metro
02-27-2006, 08:16 AM
MySpace is networking tool for entrepreneurs, musicians
By Ty McMahan
The Oklahoman
Jordan Wunder hopes to make his Oklahoma City-based clothing company a success with a little help from his friends — his MySpace friends.
Wunder is one of millions who use the social networking Web site, MySpace.com. Most people use it to keep in touch with friends or to meet people. Wunder’s My-Space page is geared toward attracting customers.
His Pollution Clothing page is stacked with photos of models sporting his custom line of shirts, jackets and neck ties.
“It’s grown a ton,” Wunder said. “Now it’s one of the main marketing tools in the world. It’s humongous and it’s free. It attracts people with an artsy, alternative style and that’s the crowd we want to advertise to.”
A MySpace page usually contains the user’s personal profile, pictures, music and a link to MySpace “friends.” The friends page looks like a digital collection of baseball cards with thumbnail photos of users who have either requested or accepted to be someone’s friend. A click on one of the photos links to the friend’s MySpace page.
Wunder, 19, has gathered more than 240 MySpace friends.
The infinite universe of social networking has mostly been explored by the under-30 crowd, but the success of the Internet destination has caught the attention of some older folks, too. Rupert Murdock’s News Corp. bought MySpace from its developers in July for $580 million.
Supported by ads, the site is free to users. In the last six months of 2005, monthly traffic nearly doubled to 36 million users, making it the eighth-most-visited Web site in January, according to comScore Media Metrix. ComScore Media Metrix places it fourth by total page views, two notches above Google.
MySpace also has become a popular venue for musicians to display their talents. Many users flock to the site to discover new bands. MySpace recently started its own record label with Hollywood Undead, a rap band that launched a MySpace site in June and now has more than 135,000 “friends.”
The site’s home page promotes “My-Space Records, Vol. 1,” a CD with songs from artists who have profiles on MySpace, including Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy and Weezer.
Some Oklahoma musicians have been able to spread their music via My-Space.
The Hosty Duo, the pride of Norman’s music scene, has gathered nearly 800 friends on MySpace.
Michael “Tic Tac” Byars provides the beat for the duo that plays a blend of blues, country, rock, Dixieland, gospel and rockabilly. Byars said the My-Space page has reconnected the band with fans who were concert regulars during their stay in the college town.
“At one point it just snowballed with people who hadn’t seen us in quite a while,” Byars said. “Just putting that logo up on MySpace pulled some attention on the Web. I definitely have heard from people I haven’t seen in a while.”
Byars said the MySpace page has allowed him to network with other people in the music business he may have never had the opportunity to meet — like Questlove, the drummer from the hip-hop group The Roots.
“I saw he had a MySpace page and I just mailed him a letter and he responded, like that,” Byars said. “It’s that easy. It’s pretty cool, because I probably never would have met him another way.”
Camille Harp, a Norman singer/ songwriter, said she has been able to spread her music to people who may have never discovered her tunes.
“I think people get on here and search for music and it’s a good way to network with people out of state,” Harp said. “Just two days ago, I had a guy from Washington who asked to be my friend and he already has my song playing on his profile. I absolutely think it’s a good thing.” Parental concerns
As MySpace gains popularity among teens, some parents and schools have expressed concern over the content of some of the pages and the safety of young users who give out too much information.
Many schools have blocked My-Space so students can’t access it from school computers. The site is the center of a police investigation in Hartford, Conn., where seven teenage girls say they were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed. The girls met the men on MySpace.
MySpace officials announced last week they plan to hire a safety czar to address the concerns of parents and schools. The safety czar will start an educational campaign by sending letters to schools as well as circulating public service announcements to discourage children from disclosing contact information within their profiles.
Officials at the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office offer an Internet safety program for local schools to educate teachers, parents and kids about the dangers lurking on the Web.
Stephanie Pok, community outreach coordinator for the district attorney’s office, said Web logs and social networking sites such as MySpace can be dangerous to kids if not monitored by an adult.
“These social networks are what kids are doing with their free time,” Pok said. “It’s somewhat of a diary and they’re revealing way too much information. They feel they’re safe and anonymous, when they’re not.” Commercialism appearing
Anxious to profit on some people’s addiction to MySpace, some companies are offering products geared towards people with MySpace pages.
Helio LLC, which is jointly owned by SK Telecom and Earthlink, plans to launch two new cellular phones tied to MySpace. The partnership with MySpace.com will allow users of the Helio devices to access a range of MySpace social networking services, including instant messaging, e-mail, blogging and photo-blogging.
I grew up knowing this kid. Exciting to see such a quality product. You can check out his myspace page or go to his webpage at www.pollutionclothing.com . Definitely quality clothing and website!
