Withdrawing from Socialization, Escaping into Online Worlds

The COVID lockdowns beginning in 2020 were likely to exacerbate growing tendencies for people to remain in their homes, eschewing socialization in favor of spending time online with social media, video games, and streaming entertainment. As written in Scientific American, COVID threatens to bring a wave of hikikomori to America. “Hikikomori, a syndrome of extreme social isolation originally found in Japan that described primarily young men who confined themselves at home rather than attend school or go to work.”

Video games, social media, and TV are all popular pastimes for the Swiss as well. In Switzerland, a total of 65.4 percent of the population played video games at least several times a year in 2021 – almost a third of the Swiss play several times a week or every day. 

The Continuing Trend of Living Life Online

Living life online has been a growing trend, particularly for young people. Jean M. Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has been researching generational differences for decades. “Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states… The allure of independence, so powerful to previous generations, holds less sway over today’s teens, who are less likely to leave the house without their parents.” Jean describes how teens are substantially less likely to date, drive, and work for money outside of the digital world.

Is the growth of the metaverse merely a continuation of the decline of in-person socialization? Are we on the path to where virtual worlds will dominate our existence?

In the movie “The Matrix,” machines enslaved humans. Unbeknownst to most humans, all of their experiences occurred only in a sophisticated virtual world. Will the metaverse be similar, with the exception that people voluntarily forsake reality for a virtual world? I must confess, I find the idea repellant.

Is Virtual Socializing Actually Socializing?

Simon Hohler, technical consultant at Ewasoft, explained that the metaverse, “Can be a medium of connection. For example, when people can’t visit loved ones in person, either due to distance or illness, the metaverse can provide users an experience of presence that is deeper than a mere phone call, or even video chat.”

Dr. Alen Lipuš, PhD, R&D Manager @ Pro-Bit, stated, “There’s nothing better than physical touch, but the metaverse is the next best thing.”

The question “Is virtual socializing actually socializing?” was examined in a two-year project led by the University of Exeter. Researchers found that, “training older people in the use of social media improves cognitive capacity, increases a sense of self-competence and could have a beneficial overall impact on mental health and well-being.” Participants engaged more in social activity, and particularly enjoyed connecting with friends and relatives via video chat and email.

When Virtual Reality is Real

Virtual reality is often considered not “real.” Virtual events and meetings refer to interactions taking place online via video conference. From knitting classes and book clubs, to dance workouts and happy hours, virtual events proliferated during 2020.

Remote participation in meetings has been a valuable option prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and remains a key tool for business collaboration. Many businesses hold remote meetings with potential new clients, land the account, serve the client, and earn revenue all without ever meeting in person. (On a personal note, I’ve been collaborating with Kingfluencers’ Co-CEO Yoeri since 2018 and have never met him in person.)

The connection and value delivered are no less “real” for the meetings having occurred virtually. Likewise, when seeing the smiling face of a dear friend via Zoom, the love we feel is no less real and powerful. The intentions behind our interactions are the same, as are most of the outcomes.

Should Brands be in the Metaverse? (If it Actually Exists…)

What Should Brands Do? Balance the Innovative with the Accessible 

Dr. Lipuš recommends brands, “Try to do something meaningful and practical, and don’t just follow some buzz.” Buzz can distort both the real opportunities and the risks. This may be the case with NFTs.

While it’s tempting to want to make use of novel technologies to thrill customers with unique promotions, there can be downsides. In particular, blockchain and NFTs are still complex, and many consumers aren’t ready to overcome the hurdle. When considering an innovative promotion such as NFTs, you should also know how familiar they are with that tech.

Frontrunners and Trendsetters

Brands, consumers, and influencers can build new and endless variety of interactions in the metaverse. Hospitality businesses can offer VR excursions and fashion brands can sell virtual accessories.

Far beyond B2C and B2B businesses, the metaverse can be used by NGOs and healthcare organizations. Interactions during tutoring orvirtual therapy can be enhanced with the deeper connection the metaverse can deliver.

Set a Positive, Healthy Direction Now

With the current state of the metaverse, the risks we’ve addressed remain theoretical. Although looking at other parallels, we should expect these risks to grow, but there is time to prepare.

Far beyond B2C and B2B businesses, the metaverse can be used by NGOs and healthcare organizations. Interactions during tutoring orvirtual therapy can be enhanced with the deeper connection the metaverse can deliver.

Now is the time to take steps to build a healthy environment, impeding the growth of the negative.

Organizations and associations, such as the Conscious Influence Hub (CIH), can play a role in setting the direction and advising. Based in Switzerland, CIH is a non-profit NGO with a mission of “promoting the core values of respect, empathy, and transparency in the social media influence sphere.” Working together, Kingfluencers and CIH launched a Code of Conduct with best-practice guidelines, including being a role model for empathy and respect, and dealing with sensitive issues in a particularly responsible way.

