By: Dale Knauss, Show Producer

With over 110 million active users worldwide, MySpace is no doubt a huge force in the world of social networking today. It is a way of bringing people together from all over the world to share pictures, news, events, and ideas. It also allows users to stay current and in contact with their entire social network with the click of a mouse.

Despite its advantages, it is seen by many as a site entirely populated by high school and college students. However, a closer look reveals something much different. MySpace Users are largely adults with 85% being over the age of 18. Additionally thousands of companies use MySpace as a way of promoting their brands.

Many also see MySpace as inaccessible to those of us who did not grow up in the internet age. Fortunately, as this guide will show you, MySpace is easy and enjoyable to use.

Signing Up

Signing up for MySpace is easy and it should only take you a couple of minutes to register an account.

At their home page http://www.myspace.com look for a box like the one below and click the “Sign Up!” tab.

You should now be at a page that looks like this one:

Fill in all of the information asked for here and then click the blue “Sign Up” button at the bottom of the screen. You will now need to confirm the email address you provided. To confirm, go to your email account and click on the link in the email that they should have sent you. Once you have confirmed your email address you have a MySpace account! Make sure you write down your password in case you forget it later.

After you log on to MySpace for the first time, you will be asked a few questions to help you get started. You can skip them if you want, but they will help you with setting up some of the basics of your account.

Uploading a picture of yourself allows you to be identified more easily by your contacts in MySpace. If you already have a picture of yourself on your computer, search for it by clicking the “browse” button and then once you have chosen a picture click the “upload” button.

You will also be asked to invite your friends to join MySpace. You can send up to ten invitations by entering in people’s email addresses, but you might want to wait until you have set up your own profile before you start inviting others to join.

Once you have completed those steps, it’s time to start exploring MySpace and making it work for you!

Filling Out Your Profile

Your profile is where you have the chance to talk about yourself and your interests. This can serve as a great self promotion tool.

To edit your profile, click on the “Edit Profile” link near the top of your screen (circled in red below).

From there you will be able to add a number of things about yourself to your publically available profile. The profile sections are broken up into the following categories: “Interests & Personality”, “Name”, “Basic Info”, “Background & Lifestyle”, “Schools”, “Companies”, “Networking”, and “Song & Video.”

Each category relates to a different section of you and your interests, and all are pretty intuitive. For each section, enter in the information it asks for in the boxes provided and click the save all changes button when you are done. You do not have to fill out any information that you do not want others to know.

Also note that you can preview what you have typed in each section by clicking the preview section button, or you can see the whole profile by clicking the preview profile button.

I recommend that you pay special attention to the “Networking” category.

This category allows you to specify exactly the field you are in and what you do in that field. By filling this section out carefully you can allow people who are in the same field as you to locate and contact you. This makes an excellent networking opportunity.

Finding Contacts

Now that you have set up a snazzy new profile, it’s time to find some people to show it to. You probably already know some people who are on MySpace so all you have to do is look for them.

There are a few ways to find your long lost friends, but the easiest way is to click the “Find Friends” link by placing your mouse on the “Friends” tab at the top of your screen (highlighted in blue below).

From here you will be given a screen that looks like this:

Use this page to find people by name or email address, by school attended, by interest category, or by career interest (this is where that networking option in your profile is handy).  Enter information in the field required and click find and MySpace will connect you with people meeting your description.

Note that many people have the same first and last names so you might need to look through a number of people’s profiles looking for right person based on their profile picture as well as the information in their profile.

Once you have found the person you were looking for you can add him or her to your friends list or send a message by clicking the appropriate buttons next to their names.

Communicating With Your Friends

What good is networking without communication? Here is how to communicate with all of the friends you are going to have on MySpace.

There are a number of ways to keep in contact with your friends on MySpace, but the most convenient one is a simple MySpace message. To send a message hover your mouse over the “Mail” tab and then click “Compose” (highlighted in blue below).

From here you will go to a very simple email type form with to, subject, and body options. The “to” space is intuitive and will narrow your friends list down after you begin typing a name into the space. This makes it easier to find the person or persons that you are sending the message to.

Once you have finished typing a message click the “Send” button and instantly your friend(s) will get it (assuming they are online).

From this page you can also manage all of your incoming and outgoing mail from the panel on the left side of the screen.

Here you can see received and sent messages, drafts, trashed messages, any pending friend requests and more. You can also manage your address book, post a bulletin (we’ll cover those next), and see any events you were invited to.

 Posting a bulletin allows you to tell all of your friends something at once without having to send each of them a message. Unfortunately, your friends will not be told they have a message and will need to check their bulletin page to read your bulletin.

To get to your bulletin page hover your mouse over “Friends” and then click the “Bulletins” link (highlighted in blue below).

From the “Bulletin Board” you can read your friends bulletins or post your own by clicking the “Post Bulletin” link. A bulletin consists only of a subject line and the body of the message. You can also allow your friends to comment on your bulletin by clicking the checkbox next to “allow bulletin comments.” Once you have clicked the “Post” button, you will be shown what your post looks like and will be asked to confirm your posting or go back to editing it.

The final contact option you have is the comments box in each person’s profile. These comments can be seen by everyone who views a profile and are generally quite short. To post one of these, go to your friend’s profile, locate the comments box and click the “add comments” link. You will then type your message and click “post a comment.”

Creating an Event

Creating an event is a great way to keep track of your real life gatherings. Using MySpace you can plan, invite, and get RSVPs quickly and easily.

To create a new event click the “Manage Calendar” link from your profile page and then the “Events Home” link, and finally the “Create New Event” link. I’ve circled all three steps in red below.

From here you will be asked to fill out information about your event.

Fill out the pertinent information and then click “Save Event” link.

You will then be asked to choose who you want to invite to the event, whether RSVPs are necessary, and if you want to send a personalized message to the people you are inviting. Once you are done selecting friends to invite and choosing the options you want, click the “Invite and Update” tab.

You will now be given a page that looks like this:

From here you can monitor RSVP status, advertise your event to your friends, or edit the event.

To access this page in the future click the “Manage Calendar” link from your profile page and then the “Events Home” link, and finally the “Events I’ve Posted” link. Finally you will be shown a list of events you have created and you can click on the one you want to edit.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this guide has provided you with enough insight into the wonderful world of MySpace that you are ready to jump in head first and start using this great networking tool effectively.

MySpace has a lot of really cool features and applications that were outside the scope of this guide but that might eventually be useful to you. Fortunately, these should become readily apparent as you continue to interact with MySpace.

I would like to note that MySpace is constantly changing and as new features replace old, some of this information may change or become irrelevant. If you feel that any of the information in this guide is incorrect, let us know and we will look correct it as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading this guide and I will see you on MySpace!

Tags: How to Use MySpace, MySpace, Social Networking, Social Networks