Second Life Failure for Council Use

It comes as no surprise to see yet another real world organisation leave Second Life in failure. The latest being Tameside Council. Too often they have gone into virtual worlds with high hopes and unrealistic aspirations.

They believe that just ‘being there’ is enough. It isn’t!

Engaging and awareness are important aspects of any social media, virtual worlds included. It takes time and effort to build a community and a lot of lateral thinking, as well as marketing and brand promotion. Simply having a ‘presence’ is like simply having a web site. Pretty to look at – for everyone who already knows it’s there, but without promotion – even basic promotion such as being seen by Google and other search engines – it will be invisible to the general populace.

Similarly in virtual worlds: No promotion = No traffic

Social media is a place where we have to make a BIG noise to be seen. If we keep quiet – we are invisible. Whether we are a council or a lone individual, we need to network and make contacts – as many as possible please.

Virtual worlds are even more chaotic and haphazard than the Internet or other social media. There is no organisation or common ‘search engine’ so promotion has to be done by the body that has created the presence, or those who have commissioned it.

As with all things, promotion is essential. Marketing is typically between 30%-60% of any corporation’s budget. It appears that most organisations that enter virtual worlds spend very little on this aspect of promotion.

It has to be said that similarly, within virtual worlds like Second Life, zero or minute marketing budgets are noticeable. I have to wonder how these companies think this amount of marketing will bring the critical mass of people in to virtual worlds that they need to make this market viable.

You only have to look at World of Warcraft to see how well a good marketing budget returns on itself. You don’t need the best product, you need the best marketing.