What Brands Need to Know about Social VR and The Future of Facebook Groups
The next phase of community in social media is presence. Facebook’s 2D newsfeed will be the gateway to social VR , an immersive, life-like connection that will transform the way we connect and create meaningful relationships.
I have a bold claim, a claim that is proven true with every Facebook and Oculus event I have attended. That claim is that the next phase of community in social media is presence.
Growing up in a small town in Cleveland, Ohio and now establishing a life in South Florida, I have ventured away from my physical hometown and it is hard to stay connected with my childhood friends over a social media newsfeed or even a smartphone. With social VR that will all change and feeling presence with them will allow me to keep my most precious relationships in my life. I can also meet new people and experience life from a whole new lens. As a social VR early adopter and enthusiast, I feel the personal connections I’ve had in social VR have allowed me to make new friends from all over the globe. I’ve fostered relationships with fellow VR creators, enthusiasts, and artists from distant locales spanning California, England, Canada, Israel, Australia and even Vietnam.
As someone who has worked in a 2D social media newsfeed for over a decade, the path we are headed is exciting, fascinating and I’m inspired to look beyond the Horizon of how that will be accomplished.
Social VR Research
I’ve attended conferences and events such as; Miami Facebook Community Boost, Facebook Developer Conference (F8 Conferences), local events with Miami’s Facebook Community Leadership Circles, Oculus Connect, which focus on the Augmented Reality (AR) / Virtual Reality (VR) advancements developed by Facebook. These events have helped me understand the emerging technology, see the outlook for the future, and discover how all will tie together to connect people, business, communities, and ultimately change the way we communicate in Virtual Reality.
There has been a primary and consistent message throughout these Social Media and VR conferences: Connecting with others and creating more meaningful relationships.
At the recent F8 Conference, I watched Mark Zuckerberg talk about how there are 400 million people within the community-building platform, Facebook Groups. These meaningful interactions allow people, brands’ and businesses from all over the world to make deeper connections and the optimization of Groups as the central key to the app, “as central as ‘friends’ “ confirms the fact that this is the main focus for Facebook.
Facebook Groups as Center Stage is the Key to Unlocking Social VR Success
Facebook Groups as we’ve known them are being strategically primed for a Virtual Reality world called, Facebook Horizon, where you can explore, play, and create with others — coming in beta early 2020.
Horizon can and will change the future of how we connect and create meaningful relationships forever.
Horizon will introduce tools that help build community and friendships such as:
- Minecraft style building tools, no coding experience needed.
- Games: Whether it be one-on-one or teaming up with Group members around the world to solve puzzles, and maybe even a scavenger hunt or two!
- Content: You can create with a paintbrush, 3D shapes, sounds, and more.
Horizon is an immersive way to allow Facebook Groups community members to connect, build and communicate in what feels like the same setting in a shared environment, no matter one’s physical presence around the world.
Home is Where the heART of Community Is
“A lot of us growing up had a place nearby that was special, whether it be a skate park, YMCA, or an Arcade. I’m excited for everyone to have that, basically next door at all times.” — Ari Grant, Engineering Director, Facebook from Future of Facebook’s Social VR Session at OC6.
Home isn’t what it used to be and is always changing. People typically don’t live where they grew up. In a recent AARP study, “Distance is the biggest barrier for grandparents who want to see their grandchildren. Over half have at least one grandchild who lives more than 200 miles away, and about a third live more than 50 miles from their closest grandchild.”
People move away for new opportunities and new experiences which means new communities, new acquaintances, and new lifestyles. At times, one might tend to have reservations breaking away from their comfort zone and may feel a bit isolated without their early childhood surroundings, families, and friends.
Facebook Groups such as local mom communities like Boca Raton Moms Connect that help connect you to other families to ask questions such the best local doctors or even more specific Digital Detox Secrets for those trying to balance the always on world, have changed the way we live and the emergence of Social VR will enhance that connection and transport us anywhere and everywhere one might wish to explore.
Beyond the fun and truly immersive content opportunities within Social VR, the most meaningful experiences and benefits lie in connecting and feeling presence.
For me, Social VR was connecting and feeling presence with my community, finding artists and creators like Michelle Brown, Rosie Summers, Kevin Ang, David de Jong, Kiira, and so many more. All over the world, people are generating incredible content and are mesmerized by the fact of sharing presence no matter the distance, and discussing the stories behind it. In each of my encounters with these VR users, we shared a space in time in a world that felt like nobody had ever seen yet everyone needs to know about.
Though not yet mainstream, it is worldwide. Users are on the rise and enthusiasts are eager to defy distance yet be closer than ever. This will a place to share ideas, push limits, challenge one another, and flourish together.
