a marketer to do?  Read on, MacDuff.

The first and most crucial part of building a following on MySpace is to build a credible and entertaining page.  What that means, in a nutshell, is that you should avoid sales pitches and other obvious marketing speak at all costs.

Social media is about interacting with others in a fun atmosphere.  Pushy sales and marketing tactics will turn users off quicker than you can say “Top 8”.  Instead, try building a site that focuses on you as an individual and only mentions your marketing subtly and without pressure.

A fine example of this is a good friend of mine in Miami who happens to be a writer.  His niche is quite specific and his MySpace page caters to that.  He talks about himself and his life, regularly posts bulletins and blogs that are relevant, entertaining and informative to his niche and does it all with a minimum of sales tactics.  Last time I checked he had over 12,000 friends on MySpace and his sales were through the roof.

Bring it down

The lesson here is to bring your marketing down a notch, at least on the surface.  Selling a product?  A subtle mention of the product and your experience with it will work quite effectively if it is carefully blended in to a post that comes from an everyday tone of voice and is entertaining to your readers.

When you sign up for a MySpace page, you must resist the urge to attempt to collect friends on a massive scale.  Quality matters folks, and a friends list of 5,000 people who have no interest in you (or your product) isn’t going to do you any good.  In other words, the only time high numbers matter is when it results in high sales.

The best course of action is to create a niche page that focuses on you – even if it is a persona of sorts – and your life.  The more you talk about and relay information about that niche, the more credible you become as an individual in the social networking scene.  Notice I didn’t mention sales? 

Gaining the trust and confidence of your market is the most important thing you can do.  It will result in an increase in sales if it is done right, but you can’t expect it to happen overnight.  Put in the time and effort and your hard work will be rewarded.

Michael Nolan
IM Rookie Contributing Writer

For more internet marketing tips & strategies: IMRookie.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• Personalizing Your Presence
• The Advantage of an Internet Marketer: Passive Income
• Using Social Media as a Marketing Tool
• New Social Media Upstart Seeks Beta Testers
• Learn SEO and SMO Under Five Minutes

Tags: Internet Marketing Articles, Social Media Online, Traffic Generation //