It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the digital world is having an increasing effect on real life politics. Take for instance the example of Ms Colleen Lachowicz who is standing for the Democrats in the State Senate race in New England. Ms Lachowicz loves playing World or Warcraft and online fantasy role playing game. Her main character or alter ego as her opponents are calling here is an Orc Rogue who specializes in the skill of assasination.
Sounds harmless enough but unfortunately as many have discovered your digital identity tends to stay around for a long time and now a web site has appeared called Colleen’s World. The web site details all sorts of comments over the years to her -’guildies’ (the group she hangs around with in game). Some lovely comments about ’enjoying posioning’, ’drowning people in bathtubs’ and frequent mentions of slacking off at work in order to go play her game.
Her political opponents are having a field day with her liking for back stabbing and dubious behavior in game. Of course this is only a game but I suspect she would have been better to have kept her private and digital life completely separate. Playing a digital game like WoW is of course perfectly harmless but many like their politicians to be workaholic and serious. Gaming activity is hardly likely to gain many votes particularly with many parents who see their children wasting hours playing the very same game.
Besides digital identities online there are also wars held over the internet on all sorts of levels. If you visit this web site – http://www.ngbconsult.co.uk/seoguide/ you can see how it easy it is to target specific phrases and keywords online. With enough research you can target phrases that appeal to voters in your constituency, make sure that your campaign web site is seen by voters and not your competitors.
It was always likely to happen – the internet is the first port of call for many of us for information on all sorts of subjects. People routinely search the internet to find out information about an indvidual and SEO and online marketing is going to play a crucial role in how someone is portrayed. For example if you Google Colleen Lachoqicz you’ll find lots of news stories and way down the bottom of the page her personal site.