Business Communicators of Second Life®

MTV Avatar Marketing?

MTV is expanding its fans’ virtual “playgrounds” by enabling avatar widgets for three of its online and virtual properties; partnering with Oddcast and using its Voki platform for the widgets (example below).  MTV refers to its online environments as “thematic galleries” – an interesting concept in itself.

MTV hopes fans will use the customized, speaking avatars to interact with each other exchanging gossip and messages. Voki offers an impressive number of combinations of avatar features to allow for quite a bit of personalization – but the fun is adding the text-to-speech or synchronized recorded voice to deliver content via the avatar.  (Warning:If you are going to browse some recently created avatars some of the audio content is very un-PG.)

MTV of course also hopes fans will place the avatars on their other online spaces, such as social networks, blogs, or other virtual environments.  The availability of embed code is immediate upon creating your Voki avatar.

But way more importantly for MTV, is that they may be looking to these distributed avatars as an advertising channel.

Checking out the very-hard-to-find-until-you-create-your-MTV-avatar Voki terms of service, it appears you will be giving them the right to do just that.

I’ll not bore you with the TOS language (relevant portion posted below) but it basically says, we own you, your avatar, anything you record or create, and we can do anything we like with it – anywhere it is – without compensating you in any way if we do.

ClickZ reports that MTV banks on being able to eventually push messages directly to those distributed avatars.

It’s a little disturbing to think MTV may be planning to co-opt its fans by making it appear their avatar is endorsing something without their explicit permission nor endorsement.  This takes “word of mouth” to a new level, I suppose.

I think it is a great idea to think about concentrating on the avatar, since it is the only constant in a sea of social spaces – indeed I’ve been advocating the idea for quite a while now.  But I can’t say this particular kind of potential co-opting is a “best practice” I’d recommend jumping into.  I sincerely hope MTV treads into these waters very carefully. 

Social networks are just beginning to feel the restlessness of members, who are collectively coming to the realization that it is they who create the market value of the network.  It is just a matter of time before they will be exerting that power, and perhaps the expectation of reaping at least some of the benefit.

I see another, bigger Beacon potentially brewing.

Voki Terms of Service
…you agree that any materials, including but not limited to questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, discoveries, plans, notes, drawings, arts, original or creative materials or other information, provided by you in the form of email or submissions to Oddcast, or postings at this Web Site, are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of Oddcast to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Oddcast shall own exclusive rights and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or additional compensation to you. In the event applicable law operates to prevent Oddcast from becoming the sole owner of any such property, then this provision shall be effective as granting to Oddcast (with unfettered rights of assignment) a perpetual, worldwide, paid-in-full, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to make, use, sell, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any rights that may exist in any such material.

April 30, 2008

New Research Services from Involve, Inc. and Metaversatility

A slew of virtual worlds announcements is likely being unleashed from the floor of the VW2008 conference, which opened its doors this morning. I opted to observe it from afar this year as VW200x tends to focus on virtual world development, technology and corporate forays into virtual space.  As a business strategist and social media consultant, my interest tends toward how people are using – and are transformed by - virtual spaces and virtuality.

To that end, a couple of announcements came my way a couple of weeks ago - eons ago in virtual world and blogger time. But, important enough in my world to do the nearly unthinkable in blog space – write about such “old news.”

Just a few days apart, developers Involve, Inc. and Metaversatility each announced new client service offerings – research. (By way of disclosure, my company introduced a directly competing research service last year). 

This is a very good trend – more accumulated research means we all get a better understanding of the unique characteristics of place and people in virtual spaces.   Operating in the virtual is far too new to have risen to the confidence level of “marketing staple! go blindly forward” and it creates far too deep an impression to just wave away vital insights good research affords.  I dare say the widely hyped corporate virtual marketing “failures” of 2007 might be fueling this trend just a tad, as well.

Developers are responding to very real client needs – to learn more and to show results.  Clients often can’t get emerging media guidance and expertise from their “traditional” agencies and developers are wisely stepping into the role by partnering with organizations that can provide some of the “best practices” agencies bring to the table and clients have come to expect in more traditional settings. 

Involve, Inc. has teamed up with Strategy Analytics to offer “consumer insight” to inform emerging media initiatives and business strategies.  The service is called the “Emerging Media Impact Assessment” and reportedly focuses on defining objectives and metrics.

In an interview with Virtual World News, Involve president Drew Stein says he believes Strategy Analytics “gets” the space, and he tells me that the two companies make a dream team.  I have no reason to doubt that, as SA is a respected research firm and Stein definitely does “get” emerging media principles. 

But I just have to say that I hope Involve will prove a valuable learning partner for SA in lightening them up a bit and helping them embrace the new 2.0 era of communications.  Their white paper, the results of which is touted in the partnership announcement, is locked away behind the SA firewall, requiring registration - which only supports IE6, by the way - and the registration form has checked by default 500 (exaggerating, but not by much…) areas of interest I want to receive information about from SA.  Yes, I am one of those “abandoned” visitors in your web stats, SA.  The executive summary is available on Involve’s site, but it doesn’t provide any real insight into what is in the report, and warning: the summary is dense reading.  (Do I sound annoyed?  I think I sound annoyed...).

That said, I hope Involve's clients will budget more and early for research.  Ideally, implementation should be informed by it and is then a process developed over a longer-haul budget.  I also hope that Involve and SA will share with the community some of the insights gained as they accumulate more knowledge through their research.

Metaversatility teamed up with GSD&M.  GSD&M has been trying to be a player in the virtual worlds data game for a while.  They took a big lead in the Second Life Market Data Project that ultimately wound up being abandoned - in my opinion from watching the progress - due to a lack of expertise toward developing virtual world appropriate research methodologies.  So it makes terrific sense for GSD&M to partner with Metaversatility to help them gain that expertise and the appropriate resources.

Metaversatility is also providing GSD&M's IdeaCity with a branded research “bot” to automatically screen and survey avatars in-world, rather than using “out of world” web-based surveys.

This in-world surveying has value from the standpoint the person behind the avatar is “in” the environment being researched.  So, it will be interesting to see if IdeaCity’s results differ significantly from other researchers’ based on this approach.

However, I think GSD&M’s characterization of their new research service as “ethnographic” is using the term rather loosely.  Ethnographic study deeply involves the researching human who is observing in a native environment – generally over a long period of time.  By its nature, it is not objective research.  Bots don’t fall into that definition, at least not yet.  This is qualitative research, to be sure, but the mere fact that surveys or interviews are done in world doesn’t make it ethnographic research.  Maybe there is more to their ethnographic story, so hopefully someone from Metaversatility or GSD&M will step in here and provide more context.

I’ll forgive (soon) both GSD&M and Metaversatility for the blatant PR spin in their press release generalizing the “gaping void” in “best in class virtual world research.”  There has been enormous amounts of truly impressive research going on for years in virtual environments (academic and commercial); several consultancies and agencies have been quietly affording clients data and research-informed advice and solutions.  A few have distinguished themselves as leaders in 3D virtual spaces.  Metaversatility has itself had various research services as part of their client offerings since they were founded, and members of their team have shared their research at past conferences, including VW2008 this week.

No matter the details,  I wish them each success.  The entire community will gain from more research being done in virtual spaces and these are two partnerships that can only help further everyone’s knowledge about these environments and the people who inhabit them.  Even if the research these companies undertake isn’t widely shared or made available, it will leak out in the form of better initiatives, case studies, new services, and a higher degree of client satisfaction.

Photo credit: Australian National University, Centre for Mental Health Research

April 3, 2008

Liquid Beings Blog - Avatar Marketing: Fake Places, Distributed Selves, Real Marketing

I am cross-posting this here from my new blog, Liquid Beings - although I will not make a habit of it.  I invite you to check in on it and jump in if you are interested in virtuality and what it means for marketing. It provides a place for me to talk about broader issues of marketing in virtual spaces - and most especially those liquid beings we call avatars.

Avatar Marketing: Fake Places, Distributed Selves, Real Marketing

A new space, a blank scrap of web space on which to record my exploration of avatars, virtual spaces, our increasingly distributed attention and the quest we are on collectively for something real in a market-contrived world. These take us into “unreal” places.

