MySpace was the first social networking site to allow users to customize their profiles. It maintains popularity with teens, musicians, and other artists. It still gives the user more freedom to customize than any of the other networks, and many users have abused this ability with heaps of blinking graphics and music that plays automatically. For marketers interested in reaching urban, nightlife, or music communities, MySpace is a good choice. Outside of that, however, its use is limited in comparison to Facebook and LinkedIn.
MySpace has an easy-to-use blogging feature linked from user profiles. Once you've set up a MySpace profile, you can easily start to write a blog inside the network. The marketing tactics I mentioned in Chapter 2 also apply to blogging on MySpace. You can subscribe to these blogs to be updated on new posts.
A bulletin is like a public message that goes to all of your friends on MySpace. Be aware that everyone will see these, and that people dislike being bombarded over and over again with posts—this is like receiving email spam. You can use bulletins to announce upcoming promotional dates, or to ask for feedback on new pieces of content you've added to your profile, but don't do this more than once or twice a week.
Bands and music artists should sign up for artist profiles on MySpace (for an example, see Figure 4-10). One of the most important features is being allowed to post a number of songs on your band's site. This is critical to give people access to your music so that they can see whether they like it. Add some photos of the band and customize the profile to match your brand image, but don't fall into common usability traps: go easy on the animated graphics, and ensure that your text color is readable against your background color.
Search for and add your fans as friends. When they add you, head over to their profiles. It is common to post to a profile and thank the person in the comment section for adding you. Much like the standard "If you like this, you'll love this" recommendation system, send friend requests to the people listed in profiles of bands similar to yours. Once you've started to build an audience, you can use the blogging and bulletin features to let everyone know about upcoming shows and releases.
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