Facebook has paid close attention to how we can interact more seamlessly, realistically, and of course privately to protect and assure the environment is safe and worthwhile. As a Facebook Spaces power user in Facebook’s [beta] social VR world, there were two ways to connect and interact with other people in VR:
- Your Facebook “Friends”
- “Members” of the same Facebook Group
“We tried to evolve Facebook Horizon around the learnings from Oculus Rooms and Facebook Spaces to capture the sense of social presence and the ability to feel like you are inhabiting the same space, at the same time giving users/people the tools to create these interactive experiences that we can have and share together.” — Eric Romo, Director of Product, Social VR at Facebook stated at #OC6
The early adopters dealt with some of the technical challenges because ultimately they wanted to be there and be a part of the “early days” of social VR.
How Brands and Communities Come Together in Social VR vs. The 2D Newsfeed
In Facebook Groups, Community members learn through shared passions and building relationships by relaying stories/content together. They take topics of interest and find like-minded users to engage and identify with online through a 2D screen.
VR takes it to another dimension (think Netflix’ OA) by welcoming others into a virtual world where new friends and new memories converge through an immersive lens, before ever meeting IRL. This lens allows the feeling of true presence, the ability to explore another universe that someone else may have created.
I have experienced the creations of many people and each adventure has been magical, breathtaking, inspiring and thought provoking.
Here are a few ways social VR and Facebook Groups come together:
Going LIVE
Groups: Go Live with other members within a Group to talk about hot topics such as Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D. | #ClassroomWithoutWalls.
Social VR: Go Live with other members (avatars), share a presence, discuss hot topics, and brainstorm together. Details on how I went Live in social VR.
Engagement
Groups: Ask questions and share stories via Polls, Posts, and Comments to encourage participation.
Social VR: A space to invite members to create content. Channel your artistic side and join others to draw in 3D, virtually travel through a story, search and find a cool space or build a virtual scene using Minecraft-like tools for a specific day where members can go in and do scavenger hunts. How fun!
Tagging
Groups: Tagging new members for joining your Group. We’ve all seen the “Roll Call!” posts. They are engaging and people like to see their name but what if…
Social VR: Invite new members to join and transport into your Groups social VR space to showcase the features, talk about Group rules, objectives, vision for the future, cool tips, and more!
Creative
Groups: Currently, I’ve seen people give away rewards to active members, create brand giveaways/contests and send customized shirts, pins, stickers and more via snail mail.
Social VR: Customize, create, and curate! There are incredible tools for personalizing one’s VR presence. Create a custom t-shirts or sticker that can be shared, critiqued, and contributed for a common cause within your group or even for Sponsors!
Networking
Groups: The most popular Facebook Groups are the ones where people organize events where they can meet up in real life. In this always on-the-go 24/7 world, we know how hard that can be to achieve; traffic, family and life in general.
Social VR: Going Live at events such as AWE Conference and Mixed Reality Marketing and inviting Group members to join with attendees at the conference or an audience that could not be there on site. Without having to physically travel somewhere, jump into VR to conduct a meeting, review a new product, or connect with people around the world.
Games!
Groups: Play games, compete, and collaborate with others who share common interests at events or go Live together from your current space on Facebook.com.
Social VR: Connect into VR with amazing graphics and effects never felt before in a video game. Some personal favorites include scavenger hunts, fishing trips, or throwing dice, and new additions in Horizon — flying planes through the desert with Wing Strikers or playing laser tag anywhere, anytime! Bonus: Create games inside of Horizon with their content creation tools.
Advertising
Groups: Connect within common industries and initiate relationships, spawn partnerships, promote goods/services. Create posts in your group for sponsors such as a Facebook Cover for the week with their brand, Facebook Posts about the sponsor, have marketing materials at events.
Social VR: Product Placement is the first thing that comes to mind. 3D products or logos along with customized shirts inside of VR with the brand’s logo or message.
Ultimately, brands are deeply exploring the best ways to utilize the technology and appeal to an audience through VR. It can certainly beef up an ad campaign, but can it drive sales? How far away are we and how do we budget for this? It will be exciting to see which brands will make a difference and set the trend.
Social VR is an engaging way to exploring a customized three dimensional world for brands to connect and make meaningful relationships that last.
“Now the computing environment will put digital objects in the real world that you can interact with and feel presence together.”
Tools Needed
When we can’t “be there” with others online, Facebook Horizon allows us to grab the WIRE-FREE/plug and play VR Headset, Oculus Quest or a more advanced headset with wires and PC Needed, Oculus Rift S.
The communities that have been built in social media will soon be able to take a leap into connecting in a way that we only saw in futuristic Sci-Fi stories like The Neverending Story and Ready Player One. But, you may ask yourself,
“Should I buy into VR…is now the time?”
…The answer is Yes!
Brands need to be thought leaders and visionaries and must avoid being regarded as the last to know. If you are a Facebook Group admin, or community sign up for Facebook Horizon Beta today!
The next phase of community is on the Social VR Horizon. How will you be a part of it? Until then, join the conversation in the Social VR Community Facebook Group and share ideas, predictions, and gain insight to what might be coming next.
