Little Known Ways to Market Yourself on MySpace

Okay, guys, so I did it…I finally gave in…after months of resisting, I finally went ahead and created a MySpace profile.

Because I was convinced that MySpace was only for attention starved teenagers with too much time on their hands, and because I was a Serious Entrepreneur, I gladly continued to spend my hard-earned dollars on Google Adwords and didn’t even consider digging into all that 'social media stuff'. Especially not MySpace. 

But that was before my path crossed that of a couple of marketer mavericks who -- as I would quickly find out -- were making obscene amounts of money online (and I really do mean obscene) with ZERO advertising costs. And how did they do that? By utilizing web 2.0, such as YouTube, Facebook, Hubpages, Blogspot, Squidoo – and……yes, you guessed it…MySpace. Networking and building relationships with other entrepreneurs on MySpace was in fact at the center of it all!

Indeed, pride goes before a fall.

Okay, so I fell...but something else also happened: the blinders came off. And so -- still somewhat reluctant -- for the very first time in my life I logged onto the dreaded site and started browsing the profiles.

You know what I found? Everyone is on MySpace! Donald Trump is on MySpace. Robert Kiyosaki is on MySpace. So is Jim Rohn, and Oprah, and Hillary – even Gandhi and Mother Teresa are on MySpace!  

All right, I thought. If all those respected people are on MySpace -- if even dead people are on MySpace -- well, then maybe I’m missing something here. (To be completely honest, I felt like I’d just crawled out from under a rock.) 

Long story short, I created a MySpace profile and started to market myself. Now MySpace of course isn’t a place where you pitch or sell -- it’s a place for friends. So while I very specifically target other entrepreneurs, I'm also very careful not to talk about my opportunity or my products.

All I do is share my personal story and talk about how I used to struggle in MLM and how I was finally able to find success after I started to incorporate some new marketing strategies into my business. (Those of Magnetic Sponsoring, of course! ;-)

What that does is it positions me as a Problem Solver. I've got the magic formula that every other network marketer out there is looking for. Which makes me ridiculously attractive in their eyes.

Then I use a software program called Friend Blaster Pro…I’ll go to the profile of some industry leader, say Robert Kiyosaki, and view his “friends network”. With this software I easily gather the IDs of all of Kiyosaki’s “friends” who are currently online, and then, with a click of the mouse, I send out a “friend request” to each and every one of these people.

With each request I also send the same personal, generic note…it’ll go something like this: "Hey, Lena here. I saw that you are a fan of/have an interest in Robert Kiyosaki. Well, so do I! I love his stuff, got all his books in fact! Okay if I add you as a friend?” The cool thing is I only need to write the note once – the software sees to it that everyone on my prospective friends list gets it. 

I launched my ‘myspace plan’ only about a week ago, and so I haven’t yet dug as deeply into it as I intend to. In fact I’m only getting started.  

What is exciting though is that I’ve already managed to build a substantial network of entrepreneur-friends and I even have a handful of leads already! When I really get this thing up and running and implement some other Web 2.0 methods as well, I should for sure be able to generate a steady stream of free traffic to my site.

See, people like to network with individuals they have something in common with.  And if you approach people the way that I just described, it’s non-intrusive, not at all “spammy”.  

Because you’re not pitching!

And another thing: I’m convinced that most MySpacers will check out your profile before they “accept”, (I mean, wouldn’t you? You’re not going to include just anybody in your circle, are you?)

So as long as your profile is working for you, presenting you as that strong Leader, the Problem Solver, the “Wizard” if you will, then this strategy can potentially lead to some extremely valuable networking opportunities. 

A word of caution though: Don’t overdo it. I wouldn’t request more than 50-60 friendships per day. Also, delete unanswered requests after a few days. If you keep sending out hoards of requests that aren’t answered, Tom may get ticked off at you and obliterate your profile without warning. That’s what I heard, anyway...

(If you’re as much of a MySpace virgin as I was until recently...Tom is the myspace watchdog…kind of like Carl the Cop is here on Magnetic Sponsoring.)

This is why I usually send requests only to people I see are online at the moment. If they’re online now, it means there’s a greater chance they actually are Internet users (as opposed to just subscribers), and you’ll be more likely to get a prompt response to your request. 

In any case, the point isn’t to just send out scores of requests every day; the point is to build relationships with the people who “accept”. Send brief messages, post nice comments on their profiles, share your views, offer advice, and in everything you do, be ready to lend a hand. And stick to talking business – you’re building professional relationships here, you're not looking for a beer buddy. So you talk business, just not about your particular business. Not unless they ask, that is… ;-) 

MySpace becomes a particularly powerful medium for you as a marketer when you use it side by side with YouTube video posting and various other forms of social media marketing. That’s something else that I'm experimenting with. But that’s an article for another day. 

I don’t know about you but I know I’ll be kissing Google goodbye one day in the very near future. And when I do, I guarantee you’ll never be able to convince me to pay for another lead ever again.  

That’s how serious of an Entrepreneur I am!   

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Lena Bjorna is currently participating in a '90-Day Challenge' where she and a group of other professional marketers are being taught by a couple of young Internet millionaires how to utilize web 2.0 to explode their businesses in 90 days. To get a feel for what they have learned so far, visit MySpace.com/LenaBjorna and YouTube.com/LenaBjorna