The Power of Myspace - A Personal Journey - The Beginning.

Myspace

How did I get involved?

Living with my teenage sons and 18 year old god daughter, I thought I should check out what they were talking about. It was all yet an other language to learn, if I was to communicate with them.

Why did I set up a myspace?

I am on the committee of the only charity in this country for OZ musicians (www.supportact.com.au)

Being a charity, we are trying to cut down on promotional expenses, thus as our website is in urgent need of attention (that is on the drawing board), I decided to try a myspace and see what would happen. I had no idea of the power it has or how it operated but after playing around with backgrounds etc (lots of free ones out there and more coming everyday), I set up my account and off I went.

First day I went in and added 20 'friends' people I did not know but were in the OZ music industry and if nothing else it would help with awareness raising of the Charity.

Second day, I had those 20 and 30 requests to be added as a friend. I sorted them and approved the ones I thought were strategic, beneficial in the long run (you do need to be careful of the creepy ones who try to get in with their porn and the like).

I continued to add at least 5 a day and always got more in return.

I posted bulletins about membership of support act - and was advised yesterday that membership requests have increased 300% in the last 3 weeks.

What I found interesting with the bulletins is that if you post, they go out to all of your friends - if you then email a couple of friends that you have developed relationships with and ask them to post out to their friends, it is near on impossible to work out how many friends get your bulletin. I know the first one I posted and then emailed to others, went something like this:

My friends = 540
email friend1 = 3,700
email friend 2 = 10,000
email friend 4 = 765
email friend 5 = 4,569

If you consider that some may not read etc - even if 10% took notice and decided to join up that is still alot of people and boy, every $33 helps the charity to help those in need.

So where am I 4 weeks down the track:

As of todays count I am nearly at the 1,000 friends mark
Bands/Artists have sent and are sending memorabillia to us so that we can raffle and auction at events
Bands/Artists have offered to give their time gratis to play at events
Music Mags nation wide, including Tripp Media have offered free advertising for Support Act, both online and hard copy
Many sites are now showing the SAL banner, with a hyperlink to the website
Promoters have provided tickets for raffle and auction to concerts, such as Robbie Williams, Diana Ross and the list goes on.
Last but not least this thing takes on a life of it's own, expands exponentially and needs time and careful management, if you are serious about it.

There is more but this gives you a general picture and a starting point.

What is intriguing me at present is that we had 'myspace', 'myspacemusic', myspacecomedy' - when will we have myspace business' and can this type of tool be used for educational purposes. There are many business in the skate clothing arena and the like, venues etc that have their own myspace and are tapping into the 'myspacemusic' - many of the owners being in their very early 20's. What effect will this have on business in the long run? What effect with this all have on our ability in education to truly provide for the needs of our charges in the future? Are we moving fast enough in education or are we slipping behind?

All of this and many more questions racing around in my head, forced me to google myspace - I have provided for you a number of links, so that you too - if interested can have a read. I found it amazing to find that the myspace generation is even in Wikipedia and connected to the 'igeneration' which is a sub-branch of the 'y-generation'

Okay my head is spinning, so now it is your turn to have a read if you will and share any of your thoughts or experiences on myspace or any of the other tools such as facebook. Xanga or Haystack.

Oh - here are the URL's for my 'myspace' - if you wish to take a peek.

My URL http://www.myspace.com/jinxsalvic

My Blog URL
http://blog.myspace.com/jinxsalvic

The MySpace Generation

They live online. They buy online. They play online. Their power is growing. www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_50/b3963001.htm - 78k -

The MySpace Generation

Kids today have Web feet, and they're running all over sites like MySpace.com -- 40 million members and growing -- that build social networks. www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/cover_stories/covercast_12_01_05.htm - 26k -

Trends in the Living Networks: The MySpace Generation

The MySpace Generation. BusinessWeek continues its attention to the unfolding online world with a cover story titled The MySpace Generation. ... www.rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2005/12/the_myspace_gen.html - 16k -

Talkin' 'Bout MySpace Generation

If you're 35 or older, the term MySpace probably does not register with you. But for many young people, this. www.cbn.com/family/Parenting/Colson_MySpace.aspx - 31k -

Wait till the MySpace Generation hits the Workforce - Web Strategy ...

The myspace generation is already in the workforce. Currently we are faced with a situation where monitors are showing an average of 1.5 - 2.5 hours per ... jeremiahthewebprophet.blogspot.com/2006/04/wait-till-myspace-generation-hits.html - 63k -

Marketing to the MySpace Generation (and the Economics of Social ...

In acquiring MySpace, News Corp made a bold move in attempting to understand and manage an online channel which Generation Y audiences are using to connect ... www.marketingprofs.com/6/kurtzman1.asp - 52k - 7 Nov 2006 -

Internet generation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Other neologisms to denote this demographic cohort include iGeneration, [2] and the MySpace Generation. [3]. Other terms that have been used in conjunction ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_generation - 24k -

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