Don't Dismiss the Metaverse As a Comms Channel
The authority on mixternal communications
There's no reason to discount the metaverse as a potential channel for mixternal communications. The metaverse is new and largely untested, yes. And nobody is seriously using it for corporate comms—internal or external, which is exactly why someone who wants to carve out a niche in our industry should explore this channel.
The comms pro who becomes an expert at metaverse communications will one day be richly rewarded.
(See chapter four in How to Earn More Money in Communications, where I emphasize the rewards for becoming so good at something you can’t be ignored.)
I explored the potential of holograms to enhance mixternal comms in a series of articles later compiled into a mini-book in 2022. In Innovation in Internal Communications I argued that holography is a technology with disruptive potential because of its under-development and non-mainstream status.
If I were to update that mini-book today I could easily substitute the metaverse for holograms.
One day (not too far in the future) using the metaverse will make business sense. The use of headsets will be much more practical than flying executives around the country/world to attend meetings that didn't have to happen in person.
Unlike holography, cheap metaverse accessories (headsets) will also allow hybrid, remote, and deskless employees to engage with teammates and leaders in ways that are exponentially more engaging than two-dimensional video calls.
Just watch the first five minutes of Mark Zuckerberg's first interview in the metaverse 👇 and tell me it's not mind-blowing.
I don’t know about you, but I’d take that metaverse call over a Zoom chat any day.
As metaverse technology evolves it will move from the fringe to mainstream, probably through gaming and then through other forms of entertainment. What will be seen as a "distraction" or a means of leisure and amusement eventually will be seriously considered an avenue for communicating with customers, recruits, and employees.
(TikTok has made this transition.)
Experimenting with metaverse comms is reserved for the pioneers in corporate comms. Just like I argued about exploring holography ($), a forward-thinking comms team could set up an independent subgroup to explore metaverse technology away from regular operations to allow for innovation without the constraints of traditional processes.
Using the metaverse in mixternal communications is a disruptive innovation that involves rethinking significant systems and relationships across the company.
Security, IT, Operations, Communications, and other stakeholder groups will be affected.
Because of the intense cross-functional and cross-departmental nature of the experiment, the metaverse comms team must be independent of the regular Comms function.
While such an organization does not guarantee success, it at least allows the team to work in an environment that encourages—rather than impedes—disruptive innovation.
Audentes fortuna iuvat.
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.
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Hologram Technology and Internal Communications: A Hypothetical Case Study (9/9)
This is not a prediction that holograms are the wave of the future for internal comms. Rather, I choose the technology because it exists but is not yet fully developed and not mainstream, which means holograms have the potential to be a disruptive technology. The exercise is intended to show how an internal comms manager might think through exploring a …