These are the concepts marketers will have to deeply embrace in the early 21st century.  Who knows what lies beyond then?   I suspect virtuality, in its many forms, will be significant.

In the 25 years that I've been consulting with companies on business and marketing, there are really only two things that have come onto the scene that I doggedly insisted were absolutely systemic and would truly change the rules.  Those two are the Web and social media.  Today I am insisting the same is true of "virtuality." 

Every accepted medium springs from what is going on within the society - and in turn a culture springs from it, which then reflects back into the society at large, shaping it; changing it.

The web, social media and virtuality – each of these has or is changing our lives - each is changing us.  They are changing our language, and therefore the way we think.  They are changing our world and our views of it.

My experience in emerging media leads me to knowing that it isn't enough to simply "know about" a medium or how to “implement it.”  To be successful there has to exist a deep understanding of the interplay of the medium with those who participate with it.  The most successful businesses have been built upon that.

I've been delving deeply into virtuality and what it means for marketing, communications and business for quite some time. I am profoundly convinced that it is a force that is - and will increasingly - impact our world, as the web has already; as social media is presently.  I believe if we are going to communicate and operate well in virtuality, we must understand it deeply.

Social media - that is shareable media - isn't the beginning of "virtuality," but it is the "tipping point" in many respects. Virtuality and social media are closely tied.  They share a common lexicon, for now, and many of the concepts and principles are as good for one as the other at present.

I believe the avatar is the nexus.  While most are focused on the platform or the technology or the tool of social media or virtual environments, the avatar is the only true constant.  Platforms, tools and technologies come and go.  Avatars are Liquid Beings that move among them and who reside in the spaces between the body and the mind.

So, here I will explore these Liquid Beings and the principles by which we might communicate with them.

Meeting Transcript: Avatar Psychographics

Many thanks once again to Market Truths for giving us a preview into their just-released research, Psychographic Segments and Media Consumption.  President Mary Ellen Gordon (virtually, Pebbles Hannya) provided insights on exactly those two things, after months of rigorous research with Second Life avatars.

The report compares the SL population to the SL international population as well as to the general US population.  The research looks at the avatar media usage of twenty-five traditional and new media channels - as well as the personality characteristics of SL avatars, grouping them into 6 distinct psychographic categories:  Team Players, Entrepreneurs, Competitors, Connectors, Chameleons, and Apprehensives.  These are important principles to consider when implementing marketing and communications practices within SL and other similar virtual worlds.  I encourage you to read through the transcript to get a sense of these personas.  To delve deeper, you can purchase the report for $200 (US) here.

Rather than simply telling us about these personas, Mary Ellen introduced us to six prototypical avatars who each demonstrated the characteristics of their own psychographic segment.

If you are a student of some of the research about virtual world "players", perhaps one of the most important points to keep in mind as you delve into the transcript of the meeting below, is that this psychographics research focuses on the various personality types exhibited within SL - what they value and what their interests are.  This research differs from work done by for example, Nick Yee or game designer Richard Bartle, (today's Metanomics guest who among many things, discussed his MUD player-types) in that Bartle looks at the different categories of players  in terms of "what's fun" for them - and how they approach the multi-player game -  for the purpose of game design.  Market Truths studied avatars from the standpoint of personality types and what they value in a non-game virtual construct like Second Life in terms of marketing implications.

If you were unable to attend the SL Business Communicators meeting last Friday, the SL Marketers Club will be hosting Mary Ellen on March 17th, 12:00 p.m. SLT,  where she will be again discussing the results of the avatar psychographic study.  Contact Cybergrrl Oh in SL for more info on that meeting.

Meeting Transcript: March 7, 2008

Introduction

Znetlady: Welcome everyone.
Znetlady: As we get started, I'm asking that you IM questions to me - Znetlady.
Znetlady: We aren't normally so formal, but usually there are a ton of q's on this topic, so this way we can keep them organized.
Znetlady: We are using chat, not voice - primarily so we can capture a transcript for posting.
Alice Klinger: very good :-)
Znetlady: I will be posting it on the Business Communicators blog.
Znetlady: I think it helps everyone and avoids audio problems.
Znetlady: So, with that, I' like to say we are lucky to get the first view on the long awaited psychographics study of SL avatars.
Znetlady: Pebbles has been working on it for months, as a member of SLBC, she is kind enough to provide us this information.
Znetlady: She has lots to cover, and she brought some guests - welcome to them as well - to help illustrate the
Znetlady: segmentation she discovered.
Znetlady: Once more, please IM questions to me as you have them, and we'll cover them after Pebbles walks us through
Znetlady: the findings.
Znetlady: With that, Pebbles, president of Market Truths - I give you the floor.
Pebbles Hannya: Thanks Z
Pebbles Hannya: And thanks to everyone for coming today.

Research Report Background: Getting Behind the Speculation

Pebbles Hannya: As you know, we're here to discuss a report we've just released on psychographic segments and media consumption.
Pebbles Hannya: To start out, I just want to provide a bit of background to the report.
Pebbles Hannya: Ever since we've been involved with SL, we've heard speculation about the types of people who frequent virtual worlds like SL.
Pebbles Hannya: Everyone seems to have a theory; teenagers, geeks, social outcasts who can't make RL friends
Pebbles Hannya: My personal favourite, which came from a client, is: "employed people who live with their parents."
Ima Ideator: lol
Kara Janus: Yeah, right.
Znetlady: hahahah
Pebbles Hannya: For a long time we've been working on ways to measure psychographic characteristics for virtual world participants that will be robust across samples and also work with non virtual world samples.
Pebbles Hannya: For anyone who is not familiar with the term, psychographics refers to things such as values, interests and personality.
Pebbles Hannya: Psychographics are helpful for marketing purposes because demographic information (age, gender, etc.) is often not sufficient to explain who buys what and why.
Pebbles Hannya: So anyway, since October 2006 (which seems approximately like forever in SL time), we've been developing a system for classifying people into psychographic segments.
Pebbles Hannya: To do that we've used a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, and tested using data from a variety of different samples.
Pebbles Hannya: The report we just released describes the results of that segmentation process, and compares US SL participants to international SL participants and to the US general population in terms of their psychographics and media consumption.
Pebbles Hannya: It's based on data collected from 918 people (358 US SL, 260 Intl SL, 300 US GP) via a Web survey, and follow-up interviews with 30 of those (five of the most prototypical members of each of six segments).

