Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros is the only video game I play. It’s exciting, and most importantly, it’s two dimensional. I just keep running in one direction, and with practice and skills, I will beat the monster eventually.
I did try a 3-D game once. However, after totally lost my sense of direction in the game, I declare, being lost in the real world is bad enough, I refuse to get myself in that position in a virtual world.
So when my friends told me about Second Life: an online community designed for and by its users to communicate, I said “NO, not interested.” “You are missing out,” they said. “No, I am fine. I got my MSN and face-to-face kind of networking. I will be just fine.” That was my reply one year ago, and I soon find out how wrong I was and how much I was really missing out.
Steve Rubel, the Director of Insight for Edelman Digital and an expert on social media, wrote the following two years ago:
“You can’t pick up a business publication or hang out with people who are enthusiastic about new ways of marketing without hearing about the Second Life virtual world/metaverse. I have written about it extensively here. I am very bullish on using Second Life as a platform for event marketing, virtual simulations and feedback, as are others in the marketing community.
Who can blame us? Although it’s been around since 2003, the hype around Second Life has picked up dramatically in the last several months. It appears to be just off its all-time high.”
Knowing I have a lot to catch up, I interviewed Jenny Bullough, one of the speakers who talked about Second Life in this year’s Podcamp Toronto. The interview was insightful, and it shocked me how Second Life could engage people and how it could potentially become one of the most popular PR platform in the foreseeable future.
The book promotion Bullough hosted in Second Life was a perfect example of how Second Life can reach wider range of audiences and provide a more memorable experience.
Instead of hosting a book promotion at a local book store, which might attract 20-30 people from the area, eHarlequin Inc., hosted the event in Second Life. They were able to create a Victorian castle, a replica from the book, in Second Life and used it as the venue. Moreover, eHarlequin handed out Victorian gowns for all participants, so that all participants could get engage in the book as if they were one of the characters. This event successfully attracted over 100 people from across North America, five times the turnout if it had been a real world event.
Yet, this is only one example. Hundreds of companies are hosting events and building virtual stores to provide a more interactive experience for their intended audiences. Some not-for-profit organization had also joined the trend recently:
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Liverpool Hope University in English plans to host the very first “open day” event in Second Life. The university aims to attract students from across the world, and hosting its Open Day in the virtual world would save a lot of money.
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The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare opened a online clinic in Second Life. The first organization of its kind in the United States to offer mental health and addictions awareness and support virtually using the technology of Second Life. This virtual clinic provids the confidentially and privacy that one other clinics in the real world can compete.
Corporations are not just fighting to make a presence in Second Life, they are fighting to find a more creative way to engage their audience in the virtual world.
True, Second Life is not mainstream yet and its high technology demands still limit people who would love to give it a try. But with so many corporations investing itself and Linden Lab (the company hosting Second Life), it is only the matter of time before more people started to use Second Life and use it as their second life, second identity.
PR practitioners should get ready. We should get ready and get use to the idea of reaching out to our audiences like there is no boundary. And use our imagination, where sky is no longer the limit.
This clip shows Text 100, the first PR agency that established its presence in Second Life, explaining how companies can use Second Life as a communication and PR tool.
1 Comment
March 21, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Just like you Jessie, when I first heard about the concept of Second Life – I brushed it off. Until I had the chance to research and talk to people involved in the space, SL made sense to me. It’s the perfect tool for any communicator to use. There are no geographical boundaries in SL and users (residents) can make life on SL as real or fake as they choose.
I do not see this platform disappearing any time soon. Even multi-million dollar hip hop stars, are exploiting this space. Rapper Jay-Z hosted a concert on SL and many avatars joined the event. It is evident, Second Life is the wave of the future and many communicator’s recognize this enormous trend.