Now at MySpace: 'Community builder' platform, new sales and marketing chief
News Corp.'s social network MySpace.com made two advertising-related announcements Tuesday: the launch of a new "community building" platform so that advertisers can easily create a presence on the site, and the promotion of Jeff Berman to president of sales and marketing.
The ad platform, to put it simply, helps advertisers build MySpace profiles for their brands, complete with friend lists, widgets, blog entries, and ads provided by the site's HyperTargeting ad program. If they aren't familiar with MySpace's structure or with the CSS and XHTML code skills necessary to make those profiles extra-sparkly, they can opt into a "full service" production option. In other words, this is a way for MySpace to make a few bucks off the creation of brand profiles, which any company can currently do for free using the tools available to ordinary members of the site.
Marketing agency Deep Focus is currently beta-testing the technology with its clients.
Additionally, longtime MySpace executive Jeff Berman has been promoted to president of sales and marketing, where he'll oversee the new platform as well as HyperTargeting, online marketing, and other revenue-drawing initiatives at the social network. With a background in politics, Berman started at MySpace as senior vice president of public affairs, where he spearheaded the launch of the "Impact" political activism channel; he then moved to a leadership role in the MySpaceTV video portal.
"I'm beyond excited to work hand-in-hand with our brand partners to create compelling campaigns on MySpace," Berman said in a release from MySpace. "This is an amazing opportunity to help brands reach their target audiences and leverage the viralocity of our ever-expanding global community."
In other news, the neologism "viralocity" has officially been blacklisted from future use on CNET News.com.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
