SL Marketing: Do a beta (follow-up post)

Last Wednesday I posted an article on beta testing in Second Life – not only to improve your products and professionalize your product development process, but also on what reasons there are for beta testing, as seen from a marketing point of view.

I received some comments in Second Life, as well as some questions. Mal Burns was kind enough to put a link to the article on his twitter profile, and Hamlet Au linked to it on his New World Notes blog. (Thanks guys!). Also posted on New World Notes were some comments and questions – so I decided to write a follow-up post to further clarify this “beta testing thing”.

Many content creators told me they use alts to test their products – especially fashion designers; it gives them some more insight on how a piece of clothing fits on different avatars. This way of testing is also handy for making sure the permissions (modify/copy/transfer) are configured properly. Good thinking there – so; additional tip 1; before sending it out to a beta tester, or putting it up for sale; test it on an alt to make sure your next-owner-permissions are set up correctly. However, I wouldn’t call this real beta-testing – since you are testing under ideal circumstances.

Another comment I got was from a couple of people who identified themselves as “content creators for a niche market”. For them a massive beta testing process would mean that a high percentage of their potential customers would have a copy of the product – without having to buy it. They told me for them this would mean a loss of income.

A typical marketing troll’s answer would probably be “If your product drastically improves thanks to the beta testing process, you will be able to break out the niche market, and even people not belonging to your primary target group will buy the product”. However – In any case,  there are some practical solutions to this problem.

SL Marketing: Do a beta

Having a sentence like “My IM’s get capped” in your profile is almost a tradition among Second Life entrepreneurs. Some even need to flee to alts to hide from all kinds of IM’s coming their way. Many of these customers IM’s are caused by a single small glitch in a product, which has to be explained hundreds of times. Being an entrepreneur, this costs you time and effort, it hurts your image and for customers it’s far from ideal too. So give yourself a break, and do a beta.

A “beta” is a testing period; you hand out a early release version of a product to a limited group of people, the so called “beta testers”. Let them play with it, and ask for their feedback. Based on their feedback you can decide if the product is ready to go, or if it needs another round on the drawing board.

Initializing a beta period isn’t only a case of professionalizing your product development cycle, it’s also a marketing strategy. How, what and why? Read on…

Press release: TLE presents the “Writer’s Showcase” in SL

Make sure to write down May 23rd, 7pm SLT in your agenda! On this day TLE Educational Network will open it’s “Writer’s Showcase” with several special events.

At 7pm SLT we’ll start with a musical performance, followed by a poetry slam in which several known Second Life poets will try to “talk each other out of the game”.

In conjunction with this event, TLE also organizes a flash fiction writing competition. Everyone is invited to participate, writing a short story of less then 500 words related to the theme of this speakeasy event. (The prohibition era, speakeasies, 1920s-1930s, the mafia, ’20s and ’30s era outlaws,…)

Contest entries can be submitted by dropping a note card in the mailbox at http://tr.im/tleflashfiction and must be submitted before May 27th 11:59pm SLT. All stories will be featured in a book published by the TLE Publishing House.

Last but certainly not least; during this event the winner of the poetry competition TLE had in conjunction with the VE-Day Memorial will be announced.

Press Release: Real recruitment in a virtual world

For immediate release

Manhattan Group starts active recruiting in Second Life

Manhattan Group, a recruitment company specialized in hospitality jobs, has been around in Second Life for about a year now. After having a “passive” office, showcasing their services, they now redesigned their office and start to actively recruit in Second Life.

Manhattan Group’s CEO John Ortner (Johng Baxter in-world) has always been keen on using modern media for business. Examples are the company’s blogs, website, twitter stream and facebook pages. For quite some time, Manhattan Group also had a “passive” office in Second Life, showing their services to potential customers and offering a job atm for job seekers.

Early May 2009 they decided it was time to go a step further, and starting this week, they’ll actively start recruiting using Second Life. Together with media/marketing consultant Philippe Pascal (ppmediadev Blinker in-world) they redesigned their Second Life office at Da Vinci Isle, displaying several new job listings each week for jobs all over the world.

Visitors can read the listings on displays in the office. By clicking the display they are forwarded to a page where they can immediately apply for the job. Besides this option, Manhattan Group organizes “office hours” each Friday. During these office hours Manhattan Group consultants will be online and available in the office, allowing people to introduce themselves to the recruiters and talk about the job listings displayed in the office and on the website.

Manhattan Group also plans on organizing job events in Second Life in the near future. All information on these will be available in the Manhattan Group office in Second Life.

People looking for a job in hospitality can come over to http://tr.im/mhgsl, or visit the Manhattan Group website at http://jobs.manhattangroup.com.au/

More info

John Ortner – jo@manhattangroup.com.au

Philippe Pascal – philippe@philippepascal.be

For more information about Manhattan Group and their services, please feel free to contact John Ortner. (jo@manhattangroup.com.au). For more information about the Second Life office, or Da Vinci Isle, please feel free to contact Philippe Pascal. (philippe@philippepascal.be)

Downloads

Downloads of the press release and high resolution images are available at this page.

