1) Let people visit and leave messages and objects for their buddies in their private rooms even when the buddy is away. Like email, this would allow delayed, ongoing communication not limited by the need to be immediately present.
2) Allow each user to own a multi-person persistent chat room that holds 6-7 people in addition to the private individual buddy rooms. Let them control the settings for making the room open to all, open just to buddies, closed to all, etc. along with the related but separate option of whether their room remains open while they are not occupying it.
If you could add features like this then imo IMVU would not only be a virtual world application but would be a fascinating new category of virtual worlds that emphasizes one-to-one and small group relationships over the one large world concept. Instead of being dumped into one large world to explore and then move to private, smaller groups with the friends you make, you're starting out with all the buddies you already know and bringing them into a small, distributed, private virtual world spaces. It's an interesting reversal. It's also something that would more likely be centered from a social perspective on RL relationships since buddy lists are primarily made up of people you already know in RL.
BTW, you have likely seen this already but the new Pew Report on Instant Messaging released yesterday has some interesting data about IM usage. This seems to bode particularly well:
"Instant messengers utilize IM not only as a way to expand and remain connected their social circle, but also as a form of self-expression, through use of customized away messages, profiles and buddy icons."
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