During this 40 minute podcast, Scott outlines a process to help businesses start to differentiate themselves from the competition. I have created a helpful graphic (below) that illustrates his process called ‘Triangulation of Branding’.

Bonfire Social Media Marketing and Peyton Media Management have volunteered to launch a social media campaign for Give ‘n’ Gobble, a Portland-based Thanksgiving Day run benefiting Helping Hands, a local affiliate of The Oregon Food Bank.

The annual 5 and 10K run is perfect for Oregonians looking to burn off Thanksgiving meals while supporting needy families. Last year more than five tons of food and thousands of dollars were donated, funding Helping Hands for the entire year and feeding thousands. Gerry Eddy from Helping Hands says Give ‘n’ Gobble has made substantial changes in the community, “allowing us to give families milk, eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables.”

Ryan Lewis, President of Bonfire Social Media, was approached by race director, Cindy Aggson. She was looking for a Portland social media agency but resources were extremely limited. Lisa Peyton, owner of Peyton Media Management, had approached Lewis about working together on a pro bono project to help the community. Lewis scheduled a meeting and the campaign was born.

The social media strategy consisted of an optimized blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts and bringing the event’s silent auction online. With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, Aggson suggested a Google AdWords campaign to help bring traffic to the website. Peyton called in Paid Search expert Daniela Araujo - who volunteered her time to the project.

In two weeks, the campaign has already seen results. The blog has garnered #1 rankings in Google for key terms; the Facebook page has increased its fan base by 100% and over $8,000 in products and services has been donated to the online auction.

According to Lewis, “The social media demographic fits perfectly with Give n’ Gobble’s target. We’re reaching more people for less money with higher effectiveness.”

About Bonfire Social Media

Bonfire was founded by Ryan Lewis with a mission to integrate online marketing campaigns. Bonfire is dedicated to increasing company reach, share of voice and customer interaction with targeted market segments. Bonfire specializes in social media marketing, social media strategy, blog development and strategic marketing consulting.

About Peyton Media Management

Founded by internet marketing expert Lisa Peyton, Peyton Media Management offers social media marketing and management for businesses looking to improve and increase their online presence. Services include blog creation and optimization, social media strategy and management, copywriting and content creation.

There will be two chances to participate in this event:  Thursday September 10th and Thursday September 24th.  Hours are from 4:00pm to 5:30pm both days. The cost is only $10 and guests are encouraged to bring a friend along for free. The seminar will be hosted at Zotta’s office in SE Portland - located at 119 SE Main St., Suite 101
Portland, OR 97214. Space is extremely limited and pre-registration is recommended.

The presenters will include TMMPDX Executive Editor Lisa Peyton, Mandy Savage and Zotta owner Paul Pearce. Peyton will be discussing how to leverage a blog to grow your business. Many businesses today already have a blog but unless it’s optimized with relevant content, it’s likely not performing effectively. Peyton will cover blog basics to transform your blog into an effective tool to expand your online presence and client base.

Paul Pearce is the owner of ZOTTA, a social media marketing (SMM) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) agency which provides affordable programs to small and medium-sized businesses. Prior to ZOTTA, Paul worked at Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) with a team of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts who advanced WaMu to the top spot on Google. Paul received a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California, Irvine.

Also presenting is Twitter and Facebook expert Mandy Savage. Mandy’s professional roots started in banking in 1997, which helped pay her way through college as a Multimedia & Political Science graduate of Pacific University.

Since 2003, Mandy has managed branches for two of the largest banks in the nation, contributed to campaign strategies,  and structured and underwritten residential & commercial loans. Her freelance work includes storyboard research for HBO Productions, marketing strategizing for local grassroots artists and fundraising.

About Zotta

ZOTTA provides techniques, training and coaching to help your business get maximum results from your online marketing. We guide you to build a strategy and implement it, thereby attracting your optimal customer base using social media and search engine optimization.

The Challenge

The economic recession hit Portland small business owners hard in late summer and early autumn of 2008. Those offering “luxury” products or services were in an especially precarious position. West Café, a small, upscale neighborhood restaurant was vulnerable to the economic downturn because it has only been open for a few years and is located near Portland State University where many neighborhood residents are more price-sensitive than elsewhere.

Owners Doug Smith and Sean Concannon (chef) knew their restaurant wouldn’t survive the winter if they didn’t do something significant to drive business. Even popular restaurants in higher traffic areas of Portland were closing or making deep cut-backs in hours and staff.

