Second Life Virtual World and Social Media

[FairreLilette]

Second Life is a virtual world.

With Social Media, how much time do you spend inworld?  

Do you spend more time on social media sites "looking" at Second Life related things rather than Inworld?

Is there any way to incorporate the two?  

Me, personally, I do not visit any Second Life business on any Social Media.  

However, I can see why one would:  Mobility for photos/updates and the photos are frankly better, as well as IM'S BEING CAPPED can prevent notices from going through.  

Is there any way to merge the two into a better inworld and photo/notices experience?

Or is just too darn costly to even think about it?

What are your thoughts about this thing called a Virtual World and offline Social Media sites?

[Janet Voxel]

I’d probably have a SL Facebook for this account, except I have to remember about 5 different passwords at work (ones that change every 60 days), plus my real Facebook account, plus my Flickr account. It’s really not worth it to me to see the same type of crap I see on RL Facebook and to enter dubious contests to get a free outfit. 

I have one for my other account that I never use because it’s just too much work for me  to switch back and forth between accounts and my alt kind of became my main. I spend about 2 hrs a day on SL and much of that time, I’m in Blender.

If you ask me, SL tried the social media thing, with profiles way back in the day. So someone recognized how powerful it was as a medium, but any follow up or improvement to it made real social media surpass it and end up with what we have today. People using social media for SL more than SL itself.

I don’t know what LL can do to fix it, but whoever figures something out should have a job waiting for them at LL.

[FairreLilette]

@janetosilio Yes, a job at LL!  

See, I have been "trying" to start a group.  It would NOT necessarily involve sales as it's main but special sales would be welcome.

However, after spending time with my inworld merchant group, it's the feeling my group cannot succeed without 2D social media.

If I start a 2D Social Media, I feel I would loose too much of my inworld experience.  I DON'T want to be on FB or other 2D sites.  Second Life is my computer life for building and having fun.  It's my avocation.   My offline time is spent learning photoshop for the past 5 months.  I'm offline enough already.  

I have begun to live inworld and I want to experience the inworld virtual world.

However, I might not have any choice but go to a 2D Social Media IF I want the group to succeed.  

It's like go with the flow or give up. 

The only thing I can think of, is start a GROUPS area here BUT I don't think there is enough space to hold that many photos.  That must be why that much photo sharing has to go to another site.  

And, I have my SL Flickr too.  But that is mostly for art.  I belong to the Second Life Photo of the Day group and I love SL photography.  The photographers on there are awesome!

But, to go to FB too is not really something I want to do.  

    

 

[Selene Gregoire]

I don't use social media so... there you go.

[Claireschen Hesten]

I do have social media for RL with the exception of a personal blog that i haven't been updating lately, not for SL. I know lots of brands & events do comps and stuff via Facebook so anyone without an SL Facebook presence has to miss out on the chance of winning a prize/early event access

[Fionalein]

33 minutes ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

 so anyone without an SL Facebook presence has to miss out on the chance of winning a prize/early event access

That however is a price I gladly pay...

[Polenth Yue]

I have social media under my real name, rather than my Second Life name. They're both connected though, so Second Life people follow me and I tweet about events I'm doing. My main advice is only use sites that work for you. There's no point starting an account on a site you hate and don't want to update, because you'll end up not updating it.

If you're having issues with sales in Second Life, chances are high that starting social media accounts is not going to do much for you. As it doesn't sound like you really want to do that anyway, focus on something you would like to do. Inworld events are a good way to get your name out there (and make some sales).

Do add your shop to your forum signature though. You're already here, so you might as well.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Polenth Yue

[animats]

In early 2010, Linden Labs acquired a social network which was supposed to be "Facebook for avatars", "Avatars United". They shut it down in late 2010. That was from the era when, for a while, it looked like the future included the ability to move from virtual world to virtual world, perhaps taking some of your stuff with you.

From 2009, via the Internet Archive:

Welcome to the world’s most open community for MMOs!

Register today, hook up with your friends and improve your virtual life… one application at a time!

"It's like Facebook for your virtual personas."

So, LL has been there, done that.

