The following is a Guest Post and does not necessarily reflect the views of Webdoctus.com.
This post concludes our week of MySpace, I wanted to give a special thanks to all of you that have supported the site. I truly appreciate your purchases and look forward to hearing your feedback.

There are a lot of reasons why a lot of people want to set their MySpace profile to private. Of course, some of the reasons for wanting this private setting are more valid than others. However, the number one reason why so many people wish to set their profiles to private is because they enjoy their privacy and do not want everyone in the world to view their page.

The MySpace community is extremely large. There are practically millions of people that have a page on MySpace. Depending upon if they utilize their page or not is another question. However, not only do the people that are located in the MySpace community going to be able to gain access to your page, but anyone who has access to a computer can do so as well.

There will always be people that prefer to keep their MySpace profile open to the public. It could be simply because they are proud of the page that they made on the social network, or they want as many people as possible to view something, they may have written or to take a gander at their pictures. A lot of people that choose to leave their profiles set to a public viewing setting do not realize how many people have the opportunity to gain access to their information.

People put a lot of personal things on their MySpace pages. There are some people that include their full names on their pages as well as people that post an array of pictures of themselves and their family members on their pages as well. Everyone would be able to look at pictures of your private life, and inadvertently there will be a lot of people that you don’t know that all of a sudden will know you if your profile is not set to private.

When you take the short 5 seconds to set your MySpace page to private you will be avoiding your information being avaliable at the public’s demand. You won’t have to worry about strange people that you will probably never meet seeing pictures of you or your family.

In order to set your MySpace account to private, all you need to do is simply log into your account and go to the account settings tab. After accessing this tab you will see a topic that says privacy settings. Go into these settings and locate change settings. You’ll scroll down and come to a box that says who can view my full profile.

At this point you will be given the option to choose from three different settings. There is the setting for your friends only, the public and another one for only users under the age of 18. Choose to only have your page shown to your friends only and you’re done!

Be aware that if you are under the age of 18 your profile is automatically set to private. If you try to change your profile in order to gain more viewers and you are under the age of 18 you risk the chance of losing your profile page entirely.

The following is a Guest Post and does not necessarily reflect the views of Webdoctus.com.

Everyone knows that if something is blocked, or if you are prohibited to enter somewhere online there is always an alternative way to unblock something and get access to the blocked information anyways. With all security measures that are set up on the computer, someone will figure out a way to unblock them and gain access to places where they were not supposed to be.

A lot of schools and libraries and even personal computers have blocks on them prohibiting certain social media sites such as MySpace and Twitter. Well, there are two ways that you can get around these security blocks and gain access to the social media site MySpace whenever you want.

The first way to unblock a MySpace block is to utilize proxy servers. These servers were thought up by a few innovative minds that wanted to find ways to eliminate being told that they could not have access to certain websites. What you will be prompted to do in order to use these servers is to log into them.

These servers are not the ones that the blocked computer is running; therefore you will be able to gain access to the blocked material as long as you are coming through a different server. These proxy servers are actually extremely easy to use and they will allow you to gain access to the MySpace community wherever you are.

In order to gain access to these proxies, as they are so cleverly called you will have to sign up with a particular company in order to gain access to their server. Typically, signing up to gain access to a proxy server is either free or relatively inexpensive.

After you have completed the sign up process, you’ll simply type in the URL that you wish to visit and you will gain access to it. Just imagine being able to use this technique to chat with your friends or check your messages on MySpace while in the library!

Another way that you can gain access to the MySpace community when it is blocked is by using a different Internet browser to surf the internet with. This will not work on library computers or in schools, however at home it will work perfectly.

Typically home computers are set on a particular internet browser; the most common browser used is Internet Explorer. However, by changing your web browser to something such as Mozilla Firefox or Opera you can easily gain access through this alternate browser. Typically blocks that are installed on smaller computers, and home computers do not exist for the entire computer but are more or less used only for a particular browser. This way you can gain access to MySpace and not have to worry about trying to figure out how to join in with the community.

These days there are more people that are signed up to MySpace, in many respects, than there are people that are signed up to their local gyms. According to Nielsen online the number of unique visitors have increased 190 percent from September 2008 to June 2009 “growing from 4.2 million unique visitors to 12.1 million ”
Every single day there are new people joining the MySpace community it just simply keeps expanding.

A lot of people make the decision to join the community in order to reconnect with old friends and create relationships with some new friends as well. Some people are even seeking out an avenue to be able to promote their business through utilizing MySpace.

There are a lot of people that question the point behind using MySpace to promote different things that they are involved in, however if you ever perused the music and movies section you will quickly begin to understand why so many people are taking the opportunity to promote themselves as well as their companies through MySpace.

There are so many people that claim to be staring movie producers or up and coming musicians that are trying to further their careers. Most of these people will actually begin posting samples of their work to various profiles and even entire pieces for people to listen to, watch or simply overhear. The samples are traditionally free, however the bad news is there are so many people who are promoting themselves through MySpace that spam is becoming an excessive problem for the social media network.

