Creating a MySpace Page to Promote Your Restaurant
Signing Up:
Signing up at MySpace is easy, and it’s free. Below are some tips for starting a page for your own business and gaining some valuable prospects along the way.
Filling Out Your Basic Info:
When creating your MySpace profile, there are some basic fields you must fill out first. The overall goal of using a social networking site is to give your company a personal feel, yet it’s wise to stay neutral on certain issues. A good way to do so is to select the “No Answer” option on those revealing questions. For example, it’s really not necessary to offer your religion or political preferences to potential clients. If some of your prospects disagree with them that could be the deal breaker. Thus, some things are better left unsaid.
There are some questions, however, that it’s better to provide an answer such as the following:
Your Basic Information: Gender & Date of Birth (you can put here yours or the date when you opened your restaurant)
Signing up at MySpace is easy, and it’s free. Below are some tips for starting a page for your own business and gaining some valuable prospects along the way.
Filling Out Your Basic Info:
When creating your MySpace profile, there are some basic fields you must fill out first. The overall goal of using a social networking site is to give your company a personal feel, yet it’s wise to stay neutral on certain issues. A good way to do so is to select the “No Answer” option on those revealing questions. For example, it’s really not necessary to offer your religion or political preferences to potential clients. If some of your prospects disagree with them that could be the deal breaker. Thus, some things are better left unsaid.
There are some questions, however, that it’s better to provide an answer such as the following:
Your Basic Information: Gender & Date of Birth (you can put here yours or the date when you opened your restaurant)
As you can tell, MySpace hasn’t exactly made an optimal business page format in forcing a company to provide its date of birth and gender. However, a thing to realize is that while you are using your MySpace page to build a client base and market to your friends, MySpace is using your own page to market to you! The answers you provide help MySpace to target their own advertising messages, which is why some answers require a response.
After entering this basic information, MySpace will ask you to enter a security code to verify that you are a human and not a script trying to register fake people, and then you will receive an email at the address that you’ve entered. You must click on the email’s link to confirm your identity.
Once you’ve clicked on the email’s link, you’ll see a screen where MySpace asks you to upload a photo. You can upload your own photo, if you want to maintain a more personal page in MySpace, or your restaurant’s if you want to keep it more corporative. Don’t worry too much as this point. You can later on change this photo and add many more photos into your profile.
After this, you will go to the “Add a school” screen. Just click on the “skip this step” link since you are not interested in connecting with your classmates.
After entering this basic information, MySpace will ask you to enter a security code to verify that you are a human and not a script trying to register fake people, and then you will receive an email at the address that you’ve entered. You must click on the email’s link to confirm your identity.
Once you’ve clicked on the email’s link, you’ll see a screen where MySpace asks you to upload a photo. You can upload your own photo, if you want to maintain a more personal page in MySpace, or your restaurant’s if you want to keep it more corporative. Don’t worry too much as this point. You can later on change this photo and add many more photos into your profile.
After this, you will go to the “Add a school” screen. Just click on the “skip this step” link since you are not interested in connecting with your classmates.
You will be now in the Location screen. This screen is VERY important for your restaurant since you want the people who find you to live near where your restaurant is located.
Enter the information and click on “Start using MySpace”.
At this point, you’ll see a Pop-Up asking you to check some of your email services (Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail) to see if MySpace can find people there that have already registered these emails to open a MySpace account.
If you use any of these email services, you can click the “Find Friends”, otherwise just click the “No, thanks…” link at the bottom of the page.
At this point, you’ll see a Pop-Up asking you to check some of your email services (Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail) to see if MySpace can find people there that have already registered these emails to open a MySpace account.
If you use any of these email services, you can click the “Find Friends”, otherwise just click the “No, thanks…” link at the bottom of the page.
Your Name and URL:
The next step is to fill in your “Display Name” (this is the name that people will see about your page) and your special MySpace URL.