By Ty McMahan
The Oklahoman
Jordan Wunder hopes to make his Oklahoma City-based clothing company a success with a little help from his friends — his MySpace friends.
Wunder is one of millions who use the social networking Web site, MySpace.com. Most people use it to keep in touch with friends or to meet people. Wunder’s My-Space page is geared toward attracting customers.
His Pollution Clothing page is stacked with photos of models sporting his custom line of shirts, jackets and neck ties.
“It’s grown a ton,” Wunder said. “Now it’s one of the main marketing tools in the world. It’s humongous and it’s free. It attracts people with an artsy, alternative style and that’s the crowd we want to advertise to.”
A MySpace page usually contains the user’s personal profile, pictures, music and a link to MySpace “friends.” The friends page looks like a digital collection of baseball cards with thumbnail photos of users who have either requested or accepted to be someone’s friend. A click on one of the photos links to the friend’s MySpace page.
Wunder, 19, has gathered more than 240 MySpace friends.
The infinite universe of social networking has mostly been explored by the under-30 crowd, but the success of the Internet destination has caught the attention of some older folks, too. Rupert Murdock’s News Corp. bought MySpace from its developers in July for $580 million.
Supported by ads, the site is free to users. In the last six months of 2005, monthly traffic nearly doubled to 36 million users, making it the eighth-most-visited Web site in January, according to comScore Media Metrix. ComScore Media Metrix places it fourth by total page views, two notches above Google.
MySpace also has become a popular venue for musicians to display their talents. Many users flock to the site to discover new bands. MySpace recently started its own record label with Hollywood Undead, a rap band that launched a MySpace site in June and now has more than 135,000 “friends.”
The site’s home page promotes “My-Space Records, Vol. 1,” a CD with songs from artists who have profiles on MySpace, including Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy and Weezer.
Some Oklahoma musicians have been able to spread their music via My-Space.
The Hosty Duo, the pride of Norman’s music scene, has gathered nearly 800 friends on MySpace.
Michael “Tic Tac” Byars provides the beat for the duo that plays a blend of blues, country, rock, Dixieland, gospel and rockabilly. Byars said the My-Space page has reconnected the band with fans who were concert regulars during their stay in the college town.
“At one point it just snowballed with people who hadn’t seen us in quite a while,” Byars said. “Just putting that logo up on MySpace pulled some attention on the Web. I definitely have heard from people I haven’t seen in a while.”
Byars said the MySpace page has allowed him to network with other people in the music business he may have never had the opportunity to meet — like Questlove, the drummer from the hip-hop group The Roots.
“I saw he had a MySpace page and I just mailed him a letter and he responded, like that,” Byars said. “It’s that easy. It’s pretty cool, because I probably never would have met him another way.”
Camille Harp, a Norman singer/ songwriter, said she has been able to spread her music to people who may have never discovered her tunes.
“I think people get on here and search for music and it’s a good way to network with people out of state,” Harp said. “Just two days ago, I had a guy from Washington who asked to be my friend and he already has my song playing on his profile. I absolutely think it’s a good thing.” Parental concerns
As MySpace gains popularity among teens, some parents and schools have expressed concern over the content of some of the pages and the safety of young users who give out too much information.
Many schools have blocked My-Space so students can’t access it from school computers. The site is the center of a police investigation in Hartford, Conn., where seven teenage girls say they were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed. The girls met the men on MySpace.
MySpace officials announced last week they plan to hire a safety czar to address the concerns of parents and schools. The safety czar will start an educational campaign by sending letters to schools as well as circulating public service announcements to discourage children from disclosing contact information within their profiles.
Officials at the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office offer an Internet safety program for local schools to educate teachers, parents and kids about the dangers lurking on the Web.
Stephanie Pok, community outreach coordinator for the district attorney’s office, said Web logs and social networking sites such as MySpace can be dangerous to kids if not monitored by an adult.
“These social networks are what kids are doing with their free time,” Pok said. “It’s somewhat of a diary and they’re revealing way too much information. They feel they’re safe and anonymous, when they’re not.” Commercialism appearing
Anxious to profit on some people’s addiction to MySpace, some companies are offering products geared towards people with MySpace pages.
Helio LLC, which is jointly owned by SK Telecom and Earthlink, plans to launch two new cellular phones tied to MySpace. The partnership with MySpace.com will allow users of the Helio devices to access a range of MySpace social networking services, including instant messaging, e-mail, blogging and photo-blogging.
I grew up knowing this kid. Exciting to see such a quality product. You can check out his myspace page or go to his webpage at www.pollutionclothing.com . Definitely quality clothing and website!