Yesterday i was out and about in the grid, with a friend. we visited some areas. Partly they were my "standard Points of Interest" which i occasionally visit and partly they were new locations.
During our trip, my friend asked "Where do you find these locations?" and it made me think "Yes, indeed, where do I find them? Or better even: how can one make others to find them?
Not everyone has much spare time at hand and can explore this world. People with little time want to come inworld, see, experience, have fun, and then tend again to their First Life. That is one aspect only.
The other, even more important aspect is: how does one get Second Life back onto the radar of the people "outside"? Because let us face these facts:
So, what needs to be done?
First of all, if you haven't done so, go and explore. Use the inworld search or refer to some travel blogs about SL. A bunch of these are in the blogroll here even. Then, a nice way to promote SL, i have seen in Natale's blog, where i just quote now, because i can't put it better into my own words:
The above was mentioned in regards of a blog entry about a themed Region that shows Berlin in the "golden twenties". Hence the hash tag reference to Berlin. However, the example can be used on any other region as well. If you know how to handle the phototools that are provided in the Firestorm viewer, take pictures and tag them in a similar way when posting them. Use Flickr and other means, and reference with tags that have a connection to First Life as well as to Second Life.
Let me repeat this: hash tag your posts (blog entries, forum comments, pictures) in non-SL-areas with descriptions that match a First Life description as well as a Second Life one
This way, people who were not searching for "Second Life" related topics, will still stumble upon them. And they will learn, that Second Life is not "something from the 90ties", but a very well doing parallel universe.
List of locations from this blog entry:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Land%20of%20Glory/92/104/21
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/World%20of%20Beauty/76/117/3412
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neva%20River/46/174/24
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/pteron/225/129/33
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forgotten%20City/115/124/83
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| click to enlarge, that goes for all pictures here Art installation of a Lost Town |
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| Lost Town again |
During our trip, my friend asked "Where do you find these locations?" and it made me think "Yes, indeed, where do I find them? Or better even: how can one make others to find them?
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| Mega city post apocalypse |
Not everyone has much spare time at hand and can explore this world. People with little time want to come inworld, see, experience, have fun, and then tend again to their First Life. That is one aspect only.
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| Apocalyptic view |
The other, even more important aspect is: how does one get Second Life back onto the radar of the people "outside"? Because let us face these facts:
- Facebook and Twitter are nice and well, but basically just a pin-board for publishing meaningless nothingness about ones private life. Creativity offered? Zero.
- WoW and many other games are just that: games. You get a prefabricated environment, can act along a prefabricated story, and get foreseeable results.
- 3D environments, software, that allows one to create environments, like "Blender" are wonderful creative tools, but it is hard to enjoy the work done when its just sitting on ones own computer and no one can access it.
But what impression do people outside of Second Life often have?
- Second Life? What is that?
- Wasn't it successful in the.. 90ties? (i have read this in a business newspaper, seriously. No kidding. Written by a so called 'journalist')
- SL is anyway just sex.
- etc
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| Serenity in the nature |
So, what needs to be done?
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| fantasy world |
First of all, if you haven't done so, go and explore. Use the inworld search or refer to some travel blogs about SL. A bunch of these are in the blogroll here even. Then, a nice way to promote SL, i have seen in Natale's blog, where i just quote now, because i can't put it better into my own words:
I hope you will find ways to get this information out to friends and others unfamiliar with Second Life. Just posting about it in your SL related blogs is not much help. Also, while I like Plurk and Twitter, putting tweets in with #SL and #SecondLife hash tags is not much help. Use hash tags like #Berlin, #Germany, #History and whatever other pertinent tags you can think of. Send a link in an email. If you post in other forums unrelated to SL, mention it there.
Be smart, creative, and honest with your promotion.
The above was mentioned in regards of a blog entry about a themed Region that shows Berlin in the "golden twenties". Hence the hash tag reference to Berlin. However, the example can be used on any other region as well. If you know how to handle the phototools that are provided in the Firestorm viewer, take pictures and tag them in a similar way when posting them. Use Flickr and other means, and reference with tags that have a connection to First Life as well as to Second Life.
Let me repeat this: hash tag your posts (blog entries, forum comments, pictures) in non-SL-areas with descriptions that match a First Life description as well as a Second Life one
 |
| Forgotten city |
This way, people who were not searching for "Second Life" related topics, will still stumble upon them. And they will learn, that Second Life is not "something from the 90ties", but a very well doing parallel universe.
List of locations from this blog entry:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Land%20of%20Glory/92/104/21
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/World%20of%20Beauty/76/117/3412
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neva%20River/46/174/24
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/pteron/225/129/33
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Forgotten%20City/115/124/83
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