Business Communicators of Second Life®

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

Roo Reynolds' Enterprise 3D Presentation

IBM Metaverse Evangelist, Roo Reyonlds, has posted his excellent presentation, Enterprise 3D: Living and Working in Virtual Worlds, delivered this week at Online Information 2007 in London.

Roo discusses the internal virtual world IBM is building for its eventual use by 300,000 employees in the context of the importance of social networking in the enterprise.

Favorite concept:  WoW (and virtual worlds) is the new golf, with structured rules, funny clothes, and almost entirely for socializing and conducting and brokering business.

His remarks harken back to my previous post... here is a snapshot of Roo’s desktop (from his presentation) that beautifully illustrates my point about distributed virtuality: 

Case in point:  The "avatar" is the most valuable asset in the cosmos.

December 8, 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

   

Why What Works in Second Life Isn't Working for Corporations

[Warning:  Long post.]

Grace McDunnough has a great post titled “What Works in Second Life.”   I can hear the frustration shouting in her head.  A recent piece (registration required) in Forbes got her to thinking:

“that there *must* be a simple way to look at what works in a synchronous relationship space, virtual or otherwise, and to put that into the context of why some corporations are truly failing in this space.”

Grace boils down the secret sauce into three ingredients: dialogue, interaction and engagement and she summarizes it into this formula:

The new market is DIALOGUE, the new currency is INTERACTION and the exchange rate is variable, based on ENGAGEMENT.

What's so confounding is that the concepts she pitches  (and is oh, so right-on about) are all over the PR and marketing literature today.  Every industry trade mag has its clarion articles, every PR blogger and marketing or communications conference talks (and talks and talks) about engagement, interaction and dialogue.  It is all over agency websites and if I see another study on the need for “engagement” I think I might hurt myself.   I almost can’t stand these words anymore.  To a large degree they have simply lost their meaning and become nearly empty in marketing circles, they are so over-used.

Organizations are struggling and mostly failing in virtual spaces (I include all of social media here, in addition to virtual worlds).

At the core, the answer is organizations are not humans, even though they depend completely on humans. The concepts of dialogue, interaction and engagement are human activities.  Humans engage in them to learn, love, be accepted and to grow.  Organizations depend on these characteristics in us to survive in the marketplace, yet they don’t posses them.

With uber-connectivity, humans are self-organizing and re-self-organizing with intense speed and flexibility.  They look to each other for information, knowledge, goods and connection. Through this lens they are demanding that organizations, who provide large amounts of all four of these things, participate using the same social “capital” since they are engaged in the same social activities we humans are uber-doing.   Mainstream media has felt this first and most publicly.  They are adapting.

But the vast majority of organizations aren’t (yet) attuned.  Organizations do “tactic” but people do “human activity.”

Here is why I believe it is so hard for them to ‘get’ these concepts.

Dialogue:  People’s jobs depend on good news and smooth sailing.  Keeping the ship afloat and avoiding the waves.  Dialogue in the marketplace is challenging, disrupting and requires constant change and sometimes bad news.  A deep, deep systemic shift in defining what brings value to the organization has to happen in order for dialogue to be a corporate value.

Interaction:  Organizations are strictly hierarchical.  They are shaped like pyramids (inverted or otherwise).   The points where interaction can happen are extremely limited.  Not so with humans – our five senses make us interactive machines.  There is literally no mechanism for the organization to handle interaction – there is no “place” in the vast majority  of them for it.  It isn’t built into a modern corporate DNA structure.   

In addition, interaction requires resources (leading into the engagement problem, next).  The age of The Web (and automation in general) moved organizations to cutting human resources in favor of technology, self-service, and driving down the “cost per interaction/transaction.”  Indeed, these are the very appeal of the web! The great listening loop that Aloft accomplished in Second Life (and that Grace references) is most often a lonely initiative, by a small band of corporate outlaws.  Interaction is not a core corporate strategy for most. 

Interaction requires organizational – well, reorganization.

Engagement:  I’ve come to hate this word.  Funny how in the English language this means both a “bond” and a “conflict.” 

Either way, strong emotions, yes?  Yes. “Engagement” is qualitative, not quantitative.  But organizations live and breathe by numbers. Bonuses and promotions are based on the numbers, not on the quality of customer connections.  People in organizations get behind initiatives that will show numbers.  It is in their natural self-interest.

