Second Life: still around, still about community
Ah, good ol' Second Life.
For many marketers, this virtual world (and by association, maybe the others too) has been relegated to the list of 2007 Fads We're Glad Have Passed -- even if it means that those marketers have been a bit too hasty in their rush to judgment. As I've often said Second Life, much like any nascent social computing platform (Twitter, anyone?), is less interesting for what it is (a buggy first generation technology platform) than for what it represents (one potentially new way that tomorrow's consumers will interact with one another and the brands that love them.) In fact, this is why crayon maintains its SL presence long after the hype has faded.
On the flipside, marketers that haven't entirely written off Second Life are still prone to making the same mistakes I advised against a couple of years ago. If nothing else, this fact alone presents an opportunity for researchers and consultants who can offer up tips and tricks for the virtually uninitiated. One To One Interactive's T=Zero is the latest company to issue a report that aims to provide big brands with a Second Life strategic roadmap. It is an interesting -- if not exactly eye-opening -- read that presents five key insights gained by contrasting unsuccessful branded SL experiences to more successful resident-built experiences.
T=Zero recommends that brands:
- Worry less about creating a slick, on-message experience and more about giving avatars new and interesting ways to interact with one another.
- Realize that bigger doesn't mean better -- they point to the fact that sprawling, theoretically impressive builds might appear deserted even when a number of residents are in fact exploring other, far-flung reaches of a too-big branded experience.
- Offer lots of great shopping at multiple price points, tapping directly into the fact that avatars love to buy stuff but don't want to feel like they are being ripped off by the man.
- Promote their builds, using a combination of in-world and real world marketing channels. In other words, no Second Life island is an - ahem - island. You need to integrate whatever you do in-world with the larger SL experience in general (make sure your brand appears in the places where avatars aggregate on their own, and be sure to take advantage of in-world media placements and word-of-mouth opportunities) and with your overall marketing mix.
- Give avatars a reason to congregate on your sim by hosting frequent social events.
I'm paraphrasing and oversimplifying T=Zero's findings of course -- and even if the insights don't rock your virtual world, the data culled from the research might spark some thoughts about how your company can better engage with virtual world residents. Here's the complete report in PDF format:
Download tzero_second_life_corps.pdf
You might also want to check out ClickZ's coverage -- ClickZter Enid Burns interviewed me for her article about the T=Zero study last week, so you can read my first impressions and a short list of companies who seem to be using SL in smart ways today.
