The virtual world of Second Life is getting some attention from IT stalwarts like IBM, Intel and Sun, who are using social media sites and tactics like Second Life, MySpace, YouTunbe and blogs to reach out to customers.
“Companies recognize that press releases still serve a purpose, but they don’t make a splash,” says Mat Small, a manager at public relations firm Bite Communications, which orchestrated Sun’s debut in Second Life.
“The thing about new media is there are some highly sought after audiences: for example, developers. I don’t see very many developers reading press releases,” Small says. “You’re more likely to encounter them in an environment like Second Life, where companies can engage them in a fun, credible, candid, unstructured way that I think is very appealing to them and is more of a two-way dialogue.”
Intel is really embracing social networks and has uploaded several clips to YouTube as well as created a MySpace page for its Centrino chip.
“We’re dipping our toes in a bunch of different things,” says Bill Kirkos, an Intel spokesman. “The beauty of it is you don’t have to change your investments or your focus on what I would call traditional media, whether it’s public relations, advertising, Intel.com. This [social media] is an opportunity where for a very low cost you can go and experiment and try some of these things out.”
“Creating a more emotional aspect to our brand is really important to us. That’s why we’ve embraced a number of different things in the social media world,” Kirkos says.
As with podcasting, social media presents so many great opportunities for high tech companies to interact with clients, prospects and new hires. If your high tech company is not embracing social media then you are already behind your industry leaders.
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