As virtual worlds become as prevalent in business as they are in games and socialization, we need to learn how to present ourselves as effectively as possible in this medium. Since first impressions count in virtual teams just as much as they do in face-to-face teams, we need to take our virtual appearance more seriously. In the case of these immersive environments, appearance is based on our avatars.

How do we create avatars that are more than just placeholders? Which avatar features contribute most to the quality and richness of the conversation?

Eye gaze

While 3-D avatars can generate motion and activity, it doesn’t seem to be enough. Just because an avatar looks and moves like a person, it doesn’t mean that the quality of communication mimics face-to-face interactions. Avatars still can’t use subtle body language in the way humans do. But adding even something as mundane as head and eye motion, combined as “gaze”, can make a huge difference.

This was demonstrated in a study conducted in University College London. The research compared an avatar whose gaze was based on the conversation’s turn-taking (informed-gaze) and an avatar whose animations were unrelated to the conversation (random-gaze). They also compared these two types of avatars to other media, such as live video and audio-only conversations.

According to the study, even the inclusion of a relevant, expressive gaze created a significant improvement in the perceived quality of the conversation. When comparing to the participants’ sense of involvement, informed-gaze avatars barely had a significant difference from communicating via video.

What’s even more surprising is that the random-gaze avatar had no significant improvement over pure audio. This implies that a mere 3-D presence doesn’t automatically mean that the communication quality and richness improves. To be truly useful and engaging, avatars must exhibit behaviors that are relevant to the conversation — even if it’s something as simple as eye gaze.

Gesture and manners

Taking a step beyond eye gaze, it appears that other non-verbal manners, and our responses to them, persist in virtual worlds.

In a study from Stanford University, researchers observed how interacting avatars used interpersonal distance and eye gaze in Second Life. Based on their observations, non-verbal norms were still present, even if controlling them meant moving a mouse and keyboard rather than our own eyes and legs. The study, which focused on gender norms, showed that male-male pairs, like their face-to-face counterparts, maintained less eye contact and were further apart than female-female pairs. Also, when the “physical” distance between avatars was decreased, the avatars compensated by avoiding eye contact — just like people would in the offline world.

But it’s not just gender norms that persist in virtual environments. Cultural norms are still exhibited, even when the technology allows us interaction with people from different cultures. An experiment from Augsburg University in Germany showed that cultural speech nuances such as timing and pauses affected a viewer’s preference for an avatar. Their results showed that people preferred avatars that exhibited the nuances from their own culture. Perhaps this means that even if we are meeting other people in a virtual environment, we should still take cultural factors into account when we’re communicating.

How important are these cues? Quoting from a paper on the use of avatars in collaboration (PDF):

The ability or inability to maintain an “appropriate” interpersonal distance or the ability or inability to control one’s viewpoint so other avatars may be seen, among other things, will affect the feeling of being there together. [...] Being in an environment where people feel connected is more likely to enhance development of trust and reduction of conflict, which in turn lead to more effective collaboration.

(Source: “Avatars, Text, and Miscommunication: The Impact of Communication Richness on Global Virtual Team Collaboration”, Columbia University)

Looking back at all the research, it’s a lot to take in. Doesn’t it seem cumbersome to have avatars that allow you to control all of these tiny factors? After all, in real life we barely even think about these non-verbal cues.

The answer is simple: it should be automated in our avatars’ programming, just as it is in our own minds and bodies. The more these virtual environments have an intuitive interface, and the more these communication nuances are automated, the more natural it will be for most people to successfully use their virtual world avatars for collaboration.

How do you create and control avatars?

Photo courtesy Flickr user cloud2013

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Scientists are hard at work on the question, allowing their big brains to run wild and come up with out-of-the-box offerings for the web worker of the future … and they’re dreaming of robots.

California company Anybots, for example, has designed an adorable robot avatar that you control from home while it rambles around the office displaying a video of your face, interacting with co-workers. You’d better hope your corporate headquarters doesn’t have any stairs though, as the Anybot is unable to handle them.

