I love Second Life as an idea because I love Neal Stephenson‘s Snow Crash. And, as a geek, I love the metaverse, too. I am also a marketer and I don’t like Second Life for marketing. Why? Second Life Marketing has only one life, and for many clients, that only life is in the novelty of being the first Fortune 50 company to “go there.”
“The only problem for marketers? Second Life is a pretty worthless place to try and sell people on your company’s brand and products. Wired gives a laundry list of drawbacks, but the biggest is that very few people actually use Second Life.” Via Tech Dirt via Wired.
There is no there, there. And, once you set up shop on Second Life, there is only one life to it: once you stop paying into it, it goes away. I am also no good at it, so what’s the use. I know folks who rock the Second Life promotional campaign like wild.
I don’t market on Second Life because I am an SEO guy deep down. There are two kinds of people: mods & rockers, yes, but also SEO & SEM.
Search Engine Marketing is ephemeral. As long as you pay for traffic, you get traffic. The same can be said of Second Life. I prefer to market textually and virally in open places leaving artifacts that endure and that turn up in Google long after the initial buzz dies down.
When I do something, I want to leave artifacts. When I join the conversation, I want my words to go on record. When there is a conversation on Second Life, it is like having a conversation at a dance party: it’s loud, there is very little if any record that you were there, and by morning, there is little proof that the party happened. The cleaners have been in and been out and all the fliers have been picked up and thrown away.
The only memory there usually is of anything having happened at both the dance party and in Second Life is the fond memories, some photos, and hopefully a kind soul who will have blogged about the fine time had by all.
I don’t know if I have it all figured out. I would love to be wrong. I might just be too SEO, too into leaving messaging and messages out there in the open, in the wild, becoming part and parcel of the conversation on record with the Google Records Office.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Why oh why does everyone try to apply the same measures of success to Second Life and virtual worlds in general? Same thing aggravates me when I see people who try to apply the same measurements from television to podcasting. They are different!
What people and companies have to realize is that setting up a shop and hoping people come in a virtual world is a waste of time if that is your mentality. You have to engage with the users more then ever. You have to be part of the community and be active. You can’t just set up and forget it. That PR ship has sailed and no one cares if you build just another island in Second Life. I know I sure don’t.
I’m still seeing companies do that. Just yesterday I checked out a new area. It was beautiful and cool, but there was nothing to do there besides look around and find out about the company. There wasn’t even any take aways or fun stuff which would have fit this company perfectly.
I’m looking forward to the constant evolution of virtual worlds and working with companies who realize this is different.
I am also a SEO guy having grown up with pounding away on google food in all it’s glory. Sure sometimes a sites “prettiness” has suffered due to “needs” for traffic, but alas I want google munching my code. Traffic = $ no question.
I also market somewhat in SL, or at least I’m “experimenting” with marketing in SL. I also know CC, he has run some great engaging campaigns in SL which DO utilise the community and where we all take away an impression, an awareness. And he is spot on when he says it is different, very different.
I’m somewhere in between the two of you, I would like to see SL have MUCH more traffic, I mean hell some of my sites would get as many impressions a day as SL has people in at any one point, so of course SL is specialised branding and marketing, to small number, but it is “STRONG” branding, impressionable engagement which companies can channel into a wider picture.