These days it seems like every company uses social media as a means of marketing their brand, product or service. Having a strong social presence can be an incredibly important tool when used correctly, but without the proper readiness it can also fail (sometimes spectacularly). Small developers starting out often turn to social media as a form of free advertising for their projects, for example. Having a Facebook fan page simply for the purpose of having a fan page though isn’t an effective use of this marketing channel.
For social media to work there has to be a need to be social, and a demand for a forum with the product or developer. Games are typically a product where fans want to engage with the creators of the game, so that’s an advantage. However, the genre of the game makes a huge difference to the desire of game players to engage socially. Casual gamers will not feel as much of an urge to share strategy tips as will players of League of Legends, for instance. The demographics of a game will also affect the desire for social engagement; the people that are already the most connected into social media will be most likely to extend that to their favorite games. Social media for games needs to be created with this in mind.
Gamers will be looking to share their experiences and learn from other players, as well as find out the latest news about games they like. It’s important to keep focused on what the people want; endless tweets about other, dissimilar games you are trying to push might well drive people away. Regular doses of useful, interesting or amusing info designed for the audience are important parts of the strategy.
Another problem for social media lies in the various tools with which people utilize social media. Joining in extended discussions from a mobile device as opposed to a computer isn’t necessarily easy. As a mobile developer, starting up a long roundtable discussion with your users may not be the best strategy. A Twitter account where users can communicate in 140 characters or less may better suit the business strategy.
There is no a reason why a company should bar itself from using social media altogether, but being prepared to use the media strategy most relevant to the product, be it a game, device or app, is of the utmost importance. Utilizing social media simply because all of the other cool companies are doing it is not a good enough reason to enter the social media marketplace.
Source: Entrepreneur.com
