Does anyone here have any experience in advertising either in BGG or through mainstream social media sites? (FB, etc)
I'm looking for first-hand experiences, and recommendations on how to execute this.
Advertising on social media
Thu, 01/30/2014 - 17:07
Thu, 01/30/2014 - 19:40
#1
One warning
If you plan to *self-publish* your game, you will be in *full control* and you can manage things the way you want. So advertising early on BGG or Facebook may be a good idea...
However, please be advised, some publisher will not accept games that have a BGG profile or that have websites about their games. I guess those publisher are looking for games that are not too well known and they will go ahead and *market* your game.
Things they may do is:
1. Set up a BGG game profile for their brand (Publisher)
2. Arrange for a review of the game by a professional reviewer (Dice Tower, All Us Geeks, Father Geek, etc.)
3. Design and build a website for your game.
4. Use their own (publisher) website to market your game.
So please be aware of the consequences of choosing to *market* your game publicly...
Fri, 01/31/2014 - 02:40
#2
Recommended
I can only recommend this social media practice. If you want to self-publish you must (i repeat must) use all the marketing tools that are available to you. But if you plan to submit your game to a publisher, im against it - they dislike beforehand exposure of projects.
And: Don't have too high hopes for social media. Its just one building block in the marketing scheme. Twitter greatly lost attractivity throughout the years, g+ is not established enough yet and fb is going through a very suspect phase of monetizing everything.
But yes, I do it for my project and I recommend that you try yourself. But do not stop there. When self publishing you have to do more (like blogging, posting on sites like this or on the geek etc.).
Fri, 01/31/2014 - 15:39
#3
As a Social Media Marketer
As a Social Media Marketer and someone who went to school for advertising, I'm telling you right now SEO is the most important thing when it comes to marketing yourself.
Self-publishing or not I've learned that you always need to market your products. The creator of Stack & Attack told me that even though he signed on with Game Salute he still has to advertise his product because GS won't.
Tips when using Twitter/Instagram/Facebook
Twitter: Follow back everyone who follows you. Use hashtags that pertain to your game but keep it to a max of 3 (ex: #Tabletop #Fhizban #CardGame).
Don't just tweet updates or empty statements about your game. No1 wants to watch commercials all day right?
Try to ask open ended questions, replay to your follower's tweets, give updates and pictures for when you've reached milestones.
Instagram: Pictures, pictures, videos, pictures! Hashtags everywhere! Post vids of people playing your game! Follow people you find through hashtags. Instagram is the slutty version of Twitter.
Facebook: ...The dead end of the internet... but you should probably make a page to at least keep your friends and family informed but no big deal if you don't. Instead get a Tumblr or start your own website.
Hope this helps!
You can follow me @DFL_Games
Fri, 01/31/2014 - 16:44
#4
Social Media marketing
Hey Chris,
My other piece of advice, on top of the great comments that have already been given, is to find an "endorser" if you can. The only problem with starting to market on twitter is that your audience is limited to your followers...which will be only a handful when you start tweeting. If you can find a celebrity or a well known blogger/company to tweet about your product it can instantly put you ahead of the game.
I say this from personal experience as my twin brother is a bit of a celebrity. We have been supporting kickstarters for some gaming friends (along with other charities), and have they all have seen an increase in backers/donations. We are launching our own kickstarter this month for our family fun game called" Mice & Dice! and we are spending a lot of our resources on social media marketing. That is not to say they we are ignoring the gaming community or our close friends for support, but the reality is that twitter, instagram, and facebook can get your game and/or product in front of thousands/millions of potential backers/buyers if you use those tools effectively.
Hope this helps :)
