I cannot escape from social media and I must admit, I am not running very fast either. This Presidential campaign season has shown that the internet is now more important than ever when it comes to elections. Barack Obama, part of the first generation to grow up on software, has shown his web chops time and time again. Unlike John McCain, Obama actually uses these social tools and so does his campaign.

This election year, I started to see real political movement and serious campaigning in Second Life. Netroots Nation (previously titled YearlyKos after the political blog, DailyKos.com) is a yearly gathering of bloggers, candidates, poli-sci wonks, C-SPAN Tivo freaks and run of the mill progressives - a fiesta for the liberal mindset. Last year, the event also appeared in Second Life as an experiment on how to run a convention in Second Life. Many lessons were learned and aptly applied for this year’s event.

From a marketing standpoint, extending a client’s message into the social media space will be paramount as time goes by and before someone sends me hate mail, I do consider Second Life to be social media. Second Life only works well when the rules of the social web are applied. Just building something for a client and “seeing how it will do” will just get you laughed at. Whatever you build in Second Life, or any virtual world environment, make sure it is just not a static display. Treat it like you would event marketing.

That is what makes Netroots Nation in Second Life so cool, it is raw event marketing. Yes, there is that “Second Life” element we have all heard of. Yesterday there was a John McCain avatar, wearing nothing but a g-string and sporting three nipples. Except for the McCain avatar, the event was like any other convention, complete with trade show booths (my company Nimbus even has a booth there), street teams, swag and sales staff.

So don’t be afraid to pitch Second Life to your clients if you can come up with that cool social angle. It will be a valuable part of your social media strategic mix.

Storm Bear Williams has been involved in interactive marketing and advertising since 1990 - you know, the good old days. Currently he serves as the Group Creative Director of Nimbus World Group, an ad agency that specializes in virtual world development and social media marketing.

Article Tags: Second Life | Social Media Marketing

Filed under: Election, Second Life