Tag: Communications and LL

Recently, LL put out a call for bloggers (I’m linking to my own post, as that contains the full text of the original LL forum post – and I get tired of forum stuff vanishing down a plug hole and invalidating links over time).

The call was met with widespread derision, not just in these pages, but across other blogs as well, and frequently very humourously.

Yet there is a serious side to this – and in part, it is something I should hold up my hand to and say mea culpa to some degree.

There is an ongoing malaise at Linden Lab. It started several years ago (some might say with the arrival of Catherine Smith and grew steadily through the tenure of her various successors (all women, to my shame), wherein constructive and an open communication with the SL community has increasingly become anathema to the company as a whole. In fairness to Kim Salzer, who departed in November last year, things haven’t improved at all since she left the company – so one assume any unwillingness to constructively engage with users at a corporate is an illness that lies deep in the roots of the company.

Certainly, as Tateru has noted, it is one of the things that has become decidedly worse since Rod Humble took over the reins.

When seen against this background, the recent call to bloggers becomes a little less funny and a little more indicative of a company that seemingly is at a complete loss as to how to communicate about its primary (currently only) product and / or its brand. Don’t get me wrong – many in LL do take time out to communicate publicly, through User Groups and the like (Oz, Charlar, Oskar, Runitai, et al), and Rodvik himself does still take plunges into Twitter as well as posting to his SL Feed – and all of their efforts are appreciated greatly, as is the fact that LL staff have personally taken time out to contact me directly and provide feedback, pointers and other assistance (again, thanks to Rodvik, Charlar, Pete and Viale).

But none of this forms a part of an overall communications strategy. There is no cohesiveness in the approach. The result is that the SL blog in particular languishes to the point of irrelevancy – as demonstrated by the fact that out of 5 blog categories, three carry “front page news” nigh-on a year old or more (Land & Business (which even carries a post relating to Jack Linden – and he’s been gone from that Lab more than a year!), Tips & Tricks, Tools & Technology), while the 4th (“Inworld”) is only “up-to-date” large due to the “Flickr Pic of the Day”.

Of course, as I’ve pointed out myself, when discussing the likes of marketing (and here’s where I hold up my hand in admission), the finest resource LL have at its disposal is the user community when it comes to formulating a potential message to send to the world at large. So am I not being a little two-faced when promoting the idea of using the community, and then rounding on LL when they try to do so?

Well, no, I’m not. I absolutely have no problem with the Lab turning to the community for assistance – providing it is willing to play fair. Machinima is an excellent marketing tool, and it is probably fair to say that the best machinimatographers for SL are involved in SL – so as long as LL recognises this and offers suitable remuneration (a cash prize competition, for example), then why not seek to leverage the expertise in order to promote the platform.

The same rule applies to blogging about SL – and frankly, LL should be employing someone to take the time to blog about the platform on an ongoing basis. They don’t need to be an expert in all things server, viewer and what have you (in fact, better that they’re not). But simply paying someone to do the rounds, talk to the various project teams, gain quotes, publish articles on what is going on in-house, what is coming down the road, what is being done to fix X, Y or Z, and so on, as well as getting out and about as time allows within SL to produce articles, would enormously benefit LL in terms of how the company is perceived by its users.

It’s not, after all, rocket science (or “rocket engineering”, as my father always insists on correcting that quote). It is simple. Common. Sense.

Obviously, keeping abreast of the wider community is somewhat harder – there is much that is going on around the grid and much that can be easily missed. So again, actually making use of the community, getting people to engage with the company is not that unreasonable – providing that effort is met with suitable reward – say, through commissioned pieces.

Communications are a hoary old chestnut with me – there are times when I feel that I’m banging on about it every other week. But the fact is that LL seem to have comprehensively lost the plot here when it come to speaking with a corporate (rather than individual) voice to the community as a whole, and to the wider marketplace. And that is hurting them, and it is hurting SL (might it not also speak to why, despite routinely high user sign-up rates, actual user retention isn’t growing as steadily as one might expect?).

If the problem is going to be solved, it’s not going to be through dangling blog enticements in front of people (or indeed, locking-off the forum post carrying the enticement and deleting replies simply because people are having fun at your expense). It’s about being outward and professional and having a plan.

