Space to grow
Greg Delzer, the owner of Defunct Books in downtown Spokane, has two Web sites. One is a traditional site, at www.defunctbooks.com. The other is a hipper, friendlier version on popular social networking site MySpace (where he’s found at www.myspace.com/defunctbooks ).
He’s among at least 25 Spokane-area businesses and nonprofits who have joined MySpace.
Delzer said he’s not there primarily for social networking.
He’s found younger people gravitate toward MySpace, and many of them are looking for good books. “They have a community there, and if they see a business trying to be part of it, they might find it worth looking at,” he said.
“This may help (Defunct Books) seem a bit more hip,” he added.
Delzer said he’s tried traditional print advertising and has seen modest results. The best results to date have been through online media, including the popular free online classified service, Craigslist.
Other area companies, ranging from the Blue Door improvisation theater to Caterina Winery, are doing the same thing, using MySpace to advertise and attract interest from potential customers. The reason: MySpace is currently ranked among the five busiest English Web sites in the world, according to the Alexa rankings service.
Delzer and others say MySpace’s simple-to-modify display allows them to customize their pages, allowing friends and visitors to post comments, along with the ability to add photos and links to other MySpace “friends.”
Delzer also uses a MySpace blog to personalize his business and reveal what’s behind the storefront curtain, so to speak.
His current blog, in fact, includes his posted confession that when a newspaper photographer came to shoot pictures (for this story), the experience unnerved him.
William Hagy, a Spokane area glass artist, started a Web site at www.northwestglasssociety.org to promote a nonprofit cooperative Spokane Valley gallery.
Four months ago the co-op and Hagy created a MySpace version ( www.myspace.com/hagy509) and have found that page has helped boost community sales and community interaction, Hagy said.
“Since a lot of the people using MySpace are college-age, this is a good way for us to promote our art, art classes and the gallery,” said Hagy. The side benefit is that people who find the site also visit the gallery, and some buy art, he added.
An added benefit, said Hagy, is the way MySpace builds connections to other like-minded artists worldwide, simply from people discovering the glass society page. “It’s really benefited me to get a different perspective on my art through people I’m hearing from worldwide. I stay in touch with a painter in Iraq and a photographer in Poland,” he said.
Andy Dinnison, owner of popular downtown Spokane retail gift store Boo Radley’s, is uncertain whether he’ll ever use the MySpace option.
“I’m not against using it, but I haven’t embraced it,” said Dinnison. “I don’t want to do it halfway. I’ve seen too many e-commerce sites that don’t look that good, and I don’t want to be like that,” he said.