Avatar Media Consumption

Pebbles Hannya: Obviously with the time available today, I can only scratch the surface of what's in the report, so what I plan to do is:
Pebbles Hannya: First give you an overview of how the media consumption of US SL participants compares to that of the US general population.
Pebbles Hannya: Then introduce you to the six segments and give you an idea of some of the ways in which they differ from one another.
Pebbles Hannya: And finally take questions.
Pebbles Hannya: Does that all sound OK?
iAlja Writer: great!
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Znetlady: we're with you, Pebbles.
Pebbles Hannya: :) Okay thanks.
Pebbles Hannya: So let's get into the discussion of media consumption.
Pebbles Hannya: Remember, what we're going to be looking at is the difference between US SL participants and members of the general US population.
Pebbles Hannya: In particular, I'm going to be taking about both the prevalence of consumption of a particular type of media within each group (what proportion of people use each type of media) and the volume of use (hours of use in the week before the survey).
Pebbles Hannya: Going from top to bottom in the boxes, the top row will show types of media that are used by a greater proportion of US SL participants than the US general population and the bottom row will show types of media that are used less by SL participants.
Pebbles Hannya: The right most boxes in each row will show the types of media that SL users spend more time using than members of the general population and the left most boxes of each row show types of media they spend less time using.
Pebbles Hannya: Note that usage time is only for people who use the particular form of media.
Pebbles Hannya: So let me start with the types of media that SL users use more of and spend more time using than members of the general US population. Any guesses?
IYan Writer: blogs
Znetlady: blog
Pebbles Hannya: Both right -- anyone else?
Austen Scanlan: facebook
Pebbles Hannya: That's an interesting one Austen -- we'll come back to that in just a minute...
Tempest Hennesy: Inworld streaming video.
Pebbles Hannya: For now, let's look at the things that a higher proportion of SL users use and that they use a higher volume of...
Allison Selene: p2p networks
Pebbles Hannya: Yes, Tempest got one of them...
Pebbles Hannya: Second Life (obviously), other virtual worlds, instant messaging, and streaming audio
Pebbles Hannya: Now for media for which usage is more prevalent among SL users, but volume of usage is the same as for the general public:
Pebbles Hannya: Streaming video, e-books, podcasts, writing own blog, reading others’ blogs, and commenting on others’ blogs.
Pebbles Hannya: Those may not be particularly surprising, but would you have expected this:
Pebbles Hannya: SL users are more likely to use social networking sites, but those who do spend less time doing so that members of the general population.
Pebbles Hannya: The fact that the whole top row is digital stuff is pretty expected, but that lower usage volume for social networking sites did come as a surprise to me.
Pebbles Hannya: I think there are two possible reasons, but I would be interested in hearing what the rest of you think when we get to Q&A...
Pebbles Hannya: ... one possibility is that they've been there, done that, and moved on....
Pebbles Hannya: ... another is that this is their main venue for social networking and the actual social networking sites are just a supplement.
aEoLuS Standard Monitor (Green) with Screensaver: Picture paused
Pebbles Hannya: Anyway, moving on for now...
aEoLuS Standard Monitor (Green) with Screensaver: Screensaver enabled
aEoLuS Standard Monitor (Green) with Screensaver: Picture paused
Pebbles Hannya: Sticking on the left hand side - the area where SL participants have a lower volume of use -  we see that they
Pebbles Hannya: Spend less time shopping and looking for product information on the Web.
Pebbles Hannya: /box 6005
Znetlady: that's really interesting...
Pebbles Hannya: And spend less time watching TV -- and are also less likely to watch TV at all.
Znetlady: 'cuz we're in sl!
Pebbles Hannya: :)
Pebbles Hannya: And what a lot of people told us in the interviews is that they don't miss TV :)
Pebbles Hannya: Usage of two other forms of traditional media:  reading print newspapers and magazines, is also less prevalent among SL participants than the general US population.
Pebbles Hannya: What's interesting - and you can read more about this and all of the other details in the report itself - is that the media consumption patterns of US SL participants are more similar to international SL participants than to the general US population.
Allison Selene nods
Pebbles Hannya: OK, so that's a quick overview of some of the key findings regarding media. Now I want to change gears to tell you a bit about the segments.

Psychographic Segments

Pebbles Hannya: To do that, I thought I would introduce you to a member of each segment.
Pebbles Hannya: Due to privacy considerations and a desire to represent the prototypical characteristics of each segment, the avatars you're about to meet are acting "in character" today.
Pebbles Hannya: The RL people operating them may not necessarily be part of the segments they are representing.
Pebbles Hannya: Everything they're about to say is based on the actual data pertaining to the segment they're representing.
Pebbles Hannya: They're going to introduce you to their individual segments and discuss what makes each one unique.
Pebbles Hannya: Let's start out with Vivia representing the Team Player segment. Come on up Vivia.
Vivia Straaf: Hi everyone! :)
Znetlady: Hi!

The Team Players

Vivia Straaf: As Pebbles mentioned, I'm representing the Team Player segment, and it's no coincidence that I'm female.
Vivia Straaf: Here in SL, Team Players are equally likely to be male or female, but in the US general population there are more women than men in our segment.
Vivia Straaf: As a group in the US general population, we Team Players are disproportionately likely to come from high income households.
Vivia Straaf: That might help explain why were also the most likely to use some of the forms of media that Pebbles just talked about.
Vivia Straaf: We're most likely to have used a mobile phone or other handheld device to send text messages and most likely to have watched TV on a handheld device.
Vivia Straaf: We're also most likely to have used social networking sites, read electronic versions of magazines, instant messaged, and used the Web for shopping and product information.
Vivia Straaf: We're most likely to have visited other virtual worlds besides SL, but even so on average those of us Team Players who live in the US haven't been in SL as long as people in other segments have.
Vivia Straaf: Well one thing I can tell you about my segment is that we Team Players are outgoing. We're the most extroverted of the segments - maybe that's why they had me go first.
Brander Heron: lol
Znetlady: here, here
Allison Selene: lol
Tempest Hennesy: ..giggle..
Vivia Straaf grins.
Vivia Straaf: We also love to connect with other people. We're interested in getting to know them and letting them get to know us. And whether they met us here in SL or in RL, they would be meeting the same person - we have a lot of friends that cross-over from one to the other.
Vivia Straaf: We tend to use SL to extend our RL interests.
Vivia Straaf: We're also problem solvers so one of the things we like to do with others in SL and in RL is work together on projects whether it's for work or just for fun.
Vivia Straaf: So that's a quick introduction to the Team Player segment. Now I want to turn things over to Takeshi who is going to tell you about the Entrepreneurs.
Austen Scanlan: I wonder if there is any correlation between "why" women are less likely to use TXT over VOIP?
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Takeshi Kiama: Thanks Vivia :)
Kara Janus: /applause

The Entrepreneurs

Takeshi Kiama: My Segment, the Entrepreneurs are like the Team Players in some respects.
Takeshi Kiama: In particular, we‚'re even more enthusiastic about problem solving.
Takeshi Kiama: We really love the challenge in trying to figure things out - whether that's figuring out how to make a business better or learning how to do things here in SL.
Takeshi Kiama: We're also fairly extroverted and interested in connecting with others.
Takeshi Kiama: For example...
Takeshi Kiama: We, along with Connectors who you will be hearing from soon, are more into blogging than any other segment.
Takeshi Kiama: We also spend more time than any other segment talking on mobile phones.
Tempest Hennesy: Hee.
Takeshi Kiama: A couple of things make us different from the Team Players though.
Takeshi Kiama: For one thing, we're much more competitive!
Takeshi Kiama: They may enjoy playing the game, but we like to win! :D
Znetlady: :-)
Takeshi Kiama: Another thing that makes us different is that we're much more elusive.
Takeshi Kiama: With them what you see is what you get, but we tend to keep people guessing.
Takeshi Kiama: We're the same people inside, but the way other people tend to perceive us varies depending on where we are and who we're with.
Takeshi Kiama: That combination of characteristics is very useful for gaming, which is something that a lot of us Entrepreneurs enjoy.
Takeshi Kiama: Unfortunately, another thing that makes us different from the Team Players is that at least among the US general population, we have lower household incomes than members of other segments do. :(
Takeshi Kiama: Part of that might be because we tend to be younger (at least among US SL participants).
Takeshi Kiama: Among the US general population, there are more men than women in our segment.
Takeshi Kiama: Now that you know a bit about Entrepreneurs, I'll turn things over to Firedragon Bellios to tell you about Competitors.
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Kara Janus: /clap
spacetraveler Russell: c
Firedragon Bellios: Thanks Tankeshi
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.

Competitors

Firedragon Bellios: Hi everyone :D
Allison Selene: hi
spacetraveler Russell: hi fire
Cube Republic: hi
Firedragon Bellios: I'm here representing the Competitors segment. We and the remaining four segments each have a dominant trait...
Firedragon Bellios: ...competitiveness.!!!
Znetlady: lol
Firedragon Bellios: The Entrepreneurs (you've just heard their version) may like to win...
Firedragon Bellios: but that's really the MAIN thing we care about!
Austen Scanlan: So you are hard core gamer vs the previous casual gamer?
Firedragon Bellios: lol...yeah:)))
Firedragon Bellios: but that's really the MAIN thing we care about!
Firedragon Bellios: wiining
Firedragon Bellios: Speaking of which... unlike the enterpreneurs, among the US general population our household incomes are *higher* than average...:D
Firedragon Bellios: Even so, we feel uncomfortable when other people have things that we don't, or when their stuff is better than ours.
Firedragon Bellios: That's one of the appeals of SL for us. We can have stuff that's not accessible to us in RL. Here we can have a great house, a great car, a great body (as you can see:D)
Firedragon Bellios: - whatever we want.
Firedragon Bellios: In RL, we're a bit less into technology than most of the other segments represented here today.
Firedragon Bellios: Listening to streaming audio, blogging and reading blogs are all less prevalent among us Competitors than among the other segments, as are using social networking sites, instant messaging, using the Web for shopping or getting product info, and talking on mobile phones.
Firedragon Bellios: Perhaps not surprisingly in light of that, it took us longer to get into SL than some of the other groups. We're still underrepresented here in SL compared to the overall US population, but not *as* underrepresented as we used to be.
Shava Suntzu wonders if this is the same segment that's into collecting the inaccessible paramours, too...;)
Firedragon Bellios: We're also more likely to be younger (compared to US SL participants in other segments and male (compared to members of the US general population in other segments).
Firedragon Bellios: So now I'll turn you over to a member of the segment that’s most over-represented in SL: The Connectors...Absinthe :)
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.