They had tried traditional advertising in the past, with mixed to mostly poor results, so they were ready to try something new with Internet marketing. However, a quick look at their Web site and traffic stats made it astonishingly clear that their site was doing very little for them. The one page, flash-based site was only listed in search engine results for their brand. Analytics data showed they were lucky to get 5-10 visitors to the site per day, most arriving from a direct search of their Web site domain – which implied they were probably previous customers just looking for hours of operation or a phone number.

Additionally, West Café had been hosting live jazz twice a month on Saturdays and really wanted to expand to every Saturday for consistency, but the numbers just weren’t there to support it.

The Solution

Given a limited budget and time constraints, rebuilding the West Café Web site was out of the question. Instead, social media addicts (and West Café customers) Lisa Peyton and Carri Bugbee, decided to harness the power of social media to build buzz and drive business.

Creation of the West Café Blog

The West Cafe Blog was built using Wordpress, which allowed for search engine optimization and easy content management. It was designed to match West Café’s branding, which was already established inside the restaurant and on its Web site.

The West Cafe blog included daily drink specials and creative promotions.

The blog includes categories to support West Café’s offerings, help draw in customers, and provide a platform for keyword-rich copy. Regular columns include a weekly fresh sheet posted by the West Cafe pastry chef, special event announcements, a monthly jazz calendar and daily drink specials.

Getting the word out via Twitter

The blog was getting indexed by search engines and the site began picking up traffic very quickly. But that, alone, wouldn’t be enough to drive the kind of business West Café needed to be successful during an economic downturn.

Enter Twitter. Portland is regularly listed among the top five U.S. cities using Twitter, so it was an ideal platform for getting the word out about West Café. Moreover, Portland is a walkable city with a vibrant downtown where most Web 2.0-related events take place, making West Café a viable destination – and desirable since it offers fast, free Wi-Fi.

The West cafe Twitter campaign included a daily drink special, upcoming
events and requests for feedback from frequent diners.

Peyton used the twitter ID @WestCafePDX to drive traffic to the blog by offering the city’s first-ever twitter restaurant coupon!

The link to the above coupon was posted on Twitter and helped to motivate the
Portland Twitter community to visit West Café.

They also targeted (and interacted with) key Portland tweeters, reached out to jazz fans, and created word-of-mouth buzz about the restaurant. In fact, many people who began following @WestCafePDX commented that they didn’t even know the restaurant existed before they were followed on Twitter!

Creative promotions across multiple social media platforms

Once the blog was up and running, it was time to get creative. In September, the presidential election was in full swing and dire economic predictions led the news. Peyton and Bugbee decided to use this news to their advantage. They proposed a tongue-in-cheek marketing blitz that drove unprecedented Web traffic to West Café – and lots of happy drinkers and diners through its doors.

They kicked this off with a Five-Point Plan to help Portlanders deal with the economic crisis. This included: 1) $10 Bail-Out Menu, 2) daily Dow Drink Deals, 3) Let Them Eat Cake mini-cupcake give-away 4) an Election-night extravaganza, and 5) a Bootleg Bash featuring Absinthe and retro-jazz with the rallying cry Party like it’s 1929!

The portion of the Five-Point plan that drove the most Web traffic was the Dow Drink Deal. Every single weekday, Sean Concannon created a drink special based upon how many points the Dow went up or down. Bugbee or Peyton wrote a short blog post about the drink of the day, optimized it for Portland Happy Hour searches, and then Tweeted about it that afternoon to alert potential customers.

Within just a few weeks, West Café was ranking within the first 15 Google search results for Portland Happy Hour! And, of course, many Portlanders got to try fun cocktails, great beer, and fine wines at a discount.

The Twitter campaign drove daily traffic to drink specials,
which brought foot traffic into the restaurant.

The blog and Twitter account were also used to highlight live jazz events (which were expanded to every Saturday when the social media marketing campaign started). West Café was able to rank within the first 10 Google search results for Portland Jazz Bar. This has made it possible for the restaurant so sustain live jazz every Saturday night and build a regular following.

The Bootleg Bash was one of just many live jazz events
that has helped put West Café on the local music map.