Finding Balance in the Future – Anything in Moderation

Human beings require physical exercise to stay healthy, as well as some doses of sunlight. Remaining indoors, particularly sedentary, seated in front of a screen, is a recipe for a myriad of illnesses.

However, embracing the metaverse doesn’t have to mean abandoning other active pastimes, any more than eating a cookie means we no longer eat vegetables. Additionally, unlike traditional social media platforms, people can engage physically with the metaverse, with activities such as standing to ride a surfboard after sipping a Corona beer. Physical movement can provide health and fitness benefits to users, while also deepening the connection with brands.

Balance is key.

With a mix of the metaverse and reality, we will have the capacity to live life more intensely, making a variety of deeper connections on a global scale. The distinction between online and IRL will become smaller as people strive for balance.

Check out our blog and follow Kingfluencers for our upcoming articles.

Author: Megan Bozman, Owner @Boz Content Marketing

Welcome to part 3 of our dive into the metaverse. In part 1, we covered what the metaverse is and how it changes the social media landscape. Part 2 explored what it means for brands, consumers, and society. Today, we’re looking at the metaverse’s impact on marketing overall, including changes for influencers and brands.

Metaverse is defined as, “a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.”

Brands Can Leverage the Metaverse to Build Deeper Connections

With its immersive qualities, brands can leverage the metaverse to build deeper connections with consumers and boost loyalty. Metaverse activities can encourage people to engage physically, such as standing to ride a surfboard after sipping a Corona beer, further deepening the connection with brands.

Additionally, interactions in the metaverse enable brands to gather more expansive insights by monitoring details such as what users look at the longest. By gathering and analyzing these deeper insights into consumers’ preferences, brands can drive improvements in product development as well as advertising.

Furthermore, the metaverse also removes geographic boundaries. Virtual events, such as concerts, enable hospitality brands to expand their potential customer base to the entire world. 

Opportunities & Threats for Influencers in the Metaverse

Influencers can benefit from many of the same advantages the metaverse bestows on brands and consumers, including the ability to build deeper connections and engage with consumers worldwide and be ‘present’ anywhere at any time, joining their communities in a range of events in the Metaverse for example – something that in the real world would be absolutely impossible.

Influencers should embrace this amazing opportunity and allow their imaginations to run wild. Take the best of you and amplify it as your digital avatar. Engage with your audience in any way that you find thrilling, such as flying over the forest. Promote products not only in new ways, but offer entirely new types of promotions, including new digital goods and events. 

The metaverse lets us be anywhere, at any time, and offer anything, so dream big. 

Virtual influencers are already growing in popularity, with the richest virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, reportedly earning 10 million Swiss Francs a year. But in the metaverse, all users participate as avatars, eliminating the distinction between traditional and virtual influencers. Without this point of differentiation, current influencers may have additional difficulties competing with CGI Influencers.

In an interesting twist, existing virtual influencers are now facing competition from brands, who are launching their own computer-generated avatars. Additionally, virtual influencers will need to tackle new challenges, such as character management if they choose to interact live with fans in the metaverse. 

Although NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are already being sold on existing social media platforms, interacting in a virtual world should increase demand for NFTs, presenting influencers and brands alike with an opportunity to increase revenue.

Growing Chasm Between Engaging & Annoying Advertising

In part 1, we stated that the chasm between the metaverse and other platforms will be a much larger distinction than the current differences between Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. We expect to see yet another chasm within the metaverse itself: between modern and legacy advertising.

The metaverse can change advertising dramatically. Rather than being concerned with having nice banners, brands need to change their game completely. One early innovation is Justin Bieber’s partnership with entertainment company Wave to provide an interactive, virtual event merging gaming, real-time motion capture, and live musical performance. General Mills introduced a new way to tailgate with the launch of the virtual “homegate,” which brings the gameday excitement straight to fans at home, through an interactive virtual kitchen and backyard.

In the metaverse, advertising can be more thrilling and exciting. TikTok advises, “Don’t make ads. Make TikToks.” Similarly, rather than making ads in the metaverse, brands should make immersive experiences. With limitless options, things that were the pure domain of science fiction and fantasy can come to life. Yes, it’s a “virtual” life, but users can experience these collaborations.

We hope that more marketers will go in a different direction and embrace these new opportunities to create value. Give your audience immersive experiences instead of stalking them with text to read.

• PREDICTION: Brands will be challenged with accepting the opportunity to provide something better. Innovative brands can rise above competitors and build customer loyalty, even brand love.

