Hi everyone. My name is Eugen, I'm a game developer from Moldova.
I'd like to share with the community a small "post-mortem" on how I started using social media marketing. This is one example of what it means gaining experience in this industry and the cost of not knowing when to do certain actions at the right time.
When we found our game, Shadow Quest, released on Google Play, without any marketing effort (it may sound unrealistic, but that's how inexperience is defined), panic started. Nonetheless the only solution was to move forward. So I started learning and doing. After 5 months time, the surface has been scrathched.
The sheer amount of information on how to market indie games is staggering and overwhelming at first. Start up slow.
Enter - Twitter and Facebook. Create the account, set up a page and start letting people know you are here and ready. Always read and develop your communication and marketing skills. This let me after one month of posting and research to come across this video. There's ton of knowledge there and through the lines I heard of Ritetag. This tool allows for understanding on how to best hone your #-tags and post's scheduling. I actually contacted them for support and one of their interns was very helpful in helping me understand how it all works.
I want to present the audience with a short study that we made in collaboration with Galyna Ievdokymenko from Ritetag. In this study you'll be able to find more information, both on the game and company Twiter analytics. Read the study HERE
In terms of downloads we were about ~20 per day. It's crowded and competitive out there. Want a piece of it, expand your knowledge and "doing factor", overthinking can be a really nasty curse sometimes. See that image below. When we saw the spike in downloads we were in awe. Those were 200 downloads that for us back then was WoW! ... then we dropped again, but in time, due to a cumulative effort we were able to stabilize at ~200 daily installs, and even if this number is small, it was mostly possible due to constant communication with our players and activity on social media using the correct tools.
Be critical, but bear in mind it was our first attempt of self-publishing a game on Google Play.
Next came Bitly that allows you to shorten your links and focus on the message more. In case you have a company profile, game profile and a personal twitter use Tweetdeck, it's going to help you streamline your work. Use Tweepi to go through your followers. Tumblr is there for your blogging needs and Instagram, I think covers the teenage part of your audience. Never used Pinterest tho (but recent articles show that it's important to have it as well ).
Most crucial and honestly hardest is to truly be part of is the Reddit community. Not just some slacker, that wants the attention, but a member that gives back. It requires a human touch and I personally believe that developers that plan long term should know how to be part of this community. There are tons of subbredits /r/gamedev being center, while others depend more on the platform your are developing for. Posting when reaching certain milestones of your development, boosts the chances for success. Here are some examples:
/r/ indiegaming
/r/ indiegames
/r/ androidapp
/r/ playmygame
/r/ iosgaming
Use Imgur to share images when creating posts.
Remember Awesome Gifs and Trailers sell your game. Learning how to make them will boost your chances of success.
Now when we looks towards future games we plan to develop, the importance of early communication with the players and industry as a whole, becomes second nature. Start communicating your message and vision of the game early. There are people out there that actually care on how it gets done.
You can find me on @EugenCaraion. Let's learn and find new ways to grow with this amazing industry.