The Results

Stellar Traffic Stats

• Web site traffic increased 500% from September to March
• Pageviews increased 300% from September to March
• Time on site increased by 25%
• Traffic from search engines increased from 42% to 70%

Top Rankings

• The number of pages indexed in the search engines increased from 27 to over 100.
• Initially West Cafe Web pages were only showing in search for their branded terms.
• The campaign received visibility in Google, MSN and Yahoo for over 30 targeted, non-branded keywords.
• The campaign achieved rankings within the top 10 search results in Google for these key terms: Portland’s best dessert, Portland Jazz Club, Portland Jazz Bars, Downtown Portland Happy Hour, Portland Oregon Cafe, Portland OR Cafe.

Increased Sales

Total restaurant sales increased dramatically over the course of the campaign despite the region’s economic woes. The owner Sean Concannon had this to say about the effectiveness of the campaign, “We started this all about in November and December and I can truly say business has been steady ever since the Election Party. That is due to the Internet promos. How to get factual numbers on that is hard, but I must say many places have closed their doors.”

The percentages below reflect the increase in sales revenue month over month starting with September as the baseline:

September - 100%
October - 12% increase
November - 32% increase
December - 26% increase
January - 25% increase
February - 34% increase
March - 20% increase

Unsolicited Press Coverage

While there wasn’t a budget for outreach to the press, West Café received exceptional coverage by local TV stations and print publications who heard about the restaurant’s promotions via Twitter. As any public relations pro knows, when the press starts tracking YOU down to do nice feature story, your word-of-mouth buzz is good!

Within just a couple weeks of launching West Café’s Five-Point Plan, local NBC affiliate KGW-TV came by to do a feature on West Café. They profiled the Bail-Out menu and the Dow Drink Deals in October 2008, speaking at length with Sean Concannon about how his restaurant was able to beat the economic woes facing many other Portland small businesses.

In December 2008, Oregon Business Magazine worked on a feature story for its January issue. KATU-TV’s morning show, AM Northwest featured West Café in February 2009.

Oregon Business Magazine heard about West Café’s innovatve promotions through Twitter and wanted to learn more about how the restaurant was using social media to boost business.

This video shown on Portland news channel, KATU, features West Café Chef and Owner, Sean Concannon, preparing some of his favorite dishes including a fresh, pineapple halibut and a Queen of Sheba chocolate torte.

Clive Jackson, the creator of Blink 3D and inDuality, took some time to answer my questions regarding the release of his new products. He is the founder of Pelican Crossing, a development firm working toward creating a web portal for 3D environments. You can read more about his thoughts on the future of the 3D web in a comprehensive white paper entitled Metaverse 2.0. You can read an excerpt of his paper HERE (http://www.slentre.com/second-life-and-the-metaverse-excerpt-from-the-metaverse-20-by-clive-jackson/)or you can download the entire document from his company website, Pelican Crossing here. (http://www.pelicancrossing.com/WhitePapers/TheMetaverse20.pdf)

More images of virtual worlds created with Blink 3D can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/741893@N24/
Video tutorials on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/PelicanCrossingInc
Other resources: http://www.pelicancrossing.com/pressroom/

SLENTRE: Discuss your background and how you got interested in exploring virtual world technology:

Clive Jackson: My interest in virtual worlds and 3D goes back when people first started talking about 3D and computers. Unfortunately, while I loved the idea, I disliked the limitations of the technology and the amount of programming effort required to make a simple 3D. Every year I would look and see how things were progressing until 2000, when I came across Adobe Atmosphere and for the first time felt that 3D was finally starting to live up to expectations. As a result, having spent most of my career developing commercial business software, I decided that it was time for a change…

SLENTRE: When and how did Pelican Crossing get its start? Where is the company based?

CJ: The company is based in the Irvine area of Southern California and was started in January 2002. The first product we developed was a chat server that worked with Adobe Atmosphere, a Web 3D product. We then developed a product called 3D BuildAmation which allowed users of Adobe Atmosphere to add interactivity and animation to their 3D environments without the need to write code. A month before we were due to ship, Adobe took Atmosphere off the market. After licking our wounds for a couple of weeks, we decided that we could create something better than Adobe Atmosphere which could include the 3D BuildAmation functionality, the result was Blink 3D.

SLENTRE: Pelican Crossing offers 2 main products; Blink 3D, which just has had a new release, and inDuality. Could you please explain these products and what makes them unique?

CJ: Blink 3D is a virtual worlds development platform based on Open Standards. It provides a development environment which allows you to easily add in models, particle systems, sounds, fog, light, shadows, physics, video, chat, animation, and interaction. The end result can then be published and hosted from a Web page. There is no need to have a central server as the virtual world runs on the user’s local machine. All chat and object synchronization is done via XMPP (Extended Messaging and Presence Protocol). There are a number of free hosted XMPP servers available as well as Open Source versions if people want to host their own server.

