How to Use Social Media Platforms for Video Game Marketing
In this digital world, social media has completely transformed video game marketing and promotion. It has become more effective because of the huge user database of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch. Social media platforms allow the gamer agency to reach a large audience easily. These platforms also make it easy to meet the objectives of gaming marketing with higher effectiveness.
Marketing games on social media platforms offer their own sets of benefits and perks. To understand how you can utilize them for your gaming marketing, we will cover proper use of social media marketing in this definitive guide. We will also look at the various game marketing platforms accessible and how to use them to promote your game.
What is a Gaming Marketing Agency?
Before moving on to social media platforms, let's first understand what a game marketing agency is. A game marketing company is a creative services firm with a focus on the promotion of video games. In addition to managing social media, they offer influencer marketing, community administration, video production, advertising and more depending on which agency.
The gaming industry has seen a high demand for efficient video game marketing in the past few years. It has led to an increase in the popularity of game marketing agencies. These agencies provide specialized services to game publishers and developers, enabling them to reach a larger audience and raise the exposure of their titles.
Working with a game marketing agency ensures you reach a wider audience. The video game marketing agency offers an invaluable service of promoting and marketing your games so that they can gain better engagement and audience base. Social media platforms, in this context, prove to be highly encouraging and effective. Besides marketing, gaming agencies also provide services like influencer marketing, social media administration, and advertising campaigns. Their expertise and specialization will help you gain better traction than traditional marketing.
Create a Game Profile on Facebook
As per DataReportal, Facebook currently has 2.963 billion monthly active users. It makes Facebook one of the most widely used social media sites and a great way to interact with your audience, share updates, and market your game. Having a game profile ensures that you receive better engagement and attraction. While you create a game profile, ensure that you make it eye-catching and that suitably reflects your game. Besides profile and cover photos, ensure that you also add a thorough summary of your game's genre, platform, and salient features.
Advertise on Facebook: Facebook provides an ad-targeting platform that enables you to focus on specific keywords and demographics. You can advertise to your target audience and raise awareness of your game with Facebook ads. You can run different campaigns with images, videos, and carousel content. Make sure to pick attention-grabbing visuals and copy when making Facebook ads for your game to draw in your audience.
Create and Utilize Facebook Communities: Creating a community for your game through Facebook groups is a great way to interact with your audience. You can start your own gaming club or join one that already exists. You can perform beta testing, share updates with your audience, and interact with them in Facebook groups. While you are at it, ensure to participate in your group and address any remarks or inquiries from your audience. This is also a great place to gather feedback on your game.
Create a Twitter Account Specifically for Your Game
As of December 2022, Twitter's active audience accounts for over 368 million. It's a well-known social media platform that lets you communicate with your followers by sending them brief tweets. It is an ideal way to interact with your audience, share information, and participate in discussions about your game. All you have to do is just set up a Twitter account. You can create an engaging account by putting on a gaming photo, a catchy name, and a thorough bio that correctly describes your game. Ensure that your profile also includes features some of the following features:
Utilize Keywords and Hashtags: Twitter hashtags are an effective instrument that can raise awareness of your game. You can participate in discussions about the genre, platform, or aspects of your game by using hashtags. Ensure your tweets contain pertinent keywords and interact with other users using hashtags.
Get Your Fans Involved: A wider user base that is highly active on Twitter allows you to interact effectively with your audience. To get them involved, reply to their queries and comments, retweet flattering remarks, and join in on discussions about your game. Twitter can also be used to poll your community and solicit their opinions. You can also conduct merch giveaways using unique hashtags.
Create a Gaming Instagram Account
Instagram currently has an active user base of over 2.35 billion. It is a widely popular social media platform that emphasizes visual material. It is also an excellent way to promote your game's graphics and interact with your audience by setting up an Instagram account. Select an eye-catching profile picture and bio when setting up an Instagram account for your game that properly reflects it.
Utilize Keywords and Hashtags: Instagram hashtags are crucial and can raise awareness of your brand and game. You can participate in discussions about the genre, platform, or aspects of your game by using hashtags. Make certain to incorporate pertinent hashtags into your articles and interact with other users doing the same.
Get Your Fans Involved: Building a devoted following on Instagram requires interaction with your audience. Repost user-generated content, react to questions and comments from your followers and showcase behind-the-scenes material from the creation of your game.
Open a Game Account on YouTube
As per Statista, YouTube has an active user base of over 2.9 billion monthly active users who buffer every day of the month. This makes it the second-largest search engine after Google. The graphics and gameplay of your game can be displayed on YouTube, and you can interact with your audience by uploading videos to your account.
Post Trailers and Gameplays: You can create buzz and excitement for your game by uploading video game trailers and gameplay videos to your YouTube account. Ensure that the videos you produce correctly depict the graphics and features of your game. Additionally, you can publish developer journals, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and conversations with significant development team members on YouTube.
Work Together with Influencers: Working with YouTube influencers can broaden your game's audience and exposure. You can get in touch with popular gaming influencers and request that they promote your game on their channel. Ensure the influencers you pick are appropriate for the community and genre of your game. Check out our in-depth article on influencer marketing for gamers to learn how you can leverage this strategy to maximize your reach.
Open a Video Account on Twitch
Twitch currently has an active user base and traffic of 140 million. This social media platform is growing rapidly every day. Video game-related content is the main emphasis of the well-known streaming service Twitch. Creating a Twitch account is a great way to show off your game's gameplay and interact with your audience through live streams.
Promote Live Game Playing: Twitch streaming can help you create excitement and a group of your targeted audience. It provides a great opportunity to engage with your viewers during the stream and promote it on your social media platforms. You can also use Twitch to host giveaways and communicate with your viewers.
Work Together with Influencers: Working with Twitch stars/influencers can also help your game become more well-known and popular. You can get in touch with popular gaming influencers and request that they promote your game on their channel. Ensure the influencers you pick are appropriate for the community and genre of your game.
Understand Your Ideal Demographic
Effective video game marketing requires an understanding of your target demographic. This can be done by understanding the interest and excitement of your target audience. While you are at it, understand their motives. It is the key aspect that helps you achieve your game marketing objectives.
Make sure to conduct a demographic, interest, and behavior study on your target group. Using this data, you can make your social media posts and advertising campaigns more appealing to your target group.
Establish a Distinctive and Memorable Image
Effective video game marketing involves building a distinctive and enduring brand. Choose a brand name, logo, and tagline that correctly describes your game and resonates with your target market. Using your brand, you can establish a unified visual identity across all of your advertising campaigns and social media channels.
Provide Rewards and Motivations
Providing incentives and prizes can also aid in boosting awareness of your game and creating buzz. For players who share your game on social media or recommend it to their peers, you can provide pre-order bonuses, exclusive content, or in-game rewards.
Final Takeaways,
Social media platforms inspire effective and successful video game marketing. By having a presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, game creators and publishers can connect with a larger audience and generate excitement and buzz for their games. Working with a game marketing agency may also provide knowledgeable assistance and specific services to broaden the audience and visibility of your game. When done right, video game marketing can be a powerful tool for promoting your game and growing your player base. Start investigating the various social media platforms and game marketing firms immediately if you want to launch a profitable video game marketing campaign.