Rupert Murdoch is not sorry his News Corp bought Intermix, the owner of MySpace, a year ago. Forget for a moment the phenomenal growth in the user base. According to Wendy Davis’ article on Online Media Daily, referencing eMarketer data,

MySpace “last month garnered 17 percent of online display impressions � up more than two points from May’s 14.6 percent, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance.”

That’s half Yahoo! Mail, but double MSN Hotmail.

In a more recent article, again using eMarketer data, she reported that MySpace is set to pull in $180 million in revenue this year, on it’s way to getting a piece of the $1.86 billion pie predicted to exist by 2010.

Ad dollars represent a cost to affiliate marketers, not revenue, it’s true. But those dollars are being spent there for good reason: to generate buzz. Buzz gets you noticed. Buzz gets you visitors. Visitors bring money. And that, my friends, is the name of the game.

Is it a fad? Is it just another among a number of bubbles that grew and popped? No one can say for sure. But somehow, teens and others gathering together to express themselves, share experiences and photos, arrange dates, recommend movies, etc… somehow, that doesn’t sound like something that is going away anytime soon.

And MySpace is clearly experiencing the kind of positive spiral that led Amazon not too many years ago to become what it is today.

Yeah, I would think Rupert Murdoch is not unhappy about that particular investment. And, neither should affiliate marketers be.

In college I had a friend who, as a high school teen, attended rock concerts. He didn’t go for the music. He sold T-shirts, though ’sold’ is something of a misnomer. All he had to do was show up and they were practically ripped out of his hands. (Come to think of it that happened literally, sometimes.) He made a serious chunk of change, ten bucks at a pop.

He understood social network marketing.

He didn’t have to do a lot of advertising. He didn’t spend a lot of money on marketing. But he knew where to find customers… where they congregate.

That’s the not-so-secret lesson of social network marketing. Many sites try to get customers to come where they live. Not a bad thing, as it works pretty well much of the time.

But social network marketing is going where the customers already are. While there you hope to sell them something you have good reason to believe they already want.

The team in charge of marketing the recent X-Men 3 movie did just that. They developed a portion of the MySpace site devoted to talking about the movie. They attracted a lot of people they already had good reason to believe would be interested. Those people told others. X-Men 3 garnered $122 million on opening weekend. ($400 million worldwide from May 26th to June 21st. Don’t you wish.)

No doubt that money wasn’t solely, or even primarily, the result of exposure and buzz on MySpace. But, as we all know, in marketing every little bit helps. And with the growth of MySpace and social networks in general, that little bit is getting a lot bigger very fast.

Something to think about while laundering that old Pat Benatar T-shirt.

Word of mouth spreads more or less geometrically. Someone likes what you say or sell and they tell two people, who tell four, three of whom tell six, etc.

Notice, I didn’t say “four tell sixteen, etc” That’s because as the web of popularity spreads, not everyone is going to take the effort to spread the word. Worse, not everyone will be pleased with what you say or do.

Circumstances, misunderstanding, or a variety of other causes may have given some of those a reason to think you could use a little improvement. That can lead to negative word of mouth.

Just as positive buzz helps you by that amplification effect, negative word of mouth hurts you. And, unfortunately, people are often more vocal about what they don’t like, than enthusiastic about what they do.

There are several ways to deal with that inescapable fact, but one stands above the rest.

First and foremost, maintain open and honest communication. Try to avoid letting a customer complaint go by unanswered, especially if they’re being anywhere near reasonable. You won’t have time to address every possible expression of sour grapes, but any genuine beef should be jumped on at the earliest opportunity.

Those who already like you are valuable sources of future business. But, anyone who is annoyed for a legitimate reason counts double. First, you have an opportunity to squash the growth of negative word of mouth at the very beginning. Second, you have a chance to turn a loss into an asset.

Nothing creates allies like converting former detractors. Some of those will become your biggest boosters. That person will recognize that you cared enough about him or her as an individual to address his or her specific problem.

What’s one of your biggest beefs about the bank, the phone company or some other large business you contacted to resolve an issue? You wanted to be treated like a person. Instead, on that occasion, you got a customer service rep that was just following a rule book and treating you like an account number.

But another company you called dealt with you and your problem as if they genuinely cared about your specific, legitimate issue. Did you enthuse to your friends and get the company new business?

You don’t have to be Pollyanna to believe it’s a good idea to make that extra effort to resolve legitimate complaints. You just have to want that practical, positive double-whammy that comes from turning lemons into lemonade.