As its name implies, Second Life is a life in a 3D virtual world setting. It’s free to join and create an avatar that represents your digital persona. Once you have your virtual being, you begin living your virtual life. You can either recreate your current life or create a whole new “second” life. Those living in the Second Life community can shop for virtual goods, travel, take part in activities, go to concerts and socialize. Second Life residents pretty much do all of the regular things that go on in the real world, plus much more. Second Life evolves daily based on the imagination of its residents.
Since its creation in 2003, Second Life has become an exciting forum for attracting an audience for your products, service, or talent. It also gives you the creative ability to develop a unique virtual look for your business. Major companies, like Kraft, Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, IBM and the Apple Store, as well as small businesses, are already taking advantage of the marketing opportunities that the virtual world Second Life brings to their real life businesses.
The demographics for Second Life are ages 18 and older, while Teen Second Life is for ages 13-17. Currently, millions of people from around the world are part of Second Life’s virtual scene.
First and foremost, you can recreate your business virtually, designing its look and layout. Create avatars to represent you and your staff and to interact with other residents on Second Life. For inspiration, check out the Apple Store in Second Life. It reinforces its real world brand by creating a similar virtual store, complete with well-known features like the Genius Bar.
Once you have a basic presence on Second Life, you can take your marketing efforts one step further. Take a cue from Coca-Cola and sponsor a concert in the virtual world. Or plan a community activity to promote your business. Sponsoring an event or activity in Second Life translates to global exposure for your real world business.
You could also use Second Life to test out a marketing campaign. For example, Coca-Cola conducted a virtual thirst campaign in conjunction with its real world marketing efforts. From a systems standpoint, IBM is using Second Life to test the functionality of its programs between real and virtual worlds. Besides having a marketing presence on Second Life, IBM is also using the virtual world to improve global communication among its workforce without incurring travel expenses. With their virtual avatars, employees participate in seminars and corporate meetings.
When it comes to promoting your business online, use the advantages of technology to take your marketing initiatives to new heights, or in the case of Second Life, out of this world.
What are your thoughts on Virtual Business? Is this the future or a fad?
Adam Toren