An Escape from Phobias

This freedom could also enable users to escape the burden of phobias. People with fears of social interaction could overcome their anxiety and engage socially in new ways. Likewise, common phobias such as heights, public speaking, or spiders may have less power to constrain interactions. Perhaps the opportunity to ride a giant spider galloping along a cliff’s edge can help reduce the power of phobias upon returning to reality. We’ll stop short of making a prediction, but it’s an interesting theory to ponder.

Brands Dream Along with Consumers as Partners

The metaverse enables people to be whoever they want to be and do anything – all without having to face their fears or doubts. Many social media users portray a carefully curated life that doesn’t accurately reflect their personal reality. The metaverse enables people to continue this practice while inhabiting their online persona more deeply. In the metaverse, users can become who they fantasize they could be, while abandoning the awkwardness of pimples or bad hair days.

• PREDICTION: The freedom the metaverse provides will be very popular, particularly with young people. Savvy brands will embrace this creative freedom, with offerings such as NFTs for unique clothing and accessories.

As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote, “the metaverse will not be created by one company.” Brands, along with consumers, influencers, and tech companies, all have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the metaverse. Forward-looking brands should start thinking now about who they want to be in the metaverse. Brands have the potential to shape consumer experiences, progressing toward the goal of having consumers see your brand as part of their lives.

• PREDICTION: Winning brands will dream along with consumers and become their partner in helping them achieve the metaverse identity they want. In doing so, they’ll build even stronger relationships both within and outside of the metaverse.

Influencers in the Metaverse 

Influencers must also consider who and what they want to be. In the metaverse, there are no limitations based on what you were born with. Influencers have the freedom to stick with the identity they’ve already developed on legacy social media platforms or build an entirely new one. Influencers could exist with only a digital persona, and never reveal their actual identity in the real world.

The explosion of options for everyone results in more opportunities for creative influencers, as well as increased competition, making it tougher to stand out. These decisions can also be made repeatedly, as influencers could create multiple avatars and compete with themselves.

Author: Megan Bozman, Owner @Boz Content Marketing

In part 1, we covered what the metaverse actually is, and made some predictions to questions such as “will immersiveness dominate,” and “who will win & lose?” Here in part 2, we’ll focus on the metaverse’s impacts to brands as well as influencers and consumers.

Impacts of the Metaverse on Consumers

An article on the Meta Newsroom describes the metaverse as, “a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.” Consumers can try on new clothes, test drive cars, and experiment with new hairstyles. Metaverse activities can encourage people to stand up and move, which is beneficial for health and can lead to increased steps counts and even improved fitness.

Verity McIntosh, a VR expert at the University of the West of England, told the BBC that the granularity of data available from the use of VR/AR is an order of magnitude higher than on screen-based media. “Now it’s not just about where I click and what I choose to share, it’s about where I choose to go, how I stand, what I look at for longest, the subtle ways that I physically move my body and react to certain stimuli. It’s a direct route to my subconscious, and that is gold to a data capitalist.”

The implications for manipulating people are thus orders of magnitude higher as well. If misused, with algorithms that present users with media that angers them, the metaverse could have a negative impact on society, leading to increased division. Protecting privacy will remain a difficult, ever evolving challenge.

The Blurring Lines Between Metaverse and Reality

The Role of Brands in Defining the Metaverse

According to a deep dive by The Drum, “We know that marketers have a huge role to play in defining the future of the metaverse, from creating the event spaces within platforms to selling consumers on the tech that allows them to experience it.” Luxury brands are selling digital-only products in the metaverse. According to Morgan Stanley, digital demand for fashion and luxury brands is expected to grow and could reach $50 billion by 2030.

Users have the potential to become who they fantasize they could be. In Part 3, we’ll delve into the enticing freedom of the metaverse. Winning brands will dream along with consumers and become their partner in helping them achieve the metaverse identity they want.

Transformed Opportunities to Interact

Advertising is often viewed as something negative, an interruption. It’s possible that legacy, annoying ads will be copy/ pasted onto the metaverse, and users will be bombarded with irritating digital billboards and flying banners. Writing for Cointelegraph, Tom Mitchelhill captures the bleak possibilities. “Now, Stephenson’s striking fictional depictions of a Metaverse over saturated with the neon glow of commercial advertising rings truer than ever as Web3 designers and marketers gear up to begin advertising in the emerging Metaverse(s).” Digital entertainment and media platform Azerion recently partnered with Bidstack, in-game advertising and video game monetization platform. Bidstack Founder and CEO said the contract, “signals a realization that brand advertising within the metaverse has truly arrived.”