The Connectors

Absinthe Primrose: Thanks Firedragon and Good Afternoon Everyone!
Absinthe Primrose: As Firedragon mentioned, we Connectors are the most over-represented compared to the general US population, but that's changing. ...
Absinthe Primrose: We've been in SL the longest - more than a year on average- - but as different types of people have come into SL we're shrinking as a percentage of the SL population.
Austen Scanlan: Over-represented ...is that a bad thing?
Absinthe Primrose: smiles
Absinthe Primrose: We don't mind though :)
Absinthe Primrose: What we Connectors really love about SL is that in enables us to meet different types of people and get to know them, so the more they merrier, we say.
Absinthe Primrose: We're the least extroverted of the segments, so it's sometimes easier for us to meet people in SL than it is in RL.
Absinthe Primrose: We Connectors also like to express ourselves, and SL is great for that too.
Absinthe Primrose: In fact, some of us believe that SL enables us to be more our true or ideal selves than we can be in RL.
Absinthe Primrose: Many of us find that expressing ourselves and making connections here has really enhanced our real lives.
Absinthe Primrose: Among US SL participants, we’re a bit older than members of the other segments are on average.
Austen Scanlan: Ah, yes, we're getting serious now...the alter ego.
Absinthe Primrose: lol
Znetlady: ya..
Absinthe Primrose: Moving out of SL and thinking about our segment as part of the general US population, we have lower household incomes (again on average).
Absinthe Primrose: We're heavy users of some types of media though....
Absinthe Primrose: Blogging, watching streaming video, listening to podcasts and streaming audio...
Absinthe Primrose: and reading print versions of books are all highly prevalent among members of our segment compared to the others.
Absinthe Primrose: Well, That provides you with some background about us!
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Absinthe Primrose: I'll now turn you over to my colleague from the Chameleons segment, Kylie Balogh! Thanks!!!
Firedragon Bellios: yeah
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.

The Chameleons

Kylie Balogh: Thank you Absinthe...
Kylie Balogh: Hello everybody!
Kylie Balogh: I'm Kylie and I'm in the Chameleon segment.
Kylie Balogh: They call us "Chameleons" because we tend to be a bit elusive.
Kylie Balogh: Like real chameleons, we feel that we're the same all the time.
Kylie Balogh: Whether it's RL or SL, we always feel that we're the same person.
Kylie Balogh: But, we've been told that people perceive us differently depending on the situation.
Kylie Balogh: That's probably why we often feel so few people really know us.
Kylie Balogh: For me, and my fellow Chameleons, SL is a relaxing and enjoyable place to be.
Kylie Balogh: We can take a break from the roles we play with our family, at our job, with our friends and neighbors, etc.
Kylie Balogh: RL stress, worry and responsibility give way to SL fun and fantasy.
Kylie Balogh: SL allows us to explore parts of ourselves that are hidden, lacking or repressed in our RL roles.
Kylie Balogh: If you take a close look at the US population, you'll see that the vast majority of Chameleons are female.
Kylie Balogh: And. we have lower incomes as compared to members of other segments. . . . . . sniff. . . . :-(
Kylie Balogh: We're among the least likely of the segments to read newspapers, listen to podcasts, watch streaming videos, or watch TV on a handheld device.
Kylie Balogh: Like the Connectors, on average we Chameleons have been in SL longer than members of the other segments.
Kylie Balogh: That's it for me, thanks for listening.
Kylie Balogh: Now I would like turn the podium over to Alexa Trefoil.
Vivia Straaf: /clap
Kylie Balogh: Alexa represents the final segment....
Kylie Balogh: and no, it's not an endangered species.....
Kylie Balogh: it's The Apprehensives segment.
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Znetlady: :)
Tempest Hennesy: ..giggle..
Takeshi Kiama: xD
Absinthe Primrose: rawr!
Kara Janus: LOL

The Apprehensives

Alexa Trefoil: Hello Everyone!
Alexa Trefoil: I’m from the Apprehensive segment.
Alexa Trefoil: As you might have guessed, our distinguishing characteristic is our apprehensiveness.
Alexa Trefoil: We’re wary about what other people and organizations are up to.
Alexa Trefoil: We’re concerned about the environment.
Alexa Trefoil: We’re concerned about things big companies do or might do -- LL, for example ?.
Alexa Trefoil: We’re concerned about private information about us becoming public.
Alexa Trefoil: As you can imagine, all of that can get rather stressful, so what we like about SL is that it’s a great place to come to blow of steam and just be silly for a while and get away from all of those concerns.
Alexa Trefoil: To do that, some of us like to role play (not the serious or dramatic types – just the fun ones), but others just like to goof around here.
Alexa Trefoil: If we haven’t picked an avatar for roleplay or a whimsical one such as the one I’m wearing today, we often choose avatars that closely resemble our RL selves. Some of us feel most comfortable that way.
Alexa Trefoil: No, I don't really look like a panda in RL....
Takeshi Kiama: hehe
Tempest Hennesy: ..giggle..
Alexa Trefoil: In RL those of us who are in SL but live outside of the US are more likely than people in other segments to work part-time.
Alexa Trefoil: We're less likely than members of other segments to have watched TV on handheld devices or tried other virtual worlds.
Alexa Trefoil: Okay, well now that you know a little bit about each of the segments, I'll turn things back to Pebbles : )
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.

Some Partially Organized Q&A

Recruitment for Study

Pebbles Hannya: OK-- thanks to all of our segment members.
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Pebbles Hannya: I think Znetlady has been keeping track of questions, so maybe she can help me with the Q and A?
Znetlady: I have a couple
Znetlady: Shava Suntzu: Hi, ZI! I'd like to ask: How did people find the website to answer the survey? I find that most people in-world aren't even aware, for example, that there is in-world media. Many don't ever read the official LL blog (ergo shock over the gambling ban, for example). So how can a group that finds their web site be ensured to be typical?
Pebbles Hannya: OK, maybe we can take those and then open up for any others.
Pebbles Hannya: People don't need to find our Web site Shava.
Pebbles Hannya: We have a panel of SL residents who participate in research projects for us.
Pebbles Hannya: They've been recruited in a variety of ways ....
Shava Suntzu: How do you find them, or they find you?
Austen Scanlan: How can be sure of a self selected sample?
Pebbles Hannya: ... trying to reach into different parts of the overall SL population.
Pebbles Hannya: Of course, there are always some people who just don't want to participate in research....
Pebbles Hannya: ... but since that's true in RL to, it also applies to the RL sample to which we're comparing.
Pebbles Hannya: It's a combination of them finding us and us finding them.
Pebbles Hannya: Then they join our research panel and a subset of that panel is selected for any particular project like this one...
Pebbles Hannya: ... so that reduces self-selection bias to at least some degree.
Pebbles Hannya: Any other questions?

Entrepreneurs & Blogging versus Connectors & Extorversion

Znetlady: Brander Heron: drill down into connection between entrepreneurs & blogging and connectors being the least extroverted. Thanks! : )
Pebbles Hannya: Let's start with connectors...
Pebbles Hannya: They are really interested in expressing themselves and getting to know other people, but they are not that extroverted.
Pebbles Hannya: I didn't really get into the qualitative research we did for this, but in part of that we discovered that some of the most prototypical connectors have disabilities or illnesses that limit their ability to make connections in RL...
Pebbles Hannya: ... or they are stay at home moms so don't have a lot of opportunity to connect with adults.
Pebbles Hannya: So for them things like SL and blogging are ways to express themselves and connect with others.
Pebbles Hannya: Entrepreneurs are also interested in making connections (though not quite as much so), but they are more extroverted and have less of those limitations.

