This Week's Herman Trend Alert Navigating the Next Year

The Herman Trend Alert March 12, 2008 Second Life Revisited Last year the virtual world Second Life (SL), secondlife.com received quite a bit of media coverage when several Fortune 500 companies staged events or built virtual presences there. Not so long ago, we covered the use of SL for market research. (www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-21-2007.html) Now, we revisit this topic to discuss some important developments. Second Life now has eleven million registered users with an average of 18,000 new people joining everyday. In November, the hit TV drama CSI:NY aired an episode tracking a killer into this virtual world. At the end CBS aired a commercial, inviting viewers to go to their website to find a branded link to join Second Life and "continue the pursuit". The result: an extra 100,000 people signed up. B2B and Consumer Products companies have also used SL for product development, recruiting activities, and staff meetings. Corporations, like IBM, bring in authorized staff from around the world to have virtual meetings that may include PowerPoint presentations, audio, video, interactive surveys on the spot, and more. Manpower has its own SL location and holds periodic job fairs. Now, the Social Research Foundation, that provides the First Opinions Panel (the largest consumer research panel in SL), offers the groundbreaking Second Life Business Brief. To subscribe, visit http://www.slbrief.com. It is simply the best way to keep up with corporate doings in SL. And just like our Herman Trend Alert, the Second Life Business Brief may be co-branded, i.e., other organizations may send these e-zines to their lists under their own names. We agree with Prince Charles who complimented the CEO of IBM for holding a corporate meeting in SL, instead of flying his leaders from all over the world. That is why we were so excited about the opportunity to deliver a presentation in SL. Aliza Sherman, a/k/a, Cybergrrl Oh is an event organizer and consultant for this new universe. She has engaged Joyce to deliver a brief presentation titled "The Future of Marketing" on March 24 at 3pm EDT. You must join Second Life to attend (It's free). To learn more about Sherman's leading edge services, email her at alizapilar@msn.com. As a professional speaker, Joyce expects to deliver more presentations in SL in the future. © Copyright 1998-2008 by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists. (800) 227-3566 or http://www.hermangroup.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc." RESOLVE TO ADDRESS EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IN 2009 If you knew just how much money turnover is costing your company, you would have handled it ages ago! Turnover costs A LOT and it comes right off the bottom line. Let The Herman Group and its team of very experienced consultants help you address your turnover issues right away. We have an impressive track record and stand ready to help you. Call Carol at 800-227-3566; international, call 336-210-3547 for a no-obligation conference call. EMPLOYEE RETENTION BEGINS WITH GOOD SELECTION If you are not using pre-employment assessments, you are flying without radar---not very smart in today's highly competitive environment. Let us help you better understand your candidates and your employees. In less than 30 minutes, you will know if they can do the job (abilities); their work behaviors, even their personality and attitudes (like integrity & ethics), and those can't be trained. It's very cost effective, too! For more information, contact Joyce at 336-210-3548 or e-mail assessments@hermangroup.com. Validated for many countries and cultures. We offer in-depth help with job descriptions, too! GET INSIDE THE MINDS OF YOUR EMPLOYEES Find out what's really going on inside the hearts and minds of your employees. Our InnerViews interviewing service uses SPHRs and PHRs, certified human resource professionals to probe for the information you really need to know. Exit and Stay Interviews, as well as Why-Didn't-You-Take-Our-Offer Interviews. Call Rosalie Catalano at 937-648-1918 or read more at: http://www.hermangroup.com/retentionconnection/exit_interviews.html. To read this Herman Trend Alert on the web: http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_9-24-2008.html. Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers. New subscribers are welcome. There is no charge for this public service. The Herman Trend Alert is received by over 30,000 subscribers in 78 countries, in addition to other websites and printed magazines. Do you enjoy receiving this weekly e-mail update? 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