There is generally no mechanism – and not enough human resources – to be accountable for the quality of a connection point.  Thus building it into corporate strategies and operational value is difficult if not impossible.

In response, marketers who see the sociological shifts and demands of empowered, connected people, are now scrambling to quantify engagement.  There is a race on to define the “engagement model.”

For the “new paradigm of engagement,” agencies and organizations are redefining the meaning of “engagement” so that it really means “transaction” – just not in the monetary sense. So we’re left counting “engagements:  how many visits, how many virtual t-shirts, how many clicks on an object, how many mentions on a blog, how much time spent on a sim, how many links, how many positive versus negative comments in the “conversation.”

As I underscored during a recent luncheon keynote presentation about where all this “social media stuff is going,” we, collectively, are challenging even the most venerable institutions, in the most core industries of our society, with collective initiatives like Zopa and Prosper, OpenCourseware, Action Network and Ripple, World Community Grid, and Wikipedia. 

When these initiatives grow to nearing critical mass (like the web itself did) and "we" begin to challenge "the organization" in the markeplace then Grace's formula will yield a result.  Only when organizations deeply understand (grok) they are being held accountable vis a vis the emotional connection of “quality time” with the employee or the customer will human engagement be their goal – and one of their yardsticks for success.

Thanks to Giff Constable for the link to Grace’s post.

June 30, 2007

Virtual NBC Puts Out Audition Call for Second Life Talent

The NBC franchise, America’s Got Talent goes virtual, and presumably international, with Virtual NBC’s call for auditions to find the most talented avatars in Second Life.  But not much time to rehearse – auditions are this Tuesday, June 5th and Wednesday, June 6th on NBC 1 in the Peacock Room.

The chosen avatar will be featured in a future RL episode of the NBC show and will snag $1,000,000 Linden dollars.  The final competition will be at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 13th at Virtual NBC Studios on NBC 2 island.

This promises to be fun.  The depth of talent is as endless in Second Life as anywhere and it is only right the fantastical gifts bestowed on many SL avatars be showcased.

Pierce Portocarreo gives us a sample of the possibilities in his machinima:

I like what’s behind this competition.  It expands and mashes the experience of one medium into another; obviously taps into a valued aspect of Second Life; it is all around fun; the prize is meaningful and respectful of the work it could take to participate; and it gives a real someone a real life value as well.

NBC and Infinite Vision Media, NBC’s virtual world agency, are being “social media” savvy with this.  It potentially offers several key social networking activities to draw in the broader SL audience – especially if avatars get to vote along with judges.  Depending on how the competition is ultimately implemented, and harkening back to an earlier post, it offers at least three, and maybe up to five ways avatars can participate – not everyone has to be a creator-type.

Kudos to NBC, although the short time frame is unfortunate.  I hope they expand the concept for next season and announce it in time to allow for more avatars to participate.  It would also encourage some ongoing community formation.

In-world kiosks have rules and more information, although I didn't have any luck at the time I tried with getting it at the NBC 1 kiosk.   The auditions are June 5th, 4 – 8 p.m. SLT; and June 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Kiosks are located here:

NBC 1 – 30 Rockefeller Center
NBC 1 - Peacock Room
Midnight City
Crayonville
Dell Island
Dublin
Diegoland
The Edge
Artropolis
Pi
Innovations

June 3, 2007

Virtual World Marketing Measurement is 3D

Does Engagement destroy Frequency?

Joel Greenberg asks over at his Sheep blog, Tuple vs Kipple, and in that context also nicely lays out the "Frequency" training - oops, I mean measurement - method of the traditional TV advertising model: Reach x Frequency (how many people mulitpled by how often). 

Television is a flat medium, so a flat, two-dimensional measurement system (reach and freqency) seems like a perfect fit.  Good enough.

Joel rightfully suggests this measurement system can't work in today''s virtual and social media spaces.  He believes that "Engagement" is the lifeblood of some marketing and may be the main path to measurement in virtual worlds.

Engagement - especially in a place like Second Life is key. I absolutely agree with Joel on that.

But engagement is a means, not an end.  Engagement is only the "permission" part of the [measurement] equation - the "okay, I'm willing to give you my attention for now" part. 

Virtual worlds measurement must be as three-dimensional as the spaces we market within there. 