However, the metaverse provides brands with a whole new set of tools to connect with customers. Currently, digital and physical experiences are often very disconnected, but the metaverse generates new opportunities to add value to customers with immersive, engaging experiences and new products in the form of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Influencers also have more opportunities to engage with their communities, such as being present at a concert or virtual store.

PREDICTION: The sale of digital goods will become important for brands and influencers alike. Digital goods can be leveraged both in marketing campaigns as well as sold to generate new revenue streams.

What Should Brands Be Doing?

Time to Start Experimenting

Are You Already Behind the Curve?

We don’t think brands need to worry about falling behind just yet. For a marketing channel to deliver positive ROI, brands must be able to reach their target audience. Achieving this objective in the metaverse will require necessary saturation, with a certain quantity of active users. The critical mass isn’t there yet, so brands aren’t at risk of falling behind competitors.

• PREDICTION: We’re not close to this point yet, but nor is it in the distant future. It’s just beginning, with a critical mass of users being three to five years away.

But on the one hand, it’s good to start planning. Now is the time to start acquiring knowledge and building those skills, including getting the support of knowledgeable marketers, so you’re ready.

One thing is certain, the metaverse will require marketers to frequently adapt and re-strategize. Selecting influencers and building an influencer network will become much more complex.

• PREDICTION: The guidance of experts and support from agencies will be more critical than ever.  

Author: Megan Bozman, Owner @Boz Content Marketing

Last October, Facebook changed its name to Meta. Upon hearing the news, it’s tempting to suspect the name change is an effort to escape the recent stains to the platform, as raised by the whistleblower. Of course, changing the name won’t undo any damage. Gartner vice president and analyst Chris Ross noted in calling it “a classic lipstick-on-the-pig scenario.” Whether that is in fact what it is or not, the future will tell. But one thing is sure, there is a whole lot of strategy and thinking behind the Metaverse and name changes aside, something big is in the making. 

However, the Facebook social network is not changing its name. Instead, the company owning the social network changed its name to better represent the larger scope of their offerings. In his keynote address at the company’s annual “Connect” event on 28 Oct, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “From now on, we’re going to be the metaverse first. Not Facebook first. Facebook is one of the most used products in the world. But increasingly, it doesn’t encompass everything that we do. Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we are doing.”

Currently, Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, as well as online payments and hardware businesses.

So, Just What Is The Metaverse?

If you saw the latest Spider Man movie, don’t confuse the Metaverse with Multiverse, although the two are similar in that we could be seeing the start of a world where two realities coexist in parallel, with one living inside the other. If you haven’t seen the movie, think of The Matrix, but hopefully without the evil machines or social media companies sticking tubes in us to feed off of our dreams – yikes! All jokes aside, it feels a little bit like reality is taking a new turn with the birth of the Metaverse and it might just do exactly that.

An article on the Meta Newsroom describes the metaverse as, “a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.” The Verge describes the metaverse as, “partly a dream for the future of the internet and partly a neat way to encapsulate some current trends in online infrastructure, including the growth of real-time 3D worlds.” 

The Growth of Immersive Experiences – In It, Not Looking at It

Discussing the evolution of the internet, Zuckerberg wrote, “The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”

“The defining quality of the metaverse will be a feeling of presence — like you are right there with another person or in another place. Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this.”

The founder’s letter includes a link to a film that explores how you might use the metaverse one day, which includes being able to teleport instantly as a hologram.

The Metaverse Will Not Be Created By 1 Company, But By Multiple Creators & Developers

Will Immersiveness Dominate?

The Battle for The Customer

While the battlefield will continue to change, the prize being fought for remains the same:

The Customer’s Attention

Content creators and brands alike need to earn the attention of customers, as well as their trust and fondness to retain that attention over time. If the Metaverse succeeds in capturing sizable portions of customer attention, all brands will need to enter the fray and compete within that arena.

Will AR and VR – at minimum – be required to win audiences? Even if there’s room for various platforms, should they adjust their formula accordingly or launch their own version of the metaverse? In particular, will brands be able to continue advertising within social media platforms in the current manner?

• PREDICTION: Rather than one platform dominating the others, audiences will become increasingly fragmented. Within various narrow “tribes,” a given platform may be most popular, but increasing fragmentation leaves adequate space for multiple platforms to succeed.  

Who Will Win & Lose [or Will There Be Space for Everyone]

Rethinking the Definition of Social Media Engagement

The Growing Chasm

Finally, the chasm between the Metaverse and other platforms will be a much larger distinction than the current differences between Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In parts 2 and 3, we’ll explore what this all means for the social media landscape and influencer marketing overall. In particular, what the impacts might be for the various players including brands, influencers, and consumers.

Author: Megan Bozman, Owner @Boz Content Marketing