Archive for June, 2007
Posted June 13th, 2007 by Scott
I’ve been to quite a few Second Life (SL) events in the past, but haven’t been as impressed as I was with the launch of the Offical Playboy Island last night. I think this event was a great representation of Playboy as a brand rather than the stereotypical affirmations people usually make. What really caught my attention were the greeters who made it a point to greet almost every person that teleported to the event. Xena and Zoey, members of the Playboy team, were dressed as bunnies and welcomed everyone to the event throughout the night, even ushering tours around the facility.
The first level was a mix of mingling and casual shop browsing with the opportunity to buy Playboy branded clothing for both yourself (male & female) as well as your avatar. Surrounding the island, were several tiki bars and even a replica of the infamous “Grotto” (which I didn’t have a chance to go into but heard some stories haha). I did venture to the second level for a while which was definitely where the party was. I was told that the Sim was maxed out at 85 avatars throughout the night. Now you may be saying “85? That’s nothing!” However, when you look at it over the course of several hours, that’s a high number of people continuously engaging with your brand. Not to mention all the people (like myself) who told friends and family about the event.
I want to give props to MSGiro, the developer and manager of Playboy in SL, along with his team at Sentient Services for putting on such a successful event and representing the Playboy brand so well. It’s amazing how far SL has come since my first encounter with it and I feel other large enterprises will soon begin to realize its value. To those of you who still aren’t sure or have tried it and say it doesn’t work, all I have to say is “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Just give SL time and patience and Linden Labs will do the rest.
Posted June 7th, 2007 by Kevin
Jackie Huba, author of Citizen Marketers and The Church of the Customer Blog recently posted on the recent education CompUSA received regarding the power of social media. It took a mere four days for one customer’s complaint to gain national attention on Foxnews.com. Four days!
Considering that several other situations like this have occurred with well known brands, it’s hard to fathom that a CEO would respond to a customer with essentially a “tough noogies,” but that is exactly what occurred here. Huba’s post is a hard lesson for many business leaders who feel that social media and customer evangelism issues can be tackled on an as needed basis. All too often, organizations find themselves behind the 8 ball when the fire storm of customer service issues spreads. Instead of being able to have a conversation, they are forced to run damage control.
Could this issue have been avoided? Absolutely! Organizations need to realize that any type of communication they have with customers today, whether it is on the phone, in person or in writing will find its way beyond that one customer and into the hands of multiple customers. Although the conversation appears one-to-one, business leaders need to begin seeing those conversations more like this 1-to-1-to-3,000.
The CompUSA issue is the perfect example of why it is important to enlist the assistance of people who understand the social media space and the industry. Although everyone may love your brand now, one person mistreated can cause a world of trouble in just four days. Take the initiative and start the conversation with your customers before they feel compelled to tarnish your reputation and forever leave a negative footprint online.
Posted June 6th, 2007 by Kelby
Twitter has been on the minds of many folk inside the walls of Digital Influence Group and outside. BusinessWeek’s Catherine Holahan (with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working a number of times) wrote a piece discussing how bloggers are increasingly adopting tools like Twitter that enable them to quickly post entries to their blogs using their cell phones. While these devices may limit the length of posts (even on my Treo I am not a big fan of typing long messages on the tiny keyboard), individuals no longer have to wait until they get in front of a computer to write about the conversation they had at lunch or kids can quickly update their parents on their current whereabouts.
What really got me thinking about Twitter (after my initial use of the service failed to capture my attention), was the two CNET colums, one taking a pro-Twitter stance the other an anti-Twitter. I thought both authors did a great job presenting their cases, and while I remain in the anti camp, I understood the arguments for the service and continue to think about how the service could be used as something as just an online journal of mundane activitites.
As my colleague Kevin noted, it is all about “how” one uses Twitter that demonstrates the service’s value. While I agree with this, other than a few specific instances (families staying in touch with each other), I can’t think of any particular compelling reasons to jot down little details about what I am doing, going to do or thinking about doing. Maybe my life just isn’t that interesting…
Anyone using Twitter in an interesting/offbeat way? I would love to hear about it.
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