Second Life Tells Twitter: Enjoy the Hype While It Lasts, Get Ready for the Backlash!
Just as Linden Chief Product Officer Tom Hale was finishing his presentation, "Surviving the Hype Curve: A Case Study" at the Web 2.0 conference last week, he concluded by showing this slide, a cute message to Twitter, at left.
Where once NBC TV shows like The Office plugged Second Life (as it did in 2007), the note reads, now such programs are more apt to mention Twitter. NBC is the peak of the hype curve, the letter signed "Second Life" warns, now get ready for the media and Silicon Valley backlash. A number of suggestions follow, some of which are arguable. (I'm actually not sure we should be thankful Second Life had so much hype so soon, especially since it added negligible growth beyond what was organically being added already.) Still, generous advice from a company that's survived past the backlash (video below.)
Then again, I'm also not sure Twitter will suffer any kind of backlash approaching what hit Second Life. Twitter seems to be scaling fairly well, which answers one of the most common hits against the microblogging network, leaving the only nagging problem, "When does this actually start making any money?" But to me that's an easily resolvable challenge. Take any one of Robert Scoble's tips and Twitter revenue will be rolling in but quick. What protects Twitter from Second Live level backlash is one essential thing Twitter's already achieved: Immediately perceivable, substantial impact beyond its user base. Impact that regularly effects businesses and organizations large and small, from the bar down the street, to a theocracy in the Middle East. Second Life exerts a substantial impact on its existing user base (hence Linden's profitability), but setting aside occasional exceptions, the influence beyond those borders is still relatively small. Which is why I keep pressing for mass market adoption as so crucial an issue.
At any rate, rest of the video below. Do you think T. Linden makes the case for survival well?
/me sits back with some popcorn to watch the inevitable comments on the slide's bullet points.
Of course I won't comment myself because I need my Second Life account. Everything is all fluffy bunnies and kitty kats.
Posted by: AnnOtooleInSL | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 12:53 AM
I'm not going there either... there's more than enough of that in the forums. But I will note: The hype about Second Life isn't over, and the question, "Can Second Life survive it's own hype?" has yet to be answered.
Posted by: Lalo Telling | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 06:44 AM
Second Life gets a media hype backlash roughly every six months. Why shouldn't twitter? :)
Posted by: Tateru Nino | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 09:30 AM
@Lalo: Hype is, by the very definition of it false. Therefore the question "Can X live up to its hype" is a non-issue. Nothing can, and nothing ever has, because if it can, then it isn't hype.
Posted by: Tateru Nino | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 09:32 AM
I heard about this slide through Hamlet's link on Twitter, not through SL.
Hrm. Perhaps Twitter should be giving YOU advice about effective distribution of content, Tom.
-ls/cm
Posted by: Crap Mariner | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM
@Crap I got it the same way. SL's not effective at spreading information. It just doesn't have the tools and infrastructure for that.
Posted by: Tateru Nino | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 10:13 AM
I have to agree with you disagreeing with Tom Hale's assessment. You got me thinking - a bit too long for comments, so I plopped it down on my blog:
http://secondtense.blogspot.com/2009/10/twitters-hype-vs-second-lifes-hype.html
Posted by: Hiro Pendragon | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 11:33 AM
My dry-cleaners uses Twitter now. I suppose two years ago they'd have opened a virtual cleaners in SL, not seen any ROI, and then closed :)
Twitter will be fine. I'm happiest that LL's brass can still show a sense of humor.
Posted by: Ignatius Onomatopoeia | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM
The comparison is funny but shallow. SL could learn a lot from Twitter, the scaling of course, but also the fact that the platform was deliberately designed as an open infrastructure from day one. I *am* happy to see SL taking baby steps in this direction but bullet point two is really the trick, where "nurture" should read "let your customers show you how your platform works best." Twitter does this very well. I love you both, good luck ;)
Posted by: Tezcatlipoca | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Everyone gets news from hamlet.
It's about the only real news.
Posted by: ColeMarie Soleil | Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 07:36 PM
I must have missed something, but then I've been busy on Reaction Grid.
Posted by: Dean Groom | Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 02:56 AM