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Below is a list of MySpace Best & WorstPractices that I have compiled through my experience of creating and managing the MySpace profiles for Colleges & Universities, Nonprofit Organizations and my hometown. If you would like to receive my "Web 2.0 Best Practices e-Newsletter", please subscribe. Please also see upcoming webinars covering MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for higher education, as well as Web 2.0 Resources for Higher Education.
10 Best MySpace Practices:
1) Design
a simple, colorful, easy to read MySpace that drives traffic to your website
2)
Acquire lots of “Friends” on MySpace
3) Posting “Comments”
4) Posting “Bulletins”
on MySpace
5) Blogging on MySpace
6) Events Calendars & Event Invitations
7) Become “Friends” with
pop culture
8) MySpace of the Month
9) Change your “Top Friends”
on a monthly basis
10) Funnel your MySpace visitors to
join your e-mail marketing/newsletter campaigns
10
Worst MySpace Practices:
1)
Too much text!
2) Too much “stuff” and over-designed
3) Boring photos
4) Sending out too many bulletins
5) Profiles that lack html knowledge
6) Profiles that don’t monitor comments
7) Profiles that don’t regularly monitor
their top Friends
8) Profiles that launch a song or video when
visited
9) Trying too hard to be "cool"
10) Profiles that don’t integrate with
the overall marketing messages of your college or university
1) Design a simple, colorful, easy to read MySpace that drives traffic to your website
What separates MySpace.com from other online social networks, such as Facebook, is that the design function is html-based. That allows you an amazing amount of creative freedom in designing your college or university’s MySpace profile. The fact that MySpace profile design is driven by html also makes a very strong statement about its 164,000,000 users – at the very least they know the basics of html. This is a technologically advanced user group, they’re global, and they are your future students and alumni.
Your MySpace.com design should be of school colors, simple, easy to read, loaded with photos, and be designed to drive traffic to your website. I suggest that you hire a professional MySpace designer to create your profile. First impressions are everything on MySpace. The design of your profile should function essentially as a portal to your website where users can get more information if they so choose. MySpace is about interactivity and online social networking, not about reading information.
2) Acquire lots of “Friends” on MySpace
“Friends” are what drive MySpace.com. The more friends you have, the more popular your MySpace. This popularity is not about vanity. It’s about viral marketing. Thanks to the Schools function on MySpace, thousands of your current students and alumni are just one click away. Once they have become a Friend of your MySpace profile - with little to no expense on your part - you have successfully created an online social network of your current students and alumni that spans the globe.
Your Friends often brand themselves by making your college or university’s MySpace profile a “Top Friend” on their MySpace profile. Thus, every user that visits their MySpace profile sees your MySpace profile in their Top Friends. This is a phenomenal form of online branding and viral marketing that grows quickly over time.
Becoming Friends with prospective students aged 17 and under is where the MySpace etiquette comes in. MySpace has a safety feature where users can not “Search” for those aged 17 and under. There are creative ways of getting access to these users, but we don’t suggest approaching these users with “Friend Requests.” First, they are minors and most likely an adult will be maintaining your MySpace profile. With the media’s coverage of sexual predators on MySpace, it’s just better to not proactively seek these users as Friends on MySpace. Second, these users don’t like to be sought out or marketed to on MySpace. They find it intrusive and you run the risk, quite frankly, of annoying them. You’re Friend request can easily be interpreted as spam. This age is particularly tech-saavy and territorial about their MySpace social networking, and extremely sensitive to spamming on MySpace.
Yet, your MySpace profile is one of the best ways to reach this audience. This is when you partner with your university communications and admission offices. Your MySpace URL should be on all print materials that target this audience. The URL should be marketed at prospective students recruitment events, in marketing e-mail campaigns, and on your website. Let this target audience choose to visit your MySpace and let them send you a Friend Request.
Finally, there is another target audience on MySpace with whom you want to be friends: States, cities, businesses and nonprofit organizations. Every state in the United States has a MySpace now – contact them and ask them to be friends and ask if they’d feature you in their top friends. Most large metropolitan areas also have a MySpace - contact them and ask them to be friends and if they’d feature you in their top friends. Businesses and nonprofit organizations are also jumping onto MySpace. If you have a partnership with any of these business or nonprofit organizations, become Friends.