How Character Types Emerged

Austen Scanlan: Did the character types emerge from the data or did you try to fit the personalities into the research?
Pebbles Hannya: Character types emerged from a huge amount of data.
Pebbles Hannya: Iterating between qualitative and quantitiative data collection.
Beyers Sellers: ZNet, now may be the time for my Q :)
Pebbles Hannya: First we did a series of exploratory interviews trying to understand motivations for being in SL...
Cube Republic: do massivly populated online worlds themselves attract a unique individual...for example would you find these traits on world of warcraft?
Znetlady: Ya, Beyers...sorry.
Cube Republic: or do you think sl in unique
Pebbles Hannya: ... so we could make sure we covered any SL specific things in addition to general stuff that has been done in other forms of personality testing and psychographic research.
Pebbles Hannya: Then we used quantitative data from thousands of people in RL and SL samples to make sure we had measures that were robust across SL and RL samples and also across countries.
Austen Scanlan: Well, the view from the GDC crowd in San Fran is that SLers are idealists.
Kara Janus: GDC?
Pebbles Hannya: Then we did additional qualitative research to better understand the most prototypical members of each segment.
Shava Suntzu: game dev conference
Kara Janus: thx
Austen Scanlan: Game Developer's Conference sorry.

Are Traits Different in SL?

Znetlady: Pebbles, Beyers had asked... Beyers Sellers: The categorization you are using seems similar to Richard Bartle's model for identifying four types of gamers: achievers, explorers, killers and socializers. Did you use his framework at all? How do you see yours differing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_Test
Shava Suntzu: idealist == utopians? ;)
Shava Suntzu is a SEAK.
Pebbles Hannya: OK -- First Cube's question...
Beyers Sellers is a SEAK also
Pebbles Hannya: ... One of the things we're interested in looking at now that we have the process for measuring psychographics worked out is how they compare across vws and other media.
Pebbles Hannya: I would expect that different vws, multiplayer games, social networking sites, etc. would have different levels of appeal to different segments...
Pebbles Hannya: This sort of relates to Ima's point...
Pebbles Hannya: Builders were much more prevalent in some segments than in others...
Pebbles Hannya: ... and different types of builders in different segments.
Pebbles Hannya: For example, the Connector segment is over-represented in SL (compared to US GP), and Connectors were among the first people in SL.
Pebbles Hannya: They like to build for fun -- just to create beautiful things.
Cube Republic: yes well theres people who hang, and those who create. Building is an easier skill to learn than scripting, but then very good computer programmers are less likely to be in sl
Pebbles Hannya: Other segments also build, but in some cases that's more directed.
Pebbles Hannya: Sorry -- just reading back through the questions to catch up...
Znetlady: Beyers Sellers: So I would like to ask: can you get a bit more technical? Did you use factor analysis for that? What were the other factors that you considered but ended up rejecting?

Are SL people Idealists? Richard Bartle's Categories

Pebbles Hannya: ... to Austen's point about SL people being idealists...
Pebbles Hannya: ... I think part of the problem with the type of speculation I mentioned at the start is...
Pebbles Hannya: ... everyone has their own theories about why people are here...
Pebbles Hannya: ... but the six segments are quite different in their motivations...
Pebbles Hannya: ... so any one segment might be largely correct for one segment, but not for others.
Beyers Sellers: did anyone answer the question about Richard Bartle's analysis?
Pebbles Hannya: So for example, that idealist theory would apply more to Connectors than, for example, Team Players or Apprehensives
Beyers Sellers: I am having him on my Metanomics show on Monday, it would be nice to know :)
Pebbles Hannya: We drew on a number of different existing ways of classifying people (this is in response to Buyers point)...
Cube Republic: do these sl traits come across in these folks everyday lifes, or in some respects does sl offer the oppotunity to be 'role playing' even though the profits may be good
Pebbles Hannya: Those include VALS (Values Attitudes and LIfestyles) which are a common way of expressing psychographics in marketing circles....
Pebbles Hannya: Also things like Myers-Briggs and other ways of measuring personality....
Pebbles Hannya: And Hofstede's work on culture.
Beyers Sellers: yes, I am familiar with those
Pebbles Hannya: Because what we were trying to do is find something that worked not only for gamers, but for other people too...
Pebbles Hannya: ... and also would work across countries...
Pebbles Hannya: ... But having said that, yes there would be some overlap in terms of attitudes toward gaming.
jamesjl Zerbino: Boo!
Beyers Sellers: If I can follow up on the VALS....
jamesjl Zerbino: Boo!
Austen Scanlan: Curious. Did you just compare your thinking to what people put in their profiles or exclude from their profiles?
Beyers Sellers: they have a bunch of categories, like innovators/survivors/thinkers/achievers etc
Pebbles Hannya: OK -- still on Buyer's next point...

Segmentation Process

Pebbles Hannya: ... yes, we did use factor analysis. Basically the process was:
Beyers Sellers: but your categories are different
Pebbles Hannya: 1) Generate items from our own qualitative research here plus review of all of those existing perspectives I just mentioned.
Pebbles Hannya: Then factor analysis to identify characteristics (factors) and eliminate items that were not helpful.
Beyers Sellers: would you use your different categories regardless of whether you were looking at virtual world behavior or RL behavior? Or is ther something about VWs that makes you need to consider new categories?
Beyers Sellers: thanks, Pebbles
jamesjl Zerbino: Boo!
Pebbles Hannya: We ended up using seven factors.
Pebbles Hannya: We used those to cluster people (using a number of different clustering algorithms)....
Pebbles Hannya: ... then fine-tuned the cluster solutions with discriminant analysis.
Beyers Sellers: great, thanks!
Pebbles Hannya: And tested those discriminant functions across a variety of samples to make sure they were robust.
Pebbles Hannya: Then used those for the classifications you saw today.
Pebbles Hannya: To Austen's point about profiles: We did that for the people we did follow-up interviews with but not everyone. It would be interesting to look more closely at that in the future though.
Shava Suntzu: Have you looked at Nick Yee's work, for comparison?
Austen Scanlan: So what does this mean to marketers, journalists, supporters and naysayers?
Pebbles Hannya: To Buyer's question about the different categories: This system of measuring is robust across VWs and RL (a lot of our testing was aimed at finding out if that was possible)...
Pebbles Hannya: .... but what we would expect to see is that different segments are over- or under-represented in different places.
Beyers Sellers: so then you feel that your classificaiton is better than VALS (or else you could have used that, rather than creating your own, right?)
Pebbles Hannya: We saw that a bit today with the general forms of media, but I suspect it would also be true, if for example, you compared different multiplayer games to each other.
Pebbles Hannya: This type of research is used a lot with TV for example, and different psychographic segments are drawn to different shows.
Pebbles Hannya: Same with magazines.
Cube Republic: interesting at a design level the consumer is imagined and created

Digital Natives

Pebbles Hannya: Not sure which of Nick Yee's papers you mean Shava, but there are some problems with the one about "Being Digital"
Pebbles Hannya: Good question Austen!
Pebbles Hannya: We discuss this in the report in greater depth, but just some quick points for now...
Shava Suntzu: I was thinking in general about the whole work he has at Daedelus
Pebbles Hannya: 1) It's a mistake to lump everyone in virtual worlds into one big bucket.
Pebbles Hannya: We're here for different reasons and it's important to take that into account.
Pebbles Hannya: Both in terms of who is targeted here and how they are approached.
Shava Suntzu: daedalus*
Pebbles Hannya: For example, some segments integrate RL and SL more, which explains why there is variation in whether or not people object to marketing here in a general sense.
Pebbles Hannya: Also, one thing that comes up a lot is the idea of digital natives...
Pebbles Hannya: ... the idea that today's kids are so different....
Cube Republic: ?
Cube Republic: ah
Pebbles Hannya: ... but what I think is interesting is the data for the adults here now is very similar to kids in terms of use of digital media.
Pebbles Hannya: So in terms of thinking ahead to what the future of media will look like, the adult population here now offers an interesting preview.
Shava Suntzu is speculated to be one of the oldest digital natives by the Harvard project...:)
spacetraveler Russell: growing shared fluency
Cube Republic: chinese citizens hold online relationships in high esteem, as important as there 'real life' friends, yet in the west we tend to meet online relationships with suspicion
Cube Republic: this was from a survey i read
spacetraveler Russell: is the reason mktg history of media?
Znetlady: Pebbles, I think we should wrap, and those that want to can stay?
Pebbles Hannya: Hmmm -- I'm not sure I know exactly what you're referring to Shava -- can you IM me the reference and then I'll get back to you about it?
Pebbles Hannya: Yes, good idea Z.
Pebbles Hannya: I'll let you close
Shava Suntzu considers creator vs. consumer to be a basic psychographic delineator from her personal experience.
Cube Republic: i could add to this, when i started to play i would socialise but as i learnt to create my view of the 'game' changed and also my interaction with others
Znetlady: great...
Beyers Sellers: Thanks all, great talks! If anyone is interested in similar topics, check out httpL//metanomics.net. We have a voice show every Monday at 11am SLT.

