I am working with my class on making an informative community in Second Life about the book, Groundswell. This community will basically be an area where people can go and get an overview of what each chapter is about. I have not built any prims or objects yet because I am unsure what the uniformity will be, but I am planning on adding images that relate to Chapter 3 and a brief summary to display. I’m also planning on offering a notecard to those who want more details and information on the Groundswell.
I’ve been learning about creating and building objects Second Life The Ivory Tower Library of Primitives is an instructional library that provides notecards with instructions on how to build and create objects in Second Life. I was playing around with what I learned on the notecards and I created a basic structure. Here is a picture of it.
I have created an avatar on Second Life and I went shopping to find an outfit for myself. I shopped for alot longer than I thought I would! I got the idea of being a geisha when I was picking out my new hair. I found my hair for free at Sarah Nerd’s Freebie Paradise. The style is called Minerva and it was free. The hair reminded me of a geisha so I decided I needed to find a kimono. I found a shop called Giorno Brando that sold kimono’s and they ran about $200L. The whole outfit was included, shoes and all. However, I was able to find one for free but it wasn’t the best looking one. I went ahead and purchased the free one and then I found an pink kimono for $200L I liked better. Below are some pictures of me wearing my new outfits.
Free Kimono
$200L Kimono
Here’s a picture of me going through the virtual world for Dell in Second Life.
Learning about a free eSeminar on Windows Vista
I wanted to share a picture of my friend, Josh, and I relaxing on the couch in the virtual world, IT World, in SecondLife.
Have you ever noticed that when you search using a google search or when you check your gmail account the ads that are displayed in the margins are synced exactly with what you are searching for or the subject of the email you are checking? If not, try it out, you’ll see…
Google has this nifty way of using advertising to bring revenue into your own business and to theirs. Goolge offers Adwords, Adsense, and Admanager to meet your advertising needs.
ADWORDS http://adwords.google.com/
Google lets you create ads to advertise your products to people who use Google. What you do is create your ad and assign keywords to it in order for your ad to show up in the margins of a Google search results page. When people do a Google search, Google finds your ad and places it in the margins in order of relevance of your keyword to the search. When people click the ad, it takes them to your website where they can learn more about your products and/or services and possibly even make a purchase.
What is so great about this? Google only charges you if someone clicks on your ad! Also, you can limit the maximum budget you are willing to spend per click or per day which allows you to have control over how much you should budget for this type of advertising.
Now I know your probably thinking the same thing I was when I was researching this: How do I make sure my ad is displayed at the top? The answer: How much money are you willing to spend? Ha ha, gotcha! You knew there was a catch coming! The more money you are willing to spend when someone clicks on your ad, the higher your ad will be on the list. Another factor that plays a big part on the position of your ad is the relevance of your keywords. If the search being performed links to your keyword then there is a higher chance of your ad being closer to the top of the list if you are willing to pay the right price. So the question is: How important is it for your ad to be the first one someone sees? Name that price…
ADSENSE https://www.google.com/adsense/
Businesses can use these same ads that are created using Adsense and place them on their websites. You select the ads to display by choosing keywords that are ideal to your website content and you get paid when people visiting your site clicks on them. What better way is there to make free money??
ADMANAGER https://www.google.com/admanager
Another service Google offers to businesses is a way to collaborate and manage the ads that you place on your website. Admanager allows you to keep track of all the ads you place on your website. This includes ads from Adsense and/or other ad networks you may use. And get this…ITS FREE!!
The customer set that would most likely use Tokbox are friends and families that are geographically challenged and businesses that need to conduct conferences and/or meetings over a wide range of locations. Tokbox allows people to chat with as many friends or co-workers they would like at one time. You can conveniently see, talk, and share information between your family members, friends, and colleagues without incurring any expense or experiencing the inconvenience of travel.
In my Enterprise 2.0 class, I am currently working with a partner on a business plan project. This project is focused on describing the business strategy for a Web 2.0 business. My partner, Joshua Freeman, and I are researching Tokbox.
Tokbox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video. Here’s how it works: you sign up and Tokbox gives you a link. When you want to talk with anyone, just give them the link – they click and you chat. We make it easy for you to put your TokBox on your social network profile, blog, or personal webpage. Anyone can come to your page and see a “Push to Talk” button. They click it and connect to you in real time using live video and audio. Tokbox features include: 1) free video chat, 2) there is no chat client needed, you talk through your browser which means no downloads, 3) it is embeddable on any website, and 4) the privacy control allows you to choose who can see you and who can’t, http://www.tokbox.com.
We are in the process of contacting representatives at Tokbox, Ron Hose, the founder and CTO of Tokbox and Deidre Caldbeck the VP of Business Development. We are also trying to get in touch with Cindy Wu, a Lead Developer at Tokbox. You can read more about these individuals on my partner’s blog, http://jcfreema.wordpress.com/.
Dove has started a web based community to attract a specific genre of customers, young girls and the mothers of these young girls. When customers go to the website, http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/, they enter a community based on helping young girls deal with self-esteem issues and helping mothers understand how to actively help their daughters through the “awkward” tween years.
The Dove community offers many places where girls can get their questions discreetly answered, interactive quizzes to help with self esteem issues, and advice and tips from experts. The mothers of young girls can benefit from this sight by reading articles over any topic you can think of and by joining discussion boards to help each other out with personal experiences and get advice from other mothers of “tweens”.
Dove has used the groundswell (please reference previous blog posts about the groundswell) to its advantage. There are ads for Dove products subtly placed on the sides of the website, and there are articles, quizzes, and information throughout the online community that will direct the users of the site to specific Dove products that will fit their needs. Dove also offers free samples and coupons through this online community. These tatics will help increase the awareness of Dove products to the users of the online community and will help the users determine how the products directly apply to each individual’s needs.
Shortcuts.com, http://shortcuts.com/, offers free coupons to its customers. All you need is to register your grocer’s savings card, select the coupons you want, and the coupons will be automatically uploaded to the account. The next time you go to the store, the coupons will automatically be applied to your purchase when you scan your card at checkout! Kroger, http://www.kroger.com/in_store/Pages/coupon_landing.aspx is one of the many stores that has teamed up with shortcuts.com to offer these services to its customers. This service offers customers the savings of coupons without the hassle. Most customers do not have the free time on Sunday afternoons to clip the coupons from the ads just to forget the coupons when they go to the store. This service provides an easy and convienent way to save!
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