Opening “Bizons, Squares & Hearts” with Noma Falta

Last Tuesday it finally happened; the opening of the Dennis Kinsey exhibit at Da Vinci Isle. It took a while to get everything up and running, but it was surely worth it! We had quite a blast… Noma Falta played a great gig, while the man/artist himself showed us some smooth dance moves.

You can still visit this exhibition at Da Vinci Isle, Hall 1. 

Take a look at the “read more”-link to see some pictures of the opening .

Press Release: TLE organizes VE Memorial in Second Life

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

World War II Memorial including poetry contest, music & lecture
The Learning Experience organizes a special day of events in memorial of World Ward II Veterans on May 9th 2009. Events will include a poetry contest, music and a lecture by holocaust survivor Fanny Starr. This all will take place at the TLE War Memorial Wall, a place dedicated to the remembrance of war veterans.

“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”, a hopeful quote from the Old Testament from the Prophet Isaiah, displayed at the War Memorial Wall at TLE in Second Life, part of the interactive museum.

This special place in Second Life, dedicated to the remembrance of War Veterans, those who served or are still serving their nations on the battlefield, will be the décor for a special day of remembrance on May 9th.

The event will start at 11am SLT with a musical performance by Clarice Karu, remembering tunes from that era. An hour later at 12pm SLT holocaust survivor, Fanny Starr, will take the stage and tell her life story as a Jew in nazi-Germany and how she survived the holocaust.

Together with this event, TLE has organized a poetry contest. All people may submit poems related to World War II, submissions must be in at May 8th, 12am SLT. All poems will be bundled afterwards in a book published by the TLE Publishing House.

At the memorial wall there are several memorial plaques for sale. These plaques can be used to pay tribute to those who served and are thankfully still alive, those who were killed during war or acts of war or those who were killed during terrorist attacks. This applies to all religions, creeds, nationalities, and beliefs.

All info on the event, contest and memorial plaques can be found at the Memorial Wall at the TLE-Campus in Second Life. (http://tr.im/slmemorialwall)

# # #

If you’d like more information about this topic or TLE, please feel free to contact our marketing manager Philippe Pascal, info@philippepascal.nl (ppmediadev Blinker in-world)

Download Press Release as PDF: Press Release – TLE organizes VE Memorial in Second Life

New HMR-Podcast available now!

Ow yeah, it’s Monday, and we love Monday’s! The new weekly Hondo Mesa Records’ Podcast is online! Check out this week’s Podcast, filled with the latest releases and some great live recordings.

HMR Podcast week 11

Playlist:

• My baby belong to no-one, HondoMesa Kidd (aka Dennis Kinsey) (Live)
• Knock me out, Gary Small and the Coyote Bros. (New)
• Boogie Woogie, Corn-Bred
• All I know is you, Larry Hoyt (Live) (New)
• Jimmie Dean, Bara Jonson (Live)
• Talking Leaves, Joanne Shenandoah & Michael Bucher (New)
• Lorcette, 3rd & Main
• Hallalujah, Kh’Mi
• Ball of rain, John Engerman
• Highway Patrol, Bara Jonson
• My baby snubbed me, Gary Small and the Coyote Bros. (New)
• Maura’s Waltz, Larry Hoyt

Gary Small records available in Second Life

Not so long ago Hondo Mesa Records released an album of Gary Small and the Coyote Bros, called “I don’t play by the rules”. At this moment, the album is available in the US, and it just came available in Second Life, where you can buy single versions of all songs on this albums, including an MP3-download to your computer. (Teleport to the Hondo Mesa Records’ record store)

Check out the new covers i made for this release (read more link), and enjoy this little movie of their live performance at the 9th NAMMY-awards event.

Aliens do know how to party

Who said that aliens don’t know how to party? I can assure you; they do know how to party Last sunday, we were invited to a party at Zen’s “New Zenziland” (teleport to this place) in Second Life. DJ Moe made the crowd go wild, while the man himself gave a demonstration of SL particle effects. Some papparazi even spotted Hondo Mesa Records’ head honcho HondoMesa Kidd. See “read more” for some crazy snapshots.

Hondo Mesa Records’ gigs in Second Life

It has been quite a while since my last posting here; several projects were keeping me very busy over the last weeks. One of those was Hondo Mesa Records, the record label of a good friend of mine who I try to help a little by doing promotion for the label in Second Life.

As told in one of the earlier posts, Hondo Mesa Records’ recordings are available for sale in Second Life. Buyers get a Second Life CD and music player, which allows them to play the records in Second Life, but probably more important; each record you buy in Second Life comes with a download code, which allows you to download the song to your desktop computer,iPod,…

Mark & the SLEvolution team worked very hard the last few weeks in getting a new vendor and player system ready to go, while I was working to get all Hondo Mesa Records’ songs ready-to-go with the new system.

Everything is now up and running, so it was time to start doing some promotion… and what better way to do some promotion for your songs then giving live performances?