MySpace suiting up and becoming too commercial?

The launch of “MySpace Careers powered by Simply Hired” begs the question: will the increasingly commercial efforts of Fox Interactive to further monetize MySpace alienate the MySpace user base?

MySpace users, however, currently show little aversion to commercial brands. In fact, MySpace members actively seek “brands” as “friends,” according to Shawn Gold, senior vice president of marketing and content for MySpace.com, as reported by MediaPost:

Teens are brand networking on their pages--they are trend-setters and they want to be the first to know or to spread something…that's the cultural currency of life on MySpace. Wendy's has 94,000 friends on MySpace.

Marketers will step up their focus on brand programming designed to "catch consumers in their stride as they communicate and connect" …"people don't come to social networks to click on the advertising." Marketers that have turned to brand programming on MySpace include Boost Mobile and Best Buy...The marketing opportunity is to create mini social networks within a social network.

For a related story see my: MySpace homepage nearing $1 million daily ad price tag

Do you have any brands as friends? Join the conversation: “Talk Back” below to share your thoughts.