Archive - 2008
January 15th
The Hero with A Thousand Friends
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 10:01I grew up on the New England Transcendentalists, reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance” and Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden Pond”. When my eldest children were young, I would read W.B. Yeats’ “Lake Isle of Innisfree” to them at bedtime and they would drift off to sleep dreaming of small cabins of clay and wattles made.
As I work on my own writing and ponder what we see in contemporary media, I read Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. Yet again, I see the individual fighting against great odds for some great boon. It reflects in the media since so often the hero myth is repeated. Too often, the enemy is the collective. It is the “borg” in Star Trek, it is a government run amok in the anti-utopian novels. Where do we find examples of teamwork, friendship and the value of community?
We do find it in our advertising. “Be a Pepper”, “The Pepsi Generation”, “Membership has its privileges”. If we look closely, we find it in some children’s shows such as the Wonder Pets always singing about teamwork.
So, where does friendship, teamwork and community fit into our stories?
January 14th
A New Writing Endeavor
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 22:56Over the past few months numerous people have approached me about writing for their site about Second Life. I’ve had protracted discussions with many of them about writing style requirements, what sort of compensation I would receive, what the considerations are about me posting the material to my own site, or writing for other sites as well. In just about every case, the discussions just sort of petered out, or the expectations were higher than the compensation justified.
However, recently I’ve had some good discussions with Garret Bakalava of SLNN.COM. We haven’t nailed down all the details, but I have agreed in principal to write for and edit the business section of their website. I will focus primary on inworld business and another editor is likely to focus on real world businesses in Second Life. To me, the RL/SL division always seems a bit artificial, but so do many other ways of categorizing business or other topics as well.
My goal will to be write and/or edit approximately two articles a week, with another two or three announcements each week as well. To do this, I will be looking for writers interested in Second Life writing. By a normal writers pay scale, the salary sucks. By a normal bloggers pay scale, the any sort of income is nice and by Second Life standards, we’ll do what we can to be fair.
It will be an interesting challenge for me, since news articles should be in the AP style; a style that I’m not completely comfortable with. My normal blogging style is first person with an ample sprinkling of my own opinions. I will need to keep that in check as I write for SLNN
One of the conditions that has been important to me with whatever Second Life site that I write for, is the ability to cross post the stories to my own site. To the extent that I am writing an opinion piece in my blogging voice, I will post it on Orient Lodge, and allow it to be cross posted to SLNN. To the extent that I am writing a news piece for SLNN, it will go up on SLNN first and at a later point, I will add it to Orient Lodge. These posts will be mostly for archival purposes and are unlikely to appear on the front page of my blog, although they will occur in the Games section. The first story that I wrote specifically for SLNN is now cross posted here with a link back to SLNN.
Meanwhile, I continue to strive for at least one or two blog posts a day on Orient Lodge, running the gamut from the political to the personal, with technology, games, social networks, poetry, and whatever else thrown in. Stay tuned.
Timeline emerges over banking shutdown
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 20:44(Originally posted at SLNN.COM
Slowly, a more complete picture of what has happened with Hope Capital Bonds not making their bond interest payment on November 2nd and the ripple effect it has had is becoming available.
January 13th
Reducing transaction costs in microcurrency based economies
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 16:38A Holy Grail of Internet commerce has always been the establishment of an effective microcurrency. How do pay someone three cents to hang out at your location online? How do you get someone to pay you thirty-five cents for a pair of virtual sunglasses? The transaction costs have traditionally been greater than the value of the transaction, so the transaction does not take place. In Second Life, Linden Lab has come closest to addressing the problems of a low transaction cost microcurrency. Yet their latest actions are damaging their ability to be an effective microcurrency processor.
Colgate Smiles, they're contagious
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 09:26
Online marketing is big business. Unfortunately, many companies approach it as a continuation of broadcast marketing. They replace billboards with banner ads and don’t take advantage of what an interactive environment can offer. As companies move into Second Life we see the same mistake being repeated as banner ads get replaced by ‘builds’ and again, marketers miss the power of interaction. One important exception is the Colgate Smile campaign in Second Life.
At the beginning of the Colgate Smile campaign, there were some criticisms of the build. The space that was built out was not as compelling as other builds. Yet these criticisms were mired in the broadcast marketing mentality. When you look more deeply, you find that the Colgate campaign as incredibly successful.
It started with a clear message tied nicely to the brand, a Colgate Smile. The message is clear, in Second Life and in real life. If you want a pretty smile, get Colgate. It is a great viral message. Smiles are contagious. Finally, it tied very nicely into Second Life. It filled a gap in Second Life in a very social manner. Avatars don’t smile. They should, but they don’t. There is a fix however, the Colgate Smile. As it stands right now, Colgate owns the smile market in Second Life.
This provides an interesting contrast to Toyota’s efforts in Second Life. I remember reading about Toyota in Second Life some time back. I went and sought out a Toyota dealership, and with my daughter, we bought a cute little car. We played with it for a while, and it is now buried in my inventory in Second Life. I rarely even think about it except when I see some other nicer car in Second Life. My experience of Toyota was of a ‘build’, a continuation of broadcast marketing. I looked at it briefly and moved on.
With the Colgate Smile, a person approached me in Second Life. They handed me a Colgate Smile package. I never accept anything in Second Life from a stranger without have a clear understanding of what I’m receiving, so I asked the ‘buzz agent’ what they had given me and why. We had a great discussion and I learned a lot about the advertising campaign from her.
I feel pretty comfortable in Second Life and am interested in the marketing aspects so my questions were different from what many people who received Colgate Smile packages were asking. Many of the people receiving Colgate Smiles were new to Second Life and needed help learning how to wear things and how to teleport. The Colgate Smile package included a list of places to teleport to that the creators of the campaign felt would make residents of Second Life smile.
Joni West, President of www.ThisSecondMarketing.com, which ran the campaign reports that the campaign more than doubled the previous one-on-one brand outreach in Second Life. The package was handed directly to over 30,000 unique Second Life residents. What is not clear is how many of these packages were passed on virally to other people. I know that I gave a copy of the Colgate Smile to several other residents.
I even added it to the avatar that Lillie Yifu created for Ned Lamont when he appeared on Virtually Speaking with Jimbo Hoyer. I haven’t spoken with Lillie about it, but I imagine it is something that master avatar designers will want to add to their creations.
The Colgate Smile campaign illustrates several key aspects of a successful interactive online campaign. It had a clear message. The message was viral. It gave people something that was useful to them and it was based on one on one interaction. Will other companies make the move beyond broadcast marketing to successful interactive online campaigns? For their sake, and for the sake of residents in Second Life, we can only hope.
