Below the Line

Second Life: the end is nigh

Regular readers may remember that I urged marketers to get into Second Life back in September, or risk losing the PR value, which I thought would disappear within six months. I also reported a growing backlash in November.

Now Serendipity Book has helpfully compiled a list of articles confirming the PR value of entering Second Life has all but disappeared. Time for marketers to jump onto the next big thing.You heard it here first!

Second Life: the countdown is on

About two months ago, I posted that you should get your clients a Second Life within six months before the PR value diminishes. Already the backlash against this growing enterprise is beginning. New corporations are springing up in Second Life weekly, causing some residents in Second Life to ban companies from their online real estate, but there is debate about whether the backlash is a real threat, or confined to a small vigilant group.

The fact that there is discussion about a backlash at all should be a yellow flag. It’s still worth getting on Second Life because, as the BBC puts it, they are barely out of the news, but make sure that your presence adds value to Second Life members.

The other reason it’s still worth getting on Second Life is the membership: it’s growing faster than ever – about 38% per month – and the monetary and time costs of channel switching are still too high to make it worthwhile for members.

Security concerns are another yellow flag:

• A few days ago, Second Life had to close down due to a worm attack called grey goo.
• In September, Second Life member account data was compromised.
• A script called CopyBot was released that enables users to replicate virtual items without having to pay for them. So take note if you were thinking of recommending that your clients create virtual products.

Second Life seems to handle any issues quickly and efficiently, but nevertheless make sure that your clients don’t compromise any customer or transactional data. Keep a watch on technology limitations and security breaches. The latter is another backlash indicator.

Let’s see how things progress over the next four months; it may prove to be a lifetime for Second Life.

Marketers, get your clients a Second Life now

If you don’t know what Second Life is, it’s an online 3D social media environment that users experience through avatars. In Second Life, you (your avatar, that is) can be anyone you want to be. You can make friends, buy property and go to the cinema or the shopping mall. In short, you can do anything you can do in the “real” world. You can also do things you can’t do in the real world, such as fly.

Some think of it as a multi-user game that thousands of people can interact with and participate in at one time. However, Second Life is more than a game. It has also created a viable economy for virtual goods. Second Life businesses have sprung up selling virtual items as diverse as clothes, furniture, books, skateboards, even property.

The growth curve is similar to where blogging was 18-24 months ago. The user base is rapidly expanding – at around 20% a month. That’s without any marketing by Linden Lab, Second Life’s creators.

But I dug a bit deeper when I suggested to a client that they get a Second Life. I thought it was a good fit for the brand (I can’t disclose the company yet for confidentiality reasons). My client was a global corporation and having a presence in this new world made sense for them. But looking at the stats, having a presence on Second Life is not yet a way to win throngs of new customers. BBC hosted a 2-day concert which only attracted 6,000 users; in fact the maximum number of users that can attend an event at any one time is 60-100. That can make events like MLB’s home-run competition with an empty-looking stadium. Only 50 people turned up.

So if you’re not getting new customers, why get a Second Life? The answer is press coverage. There’s been a lot of buzz about the businesses in Second Life. In the past few months, Second Life has had press coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Observer, Business Week Online, The Globe and Mail, Harvard Business Review, Forbes.com, USA Today, Times Online, The Economist, MSNBC.com and more.

If these are the kinds of publications that your client’s customers read, then you should consider Second Life as part of your marketing mix. But hurry, depending on what you build it could take at least two months to launch… and in six months you’ll no longer get the PR benefits of being an early corporate adopter.