THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

While mainstream media focuses on large brand launches and talks about the deep engagement Europeans have with Second Life, we’ve noticed something interesting. Take a look at the Second Life world map, and you’ll notice that islands dedicated to Brazil’s citizens and culture are almost always completely full.

Which makes Locaweb’s launch into Second Life extremely timely and relevant. Locaweb is Brazil’s largest ISP. Centric just helped them enter Second Life with a singular focus: serving their customer base. Which is why you’ll find a complete in-world help kiosk displayed prominently in the largest building on the sim: their customer center. Tied to content on their website, it’s a way for Second Life residents to get their questions answered, without leaving the world.

You’ll also find Locaweb-branded Second Talk headsets available at convenient kiosks on the island. Though these devices are much more stylish than our original Second Talk devices, they use the same familiar Skype back-end. So, while we eagerly await integrated voice, LocaWeb customers can pick up a headset and chat with Locaweb personnel today.

Visit Locaweb here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Brasil%20Tecnologia/188/120/42

Fair warning: to get the most from this build, expect to exercise your Portuguese language skills.

Well, one of them, at least. Looks like I’ll be speaking at next month’s Home Entertainment Summit. The topic? Hey, what a shock:

Online Marketing Meets Web 2.1
Marketing In the New World of Social Networking

Tuesday, June 19, 2:40PM

Or, more specifically, I’ll be talking about what we learned about when our Second Life region intersected with a future (alternate) reality . . . and what entertainment marketers might take away from it.

More information at: http://dvdsummit.homemediaconferences.com/dvdsummit/v42/index.cvn?id=10007

So, Ken and Yuki met with HiPiHi in China a few days ago, and opened a door into an entirely new virtual world.

HiPiHi has been described as the "Chinese Second Life." And, in many ways, that’s an accurate description. We’ve been poking around in the closed beta for a while now, and we’re really excited about the possibilities. With user-generated content and a real economy, it has the same features that have propelled Second Life to the top of the charts in Western virtual worlds. But HiPiHi also has some really neat plans that I’ll let Ken talk about in another post.

Because I’d rather talk about the opportunity for brands:

Imagine being part of HiPiHi from the start–imagine being there when it opens this fall. We think this is an amazing opportunity Get started now, so you have time to explore. Time to integrate. Time to become part of the world. So, you’re a seamless part of HiPiHi when it launches this fall.

Does this sound like a pitch? Well, it is. Centric is the first Western development partner for HiPiHi. This completes a round of strategic moves we’ve been making to become a true Asia-Pacific virtual world and social media developer. We have a formal reciprocal relationship with Metabirds, a leading Japanese Second Life developer. We’ve opened offices in Shanghai and Tokyo. We created a panel for Virtual Worlds Fall 2007 on the international impact of virtual worlds. And we have the language and business skills to make it all work.

So. Interested in the newest way to get in front of a potential audience of 1.3 billion people? Talk to Centric.

Okay, Winfinity is wrapping up their investigation of the events behind Manoa, and it’s time to move forward on our region in Second Life. So, the question is: do we build the normal boring developer sim, complete with conference rooms and meeting pavilions?

I think you know the answer: No.

Here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to tame Manoa. We’re going to take this alien planet and turn it into a stunning and successful colony, and we’re going to do it in ways that Winfinity would have never understood. Sustainable, collaborative, and open ways like:

• Carbon-Neutralizing the Sim. Yes, we’re purchasing carbon credits for our sim. More details to follow, but we’re looking forward to being the first carbon-balanced sim on Second Life.
• Working Together Internationally. We’ll be exchanging some space with Metabirds, a leading Japanese metaverse developer we’ll be working with in the future, and we’ll both be working together to make Manoa a great place to spend time.
• Conserving Manoa. Of course, we’ll establish a reservation for the hostile life-forms of Manoa—enter at your own risk! We think the mats are harmless, so you can continue to enjoy their songs throughout the island.

And, in case you forgot, there’s still some time to let Winfinity’s Stratton Briggs know what really went on during Winfinity’s time on Manoa. If he doesn’t pay the L$100,000 reward, we will. He says he wants the last submissions before June 1 “of the current year,” so get them in soon. After that, Centric is taking over—and building a newer, better Manoa for everyone to enjoy.

I’m not talking about your company’s online brand. I’m talking about yours.

Yes, I said “yours.” Now, you might not think a person has a brand, or that it can be extended online, but hear me out. Remember when I said you need to be visible? That visibility, transparency, and knowability will be key deciding factors in whether or not you’re invited to the table in the future? Here’s the link. This is nothing more than a natural extension of the visibility idea.

