Vertical Friends
You may see the term “vertical” tossed around on the Internet in relation to marketing and industries. A vertical market is a niche market or a small subset of a larger industry. An example is scuba gear. This product is designed for a specific customer and usually isn’t purchased by the general public. These types of markets may be small, but they usually have a passionate and loyal following. MySpace marketing can tap into (or even create) the community of users to rally around such a product.
So when I say vertical friends, I’m talking about other MySpace pages that align well with your demographic. Because there is a good chance that people will come across these other pages, it’s wise to also have a presence there. How you will find these types of friends is specific to your promotion, but you can easily start by typing a few keywords into the MySpace search box. Once you find a few good pages, browse their friend networks to find similar targets. Send friend requests to anyone you think might be interested in your product or to “loose circle” friends who share similar interests. The next chapter looks at how to expand your reach further through highly targeted friend building.