If your purpose for your MySpace page is to talk with your friends as well as reconnect with old friends than you definitely can do without the excess spam, that is beginning to take over MySpace. There are a few things that you can do in order to eliminate the amount of spam that your page receives.

The first thing you will need to do in order to eliminate spam is set your MySpace profile to private. This will eliminate a bunch of random people from trying to get in contact with you. A lot of people that are addressed about their spamming activities will often times be extremely angry when confronted about this problem. So, it’s better to set your page to private to eliminate having to deal with people that you do not know.

Another thing that you can do to help eliminate spam is request that only people that know your last name or your email address may request you as a friend. This will help reduce the amount of spam that you receive and also bots from asking you to be a friend. Inadvertently, only people who actually know you will have this information.

You can also set your profile to where it states that all comments posted to your account will need to be approved by you before it can be posted on your page. This way you don’t have an excessive amount of spam comments scattered throughout your MySpace page.

In response to several email requests, I will be spending the bulk of this week sharing some MySpace tips to help users navigate the still, ever popular MySpace Community. As always, your feedback and support is much appreciated.

If you are looking for a way to get noticed while using MySpace, you need to approach the situation in the same way you would a real life circumstance. If your main focus is to bring an adamant amount of attention to your profile, you have to make your profile seem appealing to everyone that views it. You want to start with including content that will generate the desired attention that you are seeking. Getting your MySpace noticed depends upon four qualifying factors.

1. The first way to get your MySpace profile page noticed is to create a unique page layout. The layout for your page should be free from any clutter and it should not include any fonts that are hard to decipher or flashing objects.Your main objective with your profile page should be to get your point across. Pages that encompass useful information that is geared towards a particular niche will attract a lot more visitors that share an interest in the niche that you are promoting.
2. Offer a unique experience to your visitors. There are so many people that have a social media page on MySpace. If you want your page to get noticed, you are going to want to make it as original as you possibly can. People are often times intrigued by unique things so let your creatively flourish and you will be astonished at the results that you will obtain.
3. The best way to make your page apparent to other people on MySpace is to interact with the MySpace community. Start sending out friend requests and you will be surprised how many people will respond to you.Leave comments on MySpace profile pages. This will intrigue people to want to take a gander at your site which will also help increase the visitor count that you have within the MySpace community.
4. Use search engine optimization or SEO to optimize your MySpace page. You will need to include any and all relevant keywords into the content that you include on your MySpace page. Optimizing your MySpace page will assist search engines with the process of bringing your page up in search results.

SEO tactics are not entirely needed for MySpace pages. However, if you are trying to target the interests of a particular niche, adding in keywords is essential to this task. By using these 4 easy steps, you can gain the attention that you are seeking with your MySpace profile page.

First there was MySpace and it seemed that everyone had his or her own page set up. You put pictures and information about yourself, your family, your pets – your profile was online for your friends and family members to see.

And then all of a sudden, everyone started talking about Facebook. So what is that all about? It seemed like the same thing, so why do we need two major social networking sites that do pretty much the same thing?

Well, they do have their differences and attract different groups of people. Here is what sets each one apart from the other.

The design of the page:
Facebook has a one-size fits all white background; MySpace allows more creativity with the use of additional colors and graphics.

The demographics of the site:
MySpace was created as a means to connect with family and friends and was quickly embraced by kids and adults alike with the average age of its users as 35; Facebook was geared towards college students but has grown to incorporate up and coming professionals. Average age on this site is 23.

Locating others on the site:
MySpace users sign up with a screen name. Being that it started out as a networking tool between you and people you already knew there isn’t really a way to locate someone on MySpace unless you get them to invite you as a friend. When you sign on to Facebook, your first and last name are registered so you are able to put in the name of an old colleague and see if they are registered with Facebook.

Privacy:
This is a big difference between the two sites and it has to do more with the way the sites were positioned. MySpace was really meant for reaching people you were already familiar with but you have to make sure you adjust your settings accordingly so that not just anyone can view your page. Facebook contains information of a less personal nature and you must be approved before anyone can reach your page.

Additional features:
Facebook has an instant chat feature that MySpace currently does not have. But MySpace has the ability to incorporate music on your site. Many musicians are using their MySpace page to build a following or to share their music with family and friends.

Which brings us to the most recent entry into the social media scene: Twitter. Its presence was just as abrupt as MySpace and Facebook – all of a sudden one day, people are talking about it everywhere you go. The first time I hears someone say they just tweeted I thought it was a reaction to something they ate. But alas, Twitter is all about “What are you doing?” I mean, right now. You sign up and the messages are kept to a certain number of characters. You can tweet with friends and family or celebrities.

Check out each site and see which one fits your needs. Just don’t wait too long to sign on- you never know when the next new networking site will pop up.

Twitters, Facebooks, Wikis and blogs!!!! Just when you think you have it all down, along comes another website, or blog, or buzz word that you’ve never heard of. If you are a social media fanatic, you are able to stay up on everything that is going on, but for anyone who has just joined us, here is a basic run through Social Media.

