Second Life, Web 2.0 site or just another game?
Member question: “What can you tell me about Second Life and how you view it as a web marketing environment?”
Actually I am quite familiar with Second Life [SL] and have been a regular player going on two years now. In SL I am pretty much considered an ancient.
I originally joined Second Life for the possible business opportunities but it didn’t take me long to give up on that and just start playing it for recreation.
While there are some very powerful features to Second Life it can still be a very difficult group to market to.
Pros:
- Extremely interactive, very close to one on one
- Few limitations on product creation or marketing strategy (Not a lot of rules in SL)
- It is possible to tie your Real Life [RL] products and SL products together.
- You can adjust your strategy very quickly
- Very diverse player demographic
- International player base
Cons:
- Very hard to “Get the word out” about your product or market
- Difficult at best to track your traffic and demographic
- Very easy for someone to mimic or outright steal your products and strategy
- Very fickle group and Second Lifers get bored quickly
- Products and businesses don’t always translate well into the SL environment
- Can be difficult to get repeat visitors
- While you can make money, and even a lot of money in SL, the exchange rate is pretty weak.
Sounds a lot like traditional internet marketing doesn’t it?!
In the Members section, I discuss possible strategies for marketing in this medium.
Resources:
::ToddS
DW Kickstart - Learn to build and market your own website
Tuesday 12 February 2008 8:46 pm
Hi ToddS,
I’m from NBS member forum. Your post encouraged me to come here and comment.
Let me prove my ignorance here. I have no idea on SL although I have heard it before.
I know you need special money to buy and sell something, also run something. If you know what you should do, say run a company, you can do so in SL, correct?
If I can build my branding or credibility in SL, can I transfer that to real life?
There are tens of thousands of eBooks explaining how you get money from MySpace, YouTube, Squidoo etc. So I’m wondering we can do similar thing in SL.
I will stop by here frequently and bug you.
You can also do that but unfortunately my site is not in English. :-))
Tuesday 12 February 2008 9:30 pm
Hi Masa… thanks for stopping by!!
Second Life is a little tough to explain to someone that hasn’t seen it before. I guess it’s a bit like “The Sims”. You create an avatar or avi for yourself. Which is nothing more than the character you will be seen as by other players.
Outside of that, it’s kinda like welcome to Second Life… go.
The rest of your time is spent learning, buying and interacting with other players.
It’s a lot like if you had just moved to a new city. You have to learn where everything is, how to interact with the objects around you, and make all new friends. You decide pretty much everything. You can be rude or friendly, old or young, a business owner or a shopper. You name it… you can do it.
As far as money, yes, they use their own currency which is called the linden. As of today it’s about 268 linden equal $1 USD. You can purchase linden to use within SL or you can exchange linden back to USD.
Maintaining your branding between SL and RL is kind of a trick. Mostly ‘cuz SL and RL have different reality. Imagine trying to sell Pepsi in a world that doesn’t eat or drink. Can it be done, absolutely. How transferable it is, well, that’s one of those million dollar questions.
Could you write a book… again I would say absolutely!! But with one caveat, you would need some considerable time in Second Life to learn the ropes since what you know on the outside may not be that helpful on the inside.
A major difference is you age in Second Life at a much faster pace then you do in the real world. Things get boring faster, you meet people faster, you grow closer faster… and you split up and go your own way faster.
Same would be true of clothing, avatars, hair styles, and vehicles. Everything is in the fast lane.
So, take a few and go play Second Life for awhile. I will warn you that it takes a bit to get the hang of it. Don’t bail before you get to the good part!
And stop by any time!!