How to Promote Business on Second Life - Virtual World? Part 4

What Big Brands are doing on Second Life?

• Marketing, Branding & Sales - Adidas, IBM, Reebok, Dell, Sun, Cisco, Nissan, Starwood

• Sales – Enables customization of kitchen, garage (Sears in collaboration with IBM), links to sears for purchase

• Marketing – American Apparel sells items of clothing and offers 15% discount if buy same item in real world

• External Communication

• BMW communicates its clean energy concept
• Coca-cola holds competition
• Product & concept development
• Philips electronics, Toyota, Starwood, PA consulting (for its clients)
• Toyota launches real and virtual products simultaneously and enable avatar to customize vehicles

• Recruiting
• Job Fairs & Anonymous Contact – ABM Amro, IBM, Dell, PA Consulting etc.

• Internal Communications, Trainings & educations – Springtime

• Customer Communication - Cisco Systems
• Cisco Systems - group meetings, customer education & training, product demos

How to Promote Business on Second Life - Virtual World? Part 3

Second Life - Virtual World Tools

• Communication and collaboration — Residents and employees use real-time voice conferencing and chat, instant messaging, group messaging, and notecards. In addition, Residents continually develop business collaboration, communication and event management tools in response to emerging methods of doing business.

• Creating & shaping – 3d prim building, linden scripting language, texture, sound / animation import. The Second Life world is full of user-generated content that provides a rich backdrop to every experience of Second Life. Companies that own virtual land can choose to control building activities on their property, depending on their needs.

• Micropayments — Real and virtual products, services and entertainment can be easily purchased with a click. Residents make purchases using the in-world currency, Linden Dollars (L$), which are automatically transferred from the buyer to the seller's account. The seller can then convert the L$ to US$ on an open market exchange such as the LindeX.

How to Promote Business on Second Life? Part 2

Why Second Life is popular with the Corporate?

Reason of Second Life’s getting popular with big brands -

• Business goals - Second Life becomes the most convenient and technology advanced way to achieve business goals.

• Platform to engage consumers - Companies recognized that Second Life (SL) gives consumers an opportunity to engage with a brand. Just like a corporate blog, but with much better exposure, as it allows use of other medium also like - 3d, chat, video, presentations, meetings.

• Test Products – Corporate use Second Life (SL) to test their products and observe customers reaction.

For example – Starwood Hotels opening aloft in Second Life is a way to test-market the hotel’s design and rapidly prototype the evolving concept. For instance, staffers will observe how people move through the space, what areas and types of furniture they gravitate towards, and what they ignore.

• Establish brand - To build their brand name, preferably as an extension of Real Life campaigns

• Activities on Second Life ranges from training to meeting spaces for remote workers

• It proves to be the best way to attract customers

• It reduces training and meeting cost

• Excellent platform to recruit employees

How to Promote Business on Second Life - Virtual World? Part 1

What is Second Life?

Second Life is the largest and best known of several virtual worlds created to attract a crowd. It was launched in 2003. The Second Life Viewer, enables it users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through motional avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residents refer to as the grid.

The Second Life online service is fast becoming a three-dimensional test bed for corporate marketers. Big brands like Sony, BMG, Starwood, Toyota etc. are using Second Life World for interacting with customers, developing new products and gathering feedback.

Retweet or RT on Twitter

What is RT?
Retweet (abbreviated as RT) on Twitter, is to show that you are repeating / quoting someone’s tweet. When you come across an interesting tweet and you want to publish it as your own tweet - so that people who follow you can see it too - you retweet it.

Format to RT

RT @username (username – is the twitter name of the person you are retweeting) followed by the content of the actual tweet.

Example

Retweet this post -
RT @socailmediafox: All about RT / retweet explained

Common ways to retweet message

1.RT @originalsender: original message
2.retweet @originalsender: original message
3.retweeting @originalsender: original message

Can you modify the original tweet?

Yes, you can modify the actual tweet. Usually it is done because –

1.The addition of RT + username to the tweet will make it longer than the permitted 140 characters. In order to make everything fit, you will need to omit useless words or use shorter synonyms or abbreviations.