When choosing a name and url (myspace.com/url), the URL should be the name of your restaurant, or as close as you can get to it. If your restaurant name is very long or has already been already taken, you need to be creative and come up with a descriptive name that people can associate to your restaurant. It is best if you can select the same name that you have in Facebook (facebook.com/yourrestaurant), of course this is if you already have a Facebook account. If not, you can do the other way around (use for Facebook the same URL that you’ll use here for MySpace.
The next step is to fill in your “Display Name” (this is the name that people will see about your page) and your special MySpace URL.
When choosing a name and url (myspace.com/url), the URL should be the name of your restaurant, or as close as you can get to it. If your restaurant name is very long or has already been already taken, you need to be creative and come up with a descriptive name that people can associate to your restaurant. It is best if you can select the same name that you have in Facebook (facebook.com/yourrestaurant), of course this is if you already have a Facebook account. If not, you can do the other way around (use for Facebook the same URL that you’ll use here for MySpace.
Company Overview: the Profile / My Profile Section
This is your page’s bread and butter. In the “About Me” field, give a concise overview of your company and how it may benefit your target audience. Use common sense and creativity to spark their interest. What’s your restaurant all about? What’s special about your place?
Don’t forget to mention what may entice me, your potential customer, to become your friend?
Potential Clients: The “Who I’d like to meet” Section
Here you can breakdown your target audience. Who do you think would read your profile? Keep these comments targeted, yet open enough for any and every potential consumer.
This is your page’s bread and butter. In the “About Me” field, give a concise overview of your company and how it may benefit your target audience. Use common sense and creativity to spark their interest. What’s your restaurant all about? What’s special about your place?
Don’t forget to mention what may entice me, your potential customer, to become your friend?
Potential Clients: The “Who I’d like to meet” Section
Here you can breakdown your target audience. Who do you think would read your profile? Keep these comments targeted, yet open enough for any and every potential consumer.
Your Restaurant's Interests:
If you choose to not provide info here, these sections will remain blank. However, if any of these interests may help to build your clientele or add to the appeal of your restaurant offerings, feel free to fill these out. The Interests Section includes:
If you choose to not provide info here, these sections will remain blank. However, if any of these interests may help to build your clientele or add to the appeal of your restaurant offerings, feel free to fill these out. The Interests Section includes:
General: This can be a condensed version of the “About Me” section
Music: Do you host live music in your restaurant? If so, you can advertise it here, you could even have a pointer to your musician’s website.
Movies: If you like movies, you can share your favorites with your customers.
Television: Does your restaurant offer any sports broadcast? Put it here.
Books: Are you reading an interesting book that you could recommend to your customers?
Heroes: I guess you can ignore this one ☺.
Use your creativity. Remember, you’re adding a friendly feel to your business, so think of what answers may offer some insight into your restaurant’s personality.
Adding Photos:
You’ll need a profile photo or your default image will be an ugly grey icon with the words “No Photo” (not someone many people will want to check out). When visitors come to your MySpace page, it will be the first thing they see and it will also be the image displayed on your friends MySpace pages. Your image should relate directly with your business. Your best bet would be to use your logo, or another image that will give immediate recognition of your type of business.
You can add up to four photos in the “Edit Profile / Basic Info” category.
Adding Photos:
You’ll need a profile photo or your default image will be an ugly grey icon with the words “No Photo” (not someone many people will want to check out). When visitors come to your MySpace page, it will be the first thing they see and it will also be the image displayed on your friends MySpace pages. Your image should relate directly with your business. Your best bet would be to use your logo, or another image that will give immediate recognition of your type of business.
You can add up to four photos in the “Edit Profile / Basic Info” category.
In your Home page, there is also the option to upload photos. Here you can add additional images. This is a great place to add more of a personal touch to your page. You can add more pictures of your restaurant, your employees or some dishes. People love photos so this is a great place to upload lots of them.
