“But we already do social media” is a phrase we often hear from games companies when we talk to them. And most of you are doing some Social Media.

But are you:

• Going beyond your core audience
• Building long-lasting ‘evergreen’ communities
• Monitoring the buzz of you game and your competitors
• Tracking trends and discovering new audiences
• Uniting your fans and allowing them to be a part of the development process.

The reality is, while many games companies we talk to have community managers and some social media activity, they aren’t maximising their full potential and seeing the bigger picture.

Going beyond the core

Most community managers manage their existing community fantastically well – and this is the job they’ve been charged with. But they often aren’t given the tools or scope to go beyond this and try to expand the reach of their titles.

It is very easy for games companies to fall into the same old routine of only releasing trailers, behind the scenes interviews and making of sketches. These are things that excite the core and die hard fans, but do nothing for people beyond that. So where are your new customers and new blood?

There are plenty of casual players out there who would love to play your games, but they aren’t interested in how it is made or interviews with the developer. They have different trigger points.

Do you or your community managers know what they are? Do they know how to find out?

By doing research online to see the other online spaces your customers and potential customers go online, you can see find ways to spread your message and excite more communities.

Look outside the games industry at how the likes of Vogue and Johnsons are building communities around their audiences common interests and not just their products.

Make your community evergreen

Often communities are built around one particular title in the run up to launch and then are quickly dumped. This means you lose all of those fans you spent so long gaining. Start looking at how you can join up your social media and how you can cross-pollinate your communities.

Games will come and go but you don’t need to start building your communities from scratch every time. Try bringing similar communities together and finding ways to build over arching strategies, just like Capcom does with their Unity site.

Buzz Monitoring

Are you monitoring what people are saying about you beyond just your own communities? Regularly checking and using tools such as Brand Watch and Radian 6 can give you valuable insight into what your community are saying and thinking in real time. These tools are only as good as the words you put into them, you can gain a lot of valuable insight by monitoring not only what people are saying about your company and games but what they are saying about your competitors and the industry at large.

• What movies are they watching?
• what websites are they visiting?
• What other games are they playing?

This kind of market research can really help you shape your own marketing and portfolio.

Ultimately what all of this comes down to is treating Social Media as a way of enhancing everything you do. Think beyond marketing and community management, think about how you can use Social Media to its fullest and get that edge over your competitors.

A look at how Lucas Arts uses Twitter and Facebook to help promote Monkey Island. With a community over 20k fans on each platform and hundreds of comments a day this has proven to be a great example of social media and community management in games.

One of Lucas Arts most loved games series is Monkey Island. The swashbuckling pirate adventure began in the early 90s and after almost a decade of radio silence Monkey Island is back. Games marketing and the online world is a very different place to that of the early 90s where home modems were almost non-existent. So how are Lucasarts using this new landscape to unite fans old and new?

For a start the majority of their Facebook activity is contained within one page. After recently releasing 2 remakes and an episodic series, multiple pages for each game would have created a fractured and time limited community. Communities built around a single product usually have a short shelf life, once the game has launched you can already hear death rattle shaking as fans move on to the newer games communities.

But by creating a community around a specific franchise the community has a reason to exist beyond any one iteration. It means the community can grow over time and not have to stop and start as it tries to lurch between games.

The most important feature of any community is a reason to exist. Sometimes a common interest is not enough to keep people interested.

The guys at Lucas Arts have kept the community engaged and involved with a variety of competitions, tasks and importantly exclusive content for the die hard fans. By being members of this community fans get to see behind the scenes in a way that just isn’t possible in any other medium. Fans can talk directly with the people creating the game, they can request more behind the scenes sketches and be the first to see new trailers and images. Not only that they are surrounded by people as fanatic as they are which reinforces their excitement.

A recent example of an engaging campaign on their page was a set of picture tasks for the community. Fans had to send in photos for each task to help create the “Guybrush Voodoodol” an item that would be later given out in competitions. This set of tasks shows how engaged the community is that without any incentive Fans responded in their hundreds with all manners of pictures.

Different platforms have different strengths and weaknesses and Lucas Arts has shown a great understanding of this by focusing Facebook more on sharing rich media and community discussions where as Twitter has been used for shorter and more frequent updates.

Unifying all of the Lucas arts games under one Twitter account also allows for a high level of cross pollination from the other Lucas games communities. However it doesn’t allow for as much focus and attention as the individual Facebook page can.