2.It is often recommended by experts that you do this, so your followers know that you are actually putting some effort into it.

Important to keep in mind while retweeting

1.Acknowledge the source of tweet
You can RT either this way –
socialmediafox: RT @ Ford Hey, Seattle! Wanna spend an hour with #Ford CEO Alan Mulally? 11a - noon on Labor Day. RSVP here: http://bit.ly/HZhdC

OR
socialmediafox: Hey, Seattle! Wanna spend an hour with #Ford CEO Alan Mulally? 11a - noon on Labor Day. RSVP here: http://bit.ly/HZhdC (via Ford)

2.Add you comment, if you want –
socialmediafox: RT @ Ford Hey, Seattle! Wanna spend an hour with #Ford CEO Alan Mulally? 11a - noon on Labor Day. RSVP here: http://bit.ly/HZhdC ~ cool

3.Be careful with RT of RT –
If you will RT this message, it will be in
your_username: RT @ socialmediafox: RT @ Ford Hey, Seattle! Wanna spend an hour with #Ford CEO Alan Mulally? 11a - noon on Labor Day. RSVP here: http://bit.ly/HZhdC

Retweeting can be a great way to add followers, as it pushes your @username into foreign social graphs, which in turn results in clicks back to your profile.

What is a Hash tag (#) on Twitter?

The hash tag (#) is used on Twitter for users to categorize their tweets. The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow http://twitter.com/hashtags. Once you’re following Hash tags, every time you make a post in Twitter and tag it with a hash mark like - #car, it will then show up as a real-time post on http://www.Hashtags.org.

A hash tag on Twitter, is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic.

For Example – if you search on #car (or #CAR or #Car, as it is not Case - Sensitive), you will get a list of all tweets related to the cars. But you won’t get tweets like “I love car” because “car” isn’t preceded by the hash tag. But if it is written as “I love #car”, it will show up, as it is preceded by hash symbol.
Hash tags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic by making it easier for them to find and share info related to it. And they are also excellent way to increase your followers.

Examples of successful corporate blogs

Companies which are really successful at corporate blogging

•37 Signals - 37signals is kind of the poster child for corporate blogging. Their “Signal vs. Noise” blog has almost 100,000 RSS subscribers and there’s a good reason: 37signals rarely blogs about their products anymore (they split off a separate product-only blog for that), but instead shares advice and insights about business, design, editorial, and other topics.

•Southwest Airlines - Southwest Airlines’ “Nuts About Southwest” blog do
esn’t take itself too seriously — and that’s a good thing. The company blogs about itself and the airline industry with a personal touch and has been producing a series of fun, behind-the-scenes videos that are both interesting and engaging.

•General Motors - The GM Fastlane Blog is a great example of corporate blogging because GM has clearly realized that regurgitating press releases is not what blogs are made for. GM talks a lot on their blog about their cars and trucks and the design choices they make while creating them, but they also throw in interesting treatises on current hot-button issues, such as alternative energy.

•Dell - Though Dell’s corporate blog rarely strays from Dell-centric news, the company posts with a great conversational voice, often breaks news on their blog (which keeps people coming back), and listens and responds to customers. Dell also posts regularly (1-2 posts per day at least) which keeps content fresh and encourages repeat visits.

•FiveRuns - FiveRuns, who create products aimed at Ruby on Rails developers, also publish an excellent blog. Along with regular tutorials about how to do things with Rails and use their products, the FiveRuns team also posts weekly five question interviews with prominent members of the Rails community. Brilliant stuff.

Blog Promotion Strategies and Important Facts

For successful Business Blog

•Post on the regular basis – Keep it up to date, a blog which people will consider relevant should be updated every few days. Concentrate on providing the most current information on issues facing your industry, or information of interest to your marketplace at large. Also remember to post any breaking news you come across as soon as you find it.

•Ask for Feedback - Successful blogs encourage reader participation. Appreciate your readers feedback whether they are positive or negative.

•Avoid using graphics – Keep it simple. Avoid using too many graphics and use simple color schemes. Focus more on the content.

