To coincide with the sixth birthday of the virtual world Second Life, two posts, one part-recycled from 18 months back:
How trends spread and the limits of social contagion
First of all a piece of research from the University of Michigan who looked at the virtual world to see how trends spread.
When you create an avatar in Second Life, the starting point is fairly basic - a rudimentary 'skin', clothes, shape, and gestures / moves. Hence a whole economy has sprung up where enterprising residents create add-ons that you can use to customise your AV. The University of Michigan researchers looked at these enhancements - in particular gestures - to see how things get forwarded on virally.
The full paper is available here, but a few findings that arose after they looked at 100,229 users and 106,449 gestures:
1 - Early adopters, the first 5-10% to acquire new 'assets' are by and large not the same as influencers who distribute things far and wide. This corresponds to offline research that shows that if you want a product to spread virally and by word of mouth, your first customers (so the ones who queue up at Midnight in front of the store for a new iPhone) are not your 'hero' ones.
2 - Existing social networks play a huge role in spreading trends, but at the same time the 'contagion' is fairly contained. On one hand, the academics found that 50% of these gestures were disseminated among existing social groups, but on the other hand, that once they were inside a circle of friends they tended to stop there.
According to Science Daily, "the researchers found that the gestures that spread from friend to friend were not distributed as broadly as ones that were distributed outside of the social network, such as those acquired in stores or as give aways." So there is a role for straight forward non WOM marketing after all!
The researchers say that this huge study gave them the chance to validate some hypothesis that exist in the real (non virtual) world: According to one of the authors Lada Adamic, "There's been a high correspondence between the real world and virtual worlds."
Using virtual worlds as a place for real world dates
In an interview around Second Life's sixth anniversary with V3, Tom Hale, Linden Lab's chief product officer floated the following idea:
"Linden Lab also plans to introduce more services, and to integrate with other popular social networks and online services, further associating the avatar with the person's real identity."
"Hale gave the example of working with other online agencies, such as dating sites, to offer another step in the meeting process by letting users create avatars that could explore the world on a 'virtual date', allowing people to get to know each other even better before meeting in person."
I refer to a post I wrote 18 months ago after I pitched the very same idea to a major dating agency!
"A while back we posted on how our Vauxhall Corsa Guide could be used as the basis for practice dates in the virtual world Second Life.
"The idea was that Second Life dating could sit between getting to know someone on the phone, on IM or on email and actually meeting them face to face. We subsequently suggested this concept to a major dating site, putting forward the notion that they could offer a bespoke virtual service for their members.
"We proposed setting up a separate log-in site and orientation zone on Second Life for new avatars (characters), along with clothes, skins, accessories to choose from.
"Then, both parties would have had a kind of trial run, where they would have seen from their behaviour if they were compatible. And if they wanted to take it further, they could have then arranged a date in the real world - where, according to research from Stanford, they would actually have found each other better looking in the flesh if they selected 'attractive' avatars, thereby theoretically increasing the chances of a successful outcome!
"Overall it was designed to be a low risk, cheap and fun way to get to know someone before wasting three hours in a bar or restaurant constantly looking at the clock and desperately trying to fill dead air."
Good to see that the time for this idea has finally come!
Above image from Torley Linden, what you see when a starter avatar doesn't appear or 'rez' properly in Second Life
- Second Life, Education and Openspace (downes.ca)
- Avatar Acts: Why Online Realities Need Regulation (scientificamerican.com)
- Virtual Medicine: Informed Consent in Second Life (geeksaresexy.net)
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