In combination this allows fans to become more aware of other Lucas Arts games in a way that makes sense. Fans are not forced or coerced into joining the Twitter but it is a natural progression for the communities to revolve around it.

These communities are more than just sales channels they are providing great content, feedback and a place for fans to meet like-minded people.

Sorry for the lack of 3 of the Bests! I have just returned from a lovely holiday (thanks for asking). Hope you enjoy this weeks 3 best social media stories and 3 other things to get you giggling. We have the government trying to use an online social platform to give them ideas, Twitter trying to find a revenue stream and a psychic octopus. What more could you want!

3 of the Best

Top World Cup Players on Facebook, Day by Day

I spend a lot of time looking at graphs and tables of statistics, so when I see a great visualisation of data it always grabs my eye! The NY Times have been tracking all of the World Cup players mentions on Facebook across each day of the tournament. They have then visualised it with this player graph, the bigger the player the more they were mentioned. Really interesting stuff and as this is the first World Cup since the mass popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter I would be interested to see if anyone has managed to pull out anymore interesting information.

Twitter @Earlybird

It looks like Twitter may have finally found a revenue stream of sorts. They have launched @EarlyBird a Twitter account to get exclusive timed deals and offers. It looks like Twitter will be trying to partner with big international brands to offer a few big deals a day.

It will be interesting to see how this takes off, there are currently no offers on it but it already has over 10,000 followers. In theory Twitter could expand this out and have separate Twitter accounts for music tours or clothes shopping discounts. Perhaps Twitter is finally starting to find a way of making money!

Nick Clegg calls for ideas on to laws to be repealed

The government is asking for our help and ideas on if any laws need to be repealed or abolished. Anyone can submit an idea to the Your Freedom website and the users can rate and comment on them. The idea is the government will take some of the most popular ideas and use it to inform their judgment later in the year.

They wont out right appeal the highest voted idea and in many ways that wouldn’t be the best idea. One of the highest rated suggestions is to decriminilise cannabis, it will be interested to see if the government looks at this issue or ignores it just like President Obama did when he asked for questions from the public.

I’m not saying cannabis should be re-classified but if these forms of public participation want to show they are more than just paying lip service, they will certainly need to show at least some sort of due-diligence on the most popular suggestions. Equally I hope people realise that this is to help the government make an informed decision and find potential new ideas, it is not a referendum!

3 of the Rest

Paul the psychic octopus predicts World Cup defeat for Joachim Löw

Clearly the biggest news this week was Paul the psychic octopus predicting a loss for Germany! He has been wrong before though, ironically it was also in a Germany vs Spain match. This time however he learned his lesson and backed Spain! Check out this video of how he made up his mind!

3 of the best social media stories from the past week, and 3 other things you might find quite interesting .

3 of the best

Ambassador of Lifestream

AOL are looking for a well connected social media aficionado for their summer internship program. It’s an interesting position and certainly and interesting job ad. It seems to me that it is AOL’s attempt to connect with the “digital natives”. What do you think, great and interesting opportunity or AOL trying to turn someone into an online billboard?

90+ Essential Social Media Resources

Everyone loves a good list and this one is particularly comprehensive! From the useful to the useless. At the very least it is worth a flick through.

Movieclips

With the likes of Spotify music lovers are able to quickly share their favourite songs and new discoveries with their friends and social networks. Movie clips looks to try and make it easier for people to share and mashup their favourite movie clips in a legal online way. One to watch I think.

3 of the rest

They Draw and Cook

A very cute selection of recipes with some lovely drawings to go with them . It’s making me hungry just looking at them.

What Dyson Does With All Those Unsold Bladeless Fans

A Rube Goldberg-esk set up to show off the snazzy Dyson airblades. Was it only me thinking how much it would cost to set that up in my own home!?

The Love 40

The music industry is constantly trying to keep the charts relevant since the once loved top of the pops died. Digital downloads have been included in single sales and there is now a midweek chart. Here is another invention from the BBC to keep the charts current and social. I’m not sure if it just doesn’t make sense, or I am just to old to understand. If anyone can enlighten me to what is going on here that would be much appreciated!

3 of the best social media stories from the past week, and 3 other things you might find quite interesting .

