Using MySpace to engage consumers

The media likes to bash on MySpace as a site where predators prowl. As a result, major brands have shied away from leveraging the opportunity to reach and engage with consumers. But not everyone is running scared.

Here’s an interesting example I just discovered. On July 8th, the Luann comic strip promoted a url to a fictitional character’s (Tiffany) My Space page:

I finally checked that page 3 days later and there were 585 other MySpace community members that had linked to Tiffany (aka “Sheraton”) as a friend. That doesn’t include however many visitors that had viewed the page but didn’t leave a message or link to her.

Plus, these “friends” leave comments that play along with with fictional character.

Tiffany has posted her modeling photos and several blog posts. The comic strip suggests that arch-rival “Luann” may make discrete posts to Tiffany’s site, thus compelling readers to follow the drama from the newspaper to the Web and back.

Pretty impressive for such a minimal investment, don’t you think?
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.