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

I do have social media for RL with the exception of a personal blog that i haven't been updating lately, not for SL. I know lots of brands & events do comps and stuff via Facebook so anyone without an SL Facebook presence has to miss out on the chance of winning a prize/early event access

FaceBook is a cesspool that  eventually contaminates every thing it touches, just like all social media does in the end.

[Amanda Crisp]

I have a RL job that entails some long hours, so I use FB and Discord to keep up with stuffs in SL.

UnfortunatelyI work LATE nights so when I ping people on my breaks or respond to their social posts  - about half they time they’re asleep at the keyboard....

[Adam Spark]

Until Linden Lab can figure out a way to more effectively advertise within the walls of Second Life, for me social media is a very useful tool. I've learned to embrace Facebook. Even its privacy concerns don't concern me (How I am supposed to lose sleep over the fact that facebook knows I log into SL and that I ordered dominos last night is something I haven't quite figured out. If I'm going to get ads, I might as well get ads I have a chance of ever clicking on).

As for whether social media limits my time in world, I don't see why it should. Well, if you wish to log out of SL to visit social media thats fine, but its not needed. I spend most of my time on social media advertising events while doing the same with my SL groups, as well as doing other things in-world.  Social media time and SL time are not mutually exclusive. You can do both.

[FairreLilette]

10 hours ago, Adam Spark said:

Until Linden Lab can figure out a way to more effectively advertise within the walls of Second Life, for me social media is a very useful tool. I've learned to embrace Facebook. Even its privacy concerns don't concern me (How I am supposed to lose sleep over the fact that facebook knows I log into SL and that I ordered dominos last night is something I haven't quite figured out. If I'm going to get ads, I might as well get ads I have a chance of ever clicking on).

As for whether social media limits my time in world, I don't see why it should. Well, if you wish to log out of SL to visit social media thats fine, but its not needed. I spend most of my time on social media advertising events while doing the same with my SL groups, as well as doing other things in-world.  Social media time and SL time are not mutually exclusive. You can do both.

IM'S not being capped could be helpful.  But, I am speaking in ignorance because I have no tech knowledge of how the IM's could not be capped or if that is really the whole problem.

I know I could do both SL and FB but a FB group would take a lot of time.  I'm pretty busy already learning amazing photoshop stuff I wanted to learn for 15 years.  

@Polenth Yue  My Marketplace store does okay.  

The group I want to start wouldn't be just for me BUT rather a pool of designers who fit a certain criteria and it's not about limited time sales either.

I have been sending notecards to designers to personally invite and sending notices to join my group in other groups I belong too and only one designer has joined.

I feel all advertising is worth a go and this is free, so I do not know why the no join is happening.  

So, I discussed this group with my merchant group and they feel I need social media for it to succeed.

And, I think I can understand why - you don't have to open each photo like you would inworld, you can just scroll through a bunch of photos in far, far less time.  

I am thinking about it.  

  

Edited July 25, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Polenth Yue]

41 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

The group I want to start wouldn't be just for me BUT rather a pool of designers who fit a certain criteria and it's not about limited time sales either.

I have been sending notecards to designers to personally invite and sending notices to join my group in other groups I belong too and only one designer has joined.

I feel all advertising is worth a go and this is free, so I do not know why the no join is happening.  

So, I discussed this group with my merchant group and they feel I need social media for it to succeed.

My experience of merchant groups was not good. It ended up being merchants trying to promote to other merchants, because customers didn't want updates from merchants who didn't interest them at all (and this was with a shared theme). It might not cost money to join a group, but it does cost time.

My event comment wasn't about offering special sales or the like. It's more that this is an effective way to get customers to look at stuff by designers they don't know. They'll ignore the endless group notices. They're unlikely to visit a special webpage or social media account. But they're more than happy to walk around a shopping event and look at everything. It's a lot easier to get people to do something they wanted to do anyway (go shopping) than something they don't (trawl through announcements for the hidden gem).

Social media has its uses, but it's not a magic solution. If you're not offering something that people want, it won't matter how you promote it to them. On the other hand, if you're offering something they really want, they might visit you on Facebook even if they hate Facebook.