3 of the best

Social Media Generation Taking Online Privacy Seriously

Sounds as if not all young people are reklessley posting every last detail about themselves in easy to access public networks. I still think people in general need better education in just who can see what they are putting online, and how easy it can be to create a dossier of information on you. Lets hope the much needed Facebook privacy changes make it all easier to understand for everyone.

irkafirka illustrated tweets

There is something very endearing about these illustrations of often quite mundane tweets. What I like most is it is a very simple way of showing how messages and ideas spread online. One persons innocent innocuous tweet being picked up and turned into a lovely drawing which is then sent back out into the world. What do you think, pointless or poignant?

Be careful what you tweet

A look at some of the faces that have fallen foul to a mis-tweet or two. Learn from their mistakes! Building your online reputation takes a lot of time but it can all come crumbling down very quickly!

3 of the rest

Who You Gonna Call?

Improv Everywhere spend their time making everywhere just that little bit more fun Watch them inject a much needed dose of enjoyment into a day at the New York library.

Daily Stack

Like most people it seems I am always trying new time keeping methods. Constantly changing my to do list programmes and methods in the hope I will find something that I can stick too. This is likely just another of those things but I love the idea of making my time keeping physical and digital. Great concept, now where can I get one!

Is Parade

A very cute visualisation of your Twitter account. Watch all your followers avatars march along in honour of you…their leader. I could watch this all day .

Back to the usual 3 of the best this week (Even though it has been another exciting day in politics!) This week we look at 3 stories that will improve your knowledge on using Facebook in your Social Media campaigns.

3 of the best

Whiteboard Friday – Facebook’s Open Graph WON’T Replace Google

A really interesting look at the differences between Facebook’s Open Graph and how it compares to Google’s search algorithm. It seems to me that a combination of these two sets of data will ultimately give you the best results, certainly as Open Graph has a fairly narrow focus.

18 Dos and Don’ts Of Usability On The Web

18 really good tips on presenting your web presence. This equally applies to anything you do with Social Media. Don’t add millions of tabs to your Facebook page, people just wont click them!

7 Scientific Ways to Promote Sharing on Facebook

KISS, Keep it simple and sharable! A great motto to always keep in mind when doing any social media activity. Sharing is at the heart of any good campaign so make it as easy as possible and worthwhile for your fans to share your content.

3 of the rest

Goldfish Obstacle-Course Ad Changes Our Perception of Most Boring Pet

Drench are great at making fun and interesting adverts remember this one?

Farmville Maker is Hemorrhaging Players

We have looked at Farmville before, interesting to see perhaps support for this social network behemoth is wavering. The game is no longer clogging up news feeds and that may be affecting the amount of people playing it. I wonder if this will happen to all Facebook games or if this is just a reflection on Farmville.

If Mario Was Designed in 2010

Some great observational humour! It also goes back to what we have said before on how shoe horning social features into your game does not make it a social experience.

With polling day just one day away it is time for the final 3 of the West. But don’t fret, we will be keeping a close eye on Social Media in politics over the coming weeks and months.

3 of the West(minster)

The Youtube and Facebook Digital Debate

The would be Prime Ministers have been engaging in TV debates for the past few weeks and now it is time for social media to have its turn. Some really great answers from the 3 leaders in bite sized Youtube chunks.

Lol Cleggz

This election we have seen our fair share of mashups, memes and spoofs. Here is another one for Nick Clegg based on the popular lolcatz meme.

Kitchen Domestic Policy

IKEA has had another crack at this online media malarky. They are joining in on the election fun with their themed kitchens. Not the most exciting subject but it raised a couple of chuckles around the office.

3 of the rest

HOW TO: Cultivate Your Brand’s Super Users

Getting behind people who are already advocating to you is vitally important. You don’t need to convince them how great you and your product are, they are already there. Just give them the tools and the platforms to really help you promote your brand.

Election 2010 Made in Taiwan: ‘Bigotgate’

I wish all news was made in Taiwan.

Instant Fun

A huge array of colourful shiny buttons that make all sorts of sounds when you press them! What could be more entertaining.

Week 3 of our political buzz in association with Brandwatch and the TV debates are in full swing! Last nights TV debate seemed a lot closer than last weeks with Yougov polls not showing a lot of difference between the 3.

The week in politics – where’s the buzz?

Looking at total mentions this week, Clegg shot up past the Conservatives and almost above Labour. A week of strong debates and mass media coverage seem to be putting the Liberal Democrats on everyone’s lips!

