Tread Lightly in TheirSpace

As popular social networking sites like MySpace have grown, they've gotten the attention of marketers... and their users have noticed. One of their responses to the "marketing invasion" has been to make fun of those marketers.

MySpace users are growing disenchanted with the social-networking site because it's "becoming too corporate, overrun with ads, and less authentic," writes MediaPost. The article points to a dilemma that publishers of similar sites face: the measure of their success is advertising revenue, but granting marketers extensive access can undermine the authenticity and appeal that made the site attractive to users, and therefore advertisers, in the first place.

When you try to market in these venues, you've got to be careful not to sound like some ad guy in suit (even if that's exactly what you are). Look at what you're creating and ask yourself: if I were the typical user of this site, would I find it entertaining? Useful? Or would you think, Look, some corporate guy's trying to get my money?

We marketing types often kid ourselves about the interest people really have in our messages (generally, near zero, unless we can prove ourselves to them). So strip away the wishful thinking and take a good look at what you're doing; if you're not absolutely confident in the answers to those questions, keep working on it.