As someone who has spent over ten years marketing on the Internet, I've seen wave after wave of "the latest thing" in Internet marketing as advertisers try to find the most effective way to capture new customers online. The latest version of this online hunt for new clients is the rapid proliferation of online social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Friendster.

With over 130 million people worldwide using MySpace and with a monthly page view count that surpassed Yahoo in November to claim the #1 position on the Internet in terms of Page Views, http://MySpace.com has established itself as the leader in this most recent "latest thing" and is becoming more and more a coveted advertising hot spot to reach new customers.

Still, online social networking sites present an interesting marketing challenge and http://MySpace.com is no exception...

For starters, the users on these sites are typically not very responsive to traditional banner advertising - as their main interest in visiting these sites is not to purchase anything, but instead, to meet others and establish various different types of relationships.

Add to this, the fact that these users tend to be more stimulation-hungry, choosing video, flash and audio over simple graphics. In addition, they also tend to base their purchasing decisions more on word of mouth recommendations than on paid advertisement.

Although at first this would seem like an obstacle for advertisers, this same behavior presents a great marketing opportunity for smart marketers who take advantage of it and tailor their message and its delivery.

Users on MySpace are used to receiving communications from their "friends" on a regular basis. They are prone to developing cliques and groups which they belong to and where they gather and share thoughts and opinions. This presents the perfect opportunity to establish a longer term, deeper relationship with a brand's loyal following and in the process, make "friends" out of what traditionally would have been merely potential customers or prospects.

While more and more of corporate America is investing in high cost, highly customized "featured profiles" on MySpace (complete with interactive games, surveys and discussion boards,) many of the same results can be achieved using the free profile and tools that MySpace provides.

Customizing your profile (commonly called in MySpace as "pimping" your profile) to be consistent with your brand look and feel allows your profile visitors to "step into" your brand and help differentiate you from all other profiles on the site.

Beyond customizing your profile to fit your brand, MySpace blogs, groups and videos can be an excellent way of getting your marketing message out and receive immediate feedback from your users, while the message and bulletin features allow you to send messages to your "friends" instantly and for free.

Other details that can go a long way to helping your audience spread the message and enlist new potential customers for you include: providing your profile visitors with the codes and the tools (such as videos, scripts and pre-written messages) that they can forward to their friends as well as creating banners and HTML comments that they can copy and paste on other sites and/or profiles.

In conclusion, the trick to an effective marketing campaign using MySpace and other online social networking sites is treating your potential or existing customers as your friends by establishing a friendship-like relationship with them. This includes having a consistent message across all the channels available and establishing a longer term, two-way relationship with your customers, while allowing your new "friends" an opportunity to share with each other and spread your marketing message for you.