Being socially present is now more important now than ever. Millions across the globe are staying home, limiting their physical and social contact. Never has a person felt so “on their own”.
Families and friends meet up via Zoom calls or Skype. Professionals are spending countless hours each day connecting with their colleagues and clients via various online mediums. For those with less or no connect, there is a rising case of depression and loneliness.
The concept of Spatial Presence – feeling of “being there” in a virtual space has brought about a huge relief to many people. It offers a sense of belonging and gratification in a world torn apart by pandemic.
Both for adults and teens across the world, the hours spent in social media has seen a sharp rise in 2020. According to Global Web IndexJuly 2020 saw a rise of 10.5% in social media usage, compared with July 2019. Some 46% of women and 41% of men said they’ve spent more time on social media during the pandemic, making it the second-most popular digital activity.
Responsive Design
Internet surfing has moved from computers and laptops to smartphones and tablets a long time ago. From reading blogs to shopping apparel, people are now connecting with businesses over their portable gadgets. You might not be able to invest in a dedicated mobile app now but you should not ignore the responsiveness factor of your website. In simple words, your site must adjust to every gadget and provide the same experiences to all customers. Or else, you will lose 25% of your net sales revenue as that is how much mobile shopping brings to businesses today.
Role of Social VR and Facebook Horizon
Social virtual realityis now mainstream. Social VR has seen a steep rise in the second quarter of 2020 . Social VR apps like BigScreen, VRChat, Rec Room, and AltSpace have all seen an increase in traffic. Towards the end of August 2020 Facebook announced the launch of the public beta for its social VR experience, Horizon,where users can interact and engage with each other in a virtual environment.It’s a space where you can invite your friends are colleagues to together do the things you want. Social VR apps and experiences like Horizon provides people a virtual place to gather, play, and create as they may have in real life.
Right now, the social media is a space where we share our passions and experiences for others to see. Social VR is about creating new memories digitally, it creates a feeling of being in same shared space. For brands this means building meaningful relationships with the audience by being there creating or experiencing together before actually buying the service or product. Social VR allows you to engage and experience and not just watch a screen in a flat 2D newsfeed.
The New Horizon
In last few weeks there has been loads of sneak peaks of Horizon all over the Social media. The trailer released by Facebook shows avatars playing games in Horizon, building their own worlds, and having fun with other avatars. Facebook Horizon’s beta access is currently invite-only, and many brands and people seem not to be interested but things are going to change very soon. Soon enough social VR will become more and more relevant, in many different ways. Whether you get involved now or wait it out, it will be something that cannot be ignored.
Marketing Opportunities
Social VR also means new opportunities for advertising, marketing, personal branding and related elements and it could be worth getting involved now to stay ahead of the game. Facebook is showing this in Horizon by installing virtual avatars of their own staff who act as guides or hosts in public spaces. Now instead of submitting a request one can virtually walk up and talk to a Facebook employee.
The brands can now create own marketplace virtually for consumers to come, build, experience and feel. As per a survey 80% of global consumers want to visit a brick and mortar shop to enjoy the “ability to touch, feel and try products”. As virtual reality continues to advance, e-commerce retailers soon will be leveraging these formats the audiences and create a virtual store for shoppers to engage and feel online.
For brands and marketers, it could be worth getting involved now to stay ahead of the game. Collaboration, gameplay, and world-building are all tools marketers need to get familiar with. The best way out is to be part of Social VR platforms and familiarize oneself with how it works.
The merging of this physical and virtual worlds will generate new opportunities in the near future. The whole way of interaction between friends, families, and even colleagues will witness a mega change and we need to be prepared.
Image Credit
Medium/Riccardo Giorato
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