Leigh Nash (former lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer) wants to be my friend.

Well, at least her computer or intern does. I highly doubt she is actually aware of my existence.

But she has a new album coming out and her marketing team wants me to think that Leigh actually wants to be my friend so that I’ll add her to my MySpace list and then they’ll be able to post all kinds of promo stuff in my comments section.

Honestly, it annoys me just a bit. I don’t mean to sound negative, but sometimes marketing confuses me. There is such a grey area between what is real and what isn’t. Leigh doesn’t actually want to be my friend because she has no idea I exist. However, I just got a note titled, “Leigh Nash wants to be your friend.”

Is that deceptive? Again, like Warren Barfield, I think highly of Leigh Nash and her music. I think this isn’t a reflection on her but rather the marketing team supporting her.

But really, it just doesn’t sit well with me. I understand why they’re doing it. I understand that lots of people do it. But isn’t is awfully insincere?

Then again maybe I’m just bitter because I have 22 friends and she has 10,489.

Do you use any automated systems on myspace? What do you think about it all?

Maybe it’s myspace’s fault for calling them friends and not networking partners. 

I don’t use myspace, so I can’t comment otherwise.

Amy,
I think you’re right that it’s partially the way Myspace was designed and the inflexibility to send a different title than, “___ wants to be your friend.”

I guess it just highlights a difficult issue for artists or anyone who has “fans” and needs to reach a broad audience. How do they reach that audience and still maintain some semblance of sincerity?

Shaun Groves just declared email bankruptcy on his fan mail email account. He had over 2,000 messages and just couldn’t reply to them all.

So as a fan, would you rather have insincere, automated contact with your favorite artist or no contact at all?

Neither seems like a good option…

I guess it’s a good think I don’t have any fans.

I would agree that the way MySpace is set up does not precisely match the dual uses of personal and professional networking.  It is incongruous to look at and treat the sites maintained by Joe Sixpack and The Dave Mathews Band in the same way.  Joe works hard as an individual, talks to people he knows or has introduced himself to, and socializes like a person at a party mingles from conversation to conversation.  Dave Mathews may not even know he has a MySpace, or if he does only personally checks it periodically; for him it is more of a store front than a casual party.

Personally, the secularism and mainstreaming of the CCM scene has always bothered me.  I’m not saying that one should never meet the other, but in adopting the type of impersonal marketing as you described we loose the personal touch which characterized Jesus and should also mark those wearing His name.  Jesus set aside His entire purpose for being here on earth to help one woman in need (Matthew 15:21-28); can we accept that at times we merely pretend to have the same level of interest.  Does this mean that we cannot touch multitudes of lives; yes, it does, but the lives touched are touched much more profoundly that when we simply brush by.  The reason I hang out at Shlog is not because I am a die-hard fan of Shaun’s music, but because Shaun hangs out there as well and communicates, interacts, and tries not to be pretentious.

Whoa!  Slow down everyone!  What’s with the concerted effort to burst my bubble?  My self-esteem is as tied to how many MySpace friends I have as Madonna is tied to glittering light-up crosses!  Don’t ruin it for me!  And if you aren’t already, be my friend; I’m not feeling well today so I need the pick-me-up.  And leave nice comments with ‘net-slang and big animated pictures.  I love that.

Well, you know how I feel about MySpace, but I think I understand the quandary some musicians find themselves in.

My sister and her husband just moved out to L.A. to help get Dennis Lamar’s music off the ground.  (He’s a Baylor grad, by the way.) One of their media outlets is, of course, MySpace.  In order to get the word out about Dennis they invite lots of people to be his MySpace friends.  A decent percentage of those invited respond yes, and many listen to his music and I like what they hear.  So, from a marketing perspective, MySpace is great.

However, there are risks on both sides of the “friends” equation: you risk getting promo stuff in your comments, and they risk getting some fat dude’s picture with his shirt off toasting them with a bottle of Bud on their MySpace page.

I guess what bothers me is what euphrony pointed out--that MySpace does not do a good job of separating the personal from the business.  But, I think that’s exactly what the businesses want!

Hmmm, I believe I’ve just learned that I’m not cool enough (or young enough?) to get promo stuff in my comments on MySpace!

But I will add artists I like or am interested in enough to find out if I like.  If I like them or think I may I add them; then I get their bulletins about concert dates, preorders and, sometimes, a good blog.  I enjoy all of that. I am kinda picky though.

I added Leigh Nash not too long ago - at my request.  It was after she was in recent magazine and I thought it’d be a good way to keep up maybe.

Wow. Great comments everyone. I admit it’s a tough question. Impersonal marketing that masks itself as personal walks the fine line of honesty and deception - at least to me.

On the other hand, a lot of people, like Marianne (who is very cool) add musicians to their friends lists as a way to keep up with their music. Thats a perfect situation for both the artist and the visitor.

Then again there are others, like The Cachinnator, who clings to the illusion that Madonna really is his friend.

I just wonder if Christians shouldn’t approach marketing differently. I don’t know...I’m just wondering.

Should we as Christians try to reach as widely as possible or reach as deeply as possible? Perhaps different people have different roles?

In either case, I wonder if the methods employed should be above reproach or stay even with the status quo.

.....welcome to my brain.

Jesus doesn’t need a marketing team.

And I’m sure that professional musicians look differently on my MySpace friendship than on the other insignificant peons.

I sort of hate Myspace. I log in there from time to time just to see if there are any new comments, friend requests, whatever, but I frankly just don’t like it, for a whole host of reasons.

I do have some musicians there as “friends”, and it is a good way to keep up with their news, tour dates, and hear new sound clips and stuff. But I’m not fooled by the whole “meet someone famous in person” effect that they’re trying to create.

My biggest complaint would probably be that it’s so slow, unreliable, and overloaded most of the time that it’s barely usable.

I don’t have the patience for it, and I hear that same thing from a lot of other people. To quote Yogi Berra, “Nobody goes there any more, because it’s always too crowded.”

I see that I need to go log in there right now to send a friend request thingy to Cach.

Hammer’s my friend.  Just like Coldplay.

Apparently, use of automated programs is against MySpace’s Terms of Service:

MySpace Terms & Conditions

From the second list of items in section 8. Content/Activity Prohibited:

4. any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to add friends or send comments or messages;

Can you say ill-enforced?

Very interesting. Isn’t it interesting how often we’re required to accept various term and conditions when we register for a site....but if you’re like me, you rarely (if ever) actually read them? My eyes glae over when I read legal stuff.