What exactly is social media? How do you use it? What are the benefits? Even if you have heard about MySpace, started your own FaceBook site and entertained the thought of twittering, you may not know everything about social media.

At its best, social media is the ability to reach out and connect with your friends and family to whatever degree you desire. You can use a few sentences on Twitter, or you can keep your FaceBook page updated with photos and the latest events in your life. It seems that we want to know everything about the people we like – what are they doing (right now!), what restaurants do they like to eat at, have they seen any good movies lately?

FaceBook and MySpace allow you to incorporate photos and build your own little bio with whatever personal information you would like to share. It’s not there for the world to see, you must be invited.

And almost everyone seems to have a blog anymore. This is where you can write about anything you want for anyone to see. A lot of people use it in conjunction with their website as it can be updated regularly. Anyone who reads your blog can post their comments and it is this feedback that helps a lot of companies gauge the products and services that they provide. This direct feedback is not available through almost any other type of media.

But it is not only blogs that provide this feedback on the internet. There are plenty of social media sites that are devoted to following the latest current events. These sites provide an important forum for like-minded people to compare information, thoughts, and insights on topical issues.

Social media is being recognized for its most important feature – social marketing. Companies can reach across the country and find out immediately what the response is to their product or product line. This range of feedback is second to none. Companies can make better decisions on what real consumers like or dislike. It’s like having the entire country as your focus group.

Social media has joined hands with social networking to create the ultimate forum – a place where if people like something, they will share it for all to see. This is truly word of mouth at the highest level. By the same token, when the people speak they are usually honest and you have to take the good with the bad. If a product doesn’t live up to its hype, the company will be aware of it right away.

The power of the internet and the wide span that encompasses social media still boggles the mind. Your responses can help a company create or better their products on a national level, or you can just get online and see what your friends are doing later…

It used to be that social networking was the way to promote your business or services. You passed your business cards out to everyone and anyone you were able to speak to about your business. You went to trade shows to be in front of like-minded people who might be interested in your services. And you joined leads groups so that you could stand in front of the group and deliver a presentation so that the people in your group would use your services and/or pass along your information to friends, family members or their own clients who might possibly be interested in your company’s services.

Even though those practices are still in place, they seem archaic compared to the massive audience that the social media scene provides. The amount of people that can be reached through the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others boggles the mind. And the speed at which the information travels is even more incredible. It’s like the difference between a horse and buggy or the Concorde.

So how exactly do you use social media to promote your business? Major companies (one coffee company in particular) uses their Facebook page to directly reach their customers and ask their opinions regarding their products. They get immediate reactions that may result in bringing a product back due to popular demand, helping decide between two new products, or getting feedback on improving customer service in general.

Polls and surveys taken through social media sites are direct and immediate. Companies don’t have to pay big bucks for any type of media demographics profiles that take time to tally responses and provide results. Responses are directly from the very people that they are trying to reach.

And the best part is part of the protocol from the old networking days is still at hand here. The only difference is when someone shares their likes or dislikes regarding a specific company, it can be through a blog that will instantly reach hundreds of people as soon as the send button is pushed, as opposed to telling a couple of your friends over dinner.

The impact that social media has had on businesses today is immeasurable. The branding alone is solid and the control of the marketing is directly lead by the company itself. It is as easy as building a following on Twitter, or promoting a new product line ahead of schedule on your Facebook page. Direct click throughs and hits on links provide companies with instant feedback that used to take months to compile.

Probably the best part of joining the social media scene is that you can reach a massive audience with one touch of a button, it is a free medium, and you have your choice of sites to choose from – one or all. Each one just reinforces the other providing you with an even larger audience to market to.

Even though this is still a relatively new way of promoting your company, it is an equal opportunity forum. With the number of telecommuting positions available today, you can be an independent contractor or a major corporation and still realize the benefits of social media marketing.

MySpace announced today of its intent to purchase iLike, a music recommendation service that has been made popular through its integration with other Internet-based services such as Facebook, iTunes, Bebo, and yes – MySpace. As the majority of social network users have flocked to Facebook (+700%) this year, MySpace (-31%) has begun to feel like the next Friendster – slipping in both rank and hype in the face of other services such as Twitter. The question that begs to be answered is – How will it survive?.

This move may prove to be the edge that MySpace needs to solidify itself as the premier social music site. Many bands, local and national, rely on it to serve up news, their latest music, and tour information, often forgoing a website of their own in order to take advantage of the built-in audience (and support features) that MySpace provides. Perhaps MySpace is following the playbook of other companies that have risen from a tenuous business model to focus on what they do best, like IBM did when it dropped OS/2 from consumer PCs in 1995 and exited the PC market in 2004.

There have been no precise details on how MySpace will take advantage of their new acquisition, but according to a conference call with CEO Owen Van Natta, the discovery technology will be expanded beyond the boundaries of music and into other media categories such as videos and games.

While I prefer the simple, yet intimate format of social networks like Twitter, I am looking forward to seeing how MySpace will leverage its new purchase. But as you can learn from anyone who owned a Starter jacket, once you lose your cool, it’s nearly impossible to get it back.