(Screenshot from Mellow Tiger, a virtual world created using Blink 3D)

inDuality is a free Web browser plugin that works with Internet Explorer and Firefox. The inDuality client can display virtual worlds from different vendors in a Web page. You can then teleport from one virtual world to another. Currently inDuality only supports Blink 3D virtual worlds, however we demonstrated at conferences last year, moving between Blink 3D, Second Life, Club Penguin, X3D, and another Flash based virtual world.

With inDuality you only need to install one plugin - inDuality takes care of downloading and updating any extensions necessary to render the different virtual worlds. This means that you will ultimately be able to surf the 3D Web without concern for the ability to render the content found.

I must say that it is interesting reading people’s comments about this, insisting that this won’t work, it can’t be done, it must be a trick. In fact, at one of the shows there was someone telling us it could not be done even though it was there right in front of him. We are the only company to have demonstrated Second Life running in a browser, but just because someone cannot imagine how it could be done does not mean it can’t be done.

The hope here is that other virtual world vendors will work with us and we can add support for their content, even if, like Second Life, the content was not originally designed to run on the Web.

SLENTRE: What role did you play in the development of these products?

CJ: I designed and developed both Blink 3D and inDuality.

SLENTRE: Blink 3D has been described as a tool that will enable anyone to build her own virtual world. Can you elaborate on that? How easy is it? How long does it take to get started? Who would you recommend use this tool? How long does it typically take to build a virtual world with the platform?

(Screenshot from Mellow Tiger, a virtual world created using Blink 3D)

CJ: Blink 3D was designed to complement your skill set no matter what it might be. So if you are great at modeling and not so hot at programming, you can use Blink 3D Behaviors to add interactivity and animation without needing to write any code. If you’re like me and are challenged when it comes to modeling, then you can use Blink 3D’s primitives to build your virtual world.

There is a getting started video tutorial that shows you how you can create a basic virtual world in less than 5 minutes. Now you are not going to win any awards with it, but for some people the ability to be able to get this far is wonderful. So it really depends on what your expectations are.

The time needed to create a virtual world varies depending on the complexity of the world and the developer’s skills. If you wanted to create something like Dark City or Elders Crossing, you should expect to spend 2 to 4 weeks on it, depending on your skill level. If you are happy using the models from our free theme pack, you can create a nice virtual world in an evening. There are different editions of Blink 3D, ranging from the Standard edition at $399 to a free Ultra Lite edition.

SLENTRE: How many builders are using Blink 3D currently?

CJ: We have just emerged from semi-stealth mode and are only now just starting to really push and get the word out about Blink 3D and inDuality. So our user base is not big, but as you can see from our gallery, people have been creating some excellent virtual worlds and 3D environments. http://www.pelicancrossing.com/Gallery.htm

SLENTRE: What are the tool’s limitations?

CJ: Out of the box, we don’t support avatar customization by the user, which if you are creating casual virtual worlds is not that big an issue. Typically, you would create a set of avatars for people to choose from; however, avatar customization is on the list.

We don’t support automatic persistence but developers have everything they need in the API to implement what ever sort of persistence they want. Again, with casual virtual worlds, persistence is less of an issue, but we are looking at ways for this to be automatic.

Blink 3D does not include support voice chat, however since we use XMPP, which does support VOIP, this is certainly high on the list.

SLENTRE: Are there currently VW’s built with the platform that welcome or allow the general public?

CJ: I think most if not all the virtual worlds and 3D environment that have been created by our customers are open to the public. Not all of them are multi user; that’s a decision that the designer made, not a limitation of Blink 3D. The Pelican Crossing Customer Showcase is a good place to start if you are looking to explore some Blink 3D virtual worlds: http://www.pelicancrossing.com/CustShowcase.htm

(Screenshot from Dark City, a virtual world created using Blink 3D)

SLENTRE: When I took a stroll through some of the demo worlds created with Blink 3D, I didn’t see anyone else. The biggest part of what makes VWs so unique is the interaction with other users. How does the tool handle user interaction? Collaboration? Document sharing? Voice? Video? HTML?

CJ: Blink 3D is a tool for developing Web based virtual worlds; it is not responsible for driving traffic to the worlds that have been created - that’s really the job of the designer. So if you were Coke and you created a virtual world and put it on your Web site, it would be up to you to drive traffic to it.

