INTEGRATING YOUR BRAND INTO THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE

With a growing number of companies jumping on the Second Life brand-wagon, there is no longer any kudos in just being there. Having a successful in-world presence requires a certain level of understanding of the 'way of the world'.
"The most successful businesspeople in Second Life have taken a look at the business landscape and determined where needs exist. If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored, at best," advises Smith. "However, those firms who commit to a long-term, creative presence in Second Life have an opportunity to interact with their community in new and innovative ways."
Smith recommends that people join and spend some time feeling things out before jumping in. Other things to consider, she says, are the need to keep your offering fresh and interactive. "Let your customers join in creating the experience, keep them involved, offer social contexts such as discussions, parties or games and create connections to the real world through a website, content uploads or social tools for connecting and sharing successes''.
“A parallel universe” by Tami Dower Marketing (Feb 2007) p20

Jumping on the bandwagon is all well and good. And there is a certain seduction to living in a virtual world, but for all that I'm still not sure that the majority of people will actually migrate any time soon. The interface for this sort of virtual existence will need to be much more intuitive for those who are not gamers to start with.

But there are going to be interesting questions as to public/private space - already there are places that do not let anyone else in ... But the whole thing about letting one's 'target audience' become participatory, sharing connection and success, is just such a contrast to how the world seems to run in general where getting the biggest slice and keeping it to oneself seems to be the main reason for so many.

Now, how to encourage my 'target audience' at work to participate with me in building something that will benefit them, when I have so little knowledge of what they actually do, and so many of them still have crumby broadband connections because they live in 'rural' Australia