It’s actually hard to believe there is not someone at LL who is capable of carrying out the kind of role I’ve described above.

And if there isn’t, well, Rod – I’m willing to relocate to San Francisco for the right price and incentives, and you know where to find me: details are on file with you :).

Updated 8th Feb: I’ve added the full text of the job advert forum post, lest the mists of time swallow it whole.

I almost missed this one – thank you, Chestnut Rau!

Yesterday, LL put out a call to bloggers, inviting them to submit articles for publication on the SL website. It reads in part full:

Are you a passionate Second Life resident who loves to write about your Second Life experience?  If so, you might want to submit your blog posts to us and they could end up being featured in the Second Life Community blogs.

As the movers, shakers, and experts on everything Second Life, we’d like to invite you to submit your original blog articles to us at blog-call@lindenlab.com with the Subject Line: Guest Blog Submission.  Selected submissions will be posted to the Blog section of the Community as a featured guest post!

Here are some popular Second Life topics to consider: Fashion, Home Decor, Mesh, Relationships, Spirituality, Education and Music.

The blog call is on!  Read the guidelines, then submit your posts to blog-call@lindenlab.com

Well, yes I am passionate and I do write a lot about SL – some might say at times, obsessively so. I do take pride in the fact that this blog is read by those within Battery Street as well as those outside. I’m far from alone in being a blogger that has this privilege, but it is worth mentioning because the very fact that LL does take time out to read external blogs is a sign that they are attempting to keep a finger on the pulse of things across the broader community, and that’s a good thing.

However….

As Chestnut points out, what is being asked for here is pretty much involvement in LL’s marketing and promotional efforts both within the community, and to the wider world as a whole.

OK, then; that’s fair enough. So what are the pay rates? Will they be per article, with a word ceiling, or per word? How about offering commission rates based on required monthly subject matter?

No, I’m not being facetious here. It’s not unreasonable for bloggers to be paid for their time and effort; rather the reverse – it’s actually common practice. Indeed, you’ve paid for at least one writer in the past yourselves, LL (take a bow, Hamlet! 🙂 ). I’m also not alone in feeling this – as a glance through the comments on Chestnut’s post and following the LL forum post demonstrate. Fair is fair, after all.

So, LL, I’ll gladly write for you – and within your guidelines (after all, your blog, your rules). I’ll even Op-Ed (if you’d dare go in that direction 😉 ). But let’s be reasonable here – what’s in it for me? I’m taking time-out to give you copy – how much are you willing to pay for said time, effort and IP?

With thanks to Chestnut Rau

I’ve had a growl or two of late about LL not engaging on all fronts vis-a-vis communications. Well, to strike a balance, it would appear that things are moving in some areas.

Yesterday we had the news – form Rodvik himself via his profile feed – that last names are set to return. Today, Hamlet Au has picked up on the fact that the much-loved strapline Your World, Your Imagination is back in elements of SL advertising – specifically the website splash screen (below – something I tend to miss as I rarely get pushed back further than the log-in screen when visiting the site) and a new promo video.

I’m not entirely sure about the descriptive text that’s paired with the strapline – “Play games with friends, role-play with vampires, shop for unique fashions”. All are true, but I can’t escape the feeling that the focus on vampires alone when it comes to mentioning role-play could be taken to mean that role-play in SL is “all about” vampire-related games and scenarios. Similarly, “play games with friends” is somewhat suggestive (to me) of a Facebook games environment, rather than anything remotely immersive. But then, I could be just nitpicking…

It’s certainly good to see Your World, Your Imagination back – and kudos to LL for returning to it; but let’s see something that goes with that that does more to present the broader canvas of SL. As a strapline, “Your world….” should be the gateway to a slew of creative ideas.

The new promo video, launched last week (with, dare I say, little or no fanfare) builds on the recent ad LL ran asking for people to star in a new promotional effort.