Having said that, Blink 3D virtual worlds suffer the same problem that Second Life islands have - if there is no passing foot traffic, no one sees your content. As people in Second Life tend to teleport between locations, I suspect that they typically know where they are going, and only visit new places based on the recommendation of others. Virtual worlds get foot traffic for two reasons: the first is because the designer has done an outstanding job in its creation. The second is because visitors can spread the word to other people via a connected social network. While Pelican Crossing has provided the tools and means to achieve the first, it has not yet helped with the second. This is where the inDuality Platform will come in. It will be a place for people to hang their hat as it were, and showcase their work. But more importantly it will offer the virtual world developer different approaches to monetizing their work.

When it comes to interaction with others, Blink 3D supports chat, document sharing, video, sound, and HTML. It does not support collaborative in-world building, but you can, of course, collaborate on other things. Really the only thing that Blink 3D does not currently support in this area is voice chat. Blink 3D uses XMPP, which can support it, so this will be added in at some point.

SLENTRE: Do you feel someone using Blink 3D could build a VW similar to Second Life? Was it created for that purpose? What types of features or improvements are you working for down the road?

CJ: You could certainly create a virtual world that was similar to Second Life in some respects, but you are not going to be able to do everything, and Blink 3D was not really designed for that. The goal of Blink 3D is to allow people with different skill levels to create different types of Web based virtual worlds. The worlds can be behind a firewall, for public use, for personal use, or they can be complete branded worlds to promote a particular product. The creator has full control over branding, user access, and content. There is no requirement for server farms to run the virtual world on; all you need is a regular Web server and access to your own or a hosted XMPP server.

SLENTRE: inDuality sounds like what many VW residents have been waiting for. A web browser that will let you jump from one VW to another as easily as you surf the web. Which platforms does the current version support?

CJ: inDuality currently supports Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Support for the Mac is on the road map but is not available yet. Virtual worlds created with Blink 3D can fully support in-world linking; other virtual worlds, depending on their type, may or may not be able to support this. Some like Club Penguin are closed; others, like Second Life, would be able to support in-world linking. The cool thing is that you will be able to use something like the free Blink 3D Ultra Lite edition to create your own virtual world, which can then act as a portal to your other favorite personal worlds.

SLENTRE: Can you explain how the browser will work?

CJ: While surfing the Web, you land on a page that uses the inDuality client. If the user does not already have the inDuality client installed, she will be prompted to install it. The inDuality client will then read the hidden parameters in the Web page and determine the type of content to be loaded. If an extension for that type of content has already been installed, for example the Second Life extension - and it’s the latest version - inDuality will simply go ahead and display the content. If the extension has not been installed, it will be. If it is out of date, it will be updated with any files that have been modified.

Within the virtual world portals can be added that will take people to other virtual worlds. They could be virtual worlds of the same type or different types. Some virtual worlds like Club Penguin will not allow you to create portals so to return to the previous world there is a back button, just like a browser has a back button. There are also corresponding forward buttons and a home button. When we demoed inDuality, we showed the user going in and out of Second Life, Club Penguin, a Flash world, an X3D world, and a Blink 3D world.

We have other plans to add additional functionality such as out of world chat, so you can chat to people that are not in the virtual world you are currently in. We may also add support for locating your friends across the different virtual worlds.

SLENTRE: When is the newest version of inDuality going to be launched?

CJ: inDuality is more than just a client; it’s a complete platform with different parts released at different times. We just launched the initial version of the inDuality client on June 26th. We expect to have the inDuality extension for Second Life available for testing very soon. People have been waiting a long time while we developed the concept internally; now we need to do a show and tell.

SLENTRE: What will the new features include? Will we be able to access SL??

CJ: Subsequent versions of inDuality will include support for other types of virtual worlds. Support for Second life is planned for the next release.

SLENTRE: Other VWs?

CJ: Yes there will be others. Nothing that we want to commit to at this time apart from maybe support for Flash and possibly Silverlight. We need to show we can do it and then talk with other virtual world vendors. I suspect that when people read about support for Flash they might be scratching their heads a bit. Surely Flash already runs in a Web page - why does inDuality need to support it? The answer is that with inDuality, when you go from one virtual world to another, the actual Web pages do not need to change, only the 3D content changes. This means you can have your own branding or adverts on a page. If you have inDuality on your Facebook page, people can visit many different virtual worlds yet still be on your page.

SLENTRE: Are you able to fully function in the VW using the browser?

