Jura Shepherd

Madeliefste Oh wrote: But do your homework well before you start inviting press people, and concentrate on those that really relate to what your business is about. I would add to this to also be self-aware and self-critical. Writers aren't there to promote your business. They are there to create compelling content for their readers. Being sensitive to that, and investing some time in knowing a particular writer's interest will go a long way in making them take an interest in you. I've been a writer in SL media and I can tell you that sending a random IM saying "Hey, can you write an article about my ____? I'll pay you." is a sure fire way to insult a writer. Ever consider doing some writing yourself? Most of SL related media is understaffed and in a constant struggle for content. On top of that, the nature of SL makes it very difficult for writers (or anyone) to know anything beyond their own social sphere. Most of you merchants have amazing skills that you probably take for granted. There are plenty of opportunities for you to share your expertise, and can indirectly promote yourself without blatantly hawking your products. Is it a bit of a dance? Of course it is, but just look at your nightly news and you'll all sorts of "expert opinions". It's done everyday. Also, it was mentioned earlier, but if you're going to use off-world media, either in a PR sense or for advertising, I recommend having a blog. Click-throughs from off-world sites to SLURLs just aren't productive. Much of SL related media is consumed when people are unable to be in-world (like, when we're supposed to be working in rl :smileywink:). Build an audience off-world so that they'll remember you when they log in. It takes patience, but it works.

Luna Bliss wrote: One best business practice I'd like to share regards how I make the connection between the MP @ my in-world store. I've started putting out an info cube with an URL giver in it next to my in-world store items so that shoppers can click this and go directly to the item at my MP store. I know, at first I thought this might be stupid since I'd be getting less money if they purchased it on the MP, but I believe it actually increases sales overall - you can see all the details of the item so much better on the MP - so much more detail than a note card can provide (and note cards often don't open). Plus, there is a certain percentage of people that seem to trust purchasing @ the MP store more than in-world. That's pretty cool Luna, thanks! That's also a clean and fairly simple way to send an item to an alt, or as a gift to a friend.

Josephina Bonetto wrote: OMG you are right, I'm in the Destination Guide. I never even considered it for a second so thank you for telling me to look LOL. I have just got disproportionately excited - I need a first life O_O Yay! Congrats Josephina! I've seen your place and it's cool that you have info and other stuff right there at the landing point so that people will know what's going on. That's great. Sometimes, an event oriented place will be put in the Destination Guide and a lot of people will TP in when nothing is happening and there's nothing there to tell them what it's all about.

If you are a club or any other venue with frequent events, i really like what Josephina has done by having a website/blog as an info-hub. If possible, the home page should be done "feed" style so that there's always current content to give a sense of something happening. The teleport button or link should be prominent and up top. Any off world ads or social media postings should point to the blog rather than a slurl (the exception would be event listings that are specifically for sl events). If you're thinking that you don't have enough stuff happening to do a content feed, you probably do. Basic info on up-coming events is fine, but it need not be dull. If you are a live music venue, you can talk about the artist, have the bio/samples, or have a mini interview. You can also do event follow-ups. For example: if you are a contest club you can have a pic and a few words from the winner. Taking a few pictures during an event is actually great because you can post them the next day along with people's names. People will develop a habit of checking your blog after an event because if there's one thing all us SLers love, it's looking at ourselves and seeing our name in print. Anyway, you get the idea. Be creative and personal.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: I tend to think that to compete in a market where everyone has the same tools it takes more than the tools provided by LL, no matter how good or bad they are (although I do think they're quite good when used effectively) in order to rise above. Yes. I'm biting my tongue a little to stay on the topic of in-world marketing. Even if the system tools worked great, I'd never do a promo event in-world without using off-world resources to promote it. It's actually the best practice to not separate the two.

Phil Deakins wrote: What's the point in discussing inworld marketing strategies when LL is hell bent on killing off inworld sales by pushing everyone at their own website mall, where they get a cut of sales - even when their system fails to deliver items! - and never ever pointing anyone to inworld stores? The point for me is that, despite whatever LL is doing, people are still coming into stores to buy things. My experiences are not like Rene's at all. For some, the cumulative reach from a distributed approach to marketing isn't hundreds, it's easily thousands and even that isn't considered a great feat. Now, that would be cumulative in that it's on and off world efforts and I would agree that in-world reach is much less. Even so, the caveat there is that the conversion rate for in-world efforts are much much higher than off-world. If reaching hundreds is simply not worth the effort for some, that's fine, but I can assure you that there are diligent brands that will be happy to take those hundreds from you. Again, I'm not saying now, or in my previous post, that the native tools aren't a problem. It absolutely is and I don't like it. All I'm saying is that crippled system tools aren't an argument for doing nothing.

I just wanted to throw my 2L here: There are certainly issues with the platform-native search and classifieds system, but even so, people are still promoting their merchandise / events and it's working for them. I would love it if SL always worked like I wanted it too, but when I help plan a marketing strategy with clients; we look at the native sl marketing tools as being somewhat like the weather. It could change. It's just not practical to rely on it always being the same or even favorable. Should you take advantage of classified and optimize search? Yes, absolutely, but it's defeatist to be narrowly focused on just that. The marketing Wiki mentioned earlier has some solid recommendations for marketing beyond the platform tools and a little time spent with google can reveal even more resources. In the spirit of the topic ( Inworld Marketing and Advertising Best Practices), I would recommend thinking creatively about using collaborative events, utilizing specialized groups, hunts, and so on for promotion. Advertising isn't really my focus, but there are ways to advertise in-world and I use them regularly. Also, SL is a complex environment that, as a community, has become much bigger than just what's happening at Linden Lab. The SL community media ecosystem is vast and provides SL residents with news and info even when we're are unable to be in-world. There are MANY opportunities and methods available to promote your goods that don't involve the system tools per se. LL is obviously indispensible in that, they run the platform that our world exist on. There's no arguing that, but I look at them more like as having chamber of commerce type role in over-all trade. There are things that only they are able to do and I'm happy when they do, but I'm not going to sit around and wait for it to happen.

/me waves at Angie and leaves this: @Jura_Shepherd

And Torely, if you could PLEASE poke whomever needs to be poked to add the flycam indicator back into the viewer? Yes! Please! lol, I thought I was the only one

Hey by the way, 3Dconnexion offers SL residents a 10% discount on their SpaceNavigator 3D mouse. I don't want to get in trouble with LL by posting the details here, but you can grab a notecard with the info from my parcel here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiki/39/59/21