As the conversation about the merits of marketing in Second Life continues, the pendulum seems to be swinging back and forth to the widest extremes. At each extreme sits people who only know one opinion, their own.

To date, the Second Life debate has generated three groups of people (as far as I see it).

Those who are 100% sold on the value of marketing in Second Life
1. These people tend to be:

i. Long term residents of Second Life

ii. Marketers jumping on the bandwagon, or marketers hoping for a nice PR boost

iii. Those who think that Second Life is, without a doubt, the next iteration of the web.

Those who feel Second Life is nothing more than a fad and a waste of time for marketers
1. These people tend to be:

i. The “show me the numbers” folks

ii. The people who go against the grain for the sake of going against the grain

iii. The lazy folks who would rather continue doing what they know, and not bother spending a little extra time at the office working on experiments

The third group is the smallest of the three. The third group is comprised of people who take an organic, fundamental look at Second Life, as well as what it stands for. These people tend to be:
1. Those who are willing to put in a little extra time for experimentation.
2. Those who know that, sometimes early mover advantage is only beneficial in that it provides one with the ability to fail first, learn from the failure, and then proceed to be the first to succeed
3. Those who don’t really care about Second Life, per se. These people see Second Life and the closest realization of a new wave of communications and know that Second Life may not in fact be the silver bullet

I would tend to liken myself to the third group with one exception. I do care about Second Life on a more personal level. My experimentations in this virtual world have led me to meet some extremely creative, inspired people. Second Life has also allowed me to do some really interesting media experiments such as Virtualive.tv.

Always question extremists

I recently read an article by Rebecca Lieb of Clickz entitled, “Second Life, Lemming Like”. Rebecca is yet another journalist in the wave of anti-bandwagon journalist’s to denounce Second Life as a viable way to market. While I do not fully disagree with everything Rebecca has to say (and completely respect and appreciate her right to speak her mind), I take issue with her approach. r

Rebecca’s stance is staunch. She apparently feels that marketers should not enter Second Life, end of story.
1. Does she think that every creative idea has already been tested in Second Life?

i. Perhaps we have not seen a perfect Second Life campaign yet, but does that mean everyone should stop trying. After all, the barriers to entry are relatively low and the possibilities are endless.

ii. For creativities sake, I hope no one takes her advice as gospel. Think for yourself folks. If you have a creative strategy to implement in Second Life and you are aware of the risk and the potential for failure, go for it! Don’t let anyone ever tell you no!

Here is a quote from her piece,

“All that abandoned corporate property kind of resembles derelict corporate blogs, doesn't it? Same thing, really. Hire an agency, drink some Kool-Aid...then move on and leave the mess behind you (for all to see, of course).

i. Rebecca, this only proves that doing anything poorly will have poor results. I am 100% on the same page with you that there were a tremendous amount of poorly executed corporate blog strategies, but does that discredit the ones that worked?

What do you have against sex anyhow :) ?
1. Okay, so that point was a joke, but the fact of the matter is that the internet is riddled with pornography. Should we stop marketing on the internet?
2. My main issue with people continually bringing up the vast amount of sexually charged activity in Second Life is that it adds nothing to the conversation.
3. This line of reasoning is the default cop out for those making a case against Second Life. The lack of creativity in this argument is becoming increasingly boring.

A Media Circ.us Bottom Line\

Think for yourselves

Take a look at the whole picture before devising a strategy

Second Life is certainly not right for everyone, but it is no ones place to say it is right for no one!

And now to stir the pot a bit. I have chosen a handful of people who have conveyed strong opinions on the merits (or lack thereof) of marketing in Second Life. I tried to put together a list the runs the gamut between love, hate and uncertainty. The one thing that all these people have in common is that they are highly intelligent well respected individuals.

I would love to hear what the following people have to say about Rebecca’s article and this conversation in general. So please except my link invitation :) (of course I would love to hear from everyone, I just this list could produce a great conversation)

Tags: Joseph Jaffe, C.C. Chapman, Greg Verdino, John Swords, Jason Heller, Clay Shirky, Darren Barefoot, Alana Semuels, Allison Fass, Prokofy Neva, Mark Wallace