Now this is interesting.

I've been a bit of a secret fan of Text 100 for a while now. Never had the opportunity to work with them, and I don't know anyone there (although I have a couple of friends who've spoken very highly of their interactions with CEO Aedhmar Hynes in the past), but they have always struck me as a smart agency with a pretty sound idea of what they need to do to keep their business and that of their clients just ahead of the curve.

Bloody exciting to read this announcement that they're setting up shop within the quite astonishing virtual world of Second Life (SL). As their CEO puts it: "I don't think any of us can be sure where this revolution is going to take communications but I do know that I want Text 100 to participate in that change."

Very smart indeed. I've already had a number of conversations "in world" with owners of both Second Life and real-life businesses, looking to get some marketing and PR assistance to publicize and promote their SL interests. There's absolutely a market opportunity in there, and it takes a visionary CEO such as Ms. Hynes to seize on it.

Second Life is growing at a terrific rate. There are close to 400,000 residents already, and Linden Lab, the creators of SL, claim a 12% monthly growth rate (with zero marketing budget). The stats posted on the Second Life front page typically show around $250,000 (in real US dollars) being spent in world every day.

Good news for Text 100, and good news for SL businesses in need of innovative, professional PR expertise.

[UPDATE]: 'course, I only went and checked for other coverage of this announcement after I'd posted me own thingy. Duh. Call these "bonus links" then:

Text 100's Georg Kolb blogs his own comments on the announcement.

Darren Barefoot (who I like and respect) offers a less enthusiastic take than mine.

Many others chime in.

Closing thought (for now): Second Life already has a thriving and fast-growing media community, with a number of successful in-world magazines and newspapers (the widest-read example probably being the Metaverse Messenger). Seems inevitable and entirely reasonable for the symbiotic community of communications professionals to get in there and start exploring areas of need or opportunity too.

Tags: Second Life, Linden Lab, Text 100, PR, public relations

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10, 2006.
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