Depth is the third dimension - in virtual worlds and in all good marketing.

Photo credit: Akoi Jubilee

 

June 2, 2007

Forrester Social Technographics: A Lens for Second Life Marketers

Forrester's recently released its Social Technographics report examining participation of the U.S. online population in “social media,” such as reading or publishing blogs, offering online reviews or using social networking sites.  Forrester groups people into six categories based on how they participate in today’s Read/Write web.

Social Technographics gives us some important clues to what our virtual world strategies need to look like.

Although I don’t agree with the “ladder” stratification Forrester uses, - which suggests a hierarchy of more or less significance to a social media activity (they are all equally important) - but the categories are extremely important indicators that marketers should examine and use as a framework for all social media strategies – virtual worlds included.

The heavy resident-created content and “early adopter” nature of Second Life may immediately suggest that the social technographics of Second Life residents is significantly weighted toward the “creators” at the very “top” of the Forrester hierarchy.  Especially since the technical learning curve is so steep to just get functioning in Second Life, much less getting productive enough to create there. 

But, don’t confuse technical savvy-ness, with the social networking behaviors of social technographics.  Social technographics focuses on the various participative activities a person or “population” engages in. 

Its true early SL residents rather obviously tend toward “creators” – they collectively, after all, built the SL environment. But, as the population is growing, the social technographics start to look more generalized.

Recent Second Life initiatives seem to make some pretty sweeping assumptions about the activities residents will find engaging.  But without looking at all the potential activities different types of social media participants are likely to value, it is impossible to create a truly successful presence – or better yet, to offer interesting content across preferred behaviors to engage the largest possible audience.

Forrester’s study shows that social technographics tracks fairly reliably within generations.  It is no surprise, for example that young millenials are heavy creators of social media content and that a large percentage of seniors are “inactives.”

I thought it a valuable exercise, though, to look at Forrester’s Social Technographics through the lens of age distribution in Second Life.

I graphed Forrester’s preferred activities percentages by generation; excluding ”Inactives” altogether since by definition they don’t participate in SL.  The following shows the graphing results.  Because Forrester specially notes that people engaged in social networking activities for entertainment purposes had a little different social technographics profile, I included them as a separate category.

We see that GenYers are heavy content Creators, but they are even bigger Joiners, and GenXers and Boomers like lurking and critiquing.  Entertainment seekers are also big Joiners and have a tendency to engage in creating, collecting and criticizing relatively equally.  Everyone, except GenYers are bigger Spectators.

Now let’s look at the generational makeup of Second Life to get a sense of participative activities that might appeal to the SL generations.  The graph below is based on Linden Lab’s most recent data of “active” users (1 cumulative hour in last month) and is international.  Just for some comparison I also included age information from the First Opinions Panel's most recent data, which is demographic information from FOP U.S. research panel members.   While neither data set allows us to scientifically extrapolate because the data has no valid segmentation, the contrast is pretty interesting in itself – and the trend tells us something that may be unexpected.

Here is what the generations look like in SL:

Looks like we have a bunch of GenX “Spectators” in Second Life!  Boomers are very heavily represented in FOP's data, which is likely a function of their methodology in recruiting panel members - but it should not be discounted as a significant trend.  But both data sets do tell us GenX is most heavily represented in SL.

There is overlap in preferred activities of the generations – people that do one activity are likely to do at least one or more of the others – so don’t generalize your strategies to something akin to GenXers want to walk around your corporate museum.   Spectator doesn’t necessarily mean passive – these people are also enthusastic Joiners.

I expect, ethnographically, the social technographics profile of SL may more resemble the Entertainment category, but more research on that is in the works.

Charlene Li, author of Forrester’s report, is a social media star to me as she starts the report with these two sentences of wisdom:

“Many companies approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — a  blog here, a podcast there — to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for.” (emphasis mine)

Virtual worlds offer extremely rich ways to put social technographics intelligence to work.  Take the time to give a hard look at the social technographics of who you are most trying to engage, examine the implications for your tactics, and create smart VW strategies that draw into and from the preferred behaviors.  More importantly, create virtual worlds strategies and content that support all the activities social networkers engage in, and ways to move among them.  You have special opportunities in each activity to provide and to get value.

More on the implications of social technographics in creating virtual world strategies in an upcoming post.  Stay tuned.

See the Executive Summary and outline of Social Technographics, or purchase the $299 report here.