This is a feature in MySpace that allows you to post “Comments” on your Friend’s MySpace. The more Comments you post throughout MySpace, the more visibility your college or university’s profile will have. This is a time-consuming process, so at Drury University we’ve limited our comments to “Happy Birthday” comments. As mentioned earlier, MySpace is driven by html, so we designed a very simple “Happy Birthday” graphic that we post when it’s the birthday of one of friends.
MySpace makes it easy for users to know when your Friend’s birthdays are. When a new user signs up they are asked to enter their birth date. Each time you login to your MySpace profile, a function is enabled that informs you of “New Birthdays!” coming up in the next week and by posting the html of your birthday graphic, your Friends are alerted that they have a “New Comment!” – your birthday message. Your Friends appreciate these birthday comments. They will often respond by posting a comment on your MySpace with the message “Thanks for the birthday comment!”. Choose one a day week when you post your birthday comments. This makes posting comments manageable as far as time spent and guarantees that your Friends receive at least one comment from you per year on their MySpace.
4) Posting “Bulletins” on MySpace
This is the most productive feature on MySpace to engage your Friends. By default, your MySpace creates its own bulletin board visible to only to your Friends. Posting bulletins about upcoming events, polls or issues related to student/alumni life prompts your Friends to participate in your MySpace. One of the best practices is to integrate your bulletins with your blog entries. Using html, drive your Friends directly to your blog entries. Not only will they then be reminded to visit your MySpace and see what updates have been added since their last visit, but they are also prompted to comment on your blog. Send no more than 1-2 bulletins per day, and if possible, spread them out between mornings and afternoons. If you become “bulletin happy” you run the possibility of annoying your Friends and enacting the law of diminishing returns.
Each MySpace has their own blog with the top 5 blog entries being visible on your MySpace homepage. Again, these blog entries should not be focused on information, but rather interactivity. Users don’t go to blogs to read and acquire information. They go to blogs to post “Blog Comments” and “Give Kudos.” Of course, providing some information is required, but it should be short and users should be able the skim the information, and it should be the sort of information that entices users to comment of give kudos. Examples of successful blogs:
ATTN Alumni: What
year did you graduate and what are you doing now?
POLL: Are you going to graduate school?
GO GREEK! Rush Week in next week…
Check out our new Environmental Studies program!
If you want to provide more information, you can link to the appropriate section/page on your university website. Mostly, the best practice in using blogs on MySpace is to ask a question that prompts users to respond.
6) Events Calendars & Event Invitations
MySpace has an excellent online calendar system. Post concerts, speaking engagements, prospective students events, theatre productions, rush week, athletic events, etc. Not only will these events reach prospective students, current students, and alumni, but also members of your local community who are on MySpace.
You can also send an event invitation to your friends on MySpace. They receive an event invitation from you in their Inbox and then can RSVP through MySpace. This is an interesting function because the RSVPs are visible to all your Friends, so they know in advance who will be attending. Limit your event invitations to 3-4 per year and send out the event invite at least one month before because many people MySpace only check their event invites rarely.
7) Become “Friends” with pop culture
Every major, minor and up-and-coming musician and band in the United States – and increasing around the world – has a MySpace. You want U2, The Fray, Hawthorne Heights, etc. to be your friend. First, having famous Friends brings an element of “cool” to your MySpace. Second, you provide you Friends the opportunity to listen to these artist’s music for free.
MySpace also has a “Film” section. Movies marketed to teens and those in their 20’s and 30’s aren’t even creating websites to market their films anymore – they are using MySpace. Becoming Friends with these films give your MySpace provides the impression that you are hip to modern pop culture.
MySpace is constantly eveolving and defintiely on the pulse of pop culture. You should be too.
This is an idea that resonates with users of MySpace:
Alumni MySpace of
the Month
Current Student MySpace of the Month
Band MySpace of the Month
Film MySpace of the Month
Nonprofit Organization MySpace of the Month
This is simple idea that can be blogged, commented and bulletined.