Adding Videos:
Although it’s a feature not used by many, the Video Section can be a launch pad for some valuable word of mouth. If you create a video that boosts your business while offering something entertaining or educational, it can be picked up and spread by several potential clients. Videos provide a great medium for boosting a brand image, yet are not an essential must-have when starting your page. Again, you’ll find the “Add Videos” in your Home page, under “Videos: Upload” (under your photo)
Adding Videos:
Although it’s a feature not used by many, the Video Section can be a launch pad for some valuable word of mouth. If you create a video that boosts your business while offering something entertaining or educational, it can be picked up and spread by several potential clients. Videos provide a great medium for boosting a brand image, yet are not an essential must-have when starting your page. Again, you’ll find the “Add Videos” in your Home page, under “Videos: Upload” (under your photo)
Your MySpace Blog:
On the right-hand side of your profile, you’ll notice a section for your “Latest Blog Entry”. Blogs are an informative, personal and entertaining way to provide information about your restaurant to your clients or prospects. The titles of your Blog posts also act as links, so providing keyword rich titles can help with Search Engine Optimization in generating more relevant traffic for your website. Use this section for company news, as well as information related to your product offerings. Try to keep this area up-to-date and consistent. For example, if every Monday you list a “Special Menu”, users may be more prone to check this area periodically.
If you already have a blog in your website, or in any other blogging platform such as Wordpress or Blogger, I would suggest you to add an application called “RSS Reader” (I will explain a bit later how to add some useful applications to your MySpace page).
Your MySpace Business Page Layout:
This can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. A basic page can be made with little or no HTML knowledge, which is the route that most small business owners take, while larger companies often stray so far away from the format, you can hardly tell it’s a MySpace page. For example, look at Adidas page.
To customize your layout, go to Profile / Customize Profile:
On the right-hand side of your profile, you’ll notice a section for your “Latest Blog Entry”. Blogs are an informative, personal and entertaining way to provide information about your restaurant to your clients or prospects. The titles of your Blog posts also act as links, so providing keyword rich titles can help with Search Engine Optimization in generating more relevant traffic for your website. Use this section for company news, as well as information related to your product offerings. Try to keep this area up-to-date and consistent. For example, if every Monday you list a “Special Menu”, users may be more prone to check this area periodically.
If you already have a blog in your website, or in any other blogging platform such as Wordpress or Blogger, I would suggest you to add an application called “RSS Reader” (I will explain a bit later how to add some useful applications to your MySpace page).
Your MySpace Business Page Layout:
This can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. A basic page can be made with little or no HTML knowledge, which is the route that most small business owners take, while larger companies often stray so far away from the format, you can hardly tell it’s a MySpace page. For example, look at Adidas page.
To customize your layout, go to Profile / Customize Profile:
There you can select a Theme among the 135 pre-built in MySpace. You can also change the layout of your page, add or remove modules and change the color schema for the whole page (under Advance Edit). Play with it. You can always go back to the default settings if you get too crazy and make a mess out of your page.
If you want to look very professional, you can hire a designer to customize the CSS so that you can change the complete look and field of the page.
Here are some quick tips for designing your own page:
If you want to look very professional, you can hire a designer to customize the CSS so that you can change the complete look and field of the page.
Here are some quick tips for designing your own page:
Make sure that your page’s personality matches your restaurant logo or design materials.
Keep your page simple. Avoid overloading your site with too many files, as audio and video files take up server space and can slow a page down. If it takes too long to load your page, your potential clients won’t bother waiting around.
Keep your page current and informative. Give your prospects and clients something to come back for. Also, site visitors can see when you last logged on so if it’s been awhile, they’ll be less likely to pay you a visit.
For HTML and CSS coding tips, you can checkout the MySpace Profile Support section.
There are also several sites that offer free MySpace Layouts, but do your research to check their safety as many are known to carry potential viruses.
Making Friends: the “Friend Space” Section
Friends are potential clients. An ultimate MySpace page would be one in which you were sought out to become a friend. However, because you are a small business with limited exposure, a more realistic approach would be to seek others out instead. You can try a basic MySpace Search to find those that may be interested in your business, while you’re more likely to find targeted consumers by searching MySpace Groups.
