Bringing Your Business into SL

Thank you for your interest in Second Life and the Second Life Grid. Here's ten steps that will help you bring your business into Second Life.

Landing in Second Life, a virtual world, has been compared to arriving in a new city. It takes awhile to get the lay of the land, to meet people, to find places you want to go and things to do. It takes even longer to learn "the ropes" - the social behaviors and customs that set new-comers apart from long-time residents. With this in mind, here are ten suggestions to help you get started on Second Life Grid:

• Register, create, and name your avatar. It will take some time to learn how to move and interact.
• Go hang out at The Shelter (or one of the Resident-run spaces for new members); make some friends, learn how to dance, and get help from the friendly staff and visitors.
• Find and attend classes and events - you'll find them in the Event Listing on secondlife.com or inworld.
• Subscribe and read Second Life Periodicals, Business Blogs, mailing lists, and other public information about Second Life.
• Try your hand at building in one of the public sandboxes.
• Join a group, go to meetings or events with members of the group.
• Talk to Residents about what they're doing in Second Life and what they like - and dislike - about it.
• Think about your audience (whether internal or external - employees or customers) how to engage t hem in Second Life.

This will help get you started. We recommend spending several sessions in Second Life. Once you have the lay of the land, start thinking about your business and/or education objectives, learn from others how to create a sustained experience that engages your fellow employees, customers or students and meets your objectives. For assistance, look at Resources, and Solution Providers.

Then you'll be ready to engage with a Solution Provider (to develop the internal resources) to create your organization's experience in Second Life. They can help you with everything from strategic planning to creating a presence in Second Life to providing event management and avatar creation.

Other sources

• Second Life business Wiki: how to start, maintain and develop your business in SL - the wikipedia dedicated to all aspects of running business in Second Life: avatar creation and tuning, building and advertising your business. Visit http://www.slbiz2life.com/business-wiki/Main_Page for more info.