Web-Map to Social Media, Part 3: MySpace and Facebook

By Greenleaf Team - May 08 , 2007

By Ashley Marion

Marketers are constantly searching for ways to create and promote brand awareness through MySpace, a $500 million site. Born in 2003, it is by far the most popular social networking site. Its success in promoting fledgling music acts is now well known, and the stories of bands and artists who have received a significant publicity boost from their hip, media-laden profiles are plentiful. Can the same strategy work for authors and publishers?

By the numbers:

• 64.4 million: Number of unique MySpace visitors in February 2007
• 16.7 million: Number of unique Facebook visitors in February 2007. It was also the 36th most visited site on the Internet the same month.
• 40%: Amount of visitors to social networking sites that use them to learn more about brands and products they like, according to a recent study by Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace and Carat USA’s Isobar. With a combined membership of over 120 million, Facebook and MySpace represent two of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Web. Do the math: that means that over 48 million people are looking for information on new products.
• 4,000: Number of books MySpace currently has in its ranks
• 176,346,012: Number of MySpace members in May 2007
• 70%: Amount of Americans ages 15-34 who are actively involved in online social networks
  

Book aficionados can visit MySpace Books, a section that features popular books, book blogs, and book groups. Titles that have the most links to their MySpace blogs are ranked in a “Top Books” list, which links directly to Amazon.com for convenient purchasing. There is also a featured blog, a selection of featured book groups, and a featured books section. It’s not clear how a book becomes featured, but once it is granted this distinction, it gets front page placement, a full review, a comment section, and an Amazon.com link.

To get in the running for a feature in MySpace Books, set up pages for yourself, your book, or the characters featured in your novel. Each page will collect valuable friends, who will in turn become your fan base. Include other book-related pages in your “Top 8,” and they’ll be prominently featured to all your visitors. Design a page that appeals to your readers and meshes with your content. Upload and embed relevant music, videos, or images, and, most importantly, offer visitors a frequently updated, engaging, attention-grabbing blog.

One word of warning, though: MySpace users can be cruel. A recent featured book, Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture, has 12,211 positive comments, which fortunately outnumber its 10,275 negative posts. Comparatively, that’s not a bad ratio. Other books aren’t so lucky: Witness the new Nirvana biography, which has a nearly 65% negative comment rating. Most of these negative comments are articulate, deftly crafted nuggets of rhetoric like “poo,” “NIRVANA SUCKS,” and “Ew, Nirvana.” Despite how tempted you may be to retort constructive criticisms like these, your best defense is to simply be reasonable and not sink to the level of the few insults you’ll inevitably receive.

Another useful feature of MySpace is the bulletin announcement. Even if your readers aren’t checking your page on a regular basis, they’ll be able to see any updates you’ve posted when they log in. Many users log in daily, and bulletins can be especially helpful in notifying your audience of upcoming appearances or events.

Although less suited to marketing efforts, Facebook is a rapidly growing social networking site that recently opened its digital doors to the masses. Initially exclusive to college students, the site now accepts anyone with a valid email address. Facebook profiles tend to be more straightforward than those on MySpace, where pages for bands, celebrities, books, and other media are littered among actual people. If you feel your book could generate particularly strong buzz among college-age members or younger, you may want to look into Facebook, whether you decide to buy traditional ad space or create a MySpace-style book, author, or character profile.

In the end, exposure is exposure. According to an article in MediaPost Publications, 70 percent of Americans ages 15-34 are active participants in online social networks. So, if the old marketing adage is true and you should be where your audience is, why aren’t you there yet?

In the next social media guide: With the Flickr of a flashbulb, learn how to upload your pics and share your book tour with the World Wide Web.