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Second Life Marketing
By Kim Roach (c) 2006

Over 1 million people have traded in their real lives to explore
an online world known as Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com).

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world built entirely by its
residents. This new world was released in 2003, before blogs
and user-generated content hit the mainstream. Needless to say,
Second Life was way ahead of its time.

However, Second Life still shows a very close resemblance to
real life. Within the buzzing online world, people are buying
houses, buying clothes (one of Second Life's hottest industries),
throwing parties, going to concerts, and taking their own
pictures (http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlife/pool/), and
even opening up their own businesses.

American Apparel was the first "real world" company to open a
store in the virtual world of Second Life. Their ultra-modern
clothing store is located on a beach resort and has quickly
become a hot-spot within Second Life. The launch of their new
store has created a viral buzz that spread to Forbes
(http://tinyurl.com/nzf3w), Business Week
(http://tinyurl.com/y9mkuu), and many other news outlets. The
viral buzz has bolstered sales for their online and offline
clothing.

A number of other real-world brands are getting involved as
well. They include Intel, Nissan, Reuters, Sony BMG, Adidas,
CNET, and Wired. Major marketers, advertising agencies, and
news outfits are all starting to take part in Second Life.

And why not? Second Life recently hit one million members. Over
$500,000 dollars is spent within Second Life every day. This is
real money, not just the Linden dollar, the universal currency
within Second Life. A couple hundred people are even making a
full-time living on Second Life. With these kind of numbers,
this is certainly a platform that businesses should be looking
at as a potential marketing opportunity. Second Life is a great
way for businesses to reach consumers, test marketing strategies
and release new product ideas with relatively little investment.

Now, before you take your own business into this virtual world,
you should first learn the marketing strategies that are required
to successfully market your brand and products within Second
Life. You will find that many of these tactics are quite similar
to the search engine optimization strategies and online marketing
tactics that you have been studying for years.

SEO, press, advertising, web design, alternative search engines,
directory listings, link optimization, and classifieds can all
be found within Second Life.

To begin, let's get started with some familiar search engine
optimization strategies.

Title Tags:

When creating your own virtual real estate, you will need to
include a few important keywords in the title, just like you
would for your Web sites.

Remember to use terms that people would actually search for,
not just your company name.

For example, if you are American Apparel and selling clothing,
you might use the title, "American Apparel clothing and fashion".
This would work well because it includes keywords that avatars
within Second Life are likely to search for.

Descriptions:

You will also need a description for your virtual property,
including more of your secondary keywords. Make sure it is
enticing so that visitors will want to click through to your
store when searching within Second Life.

Staying with our example of American Apparel, you might use the
following description.

"Find the hottest styles and latest fashions for your avatar.
Whether you are looking for shirts, skirts, pants, shorts, or
tank tops, you'll find it all at American Apparel."

This description uses inviting copy as well as secondary
keywords that people may be searching for.

Directory Listings:

Your next step is to get your company listed in the Second Life
directory. Make sure your virtual real estate is listed for your
targeted keywords. This will help ensure that your listing shows
up when doing a Find in-world search.

Link Optimization:

Building inbound links within Second Life is a little bit
different from what you would normally do for your traditional
Web sites. However, you can certainly take advantage of
cross-promotion within this massive virtual landscape. Simply
offer teleportation between your online virtual roperties and
your partners. It may sound far-fetched now, but partnerships
and joint ventures could very easily become mainstream in Second
Life. When it does, linking to others will be as easy as setting
up a teleport.

Paid Advertising:

Your organic search campaign is very important within Second
Life. However, you can also increase your exposure through paid
advertising.

MetaAdverse (www.metaadverse.com), an advertising network for
Second Life, has a database of properties in which marketers can
post billboards. In fact, they even allow you to track your
visitors based on the advertisements you place.

Banner Blindness:

Unfortunately, paid advertising does have its' drawbacks.
Banners and other in-your-face advertisements have lost much of
their value due to banner blindness. Within Second Life, avatars
are quickly doing the same thing: ignoring the mass of
advertising that has surrounded their virtual cities.

To succeed in Second Life, you must bring your prospects true
value through an engaged online experience. Build relationships
and add content that adds to their online entertainment. If you
are a band, then put on a free concert within this massive
virtual world. If you are a politician, why not hold a public
debate? If you are a fashion designer, get involved in one of
the Second Life fashion shows.

Pontiac has created a great example of creating an exciting user
experience within Second Life. They have set up Motorati island,
a 96-acre plot of land in Second Life where they sell virtual
versions of the Pontiac Solstice GXP and stage races on their
very own race track.

You must create an experience that is fun and exciting. People
don't come online to have the very same experiences they do
offline.

Multiple Search Engines:

Much like the Internet, Second Life has one dominant search
engine. It is located at the bottom of the screen within this
virtual world and can be compared to Google in it's domination.
However, there are outside efforts to improve the Second Life
search engines with secondary offerings. An example is Second411.
This alternative search engine allows Second Life store owners
to list all of their items within a consolidated shopping search
engine.

To get the most amount of exposure, you need to be present in
the main search engine as well as any alternative search engines
that are created.

Classifieds:

You should be running a classified ad every week within Second
Life. Your classified listings come with basic statistics, so
you'll know exactly how many people are coming to your shop
through your classified listing. If you find that you aren't
getting very good results, simply change your copy until you
get it right.

Location is Key:

On the Web, it is very important to choose a good domain name.
In Second Life, it's important to choose a good virtual
location. Look for an area that already contains some
established merchants. If you have some friends, you could
also partner together and create your own shopping area. Either
way, you will need to leverage the marketing and promotions of
your neighbors.

If you want to spread your products even further, you may
also want to consider getting your virtual products into
malls and booths.

Business Networking:

Almost everything that can be accomplished in the offline world
is made available in some form or fashion within your own virtual
world, including business networking. Online and offline, it's
still very much about who you know.

So, why not take your potential clients and partners out for
lunch at the nearest virtual cafe?

Press:

Reuters (http://secondlife.reuters.com/) is the first news
bureau to set up shop in Second Life. However, there are a
number of other news outlets and websites that are reporting
on the daily events within Second Life.

If your business is doing something newsworthy within Second
Life, then you certainly need to let these media outlets know.
Good press is one of the keys to viral buzz.

Here are a few of the places in the press line who are reporting
on Second Life.

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/
http://www.metaversemessenger.com/
http://taotakashi.wordpress.com/
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/ http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/
http://www.3pointd.com

Are you starting to see the potential of Second Life
optimization? The rules of marketing are changing and we as
webmasters must keep up if we want to thrive.

Get ready for the future of search...
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Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(www.sitepronews.com) and SEO-News (www.seo-news.com)
newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on
webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog
(blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim’s email is: kim @ seo-news.com
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