Pros to Using Second Life

There are a lot of pros to using second life. Being able to remain anonymous is a good thing too because, it allows people to come out of there shells and be themselves among other people. It's also like a social media network in that it allows people to communicate with each other. It can also be used for companies to hold meetings and even for interviews to higher employees. Companies can do power-point presentations on Second Life which just goes to show how far technology has come.

Sources: http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/secondlife_recruit.fortune/

Second Life Five Primary Benefits for B2B

Shared real-time experience. A website is an isolated, one-way communication channel, but Second Life allows visitors to interact in real time using many different media at once. For example, an avatar visiting a virtual meeting hall can view a video while text messaging with another avatar watching the same video.

A new forum for explaining complex products and services. By combining different communications channels in Second Life, companies can let customers see and experience products and services that are difficult to conceptualize in traditional media such as print. For example, PA Consulting has built a "smart home" in Second Life where visitors can play with futuristic high-tech and energy-saving technologies for the home. On Dell's Second Life island, visitors can enter a giant 3-D Dell computer to see the inner workings of a PC. Most important, if visitors have questions, a virtual representative can answer them in the moment.

Inexpensive prototyping and customer focus groups. For example, PA Consulting built a virtual bank branch for a client to gauge customer reaction to the space and to give bank representatives a chance to try different sales techniques on visitors.

Training and recruiting. Second Life is becoming a valuable training ground for Cisco, which recently conducted its network academy instructor training series inside the virtual world. Meanwhile, PA Consulting uses its virtual island to ask job applicants questions in real time, just as during a job interview, as do other organizations, including Microsoft, HP, and the Vancouver Police Department.

Global reach and accessibility. Second Life meetings can replace in-person meetings and teleconferences. Dell, for example, has a virtual conference center for meetings and events and a theater for product announcements and webcasts. Cisco holds its monthly user group gatherings and events with partner companies in Second Life and has a virtual trade show floor where the company holds product launches for the press and analysts

Source: http://www.itsma.com/NL/article.asp?ID=360