Is twitter/myspace marketing worth it?

[Sublimus]

Hello everyone! I am by no means a marketing person, but it is a part of my current job as the web intern for my employer.

They are a database firm that does as far as I know makes programs to optimize efficiency within their clients business.

So, lord know why, my bos wants me to 'market' the business using a myspace account, and he wants me to look into twitter. Meanwhile he wants me to spam craigslist to hell.


This all seems a little silly to me (minus the craigslistings).

Could anyone offer me some advice? Or how to tell him micro bloggin will not make anyone interested in Microsoft access databases.


Thanks!

[amous]

i don't know about myspace, because your marketing will be marked as spam ,
but twitter (posting short msgs about business ..follow ppl then they follow u ...nice) for every 1000 following/ @ least 100 will check ur site .
craigslist idk

[C.Whyte]

Hmm, I'm the opposite. I use myspace for one of my sites and it gets traffic from it. I started a twitter but no one follows me (lol) so I don't get any traffic!

[webcosmo]

I used MySpace getting decent amount of traffic. I would say its worth giving a try.

[Sublimus]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

How exactly did you guys use myspace? (Like i said, I know nil about marketing).


My boss has a page up, with no friends, and it basically just a billboard with the company all over it.

Should I just add as many people as I can? As far as I know, they generally never have any special promotions or anything worth mentioning. So I have no clue where to start!

My boss just has a page and wants me to "use it to gain traffic".
Thanks!

[zeruel]

They are worth a try. Some works good, and some just don't. I believe it really depends on the niche of your site. I tried posting some classifieds on myspace. But I don't post links. Just a url of my site with now www. or http... It won't look spammy on that way.

[fliply]

In my experience:

Twitter requires more interaction with readers / followers
MySpace less so

for them to work

[Kurt Henninger]

You will probably be able to get traffic from myspace, but my experience with sites like that...is that if you actively market yourself, you will get less traffic. If you go out and try to provide actual value to the community, you will get much better traffic.

Twitter CAN get traffic, but again, you need to build relationships with people before you go ahead and market to them.

[joany]

twitter is good and my space as long as you contribute and help people out

[steveeyes]

I use both myspace and facebook and get traffic from both. If time was valuable, you are better off spending it on facebook. My facebook traffic is double myspace. Facebook is more geared towards promoting a business.

[52ltd]

Depending on what you're selling makes the difference between what social network you should be using to get traffic to your business. Twitter works great for marketing yourself if your trying to get your brand out. Myspace is great for marketing things to younger audiences but Facebook is where it's at. More people then ever are deleting or neglecting their myspace accounts and spending their time on Facebook instead.

Maybe your boss doesn't realize Myspace is out, and that LinkedIn & Facebook are whats hot right now? If they're a database firm that makes programs to optimize efficiency within businesses- start a facebook group on Database Optimization. Then grow your group by reaching out to other database minded people on facebook. Here's an example of how a facebook group can work - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34571493290 - This is one for real estate but you get the idea.

After you get your Facebook group going, get your butt over to LinkedIn and do the same thing by starting a database group there!

[steveeyes]

I agree 100% with 52ltd. To add to the list, besides your profile, you can create as many pages as you like in Facebook. I know webmasters who will create a page for each major feature of their site. Basically you can use your profile to promote your business, create and join as many groups as you want, plus create as many pages as you want. Add the fact that Facebook's networking capability to keep friends informed is far superior to myspace and there is no doubt, Facebook is better for promoting a site than MySpace. But use both if you have to time to do both, if not, use Facebook.

[Li Weng]

It definitely is. Not only it's good for traffic, it's also good for networking with people in the same field, AND it's an effective way of getting industry news. Myspace is also good. Most people are on myspace for a couple of hours every day anyway. Might as well use that that to make some money at the same time.

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by Sublimus

So, lord know why, my bos wants me to 'market' the business using a myspace account, and he wants me to look into twitter. Meanwhile he wants me to spam craigslist to hell.

This all seems a little silly to me (minus the craigslistings).

Could anyone offer me some advice? Or how to tell him micro bloggin will not make anyone interested in Microsoft access databases.

Thanks!

Its sounds like your boss has been reading through some marketing blogs, webmaster promotion sites and forums.

Myspace - My wife and kids use myspace to post family pictures and post comments on each others profiles. And that is what its for. So far I have not seen myspace mature to where it can be used as a real marketing platform. In theory it can work, but in reality, the site is not designed so it can be used in such a manner.

Part of this is the server bugs, error messages and other "problems" that the site has. I can go to wordpress.com, create a profile and a blog and have less problems then what I get from myspace. I finally gave up on mypsace because of all the "Internal server error" messages I got.

The overall design of myspace does not accommodate promotion strategies. Go to youtube, from the first video you watch you can see a related videos sidebar. This helps you find videos related to the one you are watching. This is perfect for marketing, blogging and promotion. Myspace lacks certain features that would help you help yourself.

In other words, dont expect a lot of results by using myspace as a promotion tool.

[duvalenterprises]

It's very easy to drive massive amounts of traffic from Facebook. MySpace is for kids and highschoolers, so don't expect to meet any business people there. Myspace can be used for promoting, but not your product. Promoting CPA offers and doing affiliate marketing works great there, but not the niche you are targeting.

I have also had great success with Youtube, but I haven't done much with LinkedIn so no comments there

[krishananda]

Originally Posted by webcosmo

I used MySpace getting decent amount of traffic. I would say its worth giving a try.

Start following people, lots of them (max 2000 before you got 2000 followers) and people will follow you back.

Works for me

[theredheadknows]

wonderful - thanks - The Redhead

[rypher21]

both of them can give traffic...not only this 2 site, better try other social networking site...

[Henry Andersson]

Well I would thank your boss for this.

After you have learned how to master that tools you will be able to grow you own business and hire your boss to clean your floors.

[onlineshine]

If you've built a good network for you in Myspace and Twitter, you would definitely expect a good amount of traffic generating to your website.