Posted by Ann Bernard

This is one of your first entrepreneurial (and social media) lesson.  Since you can only do limited business on MySpace it’s not sufficient to solely rely on MySpace.  I’m saying MySpace but it could be any other networking site you use. 

Where’s the Best Place for you to Conduct Business?

The answer is multiple places (we’ll talk at great length about that)…however, one main place on the web you need to be conducting business is on your own site and domain.

It’s natural as an entertainer to be drawn to and rely on MySpace…the social network is after all packed with millions of users and potential fans. You can brand your profile page so it’s also powerful for building your brand, you can blog, message people, post upcoming shows and with the addition of widgets and applications you can pretty much bring everything to your MySpace profile (something else we’ll get into great details about) but there are many pitfalls to only relying on one social network. 

Pitfalls of Social Network(s) – Find Solutions on your own domain

Biggest Pitfall – Conducting Business: Seriously, how much selling can you easily do from MySpace or other social networks?  Or how much serious selling can you easily do from MySpace and other social networks?  Even with the advance of widgets and applications…your ability to SALE is limited.

Solution: Creating a store on your own domain is pretty darn easy these days…why wouldn’t you do that!?!?

Pitfall – Reliability: MySpace has been around for awhile so it’s “pretty stable” but it’s not full proof.  Just a couple of weeks ago the blog features were down. I’ve also heard complaints about play counts.  No matter what third party site you trust to conduct business – you rely on them being and staying reliable.

Solution: Having your own domain is a forefront and a backup to all your other profiles.

Pitfall – Control: You don’t own your profile on a social network – the social network owns your profile.  You have to play by rules of the terms of services (TOS). Your account can be deleted if and when they feel like you’ve violated the TOS.  Or on the flip side, it becomes impossible to get your profile deleted.

Solution: You are the master of your own domain and the content there. You are the owner of the TOS.  You can say, add, delete and do whatever you want.

Pitfall – Wall Garden:  This can probably also go under the pitfall of control as well.  So pretty much all social networks require people to become members and users of their social network to communicate with you.  Do you realize how many people don’t bother to do that?

Solution:  On your own domain you make it much simpler and easier for people to communication with you.

Pitfall – Limited Ability to be Discovered:  As you will read below in the answers provided from great peeps on twitter: solely relying on one social network really limits your exposure to multiple audiences.  No matter how large a social network is – Not everyone is on it!!

scottpalmer @AnnBernard Like cell phone carriers, imagine only calling people on your network!! Don't know where folks are, you have to be everywhere.

wei_yang @AnnBernard Like all advertising, if you limit yourself to one channel, you miss out on testing and reaching the other channels

andrewbadera @AnnBernard haha PERFECT: 140 characters just ain't enough bandwidth, in the case of Twitter, to do everything one needs to do biz-wise.

andrewbadera @AnnBernard any one network fails to be universally inclusive. different features have different business value. etc. etc

JoeyN @AnnBernard not everyone uses the same social networks for the same reasons. Some cater to specific demographics & audiences

Solution:  Your own domain will get indexed in search engines and with proper SEO you’ll can make it super easy for anyone to find and discover you. 

I’ll be exploring the websites of artists in upcoming posts and we’ll find out how well it’s been paying off for them!

Filed in business

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