Why Worry About a Personal Online Brand?

Defining personal brands is getting to be serious business. Many executives pay personal brand consultants to help them discover, develop, and foster their personal brand. And when it can make the difference between career advancement and stagnation, it’s no wonder. People want to make sure they make the right impression when they first meet someone—and they want to make sure it makes them stand out, it makes them memorable, and it makes them effective.

But—let’s face it—a whole lot more people “meet” you online than meet you in-person, whether in-person means in a business meeting or on the street.

So, what will they find when they go Googling for you? A stale, personality-free corporate profile on your company’s website and an abandoned LinkedIn page? Or maybe only that Google box offering to "Find Jane Smith for Only $9.99?"

Or, on the other hand, they could find a wealth of information on a vibrant personality who’s been out there blogging, participating in the social networks, and creating and tagging media. Who do you think looks better to a prospective client or partner?

It’s time to get active in defining your own online brand—the person people see before they meet you, the person who they might judge, first, before they ever see you in the flesh

How Do You Create Your Online Brand?

Before the tactics, a word of advice: personality. Yes, personality. Don’t try to please everyone. Don’t try to be someone you aren’t. True personality comes through, and it’s the most likely way someone will be able to connect with you. People don’t buy you because you’re wearing a gray suit, or because you have a MBA from name-the-institution here. They’re more likely to buy you because of an emotional connection. And that connection comes from—you guessed it—personality.

1. Blog. Yeah, I know, it’s work, but there’s no better way to get exposure than with a personal blog. Search engines love the RSS feeds with relevantly tagged content. And content tagged with your name is golden. Just do yourself a favor, and use an industry-standard blog platform like WordPress or TypePad. And commit to doing something at least once a week. And don’t be afraid to use your own unique voice—you don’t need to sound like a business journal, or the Author du Jour.
2. Get visible. Put your profile—complete, accurate, and interesting profiles—on relevant business and social networks. LinkedIn. Tribe. MySpace. Facebook. They all have their place. Want to be even more visible? Check out Twitter and Dodgeball—not for everyone, but definitely the ultimate in visibility.
3. Connect to friends. Social networks are dead without connection. You have friends and business partners. Find them on LinkedIn and invite them in. Invite them in anyway. Find people you know on all the networks, and make sure all your profiles are living, breathing, and expanding.
4. Feed the media. Take pictures? Shoot video? Great. Get them off your hard drive and onto open networks like Flickr and YouTube. Tag ‘em with your name. Again, more stuff for people to find. More chance of a connection. Just keep the, uh, questionable stuff off.
5. Participate in relevant forums and interest groups. LinkedIn has forums and crowdsourced questions. There are many entrepreneur and business forums. Have something to say? Say it there. You’ll get in front of thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people—perhaps creating real inquiries in real time. At the least, it is more content to find, a more complete picture of you and your capabilities.

What About Virtual Brands?

Virtual worlds like Second Life are hot right now. And, right now, it’s not unusual to see serious business meetings between cyborgs, flying squids, and relatively normal-looking humans. And any of those embodiments might be a perfect complement to your online brand. But the important thing is—the way you look and act in virtual worlds is going to be the primary way people meet you in the coming years. Best to get started on defining that brand  right now.

1. Invest in avatar design. Your avatar might be you. Or it might be a giant flying squid. In either case, it should reflect who you are in a unique and memorable way.
2. Polish your chat skills. Virtual worlds are distracting, because it’s easy to have a voice chat happening at the same time as an IM at the same time as a text chat—all while looking at signs, hearing ambient sounds, and seeing some really strange things. Are your chat skills weak? Can’t multi-task? Practice until you get good.
3. Consider custom gestural development. The use of signature gestures is an important way to differentiate between yourself and other avatars. Consider having unique gestures developed, and learn how to use them.
4. Train your voice. Voice is now coming to many of the leading virtual worlds. How’s your teleconference voice? If it’s weak, it may be time to take some voice lessons.
5. Choose your environment. Where do you hang out? What are your favorite places? What do your offices look like? The environments you choose reflect on your virtual brand. Choose them to complement the personality you’re developing overall.

A Final Word

Yes, you might think we’re a little crazy now, but consider the not-so-distant future when all of this stuff is not only knowable and Googleable, but is actually automatically brought up on your prospective client’s heads-up display.

Are you going to let random chance define your online brand—or are you going to take an active role in creating it yourself?