CJ: This will depend on the virtual world being supported. But as an example, with the alpha version of inDuality you could do everything you would normally do in Second Life with the exception of changing the screen resolution and exiting the application, neither of which are applicable in a Web browser.

SLENTRE: I gave it a test drive and was impressed with how easy it was to navigate, but once again I didn’t encounter any other residents. How will the browser handle resident interactions such as voice, chat, document sharing, video, etc?

CJ: inDuality itself does not handle this; it is down to the extension that has been loaded to view the content to support it. With the Blink 3D, if the designer has created a multi user world, you will see the other avatars just as you would in Second Life. Again it’s up to the designer to implement document sharing, video, sound, and HTML materials. This is easy to do but not every virtual world needs this. In Blink 3D you can use HTML files as a material and then apply the material to any model. The HTML can be either static or live. If it is live, you can interact with it and play Flash animations and movies which would appear on the model.

SLENTRE: You hinted in an email there may be a tie-in to other social media platforms such as Twitter. Can you give me a sneak preview of what you are planning? Which social media platforms will be involved?

CJ: We certainly plan on integrating social media into Blink 3D where possible. The ability to send and receive Twits while in-world is something we are looking at. Because Blink 3D virtual worlds are Web based, it makes sense to allow other content found on the Web to be easily included in the world by either the designer or user. For example, you could have a photo wall which would pull your images from Flickr; the user would be able to navigate through the images while in-world.

SLENTRE: On your blog you sounded a bit bitter about the lack of attention your company has received from the media. Do you feel your work is being overlooked?

CJ: I’m certainly not bitter, just maybe slightly disappointed. The point I was trying to make in that blog post was that the Web 2.0 industry, and more so the virtual worlds industry, are slipping into bad practices, pre-announcing products without so much as a demo to back it up, essentially selling futures on vaporware. This used to be something the software industry as a whole did, but thankfully over the years the practice has died out. The return of these sorts of practices serves to highlight the high stakes that are involved. As John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, recently noted regarding virtual worlds, “I think that what you are seeing is the very front end of a very large wave of opportunities. “

I believe he is right, and that these opportunities can result in significant revenue for a company in the right place at the right time. Pre-announcing is a way of gaining mind share. What disturbs me is the potential damage that this can do to the industry; an industry that is now starting to be closely watched, and is already pretty hyped. For the virtual worlds industry to be taken seriously, we have to be serious about what we are doing. We need to cut the hype, under promise, and over deliver.

As for Pelican Crossing being overlooked by the media; no, I don’t think so. We have only just emerged from semi-stealth mode and even so, Googling our company name and product names shows that we have received quite a bit of media coverage already. Would we like more? Sure, even in semi-stealth mode! Show me a company that’s happy with the amount of press they’re getting and I’ll show you a company that’s not playing with a full deck of cards.

SLENTRE: What do you think will be the biggest VW landscape changer over the next year?

CJ: The integration of virtual worlds and social networks. Yes, I know - some people think that the two are very different beasts and never the twain shall meet. But things evolve and if they don’t, they typically die. Look at the phenomenal yet unsustainable growth of Social Networks. They are going to need to evolve and reinvent themselves if they are to hang on to their traffic, and in so doing, hang on to their astronomical valuations.

This is where the integration with virtual worlds can help. While it won’t save them, it will initially serve to be a differentiator. In time, virtual worlds themselves will evolve, with better faster graphics, striving for the nirvana of photo realistic worlds.

For some people, virtual worlds = Second Life, end of story. The reality is that Second Life is just one flavor, one approach to virtual worlds, and in it’s current form, it is not an approach that lends itself particularly well to integration with Social Networks. For example, Facebook is Web based and Second Life is not. And while inDuality will shortly be removing that difference, there still remain other more intrinsic problems such as user logins and access control in general.

Just like there are casual games, there are also casual virtual worlds. These casual virtual worlds will end up being strongly integrated into Social Networks. With casual virtual worlds there is no need to apply for membership, log in, undergo a training course, have money or purchase virtual goods. And no big client installs or large asset downloads; there should be minimal barriers to entry. Casual virtual worlds are easy to use, just like casual games are easy to access and learn, involving minimal investment of time and energy resulting in maximum stickiness. People should be able to enter and exit casual virtual worlds just as easily as they enter and exit Web pages.

SLENTRE: Do you feel it’s possible that in 5 years time the Internet will be 3D?