9) Change your “Top Friends” on a monthly basis
Users love being top friends on your MySpace. It gives them the feeling of being famous. The maximum number of top friends you can select at any given time is 24. After you have selected new Top Friends, post a comment on their MySpace letting them and their Friends know that they have made a top friend. You will definitely earn their loyalty with this simple MySpace best practice.
10) Funnel your MySpace visitors to join your e-mail marketing/newsletter campaigns
This is especially true of prospective students and alumni. Most likely your college or university spends thousands of dollars acquiring the e-mail addresses of prospective students and struggles to get the e-mail addresses of your alumni. They will be visiting your MySpace, so provide them the opportunity to “Subscribe” to your e-mail marketing e-newsletters.
10 Worst MySpace Practices
In the online world, higher education marketing and communications professionals have had to learn what makes a good website and how to implement successful viral marketing campaigns. MySpace design is your next frontier in online marketing and communications. Drury University has been experimenting with this online medium for one year. We have definitely learned what doesn’t work on MySpace:
Like all good online and e-mail marketing and communications, the strategy is built upon less is more. Limit your “About Me” content in to four paragraphs that summarize your university and its academics, student/alumni life and athletics. Within these four paragraphs, hyperlink key words and drive your users to those sections on your website.
The same is true for blogs, comments and bulletins. Your users want to scan your MySpace content, not read it.
2) Too much “stuff” and over-designed
Once you are familiar with MySpace, you’ll see that there is no consistency in design and that there are very few user-unfriendly designs out there. In some cases the design is so poor that you can’t even read their profile. Keep your design very simple and streamlined. Post no more than one or two slideshows and 4-5 videos. Keep it clean!
Use photos that portray the beauty of your campus, the uniqueness of your student life, and good athletics action shots. Also, be sure to provide a link to the virtual tour on your website!
4) Sending out too many bulletins
One word… annoying. No more the one or two a day. Plan them in advance for a wide variety and to keep your bulletin marketing interesting.
5) Profiles that lack html knowledge
You need to know html basics to properly design and use your MySpace. Hyperlinks are very important, know when to bold, and in some areas you’ll need to know html images tags to insert your own photos. Additionally, you need to link to most important features on your website, such as: the virtual tour, your alumni section, your course catalog, admissions, financial aid, etc.
6) Profiles that don’t monitor comments
There is a safety feature in MySpace that allows you to view comments before they are posted on your MySpace. Colleges and universities definitely need to this if you want to avoid improper language or photos posted on your MySpace. This is perhaps the number one reason why you should start a MySpace. If a current student or alum does it first, you have zero control over improper content on MySpace that markets your university.
7) Profiles that don’t regularly monitor their top Friends
At least every couple of weeks you need to check the profiles of your top friends. They may have suddenly posted foul language or inappropriate photos. Although MySpace users understand that you didn’t directly create this inappropriate content, they might think twice when they see you are featuring this content through your “Top Friends” function.
8) Profiles that launch a song or video when visited
MySpace has a feature that allows you to select a song that starts to play when your profile is visited. Don’t use this feature. It’s obviously fine for bands, musicians and music lovers, but not for colleges or universities. It’s distracting, most often annoying, and will often prompt users to hit the “Back” button and exit your MySpace. Videos that load upon visiting your profile often crash browsers.
9) Trying too hard to be "cool"
Your MySpace profile is an extension of your website marketing. You have enough of the cool factor by having a MySpace profile and using YouTube. Don’t try to be “cool” because MySpacers will see right through it and you will quickly progress to becoming “lame”. The MySpace audience is diverse in age. Don’t assume that you are just marketing to teenagers and that you need to teen talk. Your MySpace should be fun, but professional.
10) Profiles that don’t integrate with the overall marketing messages of your college or university
Consistency is crucial. Use the key marketing messages and logos that are on your print materials and website. Most of your MySpace users will visit your website, and there should be a common look and feel.
Good luck and have fun on MySpace!
Heather
Mansfield (bio)
myspace.com/DIOSAcommunications
MySpace
Design Services
MySpace Best Practices for Nonprofit
Organizations
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