Article - How do I use social media to market my game?

Social media marketing (SMM), or the use of social networks, blogs, online communities, wikis, social bookmarks and other collaborative media for marketing your game comes with its benefits and its caveats. Having a good handle on the trade-offs of using social media marketing is key, so let’s cut through all the noise and get down to the basics.



In this day in age, it’s rare that someone doesn’t have access to the Internet via a computer or a mobile device, and gamers are no exception. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer that doesn’t spend a good amount of time on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Orkut. Additionally, the potential for viral or word-of-mouth “buzz” is endless with Facebook Connect, social bookmarking sites, and the like. Its nearly impossible to force your game to go viral, but your ability to gain interest is unlimited because social networks are by nature, intermediaries for connecting similar people with the things that they enjoy the most.


Not only can you use social media to build a fan base for your games, but you can use it to show consumers your personality, interact with players of your game and show them that you care, which, in turn, breeds loyalty and creates affinity. SMM can also enhance your reputation and build relationships that will be integral as you develop more games and yourself as a brand.

A great example of social media marketing success in building a brand around a game comes from our good friends at Cipher Prime. They have a growing reputation for creating quality, compelling games that feature dynamic music. Their success with Auditorium was in large part pushed via social networks, and their new title Fractal will most certainly benefit their positive reputation.


Social networks offer you a unique platform for open dialogue through comments and forums. You are gathering invaluable feedback from the people who are playing your games. These gamers are consumers at the most basic level, and could be the ones buying your titles on console someday –it’s vital that you don’t underestimate the importance of both positive and critical feedback, and taking action on it to refine your game or optimize gameplay.


Not only will you find out a lot about the “strategic target” of your game by their comments and questions, but also by studying visitor analytics to your various social media platforms. Age, gender, and geography are all valuable pieces of information when planning other marketing campaigns. You may find for example that you’ll benefit from allocating more resources to marketing to one age group, while going light against a certain geography (Europe, Asia, etc.)


Social media marketing can work for the smallest of budgets or even no budget at all. Even if you had to eventually hire a dedicated team or outsource your social media content needs, it would still fall well below traditional marketing’s cost.



Content creation and editing can be very time consuming – this information will be public once published, so you want to take the time to make sure that what goes out is what you want associated with your game and you as a developer.


In order to get and keep consumers interested, you need to come up with innovative, exciting content with great appeal otherwise your efforts are wasted.


Because you are publishing onto a public forum, anything you put out there is up for grabs, and jabs. As easy as it is for someone to praise your game, it’s just as easy for someone to slam it. Spawning negative backlash is a potential result of any SMM campaign – creating compelling content and not over-saturating the medium with irrelevant and unthoughtful information is key to positively affecting the little control you do have.


If you decide to invest your time in an SMM campaign, you had better be willing to be in it for the long haul. Loyalty will happen organically –you can’t force the relationship, so you have to be willing to dedicate time and energy to your campaign and its content.

- Dennis Chacon
Vice President of Marketing, Zoo Publishing Inc.