Tips on creating an online community

• Have a plan: This is just another marketing channel
  • What do you want to achieve?
  • When do you want to do it?
  • How will you manage it internally?
  • What are your competitors doing?
• Keep the builders at bay: Design comes last, not first
  • Projects should be strategically delivered
  • Buildings/layouts/areas should facilitate the strategy
  • Design is an output, not an input
• Integrate: Think about all your marketing channels
  • Look to create synergy with other marketing projects
  • Use existing marketing materials
  • Push visitors from outside in
  • Push visitors from inside out
• Giving is better than receiving: Engage with the residents
  • Get people o seeing/using your product/service o experiencing your brand
  • Word of mouth advertising
  • Zero on-going cost of sale
  • You receive metrics
• Keep the seats warm: Commit to your virtual presence
  • If you build a virtual office, make personnel available to be in it
  • Manage people’s expectations
  • Give named in-word contacts
  • Or, create a venue that does not require on-going support
• Stoke the fire: Once you have entered, you need to exist
  • Run regular events
  • Deliver in-world presentations/seminars
  • Run competitions
  • Involve the residents
• Promote and cross-promote: Leverage all your marketing channels
  • Advertise in-world
  • Create cross-channel campaigns
  • Encourage referred and new visito

Virtual Worlds News: K Zero’s Seven Point Marketing Plan for Second Life

This was a post specifically about cretaing a space in Second Life, but I believe it has completely valid paralells to the tips you should think about when creating any community space online, 3D/Virtual or not.

technorati tags:virtual-world, second-life, online-community

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