Marketing rules inside second life.

[waifuscientist]

I don't know if this is the correct sub-forum but my question is merchant related, it is "ilegal" inside secondlife to have selling agents travelling lands  or promoting products in Social Islands, i'm talking about G category stuff.

 

 

[Alwin Alcott]

if you don't mind they get reported, and most likely banned, for spamming and other lovely things like bad reviews about your business i'd say go ahead...

but think twice ... bad comments aren't allowed on this forum, but there are others who have a less strict postings policy, you can be assured you'll be mentioned there soon..and such posts don't promote you

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Spam is against the TOS.  Section 6.2 says

"Post or transmit unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, or promotional materials, that are in the nature of "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation that Linden Lab considers to be of such nature;" 

Even if they don't spam and just have 'conversations' leading up to any kind of sales pitch most land owners object to that.  They don't want people that come to their place bothered by sales persons.  Personally going someplace to have fun and being approached by a sales person would drive me away.  I'd report it to the sim owner who would probably ban the person.  Both of us would probably complain to you as the owner and I know I would not buy anything from you.  So it has the opposite effect of what you want.

[Nalates Urriah]

Waifus, I'll answer a bit differently than the others...

Is it illegal to spam  in Second Life? It is difficult to determine what is and isn't spam. In one context a comment may be spam and in another the same statement might not be spam. So, in general I'll say spam is not illegal... because the Lab seldom engages in enforcement because of ambiguity of what is or isn't spam.

However, the one receiving the message will clearly know whether it is spam or not.

What is clearly illegal, violates ToS, is harassment. The Lab takes action on harassement reports. When delievering messages moves  into the realm of harassment it is defintely considered spam and a violation of ToS.

The challenge of marketers is to deliever a message without spamming the target audiance. Not an easy challenge when you can't know how your targeted demographic will respond.

You should be able to tell from the others responses that spam draws a visceral response. In general people do not like it. So, if you are trying to sell something, the blow back from over messaging (spam) is way undesirable and may produce highly counterproductive results.

At best the sender gets blocked by the majority of the target demographic. At worst they get banned fomr SL.

I suggest you consider other ways to get your message out.

[Tamara Artis]

Its illegal the way you describe it.

 

There are few right ways to promote products in-world...

One is to just gift them to your friends and let them know that, in case anyone asks, they point the person to your shop. If its rezzable object then anyone curious enough can right click on it and see your name as a creator. Make sure to have all infos about your shop in your profile pics.

Another way of promoting your products is to rent an adboard  - pay a certain weekly fee and support the place.

Or you can offer some kind of rewards for people who put your place in their profile pics. Everyone's reading profiles so you can be sure people will find out about you.