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MySpace has basically rewritten the rules on how a marketer can reach his or her audience. And it's about time; the traditional methods that most marketers use are showing less impact and fewer results than ever. Part of this ferment is due to the sheer number of messages we receive on a daily basis — and part of it's because we don't spend our time in the same ways we did just a few years ago. Television provides so many options that even the popular shows gather much smaller ratings than they did a decade ago. Newspaper circulation is dropping at an alarming rate. And magazines are becoming attuned to niche markets in order to survive.
 | Although many marketers are hanging on to these time-tested advertising methods, others are focusing on new and innovative ways to connect. And MySpace is contributing to the changes. |
Each bullet in the following list starts with the way marketers have always done it — and the second part outlines MySpace's way of doing it in the online world:
- Passing out flyers: Behold the almighty flyer — it's pure and simple promotion. As the ultimate grassroots way to communicate your message, the flyer is about as up-close and personal as you can get with your audience.
MySpace's version: You comment as many of your friend's pages as you can about whatever you want to advertise, and that simple comment links back to your profile — where users can find out more about what you're trying to sell. You can also create a snazzy-looking bulletin that you send out to your Friends List. You save a few bucks' worth of printing and a few trees' worth of paper.
- Running a TV commercial: TV commercials have long been a way to get a marketer's message out to the masses. The problem is that traditional commercials are definitely not the cheapest way to tell your story — and they are strictly a one-way marketing technique.
MySpace's version: If you have a video camera and something to advertise, get to work! You can post your advertisement videos on your MySpace page and then start spreading the word. Send the video to your friends, and ask them to send it to their friends, and the whole thing can snowball like compound interest till the word is out.
- Developing a street team: From a marketing perspective, it always helps to locate and assemble a loyal group of people who are dedicated to your brand and to what you're doing — they can become a powerful marketing channel in their own right. These groups, usually known as street teams, use word-of-mouth marketing to communicate their messages.
MySpace's version: Say you're selling a product that several people have already bought — and they can't say enough great stuff about it in the comments and messages they've sent to you. You can message these fans, telling them about how you want them to start spreading the news about your product from one end of MySpace to the other. If they agree (and why wouldn't they, with all the freebies you offer them?), they can do some effective promoting that really works.
- Creating a T-shirt: Wearing a T-shirt with a company logo or message on it is a very personal and powerful way for people to communicate their brand loyalty. The person wearing the shirt has the ultimate decision on whether to wear it, and other people realize and respect that.
MySpace's version: You can create a profile on MySpace that allows the millions of MySpace users to add different versions of your product advertisement (for example, a movie trailer) to their own profile.
 | This sort of interactivity can make the MySpace masses engaged completely in your product — and that hopefully translates to the masses shelling out the money to buy your product. |
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