A Wrap

Znetlady: Thanks everyone for coming. Pebbles will stay around for further discussion.
Ima Ideator: I agree with Cube..I've experiened that as well
Znetlady: I'll be posting the transcript.
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Cube Republic: its a question of time
iAlja Writer: thanks all, this was really interesting!
Znetlady: You are welcome to stay and discuss.
Cube Republic: it takes so long to make quality
Beyers Sellers: Thios week we have Richard Bartle, who co-designed the first online world, and has very strong views on virtual worlds (and is quite critical of Second Life, btw)
Znetlady: I would like to invite you all to give me suggestions on meetings you'd like to have - or to present your work to the group.
spacetraveler Russell: c
Znetlady: We're all interested in learning what each other is doing.
Cube Republic: keep a sense of mystery lol
Austen Scanlan: Thank you. Very informative....
Znetlady: Thank you Pebbles. Thank you Segments!!!
Vivia Straaf: Thanks for having us. :)
Cube Republic: it was very intersting thanks :)
Tempest Hennesy: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Austen Scanlan: The performances, the historical recreations...wonderful!
Beyers Sellers: w00t!
Maryrose Mariani: Thanks Pebbles. Excellent as always.
Beyers Sellers: I looooooove the panda avatar!
Alexa Trefoil: Thank you Beyers :)
Firedragon Bellios: we all love alexa :)))
Znetlady: Yay, Pebbles and Gang!!
Ima Ideator: Thanks Pebbles!!!

March 10, 2008

Cisco Pulls Out All the [Human] Network Stops in Router Launch

Cisco walked the walk yesterday by putting the brand squarely into the virtual spaces its next-generation router will power.

Cisco went all out launching the ASR 1000, a new router technology that combines the new Cisco “Quantum Flow Processor” with a secure, scalable, compact, router.  In essence, this is the network router that was built to power the Internet of Web 2.0+, virtual reality and our emerging visual, instant and media-rich applications (read high bandwidth applications).  The Internet of today already pretty much runs on Cisco routers, and a team of 100+ engineers spent 5 years and a quarter of a billion dollars to keep Cisco at the core of our daily digital lives – and to allow us to live those increasingly digital lives comfortably.

Here they have a new technology link in the chain that keeps us all connected, and Cisco actually launched it using all the very “stuff” that is driving the need for this technology – visual, rich, social, sharable media.

Yes, there was the big event in Second Life sporting everything SL has to offer:  a music festival, streaming video, streaming audio, a cool “Quantum Shift experience” build, a launch announcement/presentation in SL, including the unveiling tour of the virtual Quantum Shift information space, and in-world “social press” interviews with Cisco executives.

And then there were the:

• Flash-based micro web site with sound effects and video vignettes of network “uber users”
• Video clips of uber users posted to YouTube
• Creation of the tag “uberusers”
• Flickr pool
• EdgeQuest Flash game
• Facebook Support Group for Uber Users Internet Addicts (546 members), with embedded videos, photos, EdgeQuest game link, discussion board invitation to submit Top Signs You are an Internet Addict
• Online video broadcast launch events with Q&A in 19 languages (I believe there were three)
• Three “follow the sun” Telepresence sessions for international customers
• A web widget (although I have not been able to view it in my browser)
• A social media press release
• Customer videos in the Cisco newsroom
• Podcast in the Cisco newsroom

So, the Quantum Shift collaborative “narrative” begins. From a “virtual marketing” perspective, the narrative is a key "best princples" element.  Cisco planted the seeds and integrated the methods for a collaborative narrative to emerge – not around the product, but around an idea.

Clearly Cisco is marketing a product – how successful the product will be is a function of many market factors.  But the “idea” transcends the ASR 1000 – and that is where Cisco has it all right – understanding the importance of narrative for its customers, and for its success of its product marketing.

The ASR 1000  “idea” is: we’re all happier when our networks work better.

In a conversation with Cisco’s Doug Webster, director, Service Provider Marketing and Christian Renaud, Chief Architect of Networked Virtual Environments just after the SL launch event, the idea dominated – not the product.

Cisco is clearly committed to the value of direct connections for itself and for network users at all levels.  Cisco fosters community and deep listening relationships with their customers – and their customer’s customers. Webster suggested it is the consumer who is leading the charge forcing new technologies and behaviors into the enterprise rather than the other way around. While this presents new challenges for the enterprise, it also means the influence of the customer goes well beyond “the conversation” and reaches deep into the enterprise.  Cisco embraces that influence strategically.

Renaud believes “talking to customers has been priceless” for Cisco in finding new markets for the company.

Second Life alone has proved to be a learning ground for innovation for the company, according to Renaud, but it is only one channel Cisco uses to build its various communities. Webster says that SL is simply another way to engage its customers and “if it is important to our customers, it is important to Cisco.”

Over 1000 of Cisco’s employees are in Second Life presently, across their 53 functional units. Renaud said one of the biggest surprises for him since they have been using SL is how often customers and employees suggest SL as a meeting place.   Apparently in June Cisco CEO John Chambers will officially launch his SL avatar.

Cisco will be participating as the narrative plays out in the connected marketplace. They are using the human network to empower the human network, so that we each can use it in our own personal ways. Yes.  We’re all happier when our networks work better.

March 4, 2008

Avatar Psychographics Report:SL Business Communicators Meeting - March 7, 1:00 pm

Long-awaited research (for me, at least) on the psychographics and media usage of Second Life avatars and their owners is being released by research company, Market Truths on March 7 at 1:00 p.m. SLT.  I'm delighted that Market Truths president, Mary Ellen Gordon has been kind enough to let SLBCers be the among the first in the know - by reviewing the findings of the report titled, Psychographic Segments and Media Consumption, at our March SL Business Communicators meeting.

This is the only report of its kind that I am aware of - although there have been lots of speculation and extrapolation about avatar behaviors.  After months of research with avatars in Second Life, we now have some researched insights into the attitudes, behaviors and motivations of the people and avatars that inhabit Second Life.

This is information every marketer, communicator, virtual world developer, educator, and media agency needs.  I've been told there are some surprising findings.  We are also inviting members of the SL Marketing Club to join us for our meeting(s).

You are invited to come and get an overview of the findings, ask questions and hear the discussion.

The meeting will be held at Market Truths Island at the open-air beach auditorium located at 230, 107,21.

IM me (Znetlady Isbell) or email me with any questions.

See you there!

February 28, 2008

A Marketer’s Blindness: Avatars Don’t Lie

Having myself been quoted out of context and wishing I could die over it, I’m working very hard to give Mark Hughes (author of Buzz Marketing?) the benefit of the doubt. But I’m having a hard time coming up with a scenario in which a smart, savvy marketer would legitimately say this today:

"The people in Second Life, they aren't worth reaching. It's just a weird place. It's never gonna catch on. It's a fad, not a fashion at all."

I’ll give him that Second Life may be fleeting in its fame, and it is kind of a weird place.  But did he just tell me I was a consumer not worth reaching?

