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Friday, December 26, 2014

2015 HELP: BIZ: OPENSIM: Marketing by social media communities

Marketing by social media communities 
Communities are the main attraction of virtual worlds.  But people come into virtual worlds and then find the communities that interest them.   Why not use the attraction of communities as a marketing feature?  Instead of marketing a grid, market communities that live in the grid.

Virtual world communities are increasingly using outworld social media to communicate among their members and to reach out to those who do not yet know about how virtual worlds can fit their interests.  Social Media communities reach the outworld.  You can send links to people who have never been in a virtual world.

 You can show pictures and videos of your inworld activities.  You can tell your outworld friends about what you do in your virtual worlds.  Maybe you can get some people to join you in your virtual world community.  Or maybe some others in the community can get their friends to join in.

Marketing by community on social media

  • If new people get involved in a social media community,
  • they will find others they can chat with, ask questions of,  
  • get help from--that's what communities do.
  • The experienced people in a virtual world community 
  • know why they want to be in that virtual world.
  • They can tell potential newcomers why and how.
  • They can invite new people in.  
  • "I'll see you on the other side."
  • People who come in this way know why they came.
  • They know where they want to be.   
  • They already have friends on the other side.   

    Marketing and onboarding with social media.  How? 

    • Communities post about and link to their grids: free advertising.
    • Communities can link to their own customized entry page if they have one
    • A community entry page can promote community activities:  
    • Use a Google calendar to promote events in virtual worlds
      •
    • A community entry route can invite to main community group (MCG). 
    • Vampires meet Vampires.  Educators meet educators.

    A plan for onboarding people by community

    • New arrivals start at a web page created by the community.
    • The web page offers information for beginners
    • They can register, then download and install the viewer 
    • all with the community web page still open
    • They click an Enter world button, arrive at a community welcome portal
    • Welcome portal provides welcome gifts fitting the community
    • Welcome portal gives invitation to the main community group (MCG)
    • They are asked to make a profile to be posted in the MCG.
    • MCG notice appears: Welcome Jane/John Doe.  
    • (Add profile with permission.) 
    • Experienced MCG members will welcome them and help them get started
    • See:
    • You don't wait for them to ask where is everybody?
    • You don't give them a checklist for their interests. 
    • (This is more efficient than presenting it and having everyone ignore it.)   
    • They know the community they are interested in before they get to a grid.
    • The community knows they have arrived as soon as they get to the grid.  
    • They arrive at a community portal with help prepared by the community.
    • The help there fits the needs of people in the community.

    What the grids can do

    • Provide the infrastructure to support entry to a community sim.
    • Kitely system of world pages is adequate but might give button support
    • For download and install.
    • On grid entry page carry links to their communities
    • What you will will find at XYZ Grid
    • Links could go to blogs, Google Communities, Facebook groups.
    • Links could go to community web entry pages.
    • Grids can host community welcome portals a
    • at the grid marketing/entry site

    Calendars 

    If you have events, you need a calendar. Google calendars are available on the web, can be promoted in a Google community, and can be displayed inworld.  What's not to like?

    Suggestions about using social media communities  

    I favor Google+ communities partly because they seem to work better in encouraging conversations and partly because Google+ communities seem to have more people with serious interests in what the community is about.  I know Facebook has more people, but a lot of them seem to be nice blond ladies from Nigeria who want to know me better.  Still, no harm in using both--and others if you have time.

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    News and Notes

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    Events 

    • The Sun & Moon Group Presents:
    • Saturday, Dec. 27 at 12:00 PM SLT
    • Effinjay at Wizards Retreat on Thyilea Region, Kitely Grid
    • -
    • Monday, Dec. 29 at 5PM
    • Edward Lowell & Kevin M. Thomas at Gellar's Cafe on SL
    • -
    • Thursday, Jan. 1 at 11:30AM
    • SSpooky Lane (11:30AM) & Echo Starship (12PM)
    • at Wizards Retreat on Thyilea Region, Kitely Grid
    • -
    • Kitely Hop:
    • hop://osgrid.kitely.com:8002/Thyilea/59/386/24
    • Hypergrid address Paste in Firestorm address bar, press enter
    • grid.kitely.com:8002:Thyilea
    • The Home of The Sun & Moon Group:
    • http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Roxy-Gellar/Thyilea

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    Newcomer Help in Virtual Worlds


    Education


    How to handle a Hypergrid address 

    From any Hypergrid-enabled grid, paste the address into the address bar of Firestorm and press enter. Or paste it into the world map search bar of any viewer, search, and click Teleport when the destination is found. If it doesn't work, don't give up. Try again in couple of minutes.  Sometimes the first try fails (probably times out).  And try again a few hours later. Some hypergrid destinations are offline part of the day. 
    If you get an address like this: 
     hg.francogrid.org:80:Residence-09:/119/128/190     
    paste it into the address bar of Firestorm, see if it takes you to the exact coordinates. 

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    Video-Machinima in virtual worlds
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