Business Imagery in Virtiual Reality
Would you wear this at the office?
Take off that Valkyrie bra. Get rid of the Elton John glasses. Drop that red feather boa! Stop running amok like Lady Gaga and Madonna on Saturday Night Live!
There have been a number of posts recently about the need for social media policies at corporations. Sharlyn Lauby, the HR Bartender had an interesting post on Mashable that discussed the need for companies to do planning for social media damage control. Sharlyn has also posted on the corporate dress code.
Now Gartner, Inc warns that businesses need to start worrying about how the avatars used by their employees are using being used professionally and to consider how that look might impact the business.
Are we really ready for an avatar dress code?
Gartner recommends six tactical guidelines for your consideration as human resources professionals and other managers begin to come to grips with this fretful new concern.
1. Help users learn to control their avatars.
2. Recognize that users will have a personal affinity with their avatar.
3. Educate users on the risks and responsibilities of reputation management.
4. Extend the code of conduct to include avatars in 3-D virtual environments.
5. Explore the business case for avatars.
6. Encourage usage and enterprise pilots.
is anyone out there dealing with this right now? If so, what are you doing? I’d love to hear about it!
Additional information on this topic can be found in the Gartner report “Avatars in the Enterprise: Six Guidelines to Enable Success.” which is available on Gartner’s Web site here.
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[New Post] Your Avatar Means Business! http://toast.tw/10017m
RT @MikeVanDervort Your Avatar Means Business! http://bit.ly/bBhNf [I suspect this is only the beginning!]
@MikeVanDervort Great article! This is really a lot of common sense, Don’t post anything you will not regret, and Have a decent Avatar,B …
Twitter: MikeVanDervort
October 10, 2009 at 10:01 am
@Shennee – totally agree, even though I don’t always watch what I post as carefully as I should. I use a naughty word every now and then. Thanks for sharing you thought.
Do you need a dress code for your biz avatar? check out my new Post! Your Avatar Means Business! http://bit.ly/reX8p
Twitter: hrbartender
October 10, 2009 at 9:23 am
Hi Mike. Thanks for the mention. Having an avatar policy is definitely an interesting idea. The way you present yourself to the rest of the world is so important.
Even if companies don’t go the route of avatar policies, people should put some consideration into their avatar. Thanks for drawing attention to this issue.
Twitter: MikeVanDervort
October 10, 2009 at 10:00 am
@Sharlyn. Thanks for dropping by. Admittedly, this is perhaps a little early and even silly, but it continues the thread of what you have been doing a great job pointing out over the last few months. Business is slow to catch up with technology advances, even in social media, and this opens a window for human resources to fill. I think posting this kind of stuff helps a few people think about ways they might be able to step up to the table in this arena.