Once you request someone as a friend, they’ll receive a “Friend Request” in their Inbox. They can then visit your page to determine whether to accept (remember that these requests can be accepted, just as easily as they can be denied). In some cases, it may serve you better to send a Friend Request alongside a personalized message. Think about your own experience, and what a page has to possess to appeal to your interest.
You should also link to your MySpace page from your restaurant website, to help build a client base of people already interested in your product offerings. Your page will show the public your friend number, so try to show off your popularity by gaining (and keeping) as many friends as you can.
Posting Bulletings and Sending Messages:
A Bulletin Post is a great way to message all of your consumers at once, but this tool should never be over-used. Remember the keyword here once more- “friend”. Friends don’t spam (or annoy) other friends. Unlike the real world, your friendship here can quickly be deleted with the click of a mouse. Give your friends something they’d want to read about (new menu offerings, news related to your staff, a special event, special deals, etc.) and keep it minimal. Although it must be done one by one, you can also send messages (like emails) to your friends. Again, inform and engage don’t shout or annoy.
Posting Comments:
This is another great way to build your clientele. You can use comments to take advantage of pages that are already popular. Try to keep your comments relevant, real, and unique. You’ll notice many “Thanks for the Add” comments. Like anything else, if you see something too much it becomes boring rather than something of interest. Also, avoid obvious advertising. Your profile can be set to approve comments before they post on your page (which is something you should do as well), so easily recognizable ads will likely be deleted.
Again, remember that you’re making friends. Throwing ads on someone’s page is not the key to this friendship.
Inform and engage. Let’s say you make a Blog Post about “5 Ways to Cook Perfect Spaghetti”. Your comment (on a popular cooking page) can be, “Checkout my blog for tips on cooking perfect pasta”. This is something a friend would do; offer helpful advice that may lead to cooking the “perfect pasta” from your own page.
Adding Applications:
MySpace is noticing the pressure from Facebook so they have also added applications that you can install in your page. They have hundreds of mainly useless applications but I would recommend you to install at least two that will fill your MySpace page with easy content.
To add an application, go to your Home page and select “More / Applications Gallery”:
There are also several sites that offer free MySpace Layouts, but do your research to check their safety as many are known to carry potential viruses.
Making Friends: the “Friend Space” Section
Friends are potential clients. An ultimate MySpace page would be one in which you were sought out to become a friend. However, because you are a small business with limited exposure, a more realistic approach would be to seek others out instead. You can try a basic MySpace Search to find those that may be interested in your business, while you’re more likely to find targeted consumers by searching MySpace Groups.
Once you request someone as a friend, they’ll receive a “Friend Request” in their Inbox. They can then visit your page to determine whether to accept (remember that these requests can be accepted, just as easily as they can be denied). In some cases, it may serve you better to send a Friend Request alongside a personalized message. Think about your own experience, and what a page has to possess to appeal to your interest.
You should also link to your MySpace page from your restaurant website, to help build a client base of people already interested in your product offerings. Your page will show the public your friend number, so try to show off your popularity by gaining (and keeping) as many friends as you can.
Posting Bulletings and Sending Messages:
A Bulletin Post is a great way to message all of your consumers at once, but this tool should never be over-used. Remember the keyword here once more- “friend”. Friends don’t spam (or annoy) other friends. Unlike the real world, your friendship here can quickly be deleted with the click of a mouse. Give your friends something they’d want to read about (new menu offerings, news related to your staff, a special event, special deals, etc.) and keep it minimal. Although it must be done one by one, you can also send messages (like emails) to your friends. Again, inform and engage don’t shout or annoy.
Posting Comments:
This is another great way to build your clientele. You can use comments to take advantage of pages that are already popular. Try to keep your comments relevant, real, and unique. You’ll notice many “Thanks for the Add” comments. Like anything else, if you see something too much it becomes boring rather than something of interest. Also, avoid obvious advertising. Your profile can be set to approve comments before they post on your page (which is something you should do as well), so easily recognizable ads will likely be deleted.
