Going Beyond Global: Expanding Into the Virtual World

Google is in the dictionary. Facebook, MySpace, and Second Life have all become household names. In fact, the growing use of these virtual networks is redefining how people interact with the Internet. Therefore, it only makes sense for businesses to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by social networks. With all the buzz and media hype, the online communities must be rationalized with a realistic assessment of the real prospects and threats that this interaction creates.

With so many well-known names participating in virtual worlds like Second Life, the obvious attractors seem to be big benefits and consumer interaction. Giant corporations like Dell, Pepsi, IBM, and Best Buy have all hopped on the virtual bandwagon in order to interact with consumers on a new level.

Second Life stresses such corporate benefits as “Meet with global partners at virtual headquarters. Discover a new world of online fundraising capabilities. Build community around branding.” Along with potential opportunities come risks particularly associated with security and brand management. Many traditional security and privacy vulnerabilities exist within these virtual environments and organizations and individuals alike must consider the implications of their participation within these virtual spaces.

The arguments for building an online presence are basically founded upon a perceived sense of economic opportunity from a brand-building perspective. Although virtual money transactions occur in such online communities, corporations are not participating in order to directly sell a product. More so, their company’s presence in the virtual world is almost solely advertising. They can reach a global market without invasive advertising. The opportunity for targeted marketing campaigns, however, is limited due to the inability to segment the avatars.

As much as hosting an online presence opens a host of new issues circling around IT risks and threats to brand image. An online company can secure its information; it just has to be built safely from the ground up. Also, an organization can construct a building or other object that represents its brand, but there is no law as such to prevent a more experienced Second Life coder warping it to represent something entirely different.

Here are the top 5 issues facing corporations in virtual worlds:

1. IT-Related Security Risks – This is primarily focused on unverified applications being downloaded, and on firewall permeability issues.
2. Identity Authentication and Access Management – Because new accounts can be opened so easily (and at no cost) it is nearly impossible to ensure that an avatar is exactly who it appears to be.
3. Confidentiality – Since virtual worlds are not completely secure environments, discussions involving commercially-sensitive material should never take place inside any virtual world.
4. Brand and Reputation Risk Management – Organizations that are sensitive to brand and reputation issues should be extremely careful in an environment where they cannot monitor they eyeballs that they attract. There, Kaneva, and Activeworlds offer a more heavily moderated, targeted alternative to Second Life.
5. Productivity – Corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the effects of virtual world participation, and therefore are re-thinking social networking not as wasted time, but rather a means to generate necessary awareness in the marketplace.