Does Twitter Work
A media darling, Twitter, seems to be in everything these days. From the newspapers to many TV shows. But it’s not new, not by internet standards.
Twitter was created in 2006.
Wow, three years old and just coming into the spotlight! So why does iliveisl* tweet? It started out as another channel to get the word out about our Second Life estate and now has turned into a fun activity. We have had the best results from it compared to Facebook, LinkedIn, Urbandictionary, Cafepress, YouTube, blip.tv, Yahoo 360 (now defunct), Ning, threadless, busted tees, blogging (well, it may be a tie with that), technorati, delicious, plurk, Second Life forums, commenting on multiple blogs, SLUniverse, real world conferences as speakers and presenters, and some others that slip the mind.
It’s nice to have some automation tweeting too – when a new blog post is published, it automatically tweets. But how do we know it is successful? Analytics.
*so that’s what subQuark does* =D
We have had more feedback inworld from people telling us they saw us on twitter and subQuark has landed three projects inworld and the estate has seen additional business.
This chart shows the iliveisl website traffic (not much of an impact, but the site is only informational), our flickr stats (since we actively add images every week, it’s growth is somewhat independent of twitter – 3,300+ images now), and the iliveisl blog (it has benefited the most from twitter).
The lower graph is the occupancy of the estate, just by pure tier box count. The start of that is low from the openspace conversion backlash in January and it is leveling out due to fewer parcels being available. That means it’s nearly time to add another sim so that growth can continue.
Before you think it’s about money, talk to our residents. You’ll see we care about fostering creativity. And besides, take a look at the twitter cloud below the graphs; we rarely promote our land. Maybe we should be all corporate, but we sure like the people on the estate and that’s a result of letting people do their own thing and us not being pushy sales people.
In fact, Ener just talked a lady into looking around at other estates (we say that on our website too). We assume people have a brain and grasp the land ownership concept. No need for us to make promises of extra pixie dust (our residents supply that on their own!). =)
reposted from the iliveisl blog
* iliveisl is a Second Life private estate with over 100 residents on 12 sims
Reposted from iliveisl: Why we are in Second Life
We love Second Life for many reasons. It’s a wonderful creative outlet and social channel. Linden Lab has the balance just right which allows Second Life to be a social platform, support online gaming (role playing), and be a true virtual world (where you can create almost anything and engage in commerce).
The creation tools and land ownership combined with ecommerce make it a powerful platform that spans both personal and professional endeavors. This makes it viable for use as a personal social tool (such as Twitter and facebook – think of your Second Life home or favourite hang-out as a Facebook page), a collaborative tool (corporate meetings, college and university extensions), and a business opportunity (creating and selling items, buying and selling land, event planning, corporate branding and product demonstration, and so on).
These factors are what brought us into Second Life. The iliveisl estate is evolving into a wonderful group of collaborative people that understand the ups and downs of Second Life. Being an evolving platform, Second Life has its share of challenges – crashes, lagginess, service outages, and so on.
Those who understand this and can roll with it, tend to stay in Second Life and find success.
We have seen our share of n00bs that come in to start clubs, shops, and event planning with the thought that they will make serious money in the first few weeks. Just like in real life, making money takes a clear vision, a business plan, and persistence plus passion.
But . . . for those that persist; success often follows. Building a shop and having great products is a start, but you have to market yourself dilligently.
That’s why you see us talk about Twitter. Twitter has yielded the best results for us so far. We are in Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning social groups, Second Life forums, Flickr, YouTube, blip.tv, and even CraigsList. We have the standard necessities as well, with a website and this blog.
All of these “social tools” are what almost everyone needs to be successful in Second Life or other lives. You simply have to get the word out, yourself, about what you have to offer. There are over 32,000 sims in Second Life. What are you doing to be noticed?
So, as a business, where is the iliveisl estate going?
Continual growth is a given. We are looking at adding an Adult sim to Enercity.
Why adult? The changes in content rules by Linden Lab makes it almost difficult to not have everything rated as Adult.
Even the self-serve martinis in Enercity Park and in the Eville Atomic Lounge changes their sim’s ratings from PG to Mature.