But scientists at Tokyo’s Sony Computer Science Laboratories have come up with an innovative solution to deal with this so-called “Dalek problem” of maneuvering up and down stairs – a floating robot avatar head. They report:

We developed a floating avatar system that integrates a blimp with a virtual avatar to create a unique telepresence system. Our blimp works as an avatar and contains several pieces of equipment, including a projector and a speaker as the output functions. Users can communicate with others by transmitting their facial image through the projector and voice through the speaker. A camera and microphone attached to the blimp provide the input function and support the user’s manipulation from a distance. The user’s presence is dramatically enhanced compared to using conventional virtual avatars (e.g., CG and images) because the avatar is a physical object that can move freely in the real world.

Having trouble imagining what on earth this floating avatar could look like? Check out this New Scientist video:

How does the idea of your boss’s virtual head floating around the office strike you – Creepy? Cool? A little of both?

Image courtesy of Flickr user misocrazy

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There are ways to counteract this feeling, of course: videoconferencing and other tools have certainly made a positive impact on how out-of-the-office employees can interact with their in-office colleagues. But there is at least one company exploring the question of whether a physical avatar in the office might help even more. Anybots offers a physical avatar for telecommuters, which displays a video at about eye-level as well as can be driven around a facility. All a remote team member needs to use the robotic avatar is a web browser.

Do In-Office Avatars Make Sense?

At a hefty $15,000 a pop, it’s going to be hard to justify the cost of one of Anybots’ devices. As the telecommuting trend grows, however, it’s likely that the cost of in-office avatars will drop, especially if they turn out to successful.

Personally, I have a hard time seeing a use for a robot as a substitute physical presence for myself in a client’s or an employer’s office. Then again, almost all of my work is done at the computer, where opening up a chat client or videoconferencing software is trivial. In a situation where physical presence matters more — like when you need to chase down a particular team member and have a face-to-face chat, or locate something in the office — a mobile avatar prove to be be far more useful. Such an approach may also promote interactions that are almost as good as those conducted face-to-face.

It’s not clear yet whether an in-office avatar will be useful for building up relationships between the members of your team who stay in the office all day and those who work from elsewhere. But it is an interesting tool to consider and, as costs come down and availability goes up, they may prove to be helpful in building the personal connections that make a team effective.

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Here are six tip for better branding using avatars.

1. Define your brand. Anyone familiar with Branding 101 knows how to think through the attributes of a brand. Simply put, you need to ask yourself which words best describe who you are and what you’d like to project to others. When I was working with my business partner to think about the brand for our new company, we came up with “professional, creative, playful, approachable.” For my own personal brand, I might pick “helpful, honest, sensible, snarky.”

2. Identify your assets. Once you’ve established clear brand attributes, you need to go through the images you have or are considering using for your avatar and pick those that most clearly represent those attributes. Without question, using a photograph of yourself will always establish more trust than using any other image, particularly any non-human image.

A cartoon image of yourself can be a good second choice if the nature of the illustration is in keeping with your brand attributes. You could use a site such as Meez, DoppelMe or Yahoo Avatars to create a cartoon likeness. You might use your Second Life avatars to represent yourself on your profile, particularly if you’re involved with the virtual world in your work.

Your company logo could stand in for your own image. However, that may create different expectations from others if they think they’re hearing from the “company” instead of you.

Any other image that you pick could potentially cause confusion or give the wrong impression. Not everyone gets the inside joke between you and your friends when you put a photo of a hot dog on your profile. If you are thinking about the importance of the image you project, you need to make your avatar choice very carefully.

3. Optimize your images. If you are using a photograph, you can use a free online editing tool such as Picnik, PiZap or FotoFlexer to touch it up or add interesting effects.

Beware of “overproduced” photographs that misrepresent what you actually look like. They may not affect trust now, but could once someone meets you in person.

4. Be ever-present. Don’t get lazy and fail to add an image to your profile. In fact, make sure any time you set up a new social media account that you have an avatar ready to upload immediately, while you fill in the basic details of your profile. Wherever there is the opportunity to extend your brand with an image, upload that image.