It’s a reasonable piece, clearly aimed at demonstrating there are “everyday people” involved in Second Life, rather than basement dwellers or other strange lifeforms sections of the media is given over to portraying as SL users. It’s certainly better than “Be your avatar”. But I’m still not convinced it actually gives any real feel for what SL represents. In this regard, I still maintain that the machinima community has a better handle on how to promote SL through this medium than LL or any PR company.

Taken together, the return of the strapline and the forthcoming return of last names does tend to show that LL are listening. Some might take these moves as being more superficial than a sign of anything deeper – and I personally would like to see more positive signs of engagement via the blog, etc (even leaving aside current forum efforts on the part of Community Manager Linden to start-up conversations, as pointed to by Ciaran Laval). But the fact that we are seeing the return of thing users have been requesting for a goodly while shouldn’t be dismissed outright.

One thing I am curious about as a result of these releases: back at SLCC 2011, Rodvik promised that towards the end of the year beginning of 2012 there will have a marketing campaign “of significant investment” to drive traffic into Second Life and hopefully towards SL merchants. I’m assuming the video and the return of the strapline is a part of this – but will we see any details as to how the campaign is to unfold? Any news at all on that front, LL? Any indications as to what we might be seeing and where we might see it?

(With thanks to Hamlet Au)

Ciaran Laval brings word that Linden Lab may well be making moves to “hide” the server Release Candidate (RC) channels away from casual viewing.

I’ve written in the past about RC channels and how they work, commenting on the three most widely recognised channels of BlueSteel, Magnum and Le Tigre (while there are others on a smaller scale that may come and go according to needs). Currently, one can find out if the region one is on or visiting is running on an RC channel in a couple of easy ways:

• A pop-up will announce the fact that you are running on an RC channel (or, for that matter, the primary release channel) whenever you teleport to a region running on a different version of the simulator software
• You can open HELP and the ABOUT option for your Viewer  and see what version of the server software the region you’re in is running

Now that is apparently about to change, and the information removed, hidden, tippex’d out or fudged over in some manner because, apparently, Oskar and others at the Lab feel the information is too easy to find, and people then start complaining about issues they are having and blaming it on the fact that they’re on an RC channel; something which may well have absolutely no bearing on the issues they are experiencing.

Well, I’d like to say I’m sympathetic to Oskar’s plight – but actually I’m not.

So, Kimberly Salzer (Kim Linden), former VP of Marketing, has gone from Linden Research.

Reactions to the news have been mixed. Hamlet Au’s overall tone is one of regret, while Aeonix Aeon (aka Will Burns) is more forthright and views it as good news.

Both state that among other things, Kimberly Salzer was responsible for the most recent communications regime at Linden Lab which not only regimented internal communications, but also impacted how the Lab engages and communicates with the user community and the world at large.

If this is true, then I would tend to stand on Will’s side of the fence where her departure is concerned. It’s an inescapable fact that since late last year (Kim Salzer arrived at the Lab in September 2010), outward communications have not so much continued to decline as they have apparently tumbled headlong into a void.

The inability for the Lab to effectively and efficiently engage and communicate with its own user community is nothing new; it’s a fact of life, sadly. Regular readers of this blog will know it is something I’ve repeatedly banged on about over the course of the last couple of years. Indeed, such was the downturn during the first quarter of this year, that I wrote at some length on the need for, and value in, more constructive engagement from Linden Lab towards its user base.

The origins for the collapse can be traced back to early 2008, when after years of encouraging users to embrace and use the company’s trademark, it was announced that henceforth there would be a new Trademark Policy which would severely curtail people’s ability to use it. This initiative was spearheaded by Catherine Smith (Catherine Linden) who was at that time Linden Lab’s Director of Marketing. That the company had the right to define how and where its trademark could be used was never the issue; the problem was the way in which the company summarily went about setting up the new rules, which many saw as a betrayal of Lab / user trust.

It was the start of a long and steady decline in open communications between Lab and the user community which has, in many respects, now reached rock bottom. In the course of the last twelve months alone we’ve seen:

Amanda Van Nuys (Amanda Linden, another now ex-Linden Lab Marketing executive – spotting a trend here?) announcing the forthcoming arrival of the new Community Communications Platform (CCP) – and then promptly championing its future use by telling users that actually, if they want to keep up with the news from LL, then really they should go elsewhere.

