Marketing on MySpace is tricky for both parties

Posted Aug 1st 2006 1:59PM by Chris Thilk
Filed under: Online, Controversies

One of the most popular marketing tactics of the last six months is to create a MySpace "profile" for a company or its fictional spokes-character. That approach, though, is raising some concerns that the users of the popular social networking site - and others like it - may not be mature or savvy enough to know they're being marketed to. When The King, the star of Burger King's popular ad campaign, has a profile and can be friended just like anyone else, then how are other users interacting with him/it? As just another in a long string of friends or as a marketing message? Marketers love using social networks because their users are often young and hip and are just beginning to build brand loyalty.

What are your thoughts on using MySpace or other sites like it as marketing vehicles? I'm not talking about running ads on the site, but creating content for it that's specifically marketing in nature but meant to look like it exists organically in the network. Drop your thoughts in the comments. If I get enough good ones I'll post a follow-up recapping some of the feedback.

Reader Comments

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1. The best way i have known people to get their company or website across is to send a message to every one on myspace but what you should do is to make the message sound like you want to be friends such as here for example -

Hiya my name is mark how are you all good i hope, take a look at my profile (which you could build stuff on their to do with your website or company) see what you think of it and if you like spread the word. Oh nearly forgot please add me as a friend.

see all depends how you want to come across but if you are formal people will just blank you i mean at the end of the day myspace is a place to meet friends.

Coding is easy enough to do to make your profile look great with links going to your site.

Posted at 7:08AM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Mark

2. I think using MySpace for marketing purposes is like using any other venue, it depends on the product and the target audience. Even more, it depends on understanding the particular environment into which you are placing the marketing materials. I've read enough about lame companies trying to be hip and creating sites on MySpace. If you don't understand the environment, you won't succeed. I also think marketers and advertisers need to be wary of jumping on every bandwagon that goes by. The big question is does it work for your particular product, not is the latest hot thing. If it doesn work for your product, then create organic content that works with the existing environment.

Posted at 8:55AM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Kristine Shreve

3. I still think adults can't conceptualize the fact that children, the youth, even most 20-somethings CAN NOT be advertised to in the same manner as before. Perhaps I just hang out with more intelligent youth, but I know noone under 30 (or intelligent older people) who don't mentally block out advertisements. Even when we discuss funny commercials or ads we've seen, we don't necesarily remember who the ad is for (unless the humor is entwined with the specific company), just the humor.

I think the idea that these myspace profiles are advertising to the members relies on the assumption that by me being a friend of the Burger King "King" I am in some way more likely to think of burger king around lunch time, or that I have VW's Fast as a friend that I am more inclined to purchase a VW as my next car (perhaps an Audi....). More so, youth look at the inherent humor in having such imaginary people in their "group of friends" or in some previous relationship with the brand (like I do enjoy Burger King, or I do drive a VW), but they don't base their purchasing decisions on these ads. In a way, all ads do now is what was once considered their secondary role, reminding people of a brands existence, they no longer hold the magic "buy this brand because its cool/good/smart/powerful", the youth have embraced the internets communal product review and easy searching to make intelligent decisions in their purchases.
In fact, the only advertising method I can think of that work with the less-intelligent youth is the concept of "cool", like Paris Hilton wears/uses/has XYZ, so I want one too, but the more it looks like advertising the product (like, "oh my god, Paris lost her SideKick(TM) with personal photos on it!" looks suspiciously like a T-Mobile ad...) the less the youth are to pay attention.

To summarize: Youth have become so accustomed to marketing methods, advertisments being so pervasive in their life since they've gained the ability to be "advertised to", that they have learned to mentally block out/ignore the advertisements "buy me" effect (or goal, depending on which side your on).

Posted at 9:57AM on Aug 2nd 2006 by SteveA

4. I started posting a regular blog on our Myspace page http://myspace.com/goldsgymamherst over a year ago. We have over 1,000 "friends", many of them are our members or local residents who've visited the gym. I run regular bulletins, comments to friends and send messages each week. As a result, we tour as many as 10 guests a week and sign on average 75% of them. They come to us as interested parties. My "ads" are custom messages relating to specials or events at the gym. I get accused of "spamming" frequently, but the way I see it, if you don't like the messages you don't have to be my "friend".

I think this method works well for us, but we're a tiny company compared to Burger King/VW.

One thing I will say about this new generation of kids...from what we know of psychology, a person needs to see something, anything new be it advertising, a face, a street sign, someone's name, etc - a minimum of 6 times, before they actually "see" it. BK/VW know this. They're simply taking advantage of the free marketing options on Myspace to extend that 6 views per person by another 100 million. It makes good sense from a marketing point of view.

Posted at 9:36AM on Aug 3rd 2006 by adam

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