Since I expect Nussbaum to once again censor a comment of mine on his most recent blog post (Link) discussing Second Life and managing brands in virtual worlds, I’m just going to post it here:

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Although you’ll probably censor this, it’s worth pointing out to you that you’re inappropriately skewing Verdino’s comments. He doesn’t say “build community”. He says “build relationships”. Not the same thing.

One of the most successful brands in SL does not have a discernible “community” which gathers around to be counted and charted. Fact is, customers likely *never* return to the distribution point/store. Nor do they regularly gather together in groups [at least not last I checked; but the brand was already a success]. Thus, you’re comment, “To succeed in SL, as with blogs and all social media, build community”, is effectively incorrect.

By the way, the metric being measured, “dwell”, is of seriously questionable worth. Second Life is a *virtual* world. Real world limitations and methodologies don’t necessarily apply, and straitjacketing real world in-the-box methods onto virtual worlds is sometimes a mistake.

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I continue to wonder – as I did a year or so ago – if Nussbaum has ever logged into Second Life, let alone become immersed in it.

{Update: Well, I was surprised to see that Nussbaum posted my critique of his post. Maybe he saw a few of my comments elsewhere discussing his penchent for censoring comments which are far from being censorship worthy. Also worth mentioning that I’m not the only one who took issue with his post, so maybe that contributed to his decision.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “community” isn’t important. It’s just that it’s not enough to say “build a community” if you want success. To elaborate, I’d like to point to a couple of posts on the Electric Sheep blog. Both do a much better job of discussing the topic than Nussbaum and are well worth your time.

“It’s Hard to Succeed with a Test Drive” (Link) – by Giff Constable

“Top 25 Brands Measured By Traffic?” (Link) – by Chris Carella }