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Abstract
The social networking site MySpace, which allows users to create personalized profile pages and network with others, has caught on with remarkable speed since its introduction in 2003. Not ignoring an opportunity to connect with consumers, advertisers have been negotiating how to create sponsored profiles for their brands. The current study analyzes the elements of 50 MySpace brand profiles along the dimensions of on-line marketing, multimedia, interactivity, and brand affinity and then compares the elements based on product category, profile customization, and the focus of the profile (i.e., character or brand).
Introduction
Although on-line social networks such as MySpace and Facebook have received much attention recently in trade publications and the mainstream media, social networking is not a new phenomenon. For years, on-line social networks have been expanding through LISTSERVs, message boards, and e-mail contact lists. Predating the Internet, powerful social networks have been found in university alumni organizations, political parties, and religions (Schultz 2007). The term can be traced back to the 1950s when J.A. Barnes first used it to describe complex sets of relationships between members of a social system (Freeman 2004). Schultz (2007) described social networks as "participatory and self-expressive Web sites?where members/participants expose, discuss, reveal, and expound on their personal lives, activities, hopes, dreams, and even fantasies for others to see and marvel upon" (p. 10).
In 1997, sixdegrees.com was launched as the first on-line social networking site. Users could connect to their friends and then network through the connections of those friends. This early iteration shut down within a couple years. Using this same platform, Friendster.com was created in 2002 with a more user-friendly interface that included on-line profile photos, message boards, and links to a user's network of "friendsters" (Bowley 2006).
In 2003, musician Tom Anderson and former Xdrive Inc. marketer Chris DeWolfe combined their respective talents to form MySpace. Interviews with Anderson and DeWolfe describe their intention to provide a Friendster-type forum for musicians and bands to post their music and for fans to chat about them (Hempel and Lehman 2005). While Anderson elicited support from his Hollywood and musician friends, DeWolfe utilized ties to numerous email spam ventures to coax users of Friendster.com as well as on-line dating Web sites to join MySpace as...