Would you add a brand as a MySpace friend?
April 25, 2007 – 9:55 pm
Interesting discussion around MySpace ‘Friending’ being a new form of advertising on MarketingVox.
I’m not a huge MySpace user, but created an account a year or so ago to learn about it (and have created a Facebook and other accounts).
I added Boulevard Beer, a Kansas City based brewing company as a MySpace friend the other day. Boulevard Beer accepted my friend request and then posted a “thanks for adding” comment back on my page with a Boulevard Beer logo. Great move. I appreciated that there was someone maintaining their MySpace presence and bumped them up the list to a top friend to give them some exposure for being on the ball.
The next trend I see is for brands to start releasing MySpace templates to the public. After all, people are going to misuse their brands anyway, so brands might as well provide a way for users to promote their brands in a positive light. Most of the templates out there are horrible at best (which is why I like Facebook better).
If you have any online accounts on sites like MySpace, do you have any brands as friends?
Technorati Tags: MySpace, Facebook, friend, social, network, brand, advertising
5 Responses to “Would you add a brand as a MySpace friend?”
Your suggestion is a classic example of brand hyjackin. A great book too on where marketing is heading:
Brand Hyjack by Wipperfurth.
Smart companies know this and embrace it.
Steve
By Stephen Sammartino on Apr 26, 2007
The idea of ‘friending’ a brand is interesting because of the fact that only brands of which people are passionate about can get away with it.
You may or may not agree that musicians/bands are brands. I see this more than anything on the social networks - bands will comb MySpace/Virb/etc for users that listen to bands that are similar to their genre. They will then send friend request after friend request. It’s great in their eyes to get people to listen to their music, but let’s face it - most of them aren’t that good. And it’s annoying. Because I get so many of these requests, I rarely even listen to the band before making my decision.
I can see the advantage for brands of which people are passionate about (Beer, Cars, and well, that’s about it) - I know I’d accept a friend request from Boulevard or BMW. If someone like Oneida Silverware asked me to be their friend, I’m not sure I could contain my laughter.
-Jameson
By Jameson Huckaba on Apr 27, 2007
I don’t have a facebook or my space account. But I consider Boulevard Beer a friend!
By Chris Lengquist on Apr 30, 2007
Chris, do you use other services like LinkedIn, and if so, have you found them to be beneficial?
By Dustin Jacobsen on Apr 30, 2007
I have never heard of Linkedin. I do use Meebo, which is nothing more than an online IM. I’ll check it out. Thanks.
By Chris Lengquist on May 6, 2007