What’s your reaction when you hear people talking about the Metaverse? Are you excited about the opportunities? Overwhelmed by the possibilities? Or just scratching your head and wondering ‘What on earth is the Metaverse, and why should I care anyway?’.
I recently interviewed Michelle Schuberg, CEO of Curiious, on the Redefining Sales podcast to unpack the who, what, and why of the Metaverse.
Turns out – the opportunities for businesses and brands to engage via the Metaverse are already here, and those who get started sooner rather than later will get a first-mover advantage.
Here’s why.
Effective engagement.
What could increased engagement do for your business?
With a pandemic of Zoom-fatigued zombies, and no guarantee that those ‘attendees’ at your virtual events aren’t just scrolling Instagram or checking emails, the Metaverse presents a new way to provide your audience with immersive opportunities to engage and connect.
How? Through the thrill of the new, via a 3D rather than 2D experience.
Most virtual event platforms are now fairly familiar to audiences, and are tarnished with the ‘been there, done that’ brush. The Metaverse offers new opportunities that people are interested in experiencing for themselves, and it provides a truly interactive experience to attendees, far beyond the flat interface of a traditional website.
Essentially, the Metaverse is a collective term for an online world you can engage with, rather than passively look at. As we step into web 3.0, our devices will allow us to do more than ever before and bring into our homes the possibilities of a perpetual 3D world – AKA the Metaverse.
Think about how immersive experiences could increase engagement with your audience by making them active participants vs passive witnesses with your most important messages, while at the same time positioning your brand as an innovative, early adopter of the next big thing.
Meticulous measurement
Here’s a stat for you: Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026.
It might seem hard to fathom now, but just as the internet has become a part of our daily lives, soon the Metaverse will be too.
For businesses, the Metaverse presents a new opportunity to measure the way your audience is interacting with you in the new online world. Data like number of clicks and online dwell time will be elevated to factor in metrics like how people move through a virtual space and usage trends in interactive activities.
And participation will provide deeper insights into the way your audience is behaving – what they’re responding well to, and what they’re finding valuable.
We all know metrics matter in business – having this insight will empower you to respond to your audience in real-time, and to finesse your services and products to make them even more appealing, fed by the data coming from your presence in the Metaverse.
Lasting longevity
Unlike web 2.0 and social media, the Metaverse is a perpetual platform.
This means, you can build something in the Metaverse, and a month later it will still be there. It gives you an ability to expand your footprint over time, and provides better opportunities to create a sense of community and connection with your audience – key ingredients to building brand equity, increasing the number of interactions with your organisation and lowering the cost of acquisition.
The Metaverse is also a great place to build an ongoing resource centre that is accessible and engaging, with long-term appeal. Organisations have the opportunity to leverage existing resources with new audiences in an ‘always on’ digital space for users to explore in their own time.
We’re now in the attention economy – people know their where they spend their time is valuable, and they want reassurance that they’re making the most of their time online. Creating an online resource centre where people can find the content that’s relevant to them and enjoy an immersive interaction with it, is more valuable than scrolling mindlessly through content in the hope something catches their attention.
The Metaverse is here and now
The Metaverse isn’t a future fantasy, it’s here and now.
Whether your audience is B2B, internal, your partner network or even B2C, now is the time to explore the potential of the Metaverse, for a competitive edge. Waiting five years to see what emerges will mean you’re late to the party.
If you’re ready to delve deeper into the Metaverse and the opportunities it presents, have a listen to the full podcast episode with Michelle Schuberg from Curiious above.