IRS Saves Millions by Using Second Life to Market Its Employment Opportunities
As one of the owners of CollegeRecruiter.com, I feel blessed that we have some really wonderful, blue chip clients. Some of them are corporations and some of them are government. One of our government clients is the Internal Revenue Service. Through our work for them over the years, I've learned a lot of things about the IRS which astounded me and probably would be astounding to most people. For example, did you know that they're the largest accounting firm in the world? And did you know that they are one of the leaders in using virtual world Second Life to recruit candidates.
When I found out about Second Life, I knew that I needed to learn more so I asked Frank Stipe,Virtual Worlds & Social Networking Project Manager, for more information and dropped a pretty strong hint that his response would be blogworthy. Well, ask and ye shall receive. In Frank's words:
In 2008, the IRS project team established a presence in the Second Life virtual world with the goal of exploring the potential use of this environment for recruitment and training purposes. The team has created the IRS Careers Island and constructed a sky platform with an IRS Careers Center and an IRS Education Center. A number of building design configurations have been tested. A number of education and entertainment features have also been built to attract residents to the simulation (sim). All basic construction has been completed and the sim has been opened to the general population in Second Life since February 2009.
Nearly identical to brand marketing in the physical world marketplace, brand marketing in the SL virtual world involves placing brand messaging in high traffic venues. Unlike the physical world, the IRS has actually built its own venue that provides excellent marketing opportunities.
In the physical world, we could spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on sponsoring a race car that displays our brand in a field of thirty or more other cars. In the SL virtual world, we have spent a few thousand dollars to build complete entertainment and communications venue that includes a race course. IRS branding throughout the venue not only displays our messaging, but it also instantly dispenses marketing collateral and links to our Careers web site.
We are now entering the relationship building phase where we are reaching out to universities that operate virtual campuses in Second Life to market directly to their students by sponsoring student projects in Second Life.
Inside Second Life, you can contact either our recruiter Robin Laviscu or our sim engineer RobinRasberry Sorbet.
Cool, huh? So next time you feel like complaining about the IRS -- and most of us do each spring -- remember that they have some really great people working for them and without a doubt, Frank is in that club.
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