CJ: Even though I’m a big fan of 3D, this is not something I see happening any time soon. Mainly because the current input devices, keyboards and mice - they don’t lend themselves well to interacting with virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are also not great at displaying text - you have to be the right distance away for the text for it to not be fuzzy. I believe that 3D will augment the Web, but it will not replace it. At least not until we can sit in front of a screen and without touching anything, simply think the computer into doing our bidding. The sort of world William Gibson envisaged in his book Neuromancer, where people “jack-in” to cyberspace.

SLENTRE: What are the current obstacles from VWs becoming more mainstream? And do you feel that solutions are around the corner?

CJ: Having a killer app would be a big help. With the recent increases in oil prices and the knock on effect to travel budgets, it could be that the first place we see virtual worlds really take off is with business use, virtual meetings, conferences, etc. But at the end of the day - for me - it boils down to giving someone a compelling reason to want to visit a virtual world and to keep coming back. They need to be able to get something they want in a virtual world that they can’t easily get else where. So this really puts the problem in the hands of the content creators. Create a virtual world that will knock peoples’ socks off, not just once, but every time they visit. This requires a different sort of thinking to what we have typically seen; it is also more expensive to develop.

There has been a lot of speculation on why business and marketing efforts in Second Life have not been more successful. While I don’t have the room here to go into all the details - and I don’t pretend to know all the answers - I do believe the main reason was that on the whole, the 3D content was just plain old boring. It was maybe OK to look at once, but there was nothing that compelled the person to come back. I have not done this, but maybe looking at the success stories, we would see that they offered something different. Maybe they found a way to drive people to their island or content and then found a way to engage the visitors such that they kept coming back.

Unless you’ve been totally off the grid over the past several years, chances are you’ve at least heard the buzz about keywords. With the rapid growth of web technologies, keywords have become more important than ever. The simple fact is that if you want to find something or be found on-line, you have to know what group of words to enter into that search box. The same holds true when it comes to top employers or recruiters coming across your resume. Whether they’re sourcing your information from the web or an off-line database, keyword searches are the primary tool they use to sift through the thousands of resumes available.

Monster.com–the largest on-line job board and resume database– and other on-line resume sources offer several ways employers can search through resumes. These prominently include the resume’s received date and specific keywords appearing throughout the entire submission process—not simply those keywords found in the body of your completed resume. Any serious job seeker would be wise to regularly dust off their on-line resume, keeping keywords and content fresh, with relevant keywords always in mind when completing every field during the submittal process. It’s important to remember that submitting a keyword optimized resume is just the first step in the process of landing that perfect job. Nonetheless, it’s a vital one if you even want to be considered.

(Screenshot from the Employer’s Resume Search section at Monster.com)

Identifying Desirable Keywords

So now you’re ready to dig in and find those “magic” words that will get you noticed by your ideal employer and add them to your resume. It’s never a good idea to misrepresent your skills, but it is important to make sure that you’re using the same verbiage employers are using to define your skill set. Simple things like using the plural form of a word or using an industry wide acronym can keep your resume out of the running unless the employer or recruiter uses that exact same search phrase.
There are several lists available with suggestions of where to find the best keywords for your particular industry,
Quintcareers.com’s article “Resources for Identifying Resume Keywords” (http://www.quintcareers.com/identifying_resume_keywords.html)
offers quite an exhaustive list with several creative suggestions. Here’s a brief list of the top sources to get you started:

• Job Postings – Search out job listings for positions similar to what you’re looking for. Monster.com is a free resource for job seekers and can source hundreds of jobs to pull keywords from.

• Job Descriptions – Find on-line job descriptions for the position you’re seeking. Typically they are great repositories of desired skills and competencies for any given job title.

• Articles and News Stories – Research the latest industry news–specifically searching out anything from the employer’s viewpoint.

• On-line Keyword Tools – For those of you that really enjoy data and research, you may want to take the time to check out some tools that are specifically designed to find and analyze phrases that users are searching for. Keyword Discovery offers a free keyword tool - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html and Google has an analytical tool that will allow you to compare and contrast two separate phrases and spot trending within your given industry. Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends.

Adding Keywords to Your Resume

The next step involves integrating all these great keywords in to your resume. While I wouldn’t suggest doing anything as blatant as adding a “Keyword” section to your resume, there are ways to include lists or summaries that include the keywords while engaging the reader at the same time. By using headers like “Summary of Qualifications”, “Areas of Expertise,” and “Professional Profile,” you create a handy list of the keyword skill phrases as well as brief explanations of how you’ve demonstrated these skills in the workplace.

