Large corporations and Entrepreneurs alike have been quick to see the potential of Second Life. Second Life Residents are well-educated, creative and innovative early adopters. With the explosive growth of this virtual world smart companies are finding successful marketing and PR strategies come from experimentation.
Second Life Entrepreneurs have cropped up selling everything from hair and clothing for avatars, to furniture and cars… anything you would want in the real world. The biggest success story to date is that of virtual land developer and Entrepreneur Anshe Chung (the Avatar of Ailin Graef) is the first online personality to become a real world millionaire by buying and developing virtual real-estate.
Through activities such as buying islands, building venues, distributing items and running events corporations like IBM, American Apparel and Toyota have successfully begun promoting brands to Second Life Residence creating a corporate presence in the virtual world.
Not every marketing venture in Second Life has met with great success. The “World” is still evolving and markets are feeling their way. While there is no magic formula to successful promotion in SL, I have notice that there are a few things that those who are getting it right seem to have in common.
Letting go of your Brand
One of the main attractions to Second Life is the ability of Residences to customize, build and distribute multiple copies of anything and everything. This means that fans of particular brands are going out on their own and creating objects “in World”. If someone is enough of a fan of your brand let them evangelize it. Toyota did a wonderful job of this last year when they offered Residence a virtual edition of the Scion xD to fully customize.
Crossing Worlds
Second Life has the ability to hyperlink to real world ecommerce sites. The best of breed SL marketing initiatives take advantage of this. It only seems logical if a Second Life Resident is interested enough to seek your presence out and buy your goods “In World” then they might then be inclined to visit your ecommerce site as and purchase your real life product.
Nurture your Community
It is not enough to for corporations to build large and impressive venues. Offering Residents activities and holding events regularly is they way to hold their attention. The entertainment industry has the right idea. Musicians like Suzanne Vega and Uncle Seth have Second Life outposts where they play live concerts and sell merchandise. By holding “Live” Shows “In World” artists are able engage Residents, promoting in the virtual world and generating buzz outside of Second Life.
The Future of Second Life
Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick may have summed it up best when he wrote “…what it (Second Life) really may represent is an alternative vision for how to interact with information and communicate over the Internet.” This sift will mean great opportunities for the Internet marketers who best reflect the SL Residences… creative and innovative early adopters.
Read the first two articles in our three part series discussing Second Life:
Part One: Second Life – The Wild West of Internet Marketing
Part Two: Second Life - A Closer Look “In World”