My Experience with Second Life

As an experiment, I decided to try out Second Life. I know that it might seem a little late but as I am studying Digital Marketing and becoming more involved with social media all the time now, I feel the need of experiencing the online world as much as I can, even if it’s just to know how people are using it.
 
So, I began by signing up for an account and choosing my avatar name and figure. I have to say that this first part was funny. Picking a new name and figure made me feel like I could be anyone in the world, “playing” and experiencing what is it like to be a different person.
 
After that, I had to continue and to select a place to start. I thought it would be good to see what kind of Brazilian places they had out there, so I selected a Brazilian Portal, where I would get a “tutorial” about how to use Second Life.
 
Then, I had to download a 'Second Life viewer' to my computer and that didn’t make me happy, but for the sake of the experience, I decided to download it and keep going. They tried to sell me a premium membership of Second Life, offering a beautiful pre-built home and L$1,000 in bonus, but I was definitely not ready for that yet! 
 
Finally, I was “transported” to this island and I was able to see the “new me” on my “new world”. Unfortunately, from now on my experience was very frustrating since I didn’t even know how to walk…Yes, it was like being a little baby again, giving my first steps.
 
Some people started “talking” to me – do you need help? we are here to help you? - And my only concern was not to hit someone while trying to move around (at this point, I didn’t have the full ability to turn right or left...haha!). I know this sound silly but I’m not a gamer and really never had a lot of talent with it.
 
After a couple of minutes playing and figuring out how to live my new life…... I got tired of it and thought it was just too much for me!!

Movies go social

I was reading an article about How Lionsgate Plans to Take on 'Twitter Effect' for 'Kick-Ass' and I think it’s interesting to observe how a film success is increasingly dependent on social media efforts nowadays.

After Avatar’s massive box office success being attributed to all the word of mouth generated through their use of social media, I believe that we will definitely see more and more use of social media to help build online buzz around independent movies, television shows and DVD releases of blockbuster.

To promote the launch of the movie “Kick-Ass”, for example, Lionsgate is putting together their brand pages on YouTube, Facebook and MySpace under one unique platform. They said that the platform will allow them to integrate user comments, video streams and tweets (via a branded hashtag) on one place, with real-time metrics to show isolated and combined traffic statistics.

I’m curious to see if their tactic will pay-off, but it will surely be very hard for them to bit Avatar, which was ranked #2 highest grossing film of all times.