Free sample resumes can act as a good template. The keyword rich section above was taken from a PDF found at Resumesandcoverletters.com (http://www.resumesandcoverletters.com/Corinthian_Chrono_Resume.pdf ).
Here are some other tips to keep in mind while optimizing your resume:

• Keep important phrases near the top of your document where they are more likely to be noticed and given more weight.

• Sprinkle the keywords throughout your resume and try to use important phrases multiple times as keyword density is often considered when indexing documents.

• Be sure to use synonyms, plural and non-plural variations, and both acronyms and spelled out versions of all of your phrases.

Giving your Resume a Check-Up

Whether you’re planning on making your information key-word friendly or you’ve always understood the importance of keywords, it’s a good idea to take a close look at the final draft of your resume. Katherine Hansen offers up a great suggestion in her article, “Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness” (http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_keywords.html )
“To determine the keyword health of your current resume, highlight all the words in it that, based on your research of ideal positions in your field, would probably be considered keywords. Electronic resume guru Rebecca Smith says a good goal to shoot for is 25-35 keywords, so if you have fewer than that currently, try to beef up every section of your resume with keywords, varying the forms of the words you choose.”

Resources

http://www.free-resume-tips.com/10tips.html - Resume writing - 10 tips to generate more interviews and higher salary offers

http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_keywords.html - Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness
http://www.quintcareers.com/researching_resume_keywords.html - Researching Keywords in Employment Ads

http://www.quintcareers.com/identifying_resume_keywords.html - Resources for Identifying Resume Keywords

[tags]resume writing resource, resume tips, keywords on resume, keyword research, seo, optimized resume, resume resources, optimal copy, lisa peyton[/tags]

(Nick Wilson from Clever Zebra presents in Second Life)

The event held at their SL Location (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zebra%20HQ/127/87/23) was attended by about 20-30 residents and lasted one hour.

During the presentation Nick outlined his picks for the top VW’s for business and outlined the pros and cons of each. A brief outline follows:

1) Active Worlds - http://www.activeworlds.com/
• $6.95 per month fee to become a ‘citizen’
• Healthy group of developers
• Easy building tools
• Firewall available
• No productivity tools, white boards, ppt presentations, etc.

Recommended Uses:
• Rapid proto-typing
• Experiment privately behind a firewall
• IBM and Wells Fargo have worked in the space

2) Proto Sphere, by Protonmedia - http://www.protonmedia.com/
• Free demo
• Learning and knowledge management training
• Integrates blogs, social networking web 2.0 tools
• Search functionality
• Shareable office applications
• Firewall issues
• Content creation controlled by proto sphere
• Steep learning curve for available tools

Recommended Uses:
• Training
• Sales Training
• Insurance adjusters using to view auto accidents in 3D
• Global virtual meetings

3) Qwaq Forums - http://www.qwaq.com/
• 30 day free trial
• Collaboration Application
• Voice issues
• Pre-built content via templates
• Low system requirements
• Easy to set-up, about 10 mins
• Poor graphics, immersion, and avatars

Recommended Uses:
• Remote teams working on regular office documents
• General VW experimentation

4) OLIVE, by Forterra Inc. - http://www.forterrainc.com/
• Contact sales to request a demo
• Government, military, education simulator
• Training and simulation
• Low system requirements
• Functional on mid-range PC
• Easy to use
• Firewall ready
• Bulky install
• No video or ppt presentations yet

Recommended Uses:
• Training and simulation

5) Second Life - http://secondlife.com/
• Free account and download
• Largest social virtual world
• Business to consumer focus
• Highly unstable
• Advanced system requirements needed
• Steep learning curve

Recommended Uses:
• Not recommended for Business use with the exception of possible experimentation

Future Players – VW’s to watch out for

Project Wonderland - https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/

• Free Download
• Sun Microsoft
• Ugly interface
• Open source
• Java based
• Modular architecture
• API’s available, easy to integrate with almost anything

Vastpark - http://www.vastpark.com/

• Free download
• 5 applications – creator, browser, viewer, publisher and Vast Server Core
• Build your own world
• Firewall ready
• Licensing available for educational and corporate use

Multiverse- http://www.multiverse.net

• Build your own world
• Netscape developers
• 2000 avatars in one place
• No virtual office document sharing

Project Chainsaw, Nortel - http://www.nortel.com/

• Nortel Networks
• Voice emphasis
• Browser based
• Ecommerce capabilities, i.e. – shop in 3d environment, talk with sales staff and other customers