Let's Connect In The Second Life Of Second Life!

Do you have an Avatar character?

I ask that question to a lot of clients. They nearly always come back with the sane question… “What is an avatar?”

My response is always the same. “You need to find out and have one.”

The current issue of Fast Company Magazine features an article titled “The Second Life of Second Life.”

Its all about how the fundamentals of relationship marketing and customer dialogue are now being applied to brand interaction points with the virtual world of Second Life.

Everything from the core service and product experience deliverable within the Sim to the dialogue and follow-up relationship.

How many of you know what “Sim” means?

Sim is the physical location or weblink of a brand or activity within the virtual world.

Joni West, a designer and creator of signs for stores, is featured in the article. As an avid user of Second Life, Joni realized that billboards, commercials and streaming video that appeared on most of the corporate sponsored islands, fell flat with Second Life users who wanted to interact...not sit back in a passive stance.

As Fast Company notes; "Joni instead concluded that companies should try to spark user-to-user discussion."

My Second Life avatar is Kevo Muggins.

He’s a cool dude that hangs in the online clubs, parks and art galleries.

When I physically visit similar environments in the real life world, its not always easy to get dialogue going with others.

But… in Second Life, Kevo has no problem getting dialogues going with both the guys and girls. Kevo has a close-knit group of other gallery show groupies like Lerska, Janeine, Calla and Geffrey.

Smart brands are jumping into Second Life and tapping into the relationship dynamics too! Big brands like BMW, Coke, Sony, Virgin, Apple, The Weather Channel, Colgate, CareerBuilder and NBC.

Some of their Sims are engineered around novelties and promotional dynamics of the physical world. Others are truly interactive.

For example, American Apparel has a virtual store where Avatars can purchase products. The store is located on Lerappa Island…(okay…maybe they stole the naming strategy from Oprah)…and what’s cool about it is that you get discounts on clothes in the real world for online purchases and visa versa.

In the last 10 days, life in the real world has been riding the roller coasters of Wall Street and Washington.

The volume level of individuals going online to interact with others running the gamut from Facebook to Second Life to Kaneeva is at an all time high.

While the analytics may still be crunching away with the numbers, something in my gut notes quickly that the online and virtual world relationships may offer many folks with an alternative, less stressful and less confrontational world.

Kevo is just as much into getting fellow avatars to venture out into discovery and journey as I am.

So go log-on to Second Life, create your avatar, then come join me at SLMoCA… the Second Life Museum of Contemporary Art!

Hey…Let’s journey!