A profile without a personalized avatar can send the wrong signals to others. When I’m contacted by someone who uses a generic avatar, I feel a mixture of:

• Suspicion. If I don’t know the person, I want to be able to see what they look like and so I wonder what they’re trying to hide.
• Skepticism. If they don’t take the time to add their image, I wonder how seriously they’re taking social media as a communications tool, particularly if they’re contacting me for professional reasons.
• Doubt. I think that if someone can’t even figure out how to add a basic image to their profile, they might lack basic skills, which doesn’t bode well if they’re approaching me for a job.
• Frustration. In this world of virtual contacts and less likelihood of a face-to-face meeting, I rely on profile images to provide a sense of connection that’s lacking from purely textual encounters.

Don’t forget that avatars aren’t just for social media profiles. They’re also available on many blog publishing tools so your image appears with your blog comments. You can also create a universal avatar via Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) and attach a consistent image to many of your interactions on blogs and social media sites.

5. Mix it up. While on the one hand you want to be consistent with your personal brand and thus your avatar, that doesn’t mean you have to use the same image across all sites. Nor does it mean you can’t switch out your image periodically to keep things fresh. The consistency comes from staying “on message” with your avatar choices.

Pick an avatar that is appropriate for each site — in many cases you could use the same image, but think before you upload. And when you’re ready for a change, pull from a pool of images you’ve already reviewed and optimized.

6. Politicize with care. Who knew that simply making your avatar green could be a powerful and controversial political statement? Many people will modify their avatars to show their support for or against the cause of the moment. Managing your brand also means taking care to decide which political or social movements you’ll be backing with your personal branding images.

Changing your avatar to green can be the virtual equivalent of wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a political slogan, or even attending a rally or protest. But while it may be a physically “safe” way to broadcast your personal and political opinions, it could affect your personal brand in detrimental ways. What if a client or potential employer doesn’t share your views and sees that you’ve been supporting a cause they are vehemently against?

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have the courage to speak out for what you believe in, but understand the deeper impact to other aspects of your virtual life and work when you choose to use your brand avatar as a soapbox.

How are you building and managing your personal brand through your avatar?

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Part of my online work has migrated over into the virtual world Second Life. Yes, I said work, and no, Second Life is not a game. I actually run several businesses in SL as we residents call it, as Cybergrrl Oh, entrepreneur, producer and host. Some of the businesses in the virtual world are adjuncts to what I do in my First Life, others are completely unrelated and probably things I could never do in “real life.” However, when you’re a freelancer, you take the revenues wherever you can get it!

If you’ve ever wanted to know what a day in the life of a serial Second Life entrepreneur looks like, here’s your chance.

All times are in SLT (Second Life Time) or PST based on the time zone where Bay Area company and Second Life creator Linden Lab is located. I have to constantly do a time check because I’m doing business in another time zone.

8:30am SLT – Post to Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook and Plaxo through HelloTxt.com about my Monday event for Second Life Marketers Club. One of my “businesses” is forming and hosting Second Life groups or clubs on my tiny parcel of land, Athena Isle. I bring in experts and authors to speak to the public groups I manage – Second Life Women’s Club, Second Life Entrepreneurs Club, Second Life Marketers Club, Second Life Writers Club and Moms in Second Life. The business: Event hosting. The revenue model: Sponsorships and advertising from companies wanting to reach the members of my highly targeted groups.

8:35am – Log into Second Life. I recently rebuilt the Athena Isle Clubhouse where the groups meet every week, so I spend about half an hour moving objects such as promotional posters and events calendars into place. I also have a shop called Athena Wares and the Athena Gallery of women’s art on my isle. I spend some time editing the terrain under the new clubhouse so there aren’t holes in the ground. I’m a bit clumsy at building and landscaping, and these are things I’d never do in real life, but in Second Life, they come with the territory of owning land unless you can afford to hire other people to do it for you. The business: Providing meeting space for groups, display space in the gallery and vendor space in the shop. The revenue model: Rent for space.

