The Virtual Consumer

So apparently I’ve been living under a rock. I’ve never heard of Second Life (SL), the virtual reality game where you can live a second life in a virtual world. To be completely honest, I think that real life is hard enough - paying real bills, finding time to interact with real people, and working numerous real-life jobs. But with all that said, I think, if anything, this is such a fascinating marketing tool.

Of course marketing has used all the tradition media outlets – newspaper, radio, magazines and TV. But with Americans, particularly teenagers, spending hours on end in front of their computer, and with the popularity of Tivo, corporations need to find another way in. This accounts for the spark in internet advertising. This is why Facebook is getting offers for some $900 million. There is huge advertising potential. So I’m really not surprised that corporations have used Second Life as a marketing tool, creating virtual stores that sell virtual products for Liden dollars.

This article does a good job of explain the corporate presence in Second Life:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/secondlife/index_01.htm

Though I can see this marketing application, I’m not sure if I can see how effective this is as an e-learning tool for the arts, social sciences, law, psychology, archeology, or even as a training tool for corporate culture. This Second Life seems more like an entertainment thing for bored kids and adults that are spending all there time online. It reminds me a lot of the Sims, which can be so fun, but time consuming to play. How people act in a virtual world and in real life are entirely different. Second Life and the anonymity of the Internet give users the option to take on a second persona, and do things they typically wouldn’t do. So to rely on this virtual world as a research or training tool, I question how effective this is.

I’ve never played Second Life, so I’m really curious to hear if anyone has a personal experience. What role do these corporations play in SL?

Bloggers: A Force to be Reckoned With

So during my last post, I toyed with some of the challenges of having a corporate blog.

In the BusinessWeek article “Blogs will Change your Business,” it mentions how this blogosphere is basically turning traditional media on its head, which is really crazy to think about. Think about it. Anytime you wanted to have your voice heard, you had to call the news channels or your local newspaper. With the growth of the blogging world, there are millions of “news” channels. As I’ve learned, it takes two minutes to open up a BlogSpot account. With some strategy, you can make your blog more viewable by linking to other blogs, and using Technorati. Consumers now have more power than ever to make their voice heard. Likewise, companies have less control over what’s being said about them, publicly.

Business Week says it best: “How does business change when everyone is a potential publisher? A vast new stretch of the information world opens up”

I guess it’s a “if you can’t beat them, join them,” kind of thing. Ignoring the blogosphere will only do you harm. You want to know whats being said about your company. Though so many companies have caught on to the blogging trend, I think they ignore the biggest opportunity of having a blog - to facilitate communication with their customers. Companies need to use these blogs not just to inform customers on new products or up and coming events, but to address the concerns and needs of their customers. It can’t just be a one way street.

Check It Out

I've been commenting on the following blogs relating to Social Networking...

Tim's Blog

Seppo Joe

Failure At Its Best

Making Sense of Corporate Blogs

To be completely honest, I first had difficulty seeing how social networking and blogging went together. Especially, having an employee blog about the good, the bad, and the ugly seems like airing out your dirty laundry, not to mention a legal headache. I couldn't quite see the positive applications in the business world. But, a few pages into "Naked Conversations," the connection has become much clearer. Blogging is essentially a forum for discussion, innovation, communication, etc. Its a way to get people talking about your company and your product.

Blogging is also a way to put a face or a human voice to a corporation. Tying things back to my last post, nearly everyone has had a horrible customer service experience. Having a representative from the company to post honestly about their products and services perhaps is the answer to our prayers. But, such honesty seems to be extremely rare in corporations.

Reading "Naked Conversations," I was shocked at their suggestion to even link to your competitors. This seems like suicide. But on the flip side, blogging honestly and sincerely builds trust, understanding, communication and relationships with your customers. Perhaps humanizing the big, bad corporation is really what's important. Corporations make mistakes all the time, but are never quick to apologize or explain.

With all that said though, there still seems to be a very fine line with what a company blogger can say legally, and what's really appropriate to post. Perhaps this is why there's been such hesitation for companies to enter the blogosphere.

Customer Service could benefit from Social Networking

I've had so many frustrating experiences with companies such as Comcast to Verizon, even the American University administration. Reading the "Practical Guide to Social Neworks," I couldn't help but think of how all these places would benefit from a nice look at their social networks.

There have been so many times that I've called a Call Center and the person on the phone is absolutely no help. Most of the time they don't have the authority or the knowledge to remidy my problem. Or, the person only has a script of technical solutions. My favorite from Comcast: "Did you try turning off the cable box and turning it back on." A lot of these service companies tend to have a very routine response.

It seems that a lot of these service companies would benefit from expanding their network, and having more connectors. For example, Comcast's Customer Service could have more of a connection to the technicians.

Cons of Networking

I found the New Yorker article, "Six Degress of Lois Weisberg", extremely interesting, and so true. Its unreal to think just how essential these connectors, like Lois Weisberg, are in life itself, but also to make a business successful and productive. The article mentioned a study that found that people are likely to be friends with someone that partake in similar activities. People are more likely to be friends if they are in close proximity to each other. But, with virtual networks such as Facebook and MySpace, people can connect and stay in touch with people that are from all over. Virtual tools also enable people at work to connect and collaborate with each other.

However, there must be a downside to all this networking and connectivity, especially in businesses. College students joke about how they spend hours on Facebook or AIM instead of writing their paper due the next day. There is definitely a distracting element of constantly connecting at work. No longer are workers confined to the watercooler chit-chat, or the lunch break. Today there are constant e-mails, AIM messages, and cell phones. Though these tools have the convenience of speed, they can definately be distracting.

Managers that are constantly networking tend to get promoted quicker, hence they tend to be more "successful." However, effective managers spend more of their time at the office doing their job, leaving little time to network. So how do you balance social networking? How much is too much?