By B.L. Ochman
Although I’m more of an 8 PM type, than an 8 AM type, I got up before the sun this morning to go to the first NYC Social Media Breakfast. It was organized by Bryan Person and Paull Young. The event was sponsored this morning by Converseon and Text100 (who paid for breakfast. Thanks!) at Big Daddy’s Diner near Union Square.
I learned of the breakfast on Twitter, and was glad to see old friends and meet some people I only know from Twitter. I love blogging and Twitter, but nothing beats a face-to-face. Nick Denton, Heath Row, Paull Young, Constantin Basturea (finally we meet!), Rob Key, Aaron Uhrmacher, and David Bradfield were among the people I got to talk to at some length.
It was hopefully the first of many such breakfasts which welcome marketers, PR people, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, new media fanatics, and online social networkers. You’ll find the events schedule here.
Reuters Second Life bureau chief reporter Eric Krangel (aka Eric Reuters) spoke about virtual worlds, the changing media landscape and Second Life opportunities for marketers.
Back in 1997, he pointed out The Well, was among the first virtual communities. It had a strong face-to-face element, like the ones developing in Twitter and other social networks. Like most people, he noted that he’s more likely to pay attention to someone he’s met in person than someone he only knows as an avatar or sender of emails.
Highlights of Reuters’ talk:
“Don’t ignore Second Life,” he said. “Don’t write it off. There is a tremendous untapped market, he said, that can be reached with savvy marketing.
While there’s been a lot of SL bashing lately, and 9 out of 10 accounts are inactive; the metaverse has, he says, approximately 1.2 million active members (who log in at least once a month) who are a very passionate and engaged group of early adopters.
SL isn’t perfect, but the category is here to stay.
SL has got some strong competitors including there.com and IMVU. There also are persistent rumors that Google will soon launch a virtual world, which could be a category changer. Yahoo! announced recently that it is not interested in virtual worlds.
Reuters mission in SL? Tracking the in-world economy, focusing on the entrepreneurs and their successes ad failures.
“Second Life, once you get past the metaphor, is about meeting people.” He pointed out that having your avatar pitch him a story is a definite way to get his attention in Second Life.
Noting that there have been some major big brand marketing failures in SL, Reuters said the way to be successful is to embrace SL on its own terms.
He cited Pontiac as one of the most successful SL marketers. (Computer World calls Pontiac second only to IBM among the top eight corporate sites in Second Life “If you’re into cars and SL,” he said, “Pontiac is where you go.”
In 10 years, Reuters said when I asked him, virtual worlds could be as pervasive as email today, and in 15 years he says he would not be at all surprised if everyone had an avatar.
Given the climate and velocity of change online, that could happen a lot sooner.
B.L., thanks for the wrap-up post. So pleased you could make it to the event, and like you, I hope many more of these breakfasts are coming.
I’ve been one of those guys who’s soured on Second Life this year. I just don’t find it easy to use or very engaging. That said, there’s no doubt about the promise of virtual worlds, whether that’s from Linden Lab, Google, or some other player. And as communicators, I believe it’s important to at least be aware of what’s happening in Second Life.
It might be time for Zeke Barber to pop back in-world and see how things have changed in the last few months!
Of course Pontiac has now apparently closed their Motorati Island effort. However, where some people are saying that they’re giving up and leaving (in the same way they’re incorrectly stating Coca-Cola gave up and left), I suspect Pontiac was more interested in learning *how* to work in a virtual world than in expecting a big marketing payoff. And they at least received significant press for their efforts. That’s worth something.
Undoubtedly they did some smart things and some not-so-smart things, but they almost certainly got an education; and that means they’ll very likely be better prepared for whatever it is they try next. And if virtual worlds are here for the long-haul, that’s to their advantage.
Sounds like a fun time in NYC to meet up in real life.
Ah, someone might mention that Pontiac just pulled out (no pun intended) of Second Life.
They said they had a successful launch in Second Life but decided move on down the road (pun intended). “The time has come unfortunately to announce that Pontiac and Motorati Island will be leaving Second Life as of December 31st, 2007. This however, is in no way a reflection on the success of the island or its residents”.
Scroll down to about the 3rd story:
http://motoratilife.com/
Thanks for the great wrap up post BL, it was great to meet you at the breakfast!
Glad to hear that you spotted the event via Twitter, it was probably the key promotional tool we used – though I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more live Tweeting (that I saw) from the event.
I look forward to seeing you again at the next one!
It kinda made me smile that the breakfast was in part inspired by a ’97 Wired article about the Well. If folks wanna learn more about one of the longer-running online communities, Katie Hafner’s book is a good read — and the Well remains an active community.
Nice one, BL.
I enjoyed meeting a lot of people that I follow online face-to-face as well, and Eric Reuters provided some interesting thoughts on the Second Life community that you captured here.
But it was EARLY. We might need to start a Social Media Late Night Snack group to accommodate the night owls!
What effect will the resignation of the CTO have doyathink?
I am not the kind to take the time posting comments on individuals blogs generally however after stumbling across yours I decided I would write a quick note to give myself a short break from working. Needless to say I have gotten a little distracted after sticking around to check out a number of your articles. Wonderful stuff here and I’ll be back in the future to see more. Take care!