•Quality Content – Content is a necessity for online businesses, because it gives visitors a reason to come back. The better the content you provide, the quicker your audience will grow.

Important Blog Promotion facts

•Building significant Search Engine Traffic takes time – It generally, takes some time for new blogs to gain search engines trust. Post quality and search engine friendly content to maximize search engine traffic.

•Focus on other Sources of Traffic – It is true, that Search engine traffic is highly sought after because these visitors are actively looking for what you have to offer. But other types of traffic have strong points too. Visitors who are referred from another blog will generally be more responsive since they have been recommended by someone they trust. Use social media to get traffic to your site.

•Target to get Repeat Visitors - Repeat visitors will not only help to improve your overall traffic flow and stats, more importantly they will be your most responsive visitors in terms of comments, social media votes, sales etc. As they keep coming back and reading your blog, you will be earning more of their trust and your network will grow.

•Do not ignore small Sources of Traffic – Do not ignore small sources of traffic, for example, participating in forums is likely to drive some traffic to your blog, but not tons. However, those visitors can be very valuable because they have met you or learned from you through the forum and they will be more likely to subscribe and become a loyal reader.

•Networking is important – A strong network will provide you with friends and colleagues that can be a help when you need some advice, they can provide links to your blog, they can give you social media votes, they can be an inspiration and encouragement to you, and they can even wind up being your partners in future projects.

Why business blogs are important?

Reasons of Blog’s Popularity

•Generating Traffic – Blogs are a proven vehicle of generating traffic. Blogs reach demographics which even TV advertisement finds hard to reach.

•Better opportunity to understand customers – Blogs provides you platform to better understand your customers needs and requirement s. To enhance understandability, you can ask them questions regarding- how they find your product or services or how you can serve them better or would they like to suggest something etc.

•Transparency – Everyone knows that plays every important role whether its relationship or business. Blogs provides you with an opportunity to keep your customers updated about latest happenings, new product launches etc. within an organization. People want authentic messages from authentic voices as this helps them in building their trust in you and the organization.

•Measurability - Nothing can be compared to the metrics available on the web. You can think of blogs as direct marketing on steroids, without the spam filter problems of email.

Why blogging is important?

Reasons of Blog’s Popularity -

• Generating Traffic – Blogs are a proven vehicle of generating traffic. Blogs reach demographics which even TV advertisement finds hard to reach.

• Better opportunity to understand customers – Blogs provides you platform to better understand your customers needs and requirement s. To enhance understandability, you can ask them questions regarding- how they find your product or services or how you can serve them better or would they like to suggest something etc.

• Transparency – Everyone knows that plays every important role whether its relationship or business. Blogs provides you with an opportunity to keep your customers updated about latest happenings, new product launches etc. within an organization. People want authentic messages from authentic voices as this helps them in building their trust in you and the organization.

• Measurability - Nothing can be compared to the metrics available on the web. You can think of blogs as direct marketing on steroids, without the spam filter problems of email.

What is Blog, Blogosphere and how blog works?

What is the Blog?

A blog -
· is normally a single page entry
· is organized in reverse-chronological order i.e. when the author adds a new entry, it goes at the top, pushing all the older entries down
· the content reflects personal or corporate interests
· the entries in the blog is almost always written by an individual
· is normally public i.e. whole world can see it
Blogs were originally called web logs or weblogs. However, as “web log” can also mean a server’s log files, the term was confusing. To avoid this confusion, the abbreviation “blog” was coined, and became the common term.

What is Blogosphere?

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. There are millions of people keeping active blogs, and bloggers often tend to look at other people's blogs. When they see something they like in their favorite blogs, bloggers will often link to and comment on it. All of this tight interlinking has created a phenomenon known as the blogosphere.

How Blogs works?

Blogs provide a transparent virtual space for –

· Creation - publishing content within a personal voice
· Collection – managing personal content in a searchable archive
· Context - applying commentary to content you manage
· Connection – discovering others with your interests
· Conversations - engaging in dialogs on an organizational or global basis
· Community – building network around shared themes
· Collaboration – finding new business partners and increasing team work within organizations