In a near total re-hash of the Jive platform roll-out two or so years previously, LL ignored all requests for a General Discussion forum to be included in the new CCP. Instead, on rolling it out, they instigated a heavy-handed moderation process, arbitrary shutting down threads and discouraging discourse. At the same time they introduced some kind of “keep it clean” censorship policy that meant, as Ciaran Laval memorably blogged, the name “Dick van Dyke” became “bleep van bleep”. The result of these actions were to a) actively discourage the use of the new platform, driving many users elsewhere; b) turn the whole CCP into something of an item of derision.

Office Hours have, for a variety of reasons, have been replaced by User Group meetings. Some of these have thrived, but when reading the transcripts of others (when available), the information flow out of LL in these meetings often comes across as cautious and stilted – almost as if staff have been told to mind what they say to the point of being unable / unwilling to say anything at all.

JIRA policy was arbitrarily changed. Rather than voting for issues, people were told that, henceforth, they’d have to watch issues. Given the fact the watching leads to people receiving an e-mail each and every time someone else comments on (or otherwise edits) an issue, and that for hot topics, this can lead to dozens of e-mails per day hitting one’s in-box, this could only be interpreted as an attempt by LL to actively discourage people from engaging in the JIRA.

Any attempt at structured communication seems to have ended. I’ve nothing against the company using Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and what have you, as long as they are consistent in the use of such channels. The problem is, LL isn’t. Rather, what seems to be in place is a “heads-its-the-blog-tails-its-Twitter” approach. And while it is good to see the CEO engaging in discourse on third-party forums, even going so far as to provide information on upcoming changes to things like the Viewer, one has to ask why the hell such conversations aren’t being encouraged in LL’s own blogs and forums.

It’s fair to say that during the first four months of the year, communications from the Lab were close to non-existent to any meaningful degree. Tateru Nino summed it up beautifully by referring to it as “The Silence of the Lab”. It’s something I’ve failed to understand, particularly as Kim Salzer came to Linden Lab from Blizzard, a company known for its willingness to engage with (and indeed listen to) its user community through its blogs and fora.

Come May, Rod Humble was indicating (via Twitter) that we could expect a resumption in communications from the Lab. If only that were so. Other than totally vapid “monthly updates”, we’ve seen very little improvement in the use of the channels at LL’s disposal, much less a more disciplined use of their own Community Communications Platform.

The other side of the coin is in the matter of the Lab’s outward communications to the world at large – and here things are, in many respects, very much worse. Simply put, and as Tateru comments on her blog, Linden Lab appears to have relinquished all control over the presentation of the Second Life brand to third-parties – many of whom do not have the brand’s best interests at heart.

The most recent example of this is Dan and Chip Heath – and forgive me fr bringing this up again; it’s been done to death a dozen times over, I know, but it does serve as a timely example.

In their latest book, they offer up Second Life as an example of a “failed” venture. To them, Second Life is dead and done. That their viewpoint is largely incorrect isn’t actually the point in the context of this piece. Rather the issues of note here are that:

1. They picked on Second Life as an example of a failed enterprise (note past tense);
2. Of all the chapters in the book, it was the one on Second Life that media outlets chose to go to press about.

However you look at it and regardless of the inaccuracy of the Heath brother’s conclusions, both these points demonstrate that the prevalent view among pundits and the media alike is that Second Life has failed and should thus be referred to in the past tense. Not, I would venture to suggest, the kind of message most companies would want to have in the mainstream media regarding their sole product.

Nor do LL particularly help themselves. The last time LL issued a press release was December 2010. That’s an awfully long time ago; which is odd, because there is much going on in SL that is worth celebrating and promotion in the media. Indeed, LL actually do keep track of things that reflect positively on Second Life through the In The News page (although admittedly, you’d never know they actually had an In The News page given the distinct lack of obvious links to it – great going on the communications front again, guys).

Again, one doesn’t expect LL to create a song-and-dance about absolutely everything that happens in SL and which gets a positive light shone upon it; but by the same token, it doesn’t mean all should be left with only passing mention.