A big thanks to Forrester and Charlene Li for providing me a review copy of the report.

May 29, 2007

TMP Worldwide Holds RL Career Fair in Second Life

Microsoft, HP, eBay, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sodexho will be interviewing and recruiting at TMP Worldwide's NiW (Networking in World) career fair in Second Life May 15 - 17.

I chatted briefly last night on the NiW sim with Mroos Link who is Russell Miyaki, VP National Interactive Creative Director for TMP Worldwide.  He said that when presented with the idea, some companies jumped at it and others are taking a wait and see stance.  Not surpising in the least, but the event seems to be off to a great start. The schedule for Day 1 of the event is about full and that represents about 124 candidates who have already signed up for interviews that day.  TMP estimates it may facilitate as many as 450 interviews during this event.

Mroos explained that the participating companies are after a global reach for talent.  TMP's venture into Second Life with them is primarily to help candidates for client companies understand organizational cultures in more immersive ways.  To that end, TMP is creating company-specific exhibits to educate candidates, such as a fiber-optic "ride" for Verizon and a replica of HP's "the garage."

If you are interested in meeting with the participating companies, you must register for the event via TMP's NiW web site - and have an SL avatar.  Be prepared to upload your resume when you register, as it will be reviewed and accepted before you get an interview slot. 

TMP will assist you in preparing you and your avatar for your in-world interview.  All interviews are private.

This is a prime example of how virtual worlds are creating opportunities for business - and for communicators - to use this emerging media to tap into talent and recruitment.  I'll do my best to follow up with Mroos after the event and report back any results he will share with us.

The NiW website is here and has all the information about the fair and the process.  IM Mroos Link in-world for more information.

The island will be open next week to the public, but during the career fair only those on the access list will be able to teleport to it.

May 10, 2007

Whimsy, Women, and Wheels: Ask Patty in Second Life

AskPatty.com officially launches their automotive haven for women in Second Life on May 11th, but it is open to all now.  I have to admit the $50,000 automotive spending spree got my attention – and that’s not Linden dollars.

It is a thoroughly charming and whimsical build on a corner of Pontiac’s Motorati Island, built by women intended for women and about all things automotive. 

Jody Devere, president of AskPatty.com, as well as the president of Women’s Automotive Association International waves away the notion that car culture is just a guy thing in an interview about their SL strategy over on the Diva Marketing Blog.

The build and promotional machinima were created by Osprey Therian.  The free instructions on how to drive a car in Second Life is a thoughtful touch.

I hope AskPatty brings as much into Second Life as they get underway as they have brought to the web.

Catch the machinima here.

The press release is here.

AskPatty web site is here.

AskPatty in Second Life is at: Ride 22,209,29

May 5, 2007

Information Week Second Life Kaffeeklatsches

Information Week and Dr. Dobb's Journal host twice-weekly kaffeeklatsches in Second Life to discuss technology news and trends.  The informal discussions are on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7:00 a.m. SLT at the Notre Dame de Caffeine on ile de france.  Tomorrow's meeting centers on favorite in-world destinations. 

Past topics have been as diverse as "Is Second Life Good for You?", "Using Second Life for Collaboration." other virtual worlds, and a collaborative de-briefing on the recent South by Southwest conference.  Join the group in-world and get notified of upcoming meetings, guests and topics. 

Search on "Information Week" in the in-world search to join the group; or show up at Notre Dame de Caffeine at 7:00 a.m. Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Update: Friday meetings have been changed to noon SLT, same place]

 

March 19, 2007

Second Life Transformational Moments

Wayne MacPhail produces a wonderful podcast, Who's On Second (now in episode 15).  He normally focuses on conversing with people working in non-profit and education endeavors in Second Life.  His questions are sharp and balanced.  His podcast guests are doing some far-reaching work - and just plain interesting things - in Second Life.  Some of this work is far more interesting - and take communication in the "medium" to far more interesting places than all but a very few of the "brand" presences.  Go take a podcast or two.  You will be fascinated by the things his guests bring to light that get very little SL buzz.

In his latest podcast, Wayne diverges from his usual format to throw out some less -than-enthusiastic musings about Second Life.  It is worth a listen - a bit of reality, a touch of worry about an environment that is "broken" (says Wayne), and a wish for more "doing good" with this medium - i.e. introducing transformational moments for people.

