New ASY MySpace Profile

Here's the old one:



















Here's the new one (launched yesterday):

MySpace Profiles I Like

1. http://myspace.com/roommates




















2. http://myspace.com/positiveparenting




















3. http://myspace.com/rockfordarfur

How LinkedIn Compares to Facebook Compares to MySpace, Etc.

LinkedIn: 15 million users. 4,000 new users a day (10/07).

Facebook: 55 million active users, who, on average spend 22 minutes a day on the site. 200,000 new users a day (11/07; 10/07; 10/07).

MySpace: 110 million active users (2/08).

Twitter: 340,000 users. 2,000 new users a day (7/07).

YouTube:

Why Your Nonprofit Organization Should Embrace Social Networking

If only because all 501(c)3s can avail themselves of these free programs:

1. YouTube.

2. MySpace.

3. Facebook.

4. Google. Google Grants provides free Google AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. This program is designed to help organizations extend their public service messages to a global audience in an effort to make a greater impact on the world.

Tagging Videos on MySpaceTV

For some reason, MySpace automatically alphabetizes the tags for videos uploaded to MySpaceTV. Thus,

Paris Hilton Britney Spears Jennifer Love Hewitt

becomes

Britney Hewitt Hilton Jennifer Love Paris Spears

This is obviously problematic, since it breaks apart phrases.

After perusing some of the top videos on MySpaceTV, two solutions became apparent: (1) Deleting spaces among paired words ("JenniferLoveHewitt"), or (2) using underscores among paired words ("Jennifer_Love_Hewitt"). I opted for the underscores.

This isn't perfect—ideally, tags would permit spaces—but it's an easy and explainable workaround, the need for which is ever-present on the Web.

Corporate America Is Now Advertising Its MySpace Profiles

Check out this ad, from Anheuser-Busch, promoting its Positive Parenting campaign:

How to Make an Impact on MySpace

Pun intended.

• Check out the Groups area of MySpace. There are groups for every interest. Join some of these or view the profiles of the people in groups dedicated to bands that have a similar audience as your band and send friend requests to them.

• Click “Add to friends” when viewing a profile (you will find this under the header “Contacting…”) and this person will receive a friend request from you in both their MySpace email and regular e-mail account.

• To personalize it, and increase the likelihood that the member will add you as a friend, send the person a message. Select “Send Message.”

• When someone accepts your friend request or adds your organization as a friend, post a public comment on that person’s profile thanking them for their support. This is a powerful way of spreading links to your profile across the site, using the standard MySpace etiquette.

• Find a few active Groups that are relevant to your org, and participate in their forums to get the word out

• If you have relationships with local bands, politicians, or celebrities who have communities of supporters on MySpace, ask them to post your badge for one day, send out a bulletin, or in some other way highlight you

Click here for the full Word document.

America Supports You on MySpace

Here's a screen shot of how MySpace is promoting ASY on its Impact channel:


Click here for ASY's MySpace profile.

Odds and Ends

1. MySpace joins OpenSocial, a Google-led initiative that promotes a common set of standard for software developers to write programs for social networks. According to the NYT, Google says it invited Facebook to participate, but a Facebook spokeswoman says Facebook has not yet been fully briefed on the initiative, though it has scheduled a meeting with Google engineers soon.

Randall Stross draws the appropriate conclusion: "A long, long time ago—last Monday, that is—Facebook ... was celebrating its ability to command a generous $15 billion valuation while pocketing a $240 million investment from Microsoft ... If Facebook chooses to remain a holdout [from OpenSocial], it will not be as the head of a countercoalition but as a cranky recluse."

2. Todd Zeigler points to another use of Google AdWords: As a "cheap and real-time focus group."

3. The NYT reports on the power of Twitter.