No matter what your company creates, social media is essential for growing your business and brand. This includes online games and apps looking to expand their user base and engage with the lives (and screens) of millions more people.
If you are a gaming company (or are soon to be one), read on for five ways to use social media to promote your online game.
1. Identify the Right Platforms for Your Target User
First things first: You need to spend some time understanding the range of available social media platforms and where your target audience likes to spend their time. Having a business account on various channels can be beneficial for cultivating innovation and ensuring that your team remains at the forefront of creative social media content. However, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, either. You need to carefully consider which platforms are right for you.
Different platforms necessitate various types of content to attract distinctive users. You may find that your team’s expertise in creating quick, looping video content is well-suited on TikTok but not so much on Twitter. At this point, you might also realize that you need freelance copywriting services, social media moderators, or a savvy graphic designer to supplement your in-house talent and ensure that your marketing efforts are hitting the mark.
So, start by researching your target market. Which platforms are they most active on? Then, narrow down the options to two or three that would be the most impactful in growing your game’s audience.
Think about how users utilize each platform and what types of content they usually interact with. Then, work on creating individual strategies for each channel that builds into an overarching brand marketing ideal.
2. Utilize Content Marketing
Too many firms in the gaming world overlook the importance of content marketing. For all businesses, content marketing is an extremely effective approach for reaching your target audience — the ones you want to download your game.
Content marketing includes social media postings, but also longer form articles, blog posts, infographics and the like, and is proven to increase sales or downloads.
Keep in mind that because people are often presented with content, you want yours to stand out. Be creative, go crazy and find a way to present your message in an unexpected and memorable way (while staying on brand, of course). Think of your target audience’s lingo and what they would want to share with their other gaming friends.
Never forget the essential call to action—your content marketing should always include something like “download now,” “download here,” or something similar to gently nudge users in the right direction.
3. Focus on Building a Strong Community
One of the most unique (and special) parts about gamers is the community that they create among themselves and around the games. As a gaming company, it is essential that you focus on building a strong community so that you can leverage them to help with your social media.
On your social media accounts, you want to share videos, screenshots, gameplay, character artwork and the like. But you also want to encourage your community members to share their own content, and then you can repost these snapshots on your profiles, tagging the original creator.
Not only does this assist you in generating enough content to maintain a consistent presence (it can be challenging to do it all on your own), but it also helps to keep your community engaged and proactive in promoting your game. All of these help amplify your message, brand and, ultimately, game.
Similarly, look to join relevant gaming communities and groups that already exist online so that you can share your content with a very targeted audience of gamers. Communities within LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Reddit are all potential groups for you to take advantage of. Genuinely engage with the group and find ways to creatively speak about your game in an informative and appealing way.
4. Create Branded Hashtags #
The beauty of social media promotion is that the most creative and personal branding always wins. Creating branded hashtags allows you to dream up a catchy slogan that users and followers of your game and brand can use to be a part of the community.
Hashtag marketing can dramatically boost your brand awareness, especially if the hashtag is captivating and memorable.
Generally, you want your hashtag to be short and to include your brand name or the game’s title in some form. If your brand or game has been around for a while, do some research to see if your customers have already created one without you realizing it. If not, come up with one on your own and include it in every posting you do.
Additionally, ask community members to share their posts with the broader community using the hashtag.
Integrating this idea into your social media strategy will yield many benefits. For you as the business, you get user-generated content to add to your feed. Not only does this give you more material to work with, but it also adds an invaluable layer of authenticity. Additionally, you are spreading more brand awareness without investing too many resources.
For the gamers, they feel more engaged with you as a business and with the larger gaming community. Encourage each person to use the hashtag to communicate with other like-minded players.
In all honesty, everyone benefits from this form of social media strategy.
5. Start an Ambassador Program
The point of social media is to create brand awareness, which is essential for all businesses, no matter how small, big, new, or established. For more established businesses, creating an ambassador program is an innovative way to step up the intensity of their brand awareness.
Think about it! Who better to promote your game and brand than the passionate customers you have already attracted through previous marketing strategies? These customers are your best mouthpiece, and you want them to shout about your game from the rooftops.
This is the ideal manner through which to spread brand awareness.
Usually, it is only possible to create an ambassador program once you have built up a solid following. So, if you are a startup gaming company, you may have to be patient before you find yourself at a point where you can take advantage of such a strategy.
However, when you start recognizing loyal customers, provide them with referral codes or links they can send to their fellow gaming fans. Then, you can reward them with a discount, prizes, merch, or some other gift when their referral follows through.
Monitor Your Social Media Efforts
Finally, remember: There is no point in implementing any of these social media strategies if you aren’t looking to monitor their results. In addition to spending time compiling a thorough social media marketing plan, make sure you also design a foolproof system for measuring your campaign successes and whether you are on the right track to achieving your goals.
Also Read; How Social Media Is Full Of Opportunities For Budding Online Businesses?