[Selene Gregoire]

37 minutes ago, Polenth Yue said:

they might visit you on Facebook even if they hate Facebook.

I won't. If I can't find it on the MP or inworld, I'm not buying it. Chances are I won't buy if there is no inworld store where I can see a rezzed demo. Clothing is a little different but not by much.

[FairreLilette]

2 hours ago, Polenth Yue said:

My experience of merchant groups was not good. It ended up being merchants trying to promote to other merchants, because customers didn't want updates from merchants who didn't interest them at all (and this was with a shared theme). It might not cost money to join a group, but it does cost time.

My event comment wasn't about offering special sales or the like. It's more that this is an effective way to get customers to look at stuff by designers they don't know. They'll ignore the endless group notices. They're unlikely to visit a special webpage or social media account. But they're more than happy to walk around a shopping event and look at everything. It's a lot easier to get people to do something they wanted to do anyway (go shopping) than something they don't (trawl through announcements for the hidden gem).

Social media has its uses, but it's not a magic solution. If you're not offering something that people want, it won't matter how you promote it to them. On the other hand, if you're offering something they really want, they might visit you on Facebook even if they hate Facebook.

Yes, I understand it can be merchants at first BUT to have customers, I was planning ad boards at popular locations.  However, my merchant group feels no one looks at ad boards anymore.  Though I told them, I do.  I have found many things through a variety of resources including ad boards.

On another note, I got to wondering WHAT IF Linden Labs could put a feed through on Marketplace?  Say a feed of the groups you are interested in, with a way to turn on and off the feed perhaps.  Say a feed of photos that runs to the right or left of the screen while browsing on Marketplace.

I personally would love a feed though that is Linden Labs expense to create it.  I don't really read the feed at the top of the page on Marketplace on category landing, though I do look at ads on the checkout page because it's all in one glance.  

Frankly, we shop all different ways...BUT there are merchants whose business is for low income people and/or those need an alt. I have always been a for low income/alt store.  Therefore, I cannot afford to use the Lindens advertisement of 799 lindens to promote one item for a week when most of my items are below 70 lindens.

I have been using FREE advertising groups lately inworld and it really does help sales.  I still feel my group is a good idea as it branches out to more creators than some of the inworld advertising groups I'm currently in.  Though I can see why members would want to view a feed of photos rather than opening one photo at a time as you need to do inworld.    

Edited July 25, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Penny Patton]

On 7/24/2019 at 3:23 PM, janetosilio said:

If you ask me, SL tried the social media thing, with profiles way back in the day. So someone recognized how powerful it was as a medium, but any follow up or improvement to it made real social media surpass it and end up with what we have today. People using social media for SL more than SL itself.

To be fair, Second Life's "social profiles" attempt fizzled out before it even started. All they did was move our already existing profiles to a web format, gave us a post feed (which they almost immediately nerfed by removing one of its more interesting features) and introduced "interest tags" which they then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with. Then they just abandoned it all. And all of this took place over a couple of months. LL is like a cat with ADD in a room filled with laser pointers.

 The profile feed did let you link it up with Twitter, which was neat, but it was one-way, which kind of defeated the purpose. And that's the real problem with LL's attempts at "social media". They know the buzzword, but have no idea what it means or how to apply it to SL.

 For instance: Interest Tags were a great idea, that LL did absolutely nothing with. Interest tags could have improved search, events and the marketplace. Imagine if you could apply a limited number of interest tags to marketplace listings, event listings, groups and land. Like, 3-5 tags and no more. These tags would be used in search. If one of your search terms was one of that listing's tags it would get boosted in your search. And since you'd be limited to the number of tags you could apply, it completely bypasses the "word salad" problem that makes finding anything in SL so frustrating.

Remember the "Recommendations" tab in web profiles? Probably not, it was worthless. LL used it to generate a lost of strangers who happened to share one or more of your interest tags, the idea being that people would reach out to each other and become best friends forever based on nothing more than sharing one or two interest tags in their profile. When that (of course) did not work, LL thought they could force it to work by emailing that list to everyone a couple of times a month. All that accomplished was a spike in "hi" messages from strangers which most people in SL tend to ignore.

