Social Blogging

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Using MySpace effectively

Social networking is a phenomenon that seems recent on the internet with sites likie ecademy, linkedin, ryze, openbc, orkut, craigslist, friendster, and of course myspace. But the nature of networking with others has been around for thousands of years as individuals gathered in communities and expanded their base of friends. It’s through the technology advancements, though, that worldwide networking with people you choose is being made easier every day.

The website MySpace is a community that has arisen in the last few years as a result of a need in the marketplace for an easy to use, customizable, fluid, multimedia rich, and fun place to hang out. Preteens, teens, and college age students have flocked to MySpace in droves, with the intent of creating a space for themselves on the web, expanding their network for social purposes, and being entertained along the way.

The MySpace platform is now used by tens of thousands of young adults daily, has a high ranking in sites like Alexa, and has retained a very loyalty effect, meaning that users frequently come back to the platform to add to their sites and connect or reconnect with those who also gather there.

One of the most useful features of MySpace is the ability to add in skins and overlays to add flavor to your site. There are many individuals and websites out there that enable easy customization of this online community. Along with visual customization of your site, it’s also useful to include audio. This audio can be in the form of a message you leave for visitors or by adding in clips from your favorite music. Another great way to add flavor to your site is through the addition of content that reflects your personality, interests, thoughts, and basic views on the world. And by searching for users with similar interests and developing a connection with them, you can expand your networking.

In order to develop a connection with those you network with, it’s best to keep in mind how to add value to the relationship you have with them. In other words, how can you benefit them or their site? Perhaps you know of someone they should meet and you want to make an introuction, or you know of other music similar to what they’ve posted on their site, or you have a perspective on some content they’ve included. It’s through these sharings that you could not only increase the quantity of networking, but also the quality of networking that you’re doing.

The skills in networking that young adults gain by using a site like MySpace are ones that will stay with them their whole life, enabling them eventually to maybe meet a mate, develop a fulfilling career, or establish lifelong friends.

By keeping in mind the principles of customizing content and developing a unique persona, focusing on adding value to relationships established online through speaking to what benefits them, and networking with a long-term view in mind for creating connecxtioins both with those you have a lot in common with and those you may not at first glance, the investment of time and effort you put into MySpace can pay off for the future as well.

About the Author:
Dave Lloyd has created an online guide to MySpace and social networking at http://www.socialnetworkingsecrets.com

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Here is a comprehensive list of social networking sites broken down into nine loosely built categories. These social networking categories are: business; common interest; dating; face-to-face facilitation; friends; MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software); pets; photos; and ’edge’ cases or social networking ‘plus’ sites. Check it out at the Social Networking List.

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Here’s an interesting article by Stephen Downes on social networks and blogging. More specifically how content syndication and social networking will merge to create a new type of internet, a network within a network, and in so doing reshape the internet as we know it. Read the full article here: The Semantic Social Network

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Using Social Networks to Get Business - AKA “The Kevin Bacon Game”

A few years ago there was a big push toward one-to-one relationship management, creating a network of trusted business associates on whom you could rely. Getting to know them, up close and personal. Or at least using software to generate personalized messages. And getting to know your prospects and customers is, of course, still a very good practice…probably your best way to succeed.

But in the impersonal world of computers and technology, getting personal is a difficult thing to do. You may have never met your client or the folks you joint venture a project with. But it’s likely that you have communicated via email, perhaps spoken on the phone, read articles they’ve written or kept up with what they have said in discussion forums.

Making it Personal
Now there’s the many-to-many approach, more commonly called social networking. Of course you’ve heard of Match.com, primarily designed to connect those who are interested in dating. For this membership site you don’t need to be “invited” in and you can try it out for free.

Quickly, many other such sites have jumped into the social networking arena, garnering tons of publicity. There’s Friendster, LinkedIn, Ryze, Tribe Software, Orkut, MeetUp and probably others. The “market” has virtually exploded with companies that create networks to help you connect through others with the people you want to meet or do business with.

Kevin Bacon
If you’re a follower of the TV show Friends, you’ll know the characters on the show played “The Kevin Bacon Game,” in which they had to connect Kevin Bacon to another famous person in six or fewer connections.

For instance, Cuba Gooding, Jr. is in Home on the Range with Judi Dench, who is also working with Roseanne on Home on the Range, who worked with John Goodman on the Roseanne Show, who worked with Dan Akroyd on Saturday Night Live, who worked with Jim Belushi on Saturday Night Live, who was John Belushi’s brother, who worked with Kevin Bacon on the film Animal House.

It’s a variation of the old “6 Degrees of Separation” theory that has been around forever. And it’s a lot like the new social networks.

Creating Your Network
Most of these social networking groups create networks based on various common interests and for some, on trusted connections–which is much greater help to business folks. LinkedIn and Orkut are this type of network. You create your network link by link by link so your social network is bound to be a higher quality network than one in which anyone can join and contact anyone in the network.

Here are the websites for the social networks I mentioned:

www.Match.com
www.Friendster.com
www.LinkedIn.com
www.Ryze.com
www.Tribe.net
www.Orkut.com
www.Meetup.com

If you sign up for my marketing newsletter, MarketingIdeaShop Brainy Tidbits, delivered each week by email directly to your inbox, you’ll find tons more resources and marketing ideas that you can put right to work. Visit http://www.marketingideashop.com and sign up on the site. Get “67 Ways to Promote Your Business” FREE by return email.

About the Author
Marketing Idea Shop’s founder, Lois Carter Fay, is a marketing strategist with 30 years of experience to help you generate and implement ideas and strategies to grow your business. She works with women business owners, small business owners and managers to help them use their marketing dollars more effectively and increase profits. A marketing columnist and the author of three marketing ebooks, she is now writing her next ebook, Success Secrets of Women Entrepreneurs.

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I found a free report on social networks. It’s 35 pages and full of valuable information on preparing, maintaining, and supporting a social network. It also features a comparitive analysis on the various methods that some of the most popular social networks use within their design. Download the report here: Social Networks Report.

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