Metaverse: How Will It Transform Influencer Marketing?

Imagine how amazing it would be to play your favourite sport with a childhood friend who is settled in a far land too at the comfort of your couch. Sounds impossible, right? It’s 2022 when billion-dollar deals are closed within a Zoom meeting. So, is it possible to have fun with your loved ones close to reality? Well, yes! Metaverse – a durable, virtual, three-dimensional cosmos that blends numerous virtual spaces- has it covered for you! 

Here are some in-depth pointers about the new game changer, the Metaverse.

What is Metaverse? 

The Metaverse is a vision for an online, 3D, virtual world that connects people from all walks of life. It would link numerous ecosystems together so that a web browser may view dozens of web pages. Snow Crash, a science-fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, establishes the theme. At the same time, the widely suspected notion of the Metaverse being a fictional story, which now looks to be becoming a reality shortly. Though the Metaverse does not fully exist today, video games are the closest you can get to the Metaverse. It offers you a complete experience of what Metaverse is all about. 

A multimedia system would create excellent potential for Metaverse. For example, you are meeting in your virtual workplace with a headset, completing the work, relaxing in a blockchain-based game, and managing your crypto portfolio and money all within the Metaverse.

Virtual video game environments have already been the platform of various characteristics of the Metaverse. Many areas of our lives are brought together in virtual settings through games like Second Life and Fortnite and work socializing tools like Gather Town. These applications are not similar to the Metaverse, but they’re close. The technology of Metaverse has not reached its full potential to be in existence yet, but soon it will!

The Closest to Metaverse Today is Video Games- Why?

Video games currently offer the closest metaverse sensation due to the emphasis on interactive 3D reality. This isn’t solely because they’re 3D. Video games nowadays include tools and applications that apply to various areas of life. A popular video game, Roblox, offers virtual events such as concerts and gatherings. Players no longer play the game; they also use it in “cyberspace” for other activities and aspects of their lives. For instance, Travis Scott’s simulated in-game musical concert engaged 12.3 million players in the online game Minecraft.

Differencing Factor of Metaverse

Metaverse can be defined as virtual reality on steroids, which is not limited to gaming but would be a virtual world that you can use to work, attend a dance show or hang out with your friends all at your comfort. However, a dozen apps available like Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, etc., can already achieve this, which works on getting the world closer. But through Metaverse, one could accomplish all of this in virtual 3D representation just like superhero movies. 

Most millennials can correlate it to a game that was aired back in the 2000s, ‘Second Life’. It was given the name Second Life as a nod because it was different from your actual life, or First Life, and was only a virtual replica. While you lived a fictitious life in Second Life, the Metaverse will be a virtual extension of your actual life. You’ll come across genuine products, real concerts, and people on it. You’ll spend actual money on virtual items. You can turn the internet into a three-dimensional parallel reality by wearing a virtual headset. As one person put it succinctly, the Metaverse will allow you to go from scrolling to wandering across the world.

Will Metaverse be a Transformer?

It’s almost impossible to avoid the word meta these days. One can not open social media with this word.

More than half the population in India use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for an average of 2.5 to 3 hrs a day. Internet users have increased to quite a large number due to the pandemic and most of the things going online like work from home, school from home, etc. This rapid increase in internet usage led to more than 40 million new e-shoppers in 2020-21. E-shopping included fashion and lifestyle brands and included investments and trading. The rise of digital currencies and assets is a trend in India, which will continue as a large-scale business that would not see a flat line in its growth. 

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What is the Future of Influencer Marketing with the Rise of Metaverse?

Social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are excellent marketplaces led by celebrities, influencers, and niche creators. They have led to an extensive increase in audiences in the last few years. 

These influencers organize live chat shows with their audiences. They also interact with their audiences in several ways, like putting out polls and Ask Me Anything (AMA) and their regular posts and stories, which help them build a healthy and stable relationships with their audiences. Viewers can also interact with the creators through features like DMs, tagging their favourite celebrities, commenting on their posts, and story mentions which are effective ways of interacting with them. The interactions have built to a considerable scale, but it was all purely virtual, though there were fan fests organised by YouTube every year to attempt an on-site meeting of their favourite stars. 

These lively interactions have led to building such a healthy relationship that social media is the preferred platform for promotions, with more than 67% of brands opting for the same. 

Metaverse to Bring Customer User Interface like Never Before! 

Social media accounts for more than 67% of brands running their marketing campaigns on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. The main reason behind this is the healthy relationship between the creators and viewers. 

As users have shifted into a digital world due to the pandemic, companies have now started to take initiatives to sustain these relationships, which would help them build a better brand. Influencers are on the rise these days, which has allowed brands to connect to their consumers in a more personalized manner.

The Metaverse will bring an evolutionary change in the field of influence marketing. Brands using the Metaverse platform would get an all-new experience for its users. But this question is how? 

Brands are now looking forward to offering a virtual 3D tour of their on-air outlets wherein consumers can make a real-time purchase and engage with the influencers associated with the brand. This would not only be beneficial for the brand, but it would also be beneficial to the brand ambassador in building a better social image. 

Many brands like H&M, Ikea, etc., have started to underwrite these ideas and have pondered the benefits of virtual reality. They have planned to enable their clients to walk in on their virtual store to try out their outfits. In the case of H&M and Ikea, design their kitchen virtually all in your comfort zone.! With Metaverse, brands and influencers can create multiple digital avatars and grab an edge over the market. 

Epitomes of the Metaverse.

1. Axie Infinity, a fictitious figure developed by Axie

Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn game that provides continuous income to participants in developing nations. Axies are three creatures that may be acquired or received to start farming the Smooth Love Potion (SLP) token. If someone sold their tickets on the open market, they might take anywhere from $200 to $1000 (USD), depending on how much they played and the market price.

2. Decentraland

Decentraland is a virtual world containing social elements, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and virtual real estate. Participants also play an active role in the platform’s governance. In NFTs, as in other blockchain games, NFTs symbolize cosmetic collectibles. They’re also used for LAND, 16×16 meter land pieces that players may purchase in the game for MANA. All of these elements work together to create a complex crypto-economy.

What does a Job in the Metaverse Entail?

The Metaverse, as previously stated, will bring all aspects of existence together in one place. While many people today work from home, you will be able to interact with your coworkers’ avatars in the Metaverse by visiting a 3D office. Your job might be tied to the Metaverse, allowing you to earn money to spend in the Metaverse. Ironically, this type of work already exists in some form.

Games and other play-to-earn models allow people worldwide to earn a steady income. As they indicate that people are willing to spend time living and working in virtual settings, these online jobs are great candidates for future metaverse deployment. Play-to-earn games include Axie Infinity and Gods Unchained. Avatars or three-dimensional realms the idea that they might be a part of the Metaverse as a way to generate money entirely online.

What does the Future Hold for the Metaverse?

Facebook is one of the most prominent proponents of a unified Metaverse. Due to Facebook’s Diem stable coin, this is especially intriguing in the context of a crypto-powered Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg has declared openly that he aims to launch a Metaverse project to promote remote work and create financial opportunities for people in underdeveloped countries. Facebook owns platforms for social networking, communication, and cryptocurrencies. They’re in a great position to bring these worlds together. Microsoft, Apple, and Google are among the other major IT behemoths working to create a Metaverse.

While a united metaverse is still a ways off, we can already see patterns that might lead to its creation.

Another science fiction used for blockchain and cryptocurrency looks to be in the works. It’s debatable if people ever reach a true Metaverse. However, now most of the users are involved in Metaverse-like activities and continue to integrate blockchain into their daily lives in the meanwhile.

FAQs about Powering influencer marketing in the Metaverse