Imagine if instead of recommending you stranger's profiles, the recommendations tab would suggest places, groups, events, and marketplace listings to you, all based on your own interests. Suddenly that recommendations tab sounds a lot more useful, doesn't it? Something most SL residents would actually use!

Remember how I said LL nerfed the profile feed by removing a feature? You know how you can tag your current location to your feed posts? Originally they had it set up so if you were at a location in SL you could open up a feed window that would display all of the public feed posts made from that location. Effectively giving every location in SL a "shout wall". This feature was a great idea, so of course LL removed it almost immediately. Now imagine if, instead of being LL and removing the feature, they did the smart thing and EXPANDED that feature, so that you could also tag groups and events. Search for an event and if the event is currently active you would see the most recent feed posts made by people at that event. Group profiles could have their own feed page where you could read group member's posts tagged to that group, and all of this could be blended together. One post could be tagged to the land you were at, the event that was currently taking place, and your currently active group.

Now imagine if LL created a user calendar that could be synched up to all of this. You'd be able to have events, sales, group activities, new product releases, all relevant to you and all available in a calendar where you could set up reminders, schedule group notifications, etc. You could even see the upcoming birthdays and rez days of any of your friends who make that info public. Groups and Land could also have their own calendars, visible to group members and people visiting a location which made it's calendar public. So if you wanted to see what a given group had going on over the next couple of months, open up the group calendar and take a look. Find an interesting location in SL and want to see when it's more lively? Open the land calendar and take a look at what events and activities are scheduled to take place there.

 THAT is how you use social media features to make SL more social.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

I use social media a bit. I was a latecomer to social media back in the day because I got into SL back in 2005 and couldn't see what the big deal was with flatweb stuff like MySpace and later Facebook, Twitter etc. I use them primarily to promote my music recordings + performances. I can't even get an instagram account because for some reason they want a mugshot + more info than the police take after an arrest so I'll pass on that.

[ThorinII]

11 hours ago, Penny Patton said:

To be fair, Second Life's "social profiles" attempt fizzled out before it even started. All they did was move our already existing profiles to a web format, gave us a post feed (which they almost immediately nerfed by removing one of its more interesting features) and introduced "interest tags" which they then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with. Then they just abandoned it all. And all of this took place over a couple of months. LL is like a cat with ADD in a room filled with laser pointers.

 [...]

Remember how I said LL nerfed the profile feed by removing a feature? You know how you can tag your current location to your feed posts? Originally they had it set up so if you were at a location in SL you could open up a feed window that would display all of the public feed posts made from that location. Effectively giving every location in SL a "shout wall". This feature was a great idea, so of course LL removed it almost immediately. Now imagine if, instead of being LL and removing the feature, they did the smart thing and EXPANDED that feature, so that you could also tag groups and events. Search for an event and if the event is currently active you would see the most recent feed posts made by people at that event. Group profiles could have their own feed page where you could read group member's posts tagged to that group, and all of this could be blended together. One post could be tagged to the land you were at, the event that was currently taking place, and your currently active group.

Now imagine if LL created a user calendar that could be synched up to all of this. You'd be able to have events, sales, group activities, new product releases, all relevant to you and all available in a calendar where you could set up reminders, schedule group notifications, etc. You could even see the upcoming birthdays and rez days of any of your friends who make that info public. Groups and Land could also have their own calendars, visible to group members and people visiting a location which made it's calendar public. So if you wanted to see what a given group had going on over the next couple of months, open up the group calendar and take a look. Find an interesting location in SL and want to see when it's more lively? Open the land calendar and take a look at what events and activities are scheduled to take place there.

 THAT is how you use social media features to make SL more social.

Actually, I'm glad that LL didn't implement those functions. 😈 I don't even  look at web profile feeds (don't even see them, as my viewer settings show only "legacy" profiles), this twitter wannabe thing doesn't interest me at all. And a "shout wall" for locations? No thank you.

And a publicly available calendar? No thank you. A group-only calendar, accessible by group members only, would be much better.

