The Galveston County Daily News

Jeff Nielsen, owner of Island Bicycle Co., has 936 friends.

That number is not a reflection of his personal popularity but of his marketing savvy.

Not all of his friends are customers, but they might be, something Nielsen plans gradually to take to the bank.

The island cycle shop is one of dozens of local businesses taking advantage of the social networking site MySpace to promote products and services and reach out to potential customers.

“It’s an enormous marketing tool,” Nielsen said. “It’s not just for kids. It’s become a communication highway for everyone.”

MyMarket

MySpace probably is best known for its popularity among teens. They use the site to post pictures of themselves, keep far-from-private diaries of their daily lives and stay in touch with their friends.

But business owners have discovered the features that mesmerized teens also help build a customer base.

“Marketing through MySpace is becoming one of the best ways to guerrilla market these days,” said Carlon Haas, Austin-based Internet marketing expert and president of Brave New Marketing.

“Using the search tool on MySpace, you can get demographic information by ZIP code. It has all the targeting of an expensive direct mail campaign at zero the cost.”

When Nielsen set up his MySpace profile last year, he had no friends, so to speak.

But the MySpace search engine told him he had 22,000 potential friends within a 10-mile radius of his Seawall storefront.

For Neilson, that was like hitting the jackpot.

“Every day I send out 20 friend requests,” he said. “With the kids’ market, because of our logo, they tend to grab it quick. They like it, they want a bike and (the logo) looks good on their front page.”

Once people agree to be his friends, he can bombard them as often as he wants with reminders of how much they need one of his bikes.

“Once a week I’ll send out a blurb announcing a bike special or telling people that new bikes have come in,” he said. “That goes out to all my friends.”

Before long, he started getting friend requests from people who had seen his logo on other people’s profiles and wanted one of their own.

MyMoney

Casual friends are great, but as any small-business owner knows, true friends contribute to the bottom line.

Nielsen’s are true, it turns out, and it didn’t take long for him to realize his guerrilla marketing campaign was going to pay off.

Last week, he sold three bikes to people who said they found the shop through MySpace. During the weekend, he met four more customers who wanted to see the bike he built for Houston basketball star Yao Ming, a sure sign of how they found him.

Nielsen has a picture of Yao and his super-sized ride on the store’s MySpace profile.

Downtown business owner Susannah Holms hasn’t had as much financial success with her profile, but she said it’s effective nonetheless.

Holms created a space for her eclectic gift shop, T.F. Hippie’s, last summer.

Twice a month, she sends her 165 friends bulletins with special offers and coupons.

“I’m not going to tell you that the response has been outstanding, but I’ve had a few people come in because they saw something on MySpace,” she said. “To me, it’s worked. Even if they don’t respond right away, it’s still in their minds.”

Holms helps promote her profile to existing customers by posting “thanks for shopping” messages on their MySpace profiles. The appreciation makes the customers feel good and lets their friends know where they shop.

“It’s really helping me get a new demographic, people I haven’t been reaching through regular advertising,” she said.

MyBrand

Harish Rao, CEO of online community building firm EchoDitto, describes MySpace as thousands of people who want to express their individuality in a community.

Businesses can tap into that thirst for self-expression by joining the community and inviting feedback.

“It’s a lot more personalized (than other forms of advertising),” Rao said. “There’s a lot of sharing, and frankly a level of trust that you wouldn’t have conceived of a few years ago.

“Successful businesses on MySpace are clear about why they’re there — to build a brand. They can be trusted, in a sense, because they’re not trying to hide anything. They’re just trying to be a part of the community.”

Galveston company Lt. Blender, an alcoholic drink mix manufacturer, discovered how powerful brand-building can be when one of its biggest fans wrote from Baghdad.

The Lost Platoon, a group of contract workers and military personnel in the Iraqi capital, sent the company pictures of themselves sipping Lt. Blender bags on the lawn of the American embassy.

“We just really wanted this to be a fun place for our customers,” said Jennifer Schaudt, operations manager. “We have plans to post customer testimonials and do something fun with the blog.”

While the company could do all of these things on its corporate Web site, Schaudt said company officials decided to turn the more formal space over to their distributors and wholesale customers.

MySpace is for Lt. Blender’s fans.

Although company Employees were excited about the number of friends they were racking up — 102 according to the latest count — they were really pumped up about their first MySpace sale, Schaudt said.

“I’ve sent out three bulletins so far with coupons just for our MySpace friends,” she said. “Last week, we got our first sale. It wasn’t that big a sale, but everyone was so excited because it proved MySpace works.”

MyCommunity

The online community is not just for networking with customers.

Local businesses are connecting on MySpace and helping to promote each other’s profiles.

Dennis Byrd, owner of The Spot restaurant, has agreements with several companies to keep their logos on his front page.

Nielsen, Holms and Schaudt do the same.

“Our top eight friends are all local businesses,” Byrd said. “It’s a great way to network and bring more businesses to the community.”

Nielsen said Chamber of Commerce officials have even taken notice of the new way to network and asked him to do a seminar for other business owners who want to get their own space.

Haas, who recently presented a seminar on MySpace marketing at Austin’s South by Southwest festival, said the online networking trend was only going to get bigger.

“As business owners, we look for any way in which we can connect with our prospects and our clients,” he said. “The beauty about MySpace is that it allows businesses to be able to do that kind of thing. People feel like they have a personal relationship with you or your company.

“That’s the key to a successful business anyway.”

+++

On the Web

Some Galveston businesses on MySpace: • Strand Theatre — myspace.com/strandtheatre

• The Spot — myspace.com/thespotrestaurants

• T.F. Hippie’s — myspace.com/tfhippies

• Island Bicycle Co. — myspace.com/islandbicyclecompany

• Lt. Blender — myspace.com/ltblender

• Midsummer Books — myspace.com/midsummerbooks

To find more local businesses on MySpace, type “Galveston business” into the site’s search field or look for names you recognize in the friends lists of the businesses listed above.