Take the SL Relay For Life. This is a stunning annual event which this year smashed all records: $375,000 USD raised – $100,000 more than the hoped-for target – which took the total raised by the event in-world over the years to over the $1 million USD mark. However you look at it, this is a remarkable achievement, one deserving of being placed squarely in the public eye,  as indeed ACS did, yet Linden Lab gave it little more than passing mention.

Given the lack of this kind of pro-active management – which any marketing executive should be able to handle – is it any real wonder that the media at large refer to Second Life in the past tense?

Communications are the lifeblood of an organisation. Yes, they can  be difficult to manage where there is the added complication of a large and active user base – but this doesn’t mean they should be pushed to one side and looked upon as anathema (which is only how one can view LL’s own reluctance to openly engage with its user community). Similarly, outward engagement with the press is a vital part of any organisation’s activities: you either control the message and respond to misleading and potentially damaging articles  – or you allow others to define the message for you, and allow their perceptions control how others see you.

Tateru hopes that we’ve now hit rock bottom, and the only direction left is up. Frankly, and despite my enthusiasm for the platform and the overall technical direction LL are taking, I’m not so sure. In terms of communications over the last four years (2008-2011), LL have behaved like an existential elevator, demonstrating that whenever down isn’t an option, there’s always sideways until such time as entropy resumes its natural course.

“I own three sims and have a Group of over six thousand plus people and…Customer Service won’t talk to me. So…I mean maybe y’all don’t have that experience or maybe y’all have 20,000…but how does a guy who’s never been to one of these conferences and is new get through when there is nowhere to go and Customer Services is … c’mon guys, it’s abysmal.

“I pay more for my Second Life than I do for my BMW – and they bring a car to my house, take my car away … they call me every day and tell me, ‘This is the problem’. I don’t get a call back [from Customer Support] for three weeks. I get nothing. I paid three hundred bucks just to come here to say that.”

The above comments were aired towards the end of the Social Life and Communities presentation at SLCC 2011, and were reflective of a growing frustration from sim owners and others at the lack of service from LL’s Customer Support.

This is not a new issue; Customer Support has been a thorn in Linden Lab’s side for a fair while. And not just Linden Lab, as anyone – Basic or Premium member – who has tried to raise a ticket and get a response knows only too well.

Such is the problem, that Rod Humble has, rightly, targeted Customer Support and Customer Services as something that needs to be overhauled. The problem seems to be the time its taking to see  – or even read about – anything tangible that is being done, coupled with the fact that at times Linden Lab see it purely as a “usability” issue (the suggestion being that if people are given the right tools, the problem will evaporate).The comments passed by the frustrated sim owner above was met with more-or-less this pigeon-holing of his problems, which were seen in terms purely of griefing.

While it is true that many issues around sim ownership, etc., can most likely be eased through the deployment of improved tools from LL – this is only a small part of the problem, and the fact is that Customer Support really needs to be overhauled from the ground up, because it simply isn’t working.

In fairness, LL are probably working hard to get on top of things – at times, some improvement has been noted, even if it is unfortunately short-lived. But when one of Second Life’s oldest and most well-known content creation teams announces that they have disposed of 50% of the sims they run in Second Life, simply as a result of issues  relating directly to Customer Support, then there can be no denying the issue is reaching a critical point.

Prim Perfect carries a report about Grendel’s Children, which has sold-off two out of the four sims it has been running for over four years and has been a star attraction within Second Life – not only for the quality of the products supplied by the team, but for the sheer magic of the sims themselves. Indeed, as the Prim Perfect article notes, such has been the fame of Grendel’s Children that even Philip Rosedale likened the success of the Grid itself to the success of Grendels when he said, “As goes Grendel’s, so goes the Grid”. Their reason for selling off the sims? Poor Customer Support.

I’ve been broadly positive about the change in approach and philosophy within Linden Lab when it comes to Second Life – and I still am. However, Grendel’s is a strong brand, it’s a known brand and one that has been making money in Second Life. As such, and while they are not planning on pulling out of Second Life entirely, divesting themselves of 50% of their land holdings simply because of ongoing issues around Customer Support is not a positive message to be hitting the airwaves where the Lab is concerned.