As for social media, I do have a FB account under my real name since '07 I think, but rarely log in there -- and when I do, then it's the only website on my browser until I log out there. After leaving FB, I close the browser (and automatically delete cookies and stuff), and open it up again for the other sites I use to visit.

[OlliesOrbit]

14 hours ago, Penny Patton said:

To be fair, Second Life's "social profiles" attempt fizzled out before it even started. All they did was move our already existing profiles to a web format, gave us a post feed (which they almost immediately nerfed by removing one of its more interesting features) and introduced "interest tags" which they then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with. Then they just abandoned it all. And all of this took place over a couple of months. LL is like a cat with ADD in a room filled with laser pointers.

 The profile feed did let you link it up with Twitter, which was neat, but it was one-way, which kind of defeated the purpose. And that's the real problem with LL's attempts at "social media". They know the buzzword, but have no idea what it means or how to apply it to SL.

 For instance: Interest Tags were a great idea, that LL did absolutely nothing with. Interest tags could have improved search, events and the marketplace. Imagine if you could apply a limited number of interest tags to marketplace listings, event listings, groups and land. Like, 3-5 tags and no more. These tags would be used in search. If one of your search terms was one of that listing's tags it would get boosted in your search. And since you'd be limited to the number of tags you could apply, it completely bypasses the "word salad" problem that makes finding anything in SL so frustrating.

Remember the "Recommendations" tab in web profiles? Probably not, it was worthless. LL used it to generate a lost of strangers who happened to share one or more of your interest tags, the idea being that people would reach out to each other and become best friends forever based on nothing more than sharing one or two interest tags in their profile. When that (of course) did not work, LL thought they could force it to work by emailing that list to everyone a couple of times a month. All that accomplished was a spike in "hi" messages from strangers which most people in SL tend to ignore.

Imagine if instead of recommending you stranger's profiles, the recommendations tab would suggest places, groups, events, and marketplace listings to you, all based on your own interests. Suddenly that recommendations tab sounds a lot more useful, doesn't it? Something most SL residents would actually use!

Remember how I said LL nerfed the profile feed by removing a feature? You know how you can tag your current location to your feed posts? Originally they had it set up so if you were at a location in SL you could open up a feed window that would display all of the public feed posts made from that location. Effectively giving every location in SL a "shout wall". This feature was a great idea, so of course LL removed it almost immediately. Now imagine if, instead of being LL and removing the feature, they did the smart thing and EXPANDED that feature, so that you could also tag groups and events. Search for an event and if the event is currently active you would see the most recent feed posts made by people at that event. Group profiles could have their own feed page where you could read group member's posts tagged to that group, and all of this could be blended together. One post could be tagged to the land you were at, the event that was currently taking place, and your currently active group.

Now imagine if LL created a user calendar that could be synched up to all of this. You'd be able to have events, sales, group activities, new product releases, all relevant to you and all available in a calendar where you could set up reminders, schedule group notifications, etc. You could even see the upcoming birthdays and rez days of any of your friends who make that info public. Groups and Land could also have their own calendars, visible to group members and people visiting a location which made it's calendar public. So if you wanted to see what a given group had going on over the next couple of months, open up the group calendar and take a look. Find an interesting location in SL and want to see when it's more lively? Open the land calendar and take a look at what events and activities are scheduled to take place there.

 THAT is how you use social media features to make SL more social.

This sounds perfect.

 

I honestly wished they did do something like or similar to this idea. It would've made looking at people's profiles a bit more fun, not to mention you could get more information on a person before opening up a conversation with them.

[Janet Voxel]

@Penny Patton You have my endorsement that LL hire you! Probably would’ve been a good idea  to implement something similar to what you said just to keep more things in house. The way things are now, a lot of users can’t or won’t use social media, which leaves a lot of users out of the loop.

[FairreLilette]

18 hours ago, Penny Patton said:

To be fair, Second Life's "social profiles" attempt fizzled out before it even started. All they did was move our already existing profiles to a web format, gave us a post feed (which they almost immediately nerfed by removing one of its more interesting features) and introduced "interest tags" which they then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with. Then they just abandoned it all. And all of this took place over a couple of months. LL is like a cat with ADD in a room filled with laser pointers.

