Well as quickly as companies wanted into Second Life, it appears the mass exodus has begun. Ad Age had an article a few days ago, Time listed SL as one of its top five worst web sites, American Apparel has closed its virtual doors and bloggers have begun tolling the bell for the end of a short era.

But yesterday, as if in anticipation for this blog post, Neville Hobson alerts us to the fact that Dell has moved in to Second Life - not with an island (which they may alreay have) but rather by offering in-world Dell support. Neville learned about the in-world tech support through a Dell group that he joined.

Although companies are having a problem making a visable return on their invesment, it’s hard to ignore a community - virtual or otherwise - that has more than 8 million residents. Enter the public relations pros.

Although Second Life is turning out to be a place where companies are having a difficult time impacting their bottom line, it is still a great place to reach to reach a vast, affluent audience. As a social community with millions of people, there are still ways to communicate in a positive way with your audiences (Think “Fall of Advertising, Rise of PR“).

A great example can be found with one of my real world clients: the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The Society does not have a build in SL, but there is an active MS group. Although the group was not started by the Society, it is a place for the Society to work with their audience. A similar grassroots effort greatly benefitted the American Cancer Society with the virtual Relay for Life. Second Life is still a great place for virtual meeting, collaboration, sharing of ideas and all of those thing integrate with PR activities.

Frankly, companies moving out of Second Life is probably a good thing for the community. Too much commercialization would hamper the growth of SL. Think about MySpace. The commercialism there has greatly slowed its growth and popularity. As public relations pros, we should look for ways to add meaningful dialog to the social community without intruding. In other words, we should do in Second Life what we are already doing in First Life.