The context was a story on the economy of Second Life by Janet Babin that aired today on America Public Media’s radio show, Marketplace.  By public radio’s, and Marketplace’s standards it was a pretty poorly framed story.

You might expect me to be indignant and riff on the legitimacy of the people in SL.  But like anyone who is the least bit involved in SL I’m dismissing Mr. Hughes’ comment as uninformed about the place and the people.  I’ll also bypass the opportunity to wax poetic about the power of word-of-mouth. 

What amazes me on a broader scale is a marketer, any marketer, who dismisses the opportunity to look straight into the heart – the very soul – of its customer and deem that as not worth the effort.

The avatar is art – created from the mind, heart, subconscious, conscious, yearning, aspirations, personality, context, experience of its owner.  All that is on display as a virtual person, a created object or an entire simulation.   The avatar portrays various aspects of our identity, our self-image.  Over time, the avatar takes shape in ways the owner could not predict, sometimes for reasons the owner cannot articulate. 

The avatar is shaping the language we use, and therefore the way we think of our “self.”  We breathe “life” into something that is clearly not alive, and we endow it with characteristics that are in some part the “real” us – it could be nothing but.

We move – in our minds and in our language – effortlessly between the real and the animated self:   “I’m in Second Life.”   “I’m editing my appearance.”  “Be right back, have to take a call.”

Sherry Turkle, director of MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, renowned author and researcher, published an article 9 years ago in Wired title “Who Am We?” in which she discusses this concept at length in relation to MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions).

“A 26-year-old clerical worker says, ‘I'm not one thing, I'm many things. Each part gets to be more fully expressed in MUDs than in the real world. So even though I play more than one self on MUDs, I feel more like 'myself' when I'm MUDding.’ In real life, this woman sees her world as too narrow to allow her to manifest certain aspects of the person she feels herself to be. Creating screen personae is thus an opportunity for self-expression, leading to her feeling more like her true self when decked out in an array of virtual masks.”

Marketers have spent billions researching our psyche for “real” motivations and our deepest longings in order to create products – or shape messages – that promise to enable the “real me.”  Now here we are in SL creating, shaping and discovering the “real us” for any one to see.

A smart, savvy marketer ought to be watching and listening.

Photo Credit:  Andromega and Gita Rau

January 22, 2008

ACLU's "Close Guantánamo" SL Campaign Launching Jan 11

Today, Jan 11 at 11:00 a.m. SLT the American Civil Liberties Union is holding a launch event in Second Life related to their Close Guantánamo campaign.  The new SL space, called "Gone GITMO" is intended to focus attention on the detention of prisoners and the conditions at Camp X-Ray.   ACLU's program incorporates a virtual Guantánamo program begun last September by Nonny de la Pena and Peggy Weil, a joint effort of USC Institute of Media Literacty and Seton Hall Law School of Law.

This virtual launch coincides with the sixth anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo, and several real world demonstrations in Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia and Boise, ID; protests in San Francisco and Tampa; a discussion in Pittsburgh; a vigil in Raleigh, NC; and a rally in St. Louis, according to the ACLU press release.

Second Life location is Progressive Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Progressive%20Island/135/152/35/

More information and a schedule of events is at the campaign web site.

January 11, 2008

Inside Dell's CES Crystal Event: Second Life Jan 7

The Consumer Electronics Show is the big RL happening next week - everyone from CNN to the Home & Garden cable channel will be doing specials from the floor of this major industry show - and it is the launch pad for many a new 2008 product.

Dell will be featuring their new Crystal display at CES, and Laura Thomas at Dell is inviting you to join in Dell's CES press and analyst event through streaming video in Second Life on Monday, January 7, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. SLT.  The virtual event will be held at Dell's new pyramid pavilion on Dell Island. 

Virtual Crystal monitors will be available to avatars at Dell's pavilion only during CES, from January 7 - 11, but the pavilion will remain in SL after CES concludes.

CES is definitely tech goodness, but given the choice of walking the floor, paying unimaginable hotel prices, and the hellish decibel levels,  I'm taking the goodness in this year by watching CNN, HGTV and popping into SL to catch Dell's launch.

January 4, 2008

Colgate Smile Power Un-Fixed

Colgate launched the Second Life version of their Smile Power campaign last Friday.  For seven days and encompassing 500 avatar-hours, brightly Colgate T-attired BuzzAgents will be roaming Second Life handing out smile animations and a list of ten places in SL that will make you smile. Should they not encounter a Colgate gifter-agent, avatars can snare these items at the Smile Center vending machines on This Second Island.  This Second Marketing, the agency behind the promotion, has hired people to interact with island visitors.

The theme behind the campaign:  sharing a Colgate smile.

The SL promotion is an element of Colgate's Smile Sweepstakes in which they are giving away $100 American Express gift cards each week for sharing smile photos on their campaign web page.  They've enabled photo sharing, slideshow sharing and photo tagging there.

Aleister Kronos who writes an excellent SL travelogue and critique was frothing a bit over his recent visit to the SL Colgate smile vending area and suggested Colgate damaged their brand and should rethink their SL presence.  I couldn’t disagree more.

Colgate takes the absolutely correct approach – they went un-fixed.

A couple of relevant notes:

• Second Life is a social network
• Social media is sharable
• Social media is un-fixed (distributed)
• The “avatar” within social media is the channel

Kronos’ comments points to an interesting social media conundrum:  “network” versus “place.”

In subsequent posts Aleister published his email exchange with Joni West, President of This Second Marketing as to the intention of the campaign.  She points out the tendency to focus on “place.”

"No matter how much we say it is about a live promotion, people tend to focus on the build because to date, that has been what marketing efforts in SL have consisted of."   

If we looked at this campaign through the Facebook lens, it would not look “out of place” -  it would look like this:  Colgate creates Smile Power widget.  Widget is added to the Applications list (a tiny “place” in FB).  People who find it fun/useful spread widget by distributing it via Facebook friends. Everyone is smiling. (BTW, Colgate Smile does have a Facebook group.)

Yet, as Aleister’s post illustrates, Colgate was judged on the “place” in SL – because SL has a unique “presence” characteristic that in our minds mirrors RL while Facebook doesn’t have that legacy. In some ways, FB is more virtual than SL.

Colgate's is definitely not the only "un-fixed" campaign in SL. Many more companies are using limited time or shared presence strategies.  Much has changed this year in the way brands are thinking about marketing efforts in SL.  They increasingly are beginning to see it functioning like the distributed social network it is – thanks to the frequent and vocal critiques of its residents.   

Colgate could have significantly improved the way it communicated its SL initiative, - and it could have easily oriented SL visitors by visibly tying in its web site - but its distributed approach is on target.

The avatar is the most valuable terrain online – 3D or 2D. But networks are also a “place,” and brands need to balance both channel and place in their strategies.

Colgate's SL smile vending machines are here.

December 26, 2007

Gartner Sees Virtual Worlds As A Growing Shopping Experience

Yesterday Gartner Finland released their predictions to retailers about emerging shopping habits and venues.  These are actually not so much predictions as a “heads-up display” of what is already happening.

By 2010, says Gartner, 20% of global Tier 1 retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in virtual worlds and online games.  This isn’t surprising considering Gartner’s 2007 Emerging Trends report from their April Symposium predicted 80% of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will have virtual world presences by 2011.  And, with virtual worlds on track with Moore’s law of doubling every 24 months, it is no big stretch of the imagination that retailers are riding the wave.

Networks are a Channel and a Place

No matter what lens you look through, 2007 saw an enormous embrace by organizations of “virtuality,” from social networks to Second Life.  The various different types of virtuality (2D and 3D) which organizations are trying to get their heads around are simply mashing up into an information and social space.  Soon we won’t be making distinctions among the technologies used to facilitate these spaces. 

And shopping certainly isn’t waiting around.

Brookstone launched their Kinset store for this year's holiday shopping season.

Social shopping networks like Kaboodle, ThisNext and Stylehive were built as ‘visual’ social sites, socially bookmarking through images rather than text.  Stylehive is now offering “Nectar Hives” allowing  retailers to "snap in" social shopping communities around their brands.

H&M set up shop in SimCity (video link), and have launched their initiative at My Virtual Model, also distributing it to Facebook.

