If you’ve read the press coverage about virtual worlds you may have already written off SL as a game or concluded it’s not ready for any serious marketing. However, I think you’d be wrong on both counts.
The initial reasons why so many organisations see SL as an exciting new marketing channel are due to its almost exponential growth rate in users and its demographic make-up – a user base of men and women mostly in their early thirties. There has been some optimistic analyst predictions suggesting that more than three quarters of current Internet users will be using virtual worlds in some form within five years – although not necessarily SL.
Although the demographics and user population are important, it’s not just a numbers game. What’s interesting for marketers is the unique mix of communication methods available in this world to interact with consumers and businesses.
This mix includes existing communication methods found on the web and social networking or conferencing platforms, including instant messaging, group-based text chat and soon the ability to voice chat (like Skype), which is integrated into the SL software. Then there is the seamless integration of movie clips, audio and interactive 3D objects that can be designed to represent products.
You still might be saying ‘so what?’, but what is getting marketers really excited is the ability to not only communicate, but to collaborate with others in-world and benefit from customer-generated content. For example, another SL user could not only tell you what is wrong with your product, but they could also redesign it with you in 3D.
Plan your presence
But before you consider a presence for your own organisation, there are some things you should consider. A number of high profile organisations are already suffering from ’empty fairground syndrome’ in SL where their presence on private islands has become a ghost town with no-one visiting and no obvious activity.
This is usually the case when an organisation’s presence has been poorly designed without first considering the marketing aims and a sustainable programme of events and offerings to make people want to come back.
PA Consulting Group’s recent research highlighted some critical success factors for a corporate SL presence:
- You need to wow your visitors as soon as they come to your island to get their attention so they tell their friends or better still, post a blog about their experience.
- Visitors expect to be able to interact with any object they see. Your presence should have objects to experience as an individual as well as in a group.
- Visitors expect a warm welcome when they arrive at your island – staff your virtual presence with ‘greeters’ and build a community relating to your product or service.
- Traditional web designers are not necessarily the best people to design a 3D spatial environment as it has very different characteristics. Hire an experienced company to advise you.
Still unsure as to whether virtual world B2B marketing is right for your organisation? Understanding this new medium will help you decide, so sign up to SL, create your avatar and start participating as an end-user, as sooner or later it will be impossible to ignore.
