t was only a matter of time before marketers tapped into the hugely popular social networking sites, as a potential medium. The question was how they'd do it. By creating faux profiles. On MySpace.com, food chain Wendy's (www.wendys.com) cartoon marketing mascot Smart has more than 81,000 "friends" who've linked to his page and posted notes such as, "i luv u." This is a perfect example of how marketers are riding the online community craze.

Networking sites such as MySpace let users build free profile pages typically filled with their photos and personal information. They can expand their network by adding friends. Once linked, friends can post comments on each other's pages. The site, bought over last year by media giant News Corp. (NWS) for $580 million, drew 46 million unique visitors in July, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Such numbers are drawing increasing marketer interest.... more