Of course, Sears and Circuit City are experimenting with virtual-to-real retail via IBM in Second Life; and in-game advertising and product placement is old news.

Gartner encourages retailers to expand their definition of customer touchpoints to online games and virtual worlds – and cites the mobile shopping web as a big growth opportunity, as well.

The important point in all this is this:   it is not about the virtual “place.”  Like everything else today, the shopping opportunity lies with the avatar. 

See Gartner’s press release here.

See Kinset’s 3D shoppping videos here.

December 8, 2007

Steelcase Panel of Design and Marketing Team in SL Today

Kelly Emms sends word that today at 2:00 p.m. SLT a nine panel team from Steelcase Design and Marketing will be holding a Q&A.  The theme is marketing in Second Life.  You are invited to attend!

Steelcase is sponsoring a virtual furniture and office design showcase through December 15th, and the  two-week long event is culmination of the Steelcase design competition held this summer.  The panel discussion  today is an opportunity for the SL designers to meet avatar to avatar with the Steelcase team . So, check out the virtual office designs while you are at it - and chat with these talented people in the meetup afterwards.

Event is being held in Silicon City, and produced by V3 Group.

December 5, 2007

Book Review: Exodus of the Virtual World; How Online Fun is Changing Reality

Life is a game.  Edward Castronova brings us face to face with a new twist on the concept in his newest ‘speculative non-fiction’ book, Exodus to the Virtual World; How Online Fun is Changing Reality.

Thumbing through it, you might guess this is a book about a generation of gamers addicted to seeking unending fun, opting out of the real in favor of the virtual.  Or, you might think it is a sociological warning about the weird and scary world of gaming cultures, whose millions of inhabitants have entered the mainstream work world and are bringing with them their geeky scary view of society.  Or, if you happen to land dead center in the book, you might think Castronova himself is living in a fantasy world where he’s mistaken game society and real world public policy as one. 

Well, kind of…but No.

Grasp this book between your two hands, and before you open it, repeat three times: “this is a book of speculative non-fiction.”

And then read every word of it seriously.

The three underlying themes within this book are happening.  They may be under the radar, but that doesn’t make them any less real or less disruptive to your near future. If you are in business, pay attention – it has implications for you.  If you are a marketer, be aware that you have to get in the game (pun intended).  If you are a public official, at least consider the possibilities.

Theme 1:  Virtual economies cannot help but affect real world economies.  Castronova walks us through how so.  The ‘virtual economy’ as a whole is already the size of a small country.  Even if people are spending only a small percentage of their time producing, buying, selling virtual goods, it is taking money/production out of the real world economy.  As millions of people start doing it and migrating “there” (China is betting on it) and on a growth curve following Moore’s Law, it will make a very big difference to all of us. 

“The thought of a new community, society or state emerging on its own territory should give us pause.”

Theme 2:  Virtual worlds are fun; the real world is not and people like fun more than “not fun.”  What’s not to love?  Of course what ‘fun’ actually means here is the key to the title of the book.  The case Castronova makes is that people are finding meaning/satisfaction in collaborative game spaces and virtuality that real world structures/systems don’t allow or support.  It is the why of virtual world fun-ness that is key here and that may be an imperative for the real world.  Fun in Castronova's sense is not ‘meaningless play’ it is challenge, mastery, learning, testing without serious consequences, survival, fairness and the ability for everyone to succeed (if eventually).

But herein lies one of the sticking points I have with Exodus to the Virtual World.  Castronova seems to equate virtual worlds, video games and ‘practical virtual reality’ as one and the same, interchangeable, seemingly painting them with the same cultural and structural ‘fun’ brush.  They aren’t the same.  Motivations, activities and structures are different – but I forgive because this is a book about trends and possibilities – and that is the really important place he takes the reader in his discussion.

Theme 3: Game designers are designers of societies, with the goals of making people happy and improving well-being.  Successful public policy might learn from game design.  Here’s where you might think “okay – gone too far.  I was with you for a while, but time to close the book now.”

Hang in.  Of course Castronova, economist that he is, knows life is not ‘the game.’ Not everyone finds these games ‘fun’ or are ‘technographically’ aligned with them (a point Castronova doesn’t make).   People do operate in the real world.  But he does run the concepts of game design and public policy in parallel with the reader, just asking the question, “can we learn something about human happiness by listening to the multi-disciplinary arena of game design?”   If millions of people are migrating into virtual reality, it might be worth at least considering the question (not to mention the reasons). 

These are radical and sometimes very impractical ideas.  But I have to admit I marked this passage:

“Perhaps the most striking difference between fun policy and real-world policy is in the process of policymaking.  Game designers deliberate briefly, then implement policies in test environments and tinker with them for a very long time.  Real-world policymakers deliberate for a long time, then implement policies in the real world without any tests at all.  Those who have experienced policy effects in both worlds cannot help being impressed by the difference in the policy quality that results.”

Virtual worlds do give us the ability to test real world scenarios – doing that alone could save a lot of real world human pain and distress.

A final point of digression I have with Castronova that I'll note here is that he states no other online experiences allow for these kinds of societal disruptive environments.  I disagree – and in fact think by focusing only on 3D virtual worlds as where this is happening is shortsighted.  Two-dimensional social networks/social media share many of the characteristics – and implications – of which Castronova speaks in his book.

So, you might think all this isn’t happening, or it is a long way off, or it is far-fetched, or it has no real implications for you or your real world…

Well, early in the year I was in conversation discussing the state of an enormous public institution with a high-ranking government official (of baby boomer age) and she said to me as we discussed solutions, “there must be a way to make it work more like World of Warcraft – how can we make it so people are encouraged and motivated that way?”   I swear.  It happened – in the "real” world.

Thanks to St. Martin's press for a review copy of Mr. Castronova's book.

December 3, 2007
   

Communitelligence Executing Social Media Conference

I'm heading out to Atlanta today to speak at the Fall Executing Social Media conference.  Paull Young of Converseon and I will be taking attendees of our session on a bit of a Second Life corporate expedition.  I'm looking forward to getting new insights on Converseon's Second Chance Trees initiative which tied planting of RL trees with the purchase of virtual trees.  The initiative was recognized as one of the 50 finalists in the American Express Members Project.

While I get the opportunity to speak quite often, I don't get to focus solely on Second Life strategies in presentations as often as I'd like, so this will be a fun one for me.  I hope to be meeting some of you there and hear your perspectives face-to-face.

As the environment - and the conversations - surrounding SL have been changing this year, I've been thinking and re-thinking why Second Life galvanizes such heated debate for marketers, business communicators and business innovators.  It is because Second Life matters - regardless of which side of the debate you are on - it matters in some systemic and mysterious ways.  It signifies or embodies something important, something fundamental.  If it didn't there wouldn't be so much passion surrounding it from either side.  I'll be writing more about this.

In the meantime, Gwyneth Llewelyn  eloquently  (as usual!)  writes about why Second Life stands apart, and provides some salient signals.  But her most important point - one that speaks to that mysterious, systemic magic (and one that is most troublesome for branders) - is made as she contrasts other virtual worlds/spaces with SL:

"...their vision is closed — their ideal metaverse is one that has been thought out in advance and rolled out for their users, providing them the kind of experience that they think is best for you.

"LL’s still clueless about what makes Second Life special. They’re not writing things on stone. In fact, they’re mostly hacking away at things, and in spite of being very stubborn on several areas, it’s not less true that they’ve allowed people — their residents — to change completely the way Second Life is used for.

"...In fact, while the technology of several other competitors might look awesome to us poor stressed-out SL residents with our insane lag and low frame rates, the difference is really that we’re not talking about technology at all. We’re talking about what a “metaverse” is for us — beyond technology."

This may be way too subtle if you are focused on looking for the tactic-magic - but this is the essence of why all social media is changing the way we do business.  I boil it down in the title of different presentation I've been invited to give many times this year:  "It's Sociology, Not Technology."

Gwen's post is long but well worth the read if you are the least bit interested in SL. Print it out and take it with you on the commute.  Put it on your blogosphere "to read" list.  It is a link I'll be recommending in my upcoming presentation.

November 13, 2007