 The profile feed did let you link it up with Twitter, which was neat, but it was one-way, which kind of defeated the purpose. And that's the real problem with LL's attempts at "social media". They know the buzzword, but have no idea what it means or how to apply it to SL.

 For instance: Interest Tags were a great idea, that LL did absolutely nothing with. Interest tags could have improved search, events and the marketplace. Imagine if you could apply a limited number of interest tags to marketplace listings, event listings, groups and land. Like, 3-5 tags and no more. These tags would be used in search. If one of your search terms was one of that listing's tags it would get boosted in your search. And since you'd be limited to the number of tags you could apply, it completely bypasses the "word salad" problem that makes finding anything in SL so frustrating.

Remember the "Recommendations" tab in web profiles? Probably not, it was worthless. LL used it to generate a lost of strangers who happened to share one or more of your interest tags, the idea being that people would reach out to each other and become best friends forever based on nothing more than sharing one or two interest tags in their profile. When that (of course) did not work, LL thought they could force it to work by emailing that list to everyone a couple of times a month. All that accomplished was a spike in "hi" messages from strangers which most people in SL tend to ignore.

Imagine if instead of recommending you stranger's profiles, the recommendations tab would suggest places, groups, events, and marketplace listings to you, all based on your own interests. Suddenly that recommendations tab sounds a lot more useful, doesn't it? Something most SL residents would actually use!

Remember how I said LL nerfed the profile feed by removing a feature? You know how you can tag your current location to your feed posts? Originally they had it set up so if you were at a location in SL you could open up a feed window that would display all of the public feed posts made from that location. Effectively giving every location in SL a "shout wall". This feature was a great idea, so of course LL removed it almost immediately. Now imagine if, instead of being LL and removing the feature, they did the smart thing and EXPANDED that feature, so that you could also tag groups and events. Search for an event and if the event is currently active you would see the most recent feed posts made by people at that event. Group profiles could have their own feed page where you could read group member's posts tagged to that group, and all of this could be blended together. One post could be tagged to the land you were at, the event that was currently taking place, and your currently active group.

Now imagine if LL created a user calendar that could be synched up to all of this. You'd be able to have events, sales, group activities, new product releases, all relevant to you and all available in a calendar where you could set up reminders, schedule group notifications, etc. You could even see the upcoming birthdays and rez days of any of your friends who make that info public. Groups and Land could also have their own calendars, visible to group members and people visiting a location which made it's calendar public. So if you wanted to see what a given group had going on over the next couple of months, open up the group calendar and take a look. Find an interesting location in SL and want to see when it's more lively? Open the land calendar and take a look at what events and activities are scheduled to take place there.

 THAT is how you use social media features to make SL more social.

YAY!   

Sounds great!

Another thing I DO NOT like about Social Media is there is no ADULTS ONLY filtering SO I'd have to do all the moderating and it stifles creativity a bit.  And, I don't like to stifle Second Life's creativity.  

Social Media is General.  

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

On 7/24/2019 at 1:48 PM, Selene Gregoire said:

I don't use social media so... there you go.

I avoid it like the plague.

Sad when some clubs in world depend on it --- My hubs DJed at a club that it's rules listed only on their FB, along with a banned song list. Since he avoids FB too he wasn't aware of the list when he played a song that was banned on their list. The owners immediately fired him and banned him. Somehow they had problems changing the stream and when someone PMed him about that, he played the classic "Take This Job and Shove It" song. That club is no longer around --- bad management.

 

[Selene Gregoire]

1 minute ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

rules listed only on their FB, along with a banned song list

 

RL other half DJs in SL and has DJed on the airways (AM/FM radio) in RL. We've owned/operated a few clubs in SL. Those two things are complete bullcrap and are precisely what killed that club (and any club fool enough to do ignorant things like that).

 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

My other half has DJ in RL too, both on the radio long ago and now in our bar on some nights.

[Paul Hexem]

Comparing games and social media, SL and FB, is like comparing a freight train and a pickup truck. 

They both allow to you to store stuff behind the driver, right?