MySpace is a terrific networking resource -- potentially. With upwards of 160 million profiles on MySpace, and growing, you're talking about a lot of possible contacts. In addition, these days just about everyone and their mother has a MySpace profile, including businesses big and small, political groups, VIPs, etc. Given this kind of reach, why would I say that MySpace is only a potential networking resource? The very thing that makes MySpace a source for networking is the thing that makes MySpace a tough nut to crack.

The numbers.

Let's say you've decided to give your business a presence on MySpace. It's a good idea. It's a terrific idea. Fast-forward a bit, and your business now has a MySpace profile. Congratulations. And then it suddenly occurs to you -- there are over 160 million other profiles out there. Welcome to the big pond, small fish. The possibility of your business' profile being naturally found by anyone is extremely remote. The odds are 1 in 160 million. Like those numbers? You shouldn't.

The good news is that you can chip away at the big odds against you, whether you're talking about a profile publicizing your business, or a profile publicizing you personally.

It's all about friends.

Just like in the real world, moving up in MySpace is a function of making connections. But they're not called 'connections' on MySpace, they're called friends, and you want to make lots of them. Lots and lots of them. The more friends you make on MySpace, the better chance your profile has of being noticed. There are people on MySpace who have hundreds of thousands, even one million, MySpace friends. A million! Given that MySpace has a limit of adding 500 friends per day, you can imagine how long it would take to accumulate such big numbers. But don't focus on the final goal so much as focusing on making enough connections so that you get noticed, because once that happens, friends will start coming to you. It's true! Once you've gained a level of popularity, say a few thousand friends, other MySpacers will begin to seek you out for friendship.

It's like the popular kid in school, who everyone wants to be friends with. Just sit back, and soak up the adulation -- and improve your MySpace presence in the process.

Strae Jones is a freelance writer for a number of different online services. Her primary focus is on social networking as related to MySpace.com and other social networking sites.