Renne, better known in-world as Zinnia Zauber, says the focus of the presentation will be to “Learn about how protecting and respecting Intellectual property makes us all successful and safe.”
Event Details
Date: Monday 22nd August at 12:00 SLT (with a repeat at 18:00 SLT)
Mark Viale (Viale Linden), Integrated Marketing Team Manager
E-mail: community@lindenlab.com
General
To provide an update on community strategy and community tools, and examine the social experience within Second Life – where it is today and where it could go.
LL having a change in its community philosophy; LL used to push a lot of events and activities – newsletters, “kiss a Linden”, etc., but now want to focus on bringing the community forward & work with sustainable communities in-world
LL want this to be “organic”, so LL will be “Going out there and finding stuff that exists and then bringing it forward” in terms of promotion. Cited examples:
Event: Relay for Life
Product: Meeroos
Community: The Zen retreat within Second Life
Activity: Month of Machinima
LL want to work to promote “organic communities” by working with in-world groups and residents and harness what people have and promote it through the channels they have available (e.g. Destination Guide and the new Viewer 2 log-in screen)
Community Resources Portal: presents a series of resources people can use to help their community “come forward”
The portal provides a range of links to further information within the wiki (such as how to suggest a location for inclusion in the Destination Guide) and links to social media resources that can both be used for promotional purposes and for getting on LL’s radar:
SL Facebook wall: used by LL as a means by which LL can identify movements that are happening within SL which they can then promote
YouTube channel: subscribers can suggest videos that can be added to the channel, promoting both machinima and the events / destinations to which they relate
Twitter: those on Twitter can follow @SecondLife & get followed back; LL actively monitor Twitter for news and information
Flickr: users can join the SL Flickr group which is used to source the “picture of the day” on the In-world section of the official blog
Community Gateways have not “gone away”, but have been folded into the “new resident resources” within the Destination Guide
LL operate an Affiliate Programme for communities to bring people in to Second Life and get paid for doing so this is enabled through:
Use of the Create Ad widget in the Destination Guide to embed a Destination Guide entry in a website / blog
The Linkshare Affiliate Network offering $USD payments only
User Groups offer the opportunity for users to bring matters to LL and discuss a range of topics and provide feedback – venues and dates for UG meetings in the User Groups link of the Portal’s Second Life Resources
Social Profiles
Social Profiles seen as a means for users to keep abreast of all that is happening (via information appearing on their feed) and to inform others (by posting to their feed)
Can be used to promote places / tell people where you are and what you’re doing through the “Add your location” icon in the Feed Share Something box
LL see the Social Profiles as enabling users to express who they really are because there is no tie to real world links. This is also viewed as a powerful tool over the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+
LL looking at means of enabling a “follow” function so users can follow one another, rather than having to Friend one another / have feeds totally public in order to make / receive comments
The feed will become “more robust” allowing greater potential flexibility of use
LL looking at ways of introducing the ability to create “groups” or “circles” within the feed capability so people can focus on information they want
LL look on SL as the only social platform “out there” with unlimited self-expression (within the ToS!), and see the additional of the feeds, etc., as a means of complementing people’s ability to express themselves howsoever they choose
Q&A Session
LL “thinking about” ways of making Friends list more granular (so business contacts can be grouped aside from social contacts, etc)
Suggested that the “love” option in the feed could be used in a yelp.com manner to help recommend places in-world, although admitted this needs to be “figured out” to prevent gaming
LL not going to promote communities “willy-nilly”: LL will seek to get behind communities that are sustainable (e.g. ACS / Relay For Life), i.e. can function without support from LL, so initial effort needs to come from those behind the community
New log-in screen may be personalised in the future, so that a new user would have more help & resources (e.g. newcomer-friendly island to check-out)
Reporting back to owners of communities / venues / events on things like click-throughs from Destination Guide, etc., may be looked at
Linden Lab provide an Affiliate Programme that allows anyone with a blog or website to promote Second Life via ads created using destinations contained within the Destination Guide. These ads can be placed within websites and blogs, and commission is earned based on the number of people using the ad to click-through and join Second Life (registrations made within 30 days of the initial click-through).
Note: the Affiliate programme also utilises the Google Affiliate Network via an AdSense account. This article only relates only to the use of the Linkshare Affiliate Network.
Affiliate programme button
Whether you are a Second Life user with a website / blog who wishes to promote SL, or whether you have a specific in-world Destination you would like to link to the Affiliate Programme, the steps for using this capability are more-or-less the same:
Select an entry / your own entry in the Destination Guide
Sign-up to the affiliate programme (LL will get back to you on the status of your application within 5 working days)
Once you have been approved, pick the Destination Guide entry you wish to use within your website / blog (if you wish to use your own destination, and it is not already included in the Destination Guide, please also refer to the Destination Guide FAQ)
Click on the Create Ad Widget and compose a promotional advert based on the Destination you’ve chosen
Include your unique Linkshare encrypted ID (from Linkshare)
Copy the generated code and embed it within your website / blog.
Embed code in your website / blog
Notes
Not all requests may be accepted into the programme
The Second Life Affiliate commission totals are tabulated every month. Linden Lab pays the Affiliate Network for all qualifying referrals. The Affiliate Network, in turn, distributes these commissions to all qualifying affiliates
I cannot answer specific questions on this – I’m just reporting on it!