Again, remember that you’re making friends. Throwing ads on someone’s page is not the key to this friendship.
Inform and engage. Let’s say you make a Blog Post about “5 Ways to Cook Perfect Spaghetti”. Your comment (on a popular cooking page) can be, “Checkout my blog for tips on cooking perfect pasta”. This is something a friend would do; offer helpful advice that may lead to cooking the “perfect pasta” from your own page.
Adding Applications:
MySpace is noticing the pressure from Facebook so they have also added applications that you can install in your page. They have hundreds of mainly useless applications but I would recommend you to install at least two that will fill your MySpace page with easy content.
To add an application, go to your Home page and select “More / Applications Gallery”:
You’ll see a page with hundreds of applications. Look at the right, under Search Apps and type “RSS reader” in the box. Then click on “Search”.
You’ll find more than one RSS reader application. Click on the one that looks like in the screenshot below and then click the “Add App” button. NOTE: This button is not displayed in the screenshot here because I’ve already added this application to my MySpace site.
Click on the “more info” link to get more information about how to customize this RSS Reader to display your blogs here.
If you are reading this Online E-class you have personal time with me for consulting. Because each blogging system has a different way to create RSS, I can help you find your specific RSS feed to enter here. Please email me with a link to your blog and I will give you the information that you need to enter in this field.
In the meantime, I suggest that you watch this video. It explains quite well what RSS is and how does it work.
Now that you have added the RSS feed, you should also add another application to bring your Twitter feeds into your MySpace page. In this way, if you blog or tweeter, your MySpace page will always have fresh content.
To add the Twitter application, enter “Twitter” in the search field and select the “Add App” button in the first application that shows in the search results. It is called iTwitter:
If you are reading this Online E-class you have personal time with me for consulting. Because each blogging system has a different way to create RSS, I can help you find your specific RSS feed to enter here. Please email me with a link to your blog and I will give you the information that you need to enter in this field.
In the meantime, I suggest that you watch this video. It explains quite well what RSS is and how does it work.
Now that you have added the RSS feed, you should also add another application to bring your Twitter feeds into your MySpace page. In this way, if you blog or tweeter, your MySpace page will always have fresh content.
To add the Twitter application, enter “Twitter” in the search field and select the “Add App” button in the first application that shows in the search results. It is called iTwitter:
You need to enter your Twitter username and password to connect with your Twitter account and bring your tweets to your page. We’ve covered Twitter in Lesson 4 so you should have an account opened by now.
In Closing:
MySpace is not a business-oriented site, as you can see when you try to customize it to promote your restaurant. However, that said, it takes just a few hours of your time to setup an account and if you import your blogs and tweets, it requires very little maintenance.
If your restaurant caters to young people, you should most definitely have a presence in MySpace. If not, you may want to skip this part, although I will still recommend you to create your own page and reserve your restaurant name in the URL of MySpace. These Social Media sites are growing and changing daily and having a presence will always guarantee you that your restaurant is out there, for anybody to find.
When you enter the MySpace world, you’re among thousands of potential leads- all with the same vehicle for giving and acquiring information. Be honest, be personal, be a friend and in turn, your new friends may become your lifelong customers!
In Closing:
MySpace is not a business-oriented site, as you can see when you try to customize it to promote your restaurant. However, that said, it takes just a few hours of your time to setup an account and if you import your blogs and tweets, it requires very little maintenance.
If your restaurant caters to young people, you should most definitely have a presence in MySpace. If not, you may want to skip this part, although I will still recommend you to create your own page and reserve your restaurant name in the URL of MySpace. These Social Media sites are growing and changing daily and having a presence will always guarantee you that your restaurant is out there, for anybody to find.
When you enter the MySpace world, you’re among thousands of potential leads- all with the same vehicle for giving and acquiring information. Be honest, be personal, be a friend and in turn, your new friends may become your lifelong customers!