Total mentions

More interestingly was Clegg’s phenomenal rise in tweets taking him from last place to above both Labour and Conservative. A strong week for the Lib Dems with Cleggmania sweeping across Twitter largely helped by the tongue in cheek hash tag #nickcleggsfault.In terms of conversation Twitter and Facebook are still high on the list but Google took a surprising jump indicating a lot more news around the 3 party leaders.

What do the people think?

Cameron getting hit by a protest egg (an egg thrown by a protester not an egg protesting) was a hot bed of discussion with one message board poster commenting:

Food for thought? ho ho.

As mentioned earliy #nickcleggsfault was a hugely popular hashtag on Twitter after some of the national newspapers decided to throw as much mud at the Lib Dem leader as they could. Twitter responded in typical ironic fashion by blaming Nick Clegg for all of the worlds woes. Over 100 people retweeted this tweet about Nick Clegg provoking a certain Icelandic volcano:

If Brown is really going to mount a challenge to stay on as PM he may have to change his debating tactics as laid out by one commenter on the guardian blog:

Something to think about

Everything is pointing towards a hung parliament as the result of the election. Charlie Brooker notice that in the debates Cameron said it was wrong for the other candidates to scare monger over a Tory majority, before scaremongering himself over the implications of a hung parliament. Do you agree with Mr Brooker?

A look at some of the week’s goings on with politics and social media. Also how a drunken night caused a leak of epic proportions and that some videogames aren’t making us smarter.

3 of the West(minster)

Has the web registered?

How much impact has Facebook had on voting registrations? Not perhaps the millions it could have had but still a step in the right direction. What a lot of this says to me is that a TV Event can happen over night and is expected in politics at this time of year. But social media requires much more time and longer relationships.

Who has David Cameron been talking to?

After several anecdotes from David Cameron on people he had spoken to up and down the country a meme was quickly formed on Twitter. Some clever chap then turned this into a random generator for Cameron anecdotes. A great example of how you can quickly tap in to the popularity of an idea.

Yahoo! UK Elections 2010

Yahoo are promoting their Election coverage with this funny yet worrying video. “much people don’t know much about politics!” food for thought.

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BBC: Brain training doesn’t train brain

Turns out the hugely successful Brain Training game wasn’t making us smarter, who’d of thunk it? I guess I should get back to those books instead then…only the pop up ones mind you.

This Is Apple’s Next iPhone

This amazing story of how an Apple engineer lost his prototype new iPhone and it ended up all over the tech blogs. For a company that are infamous for their high levels of secrecy this is a truly a major gaffe!

School District Allegedly Snapped Thousands of Student Webcam Spy Pics

I’m not sure how anyone decided that spying on students while they are at home was a good idea. As crazy as this story is it does bring home how easily our privacy can be invaded. How easy is it for someone to get access into your life? How much information do you put out there voluntarily.

One thing we always talk about in Social Media is personality. Personality is important, it’s what makes your outreach connect with people and feel real. It gives a face to your games company.

The brand on the front of the box still matters more than the people in the back of the manual but I see a slow change occurring in terms of people caring about who makes their games.

I expect over the coming years a shift from following publishers to following developers and in turn their employees. Paying attention to the names behind your favourite games may never be a mainstream activity but I think with the opportunity to connect through social networks it will become more important to more gamers.

Why does this matter? Because it gives people the opportunity to speak directly to their fans to build a bigger fanbase for themselves, their company and most importantly the games they create.

On Twitter Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War) and Tim Schafer (Brutal Legend) have just under 30k followers between them. That is a lot of people to be able to access at a moments notice, to crowd-source, to excited, to engage and to listen. The pair are dwarfed by comparison to the community manager for Call of Duty, Robert Bowling, who boasts over 100k followers! Just think what you personally could do with 100,000 people available at your finger tips.

What is great about these accounts is that they are so much more personal than any company blog or website. It is a direct link between fans and creators but there is a price and expectation you will pay for that access.

If you put yourself into these places fans will demand attention, they will pester you with questions, scrutinise your every update and will all hope to become your real friend. Managing expectations comes with the territory of Social Media and while you need to be careful with what you say, don’t let protocol get in the way of making your account interesting. There is nothing worse than a social network account that simply broadcasts; if your fans wanted that they would just subscribe to your RSS feeds. What they want is to hear from you directly.

I think the more games industry professionals get into direct contact with their fans the better. Then the industry can become more about the people than the brands. We will see how the shift from brands to people continues with the recent news that former Infinity Ward studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West, had started a new company with EA.