Imagine a place where you can instantly teleport to a rock concert, then meet up at a café with your best friend in Frankfurt, Germany, to catch up on all the latest news. Imagine flying home afterward to your perfect mate who is waiting for you at your glass house overlooking the sea.

Sound like an enticing place to live - or to do business?

Welcome to Second Life, a virtual online world that's open free of charge to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection and a powerful computer. Second Life (www.secondlife. com) has about two million residents and the population has more than doubled in size since November, with a growth rate of 230,000 new users per week.

Although some argue that the learning curve is steep, entering the world is simple.

Image courtesy of Jay Moonah
Jay and Tara (Jay Moonah and singer Tara Thompson, a.k.a. TerraSeth Althouse) play a show in-world.

With just a few mouseclicks you can download free Second Life software, create an avatar (a virtual you) and begin your journey into this popular online universe.

If you have a few dollars you can lease land and stake out your own territory. Once you have land, you can build everything from a home to a virtual store. In fact, Second Life has become fertile ground for companies to market their products and services.

IBM, American Apparel, Toyota, General Motors, American Express and Telus are just a few of the real-life players in Second Life.

But marketing in this virtual world is not like marketing in real life. And that's what some companies just don't get.

"You have to be very careful that you go in in a way that is respectful of the community and be part of the community, as opposed to just slapping up billboards," says Kathryn Lagden, general manager of the Association of Internet Marketing and Sales (Aims Canada), a 5,000-member non-profit organization that helps business professionals leverage the Internet.

But that can be tricky. How can a company avoid alienating the people it's trying to sell to?

It's just one of the questions discussed recently at The Marketers Roadmap to Second Life seminar held by AIMS in Toronto.

"There is a real curiosity about Second Life," says Lagden. "We have lots of small business as members and they are looking for ways to market cost-effectively."

Event speaker Jay Moonah, a Toronto-based Internet consultant and information architect, uses Second Life to market his solo music as well as his roots rock band, Uncle Seth.

Moonah and his band have performed several live gigs on Second Life using streaming audio, and as a result they are seeing their fan base grow, as well as an increase in their CD sales.

Image courtesy of Jay Moonah
Virtual property ownership of stores such as Uncle Seth's in the Second Life world is limited only to paying members.

Moonah has become so jazzed about the potential for musicians on Second Life, that he's helping other musicians create a Second Life presence.

But he cautions that whether you are a musician or own a small business, you need to understand the culture before you attempt to use Second Life as a marketing tool.

"I wouldn't want to do too much too soon. It's a big waste of time and energy to go in there and build things without understanding what's going on in there," he says. "If you can find a friend or associate who has used it successfully, first get them to show you around, then focus on what your interests or goals are."

According to Moonah, "most real companies are doing it more as a branding exercise at the moment, but they do sell some things. For example, Telus sells versions of their high-end phones, although like real life there is a basic phone that is free."

To be successful, says Moonah, a company has to offer Second Lifers something they want. For instance, if your company sells audio technology, you could offer a seminar in Second Life on how to create a podcast or you might sponsor a similar event.

"You need to give people a reason to keep coming back. It's really a relationship-building environment. It's great to have space, but really it's about events and relationships," he says.

Many companies are using Second Life not just as a marketing tool, he adds, but as a place to conduct meetings.

Catherine Winters, co-author of Second Life: The Official Guide, argues that businesses need to find a clever way to engage their audience if they want to capture a market in Second Life.

"Marketing to Second Lifers requires a lot more planning ... Whatever they do has to hold people's attention," says Winters, a managing director of virtual worlds at Social Signal, a Vancouver-based company that helps other companies create online communities, including a presence in Second Life. "If it doesn't, people will just go and do something more fun."

But Second Life is not for everyone. "The biggest question that some companies aren't asking is: 'Do I need to be in Second Life?' " she says.

Simply assuming that a Second Life presence is necessary can be a costly mistake. She says many businesses simply make the assumption that marketing in Second Life is necessary because it is the way of the future.

"The cost of getting set up on Second Life is much greater than getting set up on the web," she says, pointing out that the greatest expense is not the virtual land, but the programmers and designers who "develop" it.

That said, Winters believes that Second Life will be on par with web design as an industry.

"Just like some companies have in-house web development, you'll see the same thing for Second Life," she says.

* Next issue: Can you make a real living in the virtual world?

Christina Friedrichsen can be reached at friedrichsen@businessedge.ca)