Improving Your Myspace Page

I have a friend, who we will call "Mike," who seriously needs to improve his Myspace Page. To help him out, I decided to give him some pointers:

As you all know, Michael is in dyer need of a Myspace overhaul and has requested our help. What you need to do is to show off your strengths Michael. You need to do a Personal SWOT Analysis to identify what makes you, You:

S Strength Your personal/professional talents, skills, and abilities
W Weaknesses Your own personal/professional limitations, dislikes, and soft-spots
O Opportunities The things that (and people who) motivate, inspire, and empower you
T Threats The things that (and people who) frighten, unnerve, and discombobulate you

SWOT analysis is an important step in planning and its value is often underestimated despite the simplicity in creation. From your SWOT chart, you can express your strengths on Myspace in multiple ways. Create a witty “about me” section, list hobbies/activities that you enjoy (even if they are fake), update your movie likes, personal heroes, and so on. This greatly increases your like-ability to others. And please, do not make it too long, as Myspace viewers tend to get bored very easily…so try to keep it simple and to the point!


Default Picture
If your profile is private, your default picture is very important. It’s usually best to go with a headshot so everyone can clearly see who you are. Your current picture is mediocre at best. If the statement you want to make is, “Hi my name is Mike, and I’m Boring,” well then you have succeeded. We need to spice that up to get some new viewers to your profile. Maybe do something zany and crazy. Or perhaps an action shot, such as you playing in one of your soccer games. Going the cute route is very helpful as well…I could lend you my dog Harry for the day if you would like. Since I’ve added that picture of Harry and Me this week, I’ve gained a handful of new adds! Also rotate your default picture sometimes, as I think you’ve had the same pic for the past 2 years…..

Myspace Photo Albums
The most important part of your profile is your photo albums. Honestly, your current line-up of pictures turns viewers away from your profile and it leaves a sour taste in their mouth. The goal here is to show off some solo pics of yourself looking good, but also to showcase your fabulous and beautiful friends! When people see that other beautiful people like spending time with you, this makes them want to as well! Jealously and Stalking is what keeps Myspace in business, and people want to know who you are friends with. Below are a couple good ideas from your Online Web Album:

· Soccer Classic: These pictures will show that you are sporty. Choose some of the soccer group photos to show off your entire team. Include the picture of you Matt S., resize to 50% smaller, it's too in your face as is. This is good to show that you are actually friends with your top8 (we will get to your top8 overhaul later…)

· St. Patty’s Day: These pictures will show that you are Festive. Take a few pictures from here since they are very recent, and mix it up, add a couple group pics and solo’s…. And remember, if you look good in one pic but others don’t, just CROP!

· NYC Trip: to show you like to Travel. Take some of the group pics from my profile…

Use your own judgment and add maybe 1 to 2 pages of pictures. If you want, create separate albums, but don’t over do it, no one likes an overachiever…

Also you need to upload some group photos to Photobucket.com and paste the code into your actually myspace profile. For example, look at Dennis’s profile, he has a ton of pictures. However Dennis may have too many pictures, you might want to start slow and just add a few pictures on the left side…

Music
Music is a good touch because it keeps viewership up. If you switch your song a lot, people will keep coming back to see what you are playing next. If you can’t decide on a song, no big deal, just steal it from one of your friends, or a friend of a friend. It’s best to wait until they move on to their next song, then steal it from their music history list…..

Top Eight
As I said earlier, people don’t use Myspace to keep in touch with friends; they use it to stalk friends and their friends of friends. Because of this, your top8 is crucial because it lets people know who you are closest with. I looked at yours the other day, and I only knew like 2 or 3 people!! This needs to be overhauled STAT! Now ranking your friends can be a difficult process. Many people have different methods of ranking. You can do best to worst, alphabetical, longest acquaintance to newest, and so on. To start though, you should probably change your top friends to a top4 to get a clean slate. Give it a few weeks so that everyone sees that you downsized and to let it sink in. Then once enough time has passed, increase back up to a top 8, 10, 20 with the people you really want to put in…. You can base your top8 also on those who have you in their top8. Why would your #1 Buddy be someone who doesn’t have you in theirs? WTF?!

Background
A lot of people add crazy backgrounds or designs to their profile. These are sometimes cool and add a bit of finesse, but you don’t want to overdue it. NEVER use a Flash background, as these take way too long to load and people will automatically click off of your page. Simple is the best way to go, or a really cool design if that’s what you are into. I can show you how to do this, but so can Google….

Comments/Bulletins
If you want your presence known on Myspace, you need to start commenting more on friend’s pages. Leaving funny or vague comments is best, as this often intrigues others. Sometimes people will friend request you just so they can see what their friend wrote back to you. I find bulletins are also a good because it lets you entertain the masses… Bulletins/Blogs/Myspace Weekly Themes are more advance and will be covered once you have mastered the beginners guide….

Hopefully this has helped you on your quest to improving your Myspace Page. Remember these are just suggestions, and everyone has their own personal likes/dislikes..but I would follow this if I was you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Best of Luck,

Eric