On the eve of the stress test of integrated voice in Second Life, here’s a mention that’s indicative of the interest in our distributed voice application, Second Talk. Many users have asked us to keep this Skype integrator around, and we recently deployed branded Second Talks by request in a build for the largest Brazilian ISP.

http://metaversed.com/11-may-2007/5-ways-integrate-your-second-life-web

. . . is seeing it as a microcosm of  B2C branding.

I can’t tell you how many presentations I’ve been to where big B2B brands (and brand agencies) have trotted out the same old Proctor and Gamble case studies regarding “how branding is done.” And yeah, I’m not arguing that the case studies work for P&G. But, if you throw tens of millions of dollars at promoting a product over a period of decades, of course it’ll have a strong brand. It’s been seen so many times that it’s become part of the culture. So yes, when you look at the strongest brands, they’re going to be consumer brands. And, almost naturally, you’d assume “strongest brand = strongest branding,” right? Take these lessons and apply it to B2B, right?

Wrong. B2B is not a microcosm of B2C. Consider:

1. The audience is fundamentally different. B2C is about reaching a broad audience. B2B is about reaching the right audience. And that right audience might be tens of thousands of people, or tens of key decision-makers.
2. The communication is fundamentally different. On the consumer side, yes, people might spend 50% more for a detergent they recognize and feel an emotional attachment to, but on the business side we’re usually talking much larger investments—investments that frequently need to be decoupled from emotion.
3. The budgets are fundamentally different. P&G has spent tens of millions to billions of dollars over time to build their brands. B2B brands typically don’t have these kinds of budgets.

This is why you’ll see B2B brands making the same key mistakes, over and over:

1. Brand segmentation for no reason. You want to have a corporate brand, a product brand, and a technology subbrand that powers the product. Why? You now have 1/3 the budget to devote to each brand—and 3X the chance that your audience will miss all of them. Ask yourself: Does your customer care that you have a family of branded products with a branded technology within them, or do they simply care about you and what you do?
2. Overspending on brand, underspending on communication. Yes, your brand is important. What’s probably more important is what your products or services do for your key audience. Is your new machine the ONLY way to do something? Does it outperform the competition by 8X? Does it save $7MM per year? Sorry, but these are a whole lot more important than a product family logo and snappy slogan.
3. Overestimating what they can do, internally and externally. It’s easy to look at the examples of the consumer giant brands and think, “we can do this here, too.” But the reality of it is that B2B budgets may prevent you from having the reach and frequency externally to really move the needle in terms of perception of your target audience. And you may not get the buy-in you expect from your teammates, particularly in a technology environment where everyone is an expert.

So what can a B2B brand do? Approach the problem differently:

1. Find out where your audience is. Whether you’re talking to financial planners or semiconductor engineers, you know what your target is. Now it’s time to find them. Yeah, there are magazines that cover every industry vertical that you know about, but there are also blogs, forums, and online communities that engage those same audiences—and that you probably don’t know about. It’s time to use tools like Google blog search, Technorati, and Alexa to find out where your audiences are.
2. Engage them directly. Most small, focused communities are small and focused because they have a specific interest. They know what they need to do their job better. Can you help them? Great. That’s your ad message. Back it up with facts. And go beyond that, to participating in forums, sponsoring special interest groups, and offering online training on your website.
3. Get visible and start conversations. Still using a newsroom format? Lose it. Replace it with a blog using a standard blog engine like Wordpress. This nets you several benefits:

1. Enhanced visibility—search engines like the frequent updates and style-free content of an RSS feed, so you’re going to rise in the search engines.
2. More media—it’s easy to incorporate video podcasts or other content into the blog on a “special feature” basis, without having to commit to doing podcasts every week. You’ll also find internal resources for writing you never knew you had—many financial and technical people working closely with details are interested in being heard, and this can be an outletn for them.
3. Real-time feedback—customers now have a place to comment on your stories and announcements, which gives you the chance to start a conversation. Nervous about open comments? Moderate them.

4. Give them tools. We mentioned online training. How about ROI calculators that help your customers understand how they can save money with your solutions? What about an internal social media strategy that allows them to create verified, trusted groups of their own colleagues in other divisions to share information, or to post ancillary information about topics of interest? Or social media which encourages them to submit interesting imagery or applications they are working on with your real-world tools? There are many opportunities to engage your audience beyond what you’re using today.

So what does this all mean? It means, treat your audience as a social network, not like a broadcast audience.

As a B2B marketer, your audience is the definition of a small, engaged group. They’re the ideal place to use social network tools. So: Bring them together. Give them information. Give them tools. Because when they spend hours with your brand, it is to your great advantage.