9:00am – Promote the day’s event on Eventful.com, a Web-based events calendar that accepts Second Life events. Then I write and submit a press release to Free-Press-Release.com. I’m still logged into Second Life, and I can hear the wind chimes and water fountains on my isle in the background. The business: Event marketing – something I’m also doing for other Second Life events. The revenue model: Consulting fees from clients.

10:00am – Update the Athena Isle calendar of events on a notecard in Second Life and replace the old calendars in several objects on the isle that automatically give notecards when an avatar clicks on it (called a Notecard Giver). When it comes to promoting my Second Life events on my isle, I can’t live without my Notecard Givers and URL scripts that lead people to my Second Life club blogs when they click on the related promo poster.

11:00am – Print out the run sheet for my Second Life television show REAL BIZ in SL on SLCN.tv. I feature a different real life company or nonprofit organization each week with a 20 minute tour of their island in Second Life and a 5 minute sit down interview discussing the business side of their Second Life initiative. Second Life is still running in the background, and I’m fielding IMs from SL friends and acquaintances including a PR person, a music columnist, a photographer, a reporter and a stay-at-home mom who just stops by to say hi. The business: Second Life television production. The revenue model: Advertising and sponsorship.

12:00pm – Rush to put up a new sign that directs people to the roof of the clubhouse for our meeting. Welcome my guest speaker and send her up to the roof for a quick photo shoot with the photographer who I’ve hired to be the official Athena Isle photographer to help me document my events. I’ll pay her in Linden (the Second Life currency) and in gift certificates to great Second Life clothing stores. Fly up to the roof and usher everyone to sit at the MystiTable by Mystical Cookie, an ingenious piece of furniture that appears to have one chair but a new one appears as soon as someone sits in the empty one. It seats up to 40 people which is all my isle can handle so it is the perfect piece of equipment. I start the live text chat and let my guest take over. Today’s guest is Pebbles Hanya (her avatar name) or Mary Ellen Gordon of MarketTruths.com, a Second Life research firm, giving a talk titled “Are People in Virtual Worlds Normal?” The event is hosted by my group Second Life Marketers Club.

12:30pm - I suddenly realize that I forgot to make the club meeting an hour earlier so ask my photographer to moderate and save a transcript, then leave the meeting quietly by teleporting to the island or “sim” (for simulation) owned by Splitsville, a real world bowling alley and nightclub venue. Call into the bridge line, and lead the production crew on a quick walk through of the sim with the sim’s developer, Dire Logo (his avatar name).

1:10pm – Start the show. We film live and usually do the entire show without stopping, but this time, my producer stops me so they can redo the shots of me (my avatar) and Dire Lobo bowling. I improvise dialog while maneuvering my avatar on the screen and am thrilled that I’m able to bowl a strike on the second take. This is all in Second Life, mind you. I’m still sitting at my desk in my basement home office.

1:45pm – Wrap the show and film a quick commercial that will be uploaded to YouTube to promote the archive of the Splitsville show. Have a discussion with my executive producer about a Second Life music show I’ll be producing that starts in April.

2:00pm - Teleport back to Athena Isle. Upload graphic files of tshirt designs that I created in PhotoShop Elements into Second Life then construct three tshirts for a nonprofit organization called Wings of Hope. One of the other things I do in Second Life that I could never do in real life is design tshirts, both promotional ones and my own line called Cybergrrl Teez. I’m doing these three shirts pro-bono. The business: Promotional tshirts, tshirt designs and tshirt shop. The revenue model: Linden from items sold inworld (that can be converted to dollars) and dollars from items sold on CafePress.com (Second Life Swag).

3:00pm – Put some finishing touches on promo posters for the next day’s event. Greet people who arrive at Athena Isle to explore. In real life, the babysitter is leaving for the day so I log out and get to my First Life work before my baby wakes from her nap.

Some people struggle to balance life and work. I’m struggling to balance, First Life, Second Life and my work in both of those lives. But such is life when you’re a serial entrepreneur in a virtual world.

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