Hi, I'm Victoria! Join my Community Dev Newsletter for insight into games marketing, social, and community management. Get actionable tips, a skill testing question, and a roundup of resources straight to your inbox every month.
Getting social media inspiration (plus flags to look out for) โจ Community Dev Newsletter #46
Published 2 days agoย โขย 3 min read
Community Dev Newsletter
Hiya!
Lots going on in preparation for GDC month for me - I have exciting work things going on which means they'll be great learning fodder for this newsletter. More to come soon...?!
Since we'll be talking about social media today, keep this card handy with you at all times.
This month's newsletter:
Where to look for social media strategy inspiration, plus common pitfalls to avoid
A community activity (sentiment reports??? Send yours in!)
Cool marketing/community related links and job posts
Social Media Inspo๐
It's common to look to other places for social media inspiration. It's nice to see what trends are popping up, what ideas you can adapt to fit your strategy, and what you might want to strive towards.
Where to look:
Competitor games. Other games in the same genre will be easy sources of ideas for your social strategy. You're likely talking to a similar audience with similar interests, so finding out what's resonating with them through what others are doing is a quick and efficient way to garner your own ideas.
Creators you admire. There may be influencers, content creators, or even other social media managers that make content you enjoy. While their content might not be as easily replicable (because theirs may be based more on personality and content from different games), they may have a structure, aesrthetic, or hook you can learn from.
Games you admire. This is different from competitor games in that they may be games from completely separate genres. That being said, there's no reason you can't add your own twist to it. For example, a horror game could replicate the structure of a social media post from a cozy game but with a twist, thus subverting expectations.
Brands from other industries. This is one of my favorite places to get inspiration! Often we look within games, but seeing how other industries handle their content can be really helpful to get out of your own head of try something new. The easiest example of this is when brands were all looking to Duolingo, but some of the ones I actually gain a lot of inspiration from is looking at how beauty and fashion brands create content that is interesting and relevant to their audience.
Flags to look out for:
The resources of your competitor. Some studios will just have more than you - whether that's the amount of people on their social team or the art assets available to them. Don't despair over not being able to reach a level that is likely impossible with your level of resources, instead, figure out how you can adapt it to make it work for you.
The trap of scale. If an account has a lot of followers or is a popular IP, it's easy for any post they make to seem successful. A post that just says "hello" could be followed by a mass amount of likes and comments as their players jump on trying to get the attention of their favorite game. A smaller account doing this may not get the same engagement ratio or be tackling the same problem the bigger account was trying to get at.
The trap of recency. If a game has recently released, its social media numbers will be naturally higher than normal. More eyes, more attention, and more excitement. Don't throw away what you've been working on because it doesn't get the exact same response!
Hopefully that's a bit of insight on how you should start approaching your inspiration lists! I like to keep track of them by bookmarking them into a folder that I can easily poke into when I want to (since they might not be all on the same platform.)
But there's no wrong or right way to go about it! If you'd like more tips on content creatrion, check out my blog on it.
Community Activity ๐
Every month I ask a skill testing exercise! Have an activity idea or want to ask a question?Submit one anonymously.
The question:
Do you do sentiment reports? How do you calculate yours? (Feel free to send redacted examples!)
Feel free to email me back with your answer! I always respond.
Community Chatter ๐ฌ
Here are the interesting and helpful things I've seen this past month.
General News
โTikTok has biggest outreach numbers for brands while organic reach is slowing on Instagram
Success through shenanigans with community management.
Hi, I'm Victoria! Join my Community Dev Newsletter for insight into games marketing, social, and community management. Get actionable tips, a skill testing question, and a roundup of resources straight to your inbox every month.
