Lately I’ve been thinking about the plethora of marketing activities that businesses have to engage in just to remain competitive and ahead-of-the-game: ezines, strategic alliances, referral harvesting, writing articles, delivering presentations, direct mail campaigns, keep-in-touch strategies, etc, etc, etc! Then, just when you’ve hit your stride, you’ve got your integrated marketing system humming down the road toward Clientville, along comes social media.

You know…blogging, podcasting, wikis, RSS, XML, yada, yada. Yeah, THAT stuff. Ok, so that’s been around for a little bit and many businesses have started blogs and wikis – many haven’t. In due time…

Now, alternate universes are all the rage. Maybe you’ve heard of Second Life? No? Second Life is a virtual 3-D world where the ‘players’ own the virtual world in which they reside. Before you dismiss this as just another Dungeons & Dragons, you should know that since 2003, the population in Second Life has swelled to almost 2.7 million people from around the World (this does not take into account people who create ‘lives’ and never return and those with more than one ‘life’). The residents actually start, own and operate real-life businesses in this ether realm. Some consulting companies are making millions advising mega-corporations like Sun Microsystems, CNET, Dell, BBC Radio 1 and Wells Fargo on how to extend their brand experience into Second Life. If all of this sounds like something from a movie set, you’re not too far off.

What are the potential implications of something like Second Life? Well, you might want to consider working with a technology or marketing consultant to help you manage all this marketing spaghetti and see how all the various marketing pieces fit together. You might also want to think about how scenarios like Second Life – and whatever comes after it (there WILL be something next, I promise) – affects your market and conduct research on their reactions to these new marketing methods. If your business caters to the Gen X and Y set, you need to get on top of marketing opportunities like Second Life immediately, if not sooner.

And, circling back to my point…

So, what should you do? Do you jump on every bandwagon that looks like it’s headed to Clientville? Or, do you hitch a ride on a later bandwagon and risk missing the party (i.e. the cash)?

I’ll answer with a story:

A client asked me the other day if I thought he should start a blog. My response to him was, “I need to know more about your intent, purpose and direction to be able to provide a professional recommendation.”

So, that’s what I’ll ask you to do, dear readers. When new technology and online marketing opportunities present themselves, what can you do?

Get clear about your intent, purpose and direction. Then figure out how the latest thing fits in – if it fits in at all. And, if you can’t figure it out on your own, by all means, seek help.