by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: March 06, 2009

It is quite incredible how many business owners are finally waking up to the sensational powers of such as MySpace and simple blogs when it comes to internet promotion and marketing. These tools, only until very recently seen as the leisure domains of teenaged Web users, are incredibly powerful devices for reaching a wide variety of people right across the globe. It may be to promote their business in a direct fashion or it may be to essentially promote their business website; whichever method they choose to employ, business owners cannot afford to ignore the power of Web 2.0.

MySpace is what is known as a social networking site. This essentially means that people join from all over the world, build themselves a profile and interact with other users in a number of varied ways. It is possible to build a blog on the site; it is possible to search for and invite people to be your friends on the site; it is possible to join common interest groups and interact with others who share the same interest; it is even possible to send what are essentially internal e-mails to other site users.

The first step for a business owner contemplating using MySpace is therefore to sign up and build his business profile. There are a great many various templates employed on MySpace but I would strongly recommend against using an overly complex one as they take too long to load and I find myself, when I have unknowingly clicked on such a profile, very rapidly clicking the "back" button. This is clearly not desirable, especially when the purpose of the page is promoting a business.

The page should then be populated with details of the business, what it offers or sells, where it is located, how it may be contacted. Essentially, a summary of all the information which one would include on a business website. If appropriate, do not forget to link to the business website from this page. I would suggest here as a follow on that the next step be building an internal MySpace blog, where details of such as limited special offers may readily be included and frequently updated.

It is worth browsing site users by location, naturally within the vicinity of your business, and inviting those who you feel may be potential customers to be your friend. Don't be afraid to promote your business in this respect and tell them what you believe you can offer them. Remember, however, never to engage in spamming!

Depending upon the nature of the business, it may be appropriate to join interest groups on MySpace and

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