Wayne also invited comments from within a discussion list he and I happen to share.  I'm taking the liberty of sharing a few of these comments anonomously.  Their comments are words an SL communicator should live by.

"I do not think that the SL environment should be discounted as a mere variation of a chat room. SL brings the element of shared experience to interactions which would be anonymous in an email/chat room environment. I may appear as a cartoon character in SL but I make choices over clothing and can invite colleagues to a ‘home’ which reflect my real personality. We can go exploring together and work in the same environment, discuss the same issues affecting us weekly and translate that into RL. All this forms similar ties to that of a conference over several days, where colleagues have a chance to form stronger ties that those from the occasional exchanged note, and these interactions are reinforced over days and weeks of SL association."

_________________

"I may get a few bits of good information from the  actual meeting chat sessions but what I am really getting (and this is  what SL DOES offer that differs from real life meetings) is the opportunity to scan profiles of the avatars; their time in SL, their
personal group associations and other  information, including optional real life information. In and of itself, this is a new type of communication that SL offers. Add to this the fact that avatar appearances are self selected with a certain amount of decision, creativity and possibility not allowed in RL and you have, in meeting each avatar, the ability to experience one on one or multiple layered communication experiences that are very different from RL."

_________________

"I have had a few (not all mentioned here) transformational encounters:

• I have met CEOs of large, important corporations who interacted with me no differently then they would another equal corporate executive. They may have even taken a suggestion or two that I had back to a RL situation.

• I have met people from all over the world that are all ages and have all interests.  Our conversations encompass wide ranges of topics and had I met these individuals in RL  may not have even acknowledged one another because of various bias -- let alone been aware of similar interests of shared travels, etc (via profiles).

• I have "touched" an object to find its owner or designer and then searched their profile - ya can't do that in RL, and it has, a couple of times transformed my view of the world and its possibilities.

• The social networking tools that I access outside SL have very much expanded my in world experience. I am guessing that I am on at least 6 group e-mail lists, participate in several blogs and wikis, listen to Wayne's podcasts, etc. This is as much the experience of immersion into "virtual" learning as being in-world.

_________________

"I don’t think that voice features will necessarily make our experience better, but it will attract more users, so I think it is inevitable LL follows that route rather than fix what is breaking down.

March 2, 2007

Machinima Classes with Machinimatographers

I noted in a recent post that interest in machinima is broadening rapidly.  So, if you would like try your hand at it and to learn some machinima basics, Moo Money, Kiwi Alfa and other members of the Second Life group, Machinimatographers, offer free classes.   You need to join the group (also free) to attend.  Machinimatographers is one of the larger groups in SL, by the way, which also speaks to the growing popularity of the genre. 

While it takes a bit of learning to acquire a new skill, it isn't surprising that in world video is as integrated into the social media atmosphere in SL as YouTube and Flickr are on the wider web.

Next Machinimatographers classes are:

Feb 15th - 12:00 SLT/PST
Feb 17th - 15:00 SLT/PST (3:00pm PST)
Feb 19th - 12:00 SLT/PST

February 14, 2007

A Virtual World - The New Black

3pointD points us to the launch of the Tyra Banks Virtual Studio last night as her virtual Grammy party. 

Tyra’s Virtual Studio appears to be a lot about Tyra - but for fans of her show, it is the hottest new hang out spot to listen to music, chat with other fans and get the inside scoop on the Warner Brothers television property.  I don’t recommend you download the Mac version, by the way – it’s in “alpha.”  It crashed my Finder and I spent half an hour cleaning up the mess.

The move falls on the heels of Nickelodeon’s, Nicktroplis, MTV’s latest virtual-world-TV-show tie-in, the L Word, CBS’s upcoming Second Life Star Trek virtual mashup experience, and Disney’s PiratesOnline.com (launching this Spring in conjunction with the movie release).

While each of these web properties is built on different platforms, for different reasons and different audiences, the thing they have in common – and that is the hallmark of all modern media - is that they are connecting people to each other. 

Marketers and communicators have struggled with this concept in the flat 2D web, but the spatial qualities of these virtual spaces – and the success of social network sites in general - seems to be driving home that this is the element that holds the “magic juice” of "new media.”

This Spring be watching for the launch of several new virtual worlds.  It is the new black, dahling.

February 13, 2007