Social media: is it necessary for your game?
Community building, content creation, etc.
Prelaunch
  • Question:
    Why do I need a community?
    Answer:
    If you are an indie developer, then the chances that you and you and your game will be discovered  out of nowhere is very small. It is worth building a community in order to secure publicity, "process" the audience and   make users loyal, interested in your project. The more people know and follow the game, the higher the potential conversion to wishlists and preorders. And orders, eventually.
There should be a place on the  Internet where your potential player can get information about the game (Interest phase from the User's Journey article) and where a publisher or the press can find your contacts.

In order to get through the  Attention phase, you'll have to talk about your community and website wherever you can. Starting with  friends, ending with conferences, thematic forums and  Reddit. If you have a question about whether to create a landing page for a game or a community in social media, I think it's wiser to go the second way.
For indie developers, in my opinion, there are two options for  creating and maintaining a community:

➡ Option 1: "Light dig"
➡ Option 2: "Medium dig"

There is also Option 3: "Deep digging", and this is the same as Option 2, only community analytics are added there and the pace of posting increased. This is more suitable for medium and large studios.
➡ Option 1: "Light dig"

You create an ordinary cozy development community with spontaneous posting

Users come there because they specifically and probably spontaneously  got to know about you and your game. Maybe somebody has mentioned it in another community or they're your best friends trying to support! Also, people can come after they saw the game at a conference or exhibition or articles in the press, etc.

Event though your posting schedule will be spontaneous, you try to maintain regular posting. It will help to increase your chances for discoverability, and boost Impressions on each post - this is how social media works now. Please the audience with news about the project, ask for opinions on  concepts or mechanics, and show the inner kitchen. It's engaging!

Such communities cling with their sincerity. When subscribers are asked for their opinion, it's a good  conversation starter. It will show them that you care and they're an important part of the process. It is important to show that you really appreciate people for their  feedback, be sure to thank them. An idea from a stranger can really help with the development of the project. But this should be treated very carefully, so you're not overloaded with the new stuff.

[IMPORTANT:] Choose a social network in which you spend the most time yourself. Otherwise it will be very difficult to force yourself to manage the community.
Don't forget about #ScreenshotSaturday or any other trending hashtags, this way it will be easier to find you and you can attract the same  enthusiasts as yourself to the community.
Option 2: "Medium Dig"
You create a full-fledged community with content plan and regular posting

What is important for a content plan and   how to do it:
1. You look at the way other studios are doing, collecting sample posts (references) that could be suitable for you and correspond to the theme of your game.
2. Analyze about what they post and how it can be broken down into several categories. Look into the engagement (likes, comments, shares, video views = engagement), what people are reacting to most?
3. Think about what you would like to tell your subscribers about your game and what could be interesting to them from a consumer standpoint.
4. Gather together references and your ideas and combine into rubrics/categories. This will help you further better navigate your own posts, and maintain a variety of interesting content.

5. Make a content plan for a month. 3-4 posts in a week (here you have to think clearly and not overestimate your time). If you are a human and not a SMM machine — don't worry, post as much as you see fit (1-2 times is also ok, just your visibility in the newsfeed will be slightly less. In this case, focus on  the quality of the posts (beautiful gif/video + interesting story behind it) or  promoting some posts to collect more engagement reactions.

6. In the  content plan, write the body text for each post + select a visual. All materials should be selected based on the theme of your game or something very related to it, so that people's heads don't explode and no#nbsp question "Why is this here" raises. A simple and  very stupid example: you don't have to write about a new series of Game of Thrones if you have a match-3 game about gardeners. Hype only if it really makes sense!
    Important!
    When you will write a post,  filter the information that you put in it. One post = one thought you're trying to get across.
    Here's an example of how you can make a content plan. All coincidences are random, I invented it specifically for this article as an illustration of my words.
    And finally, based on my professional experience, I would say that the key factors for achieving medium and high levels of activity and "success" in social media are:

    - Willingness to spend money on  advertising within the social network;
    - Resources to bring people there in other ways (conferences, personal acquaintance).

    If you understand that none of these suits you , don't be scared. When choosing between  time spent on game quality and time spent on  social media content, it's more important to focus on the former. In this case, design the community in  style as a business card, periodically uploading posts there. That's what the majority does. But if you want to stand out from the majority, you will have to work on it.
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