Gamers are an extremely sophisticated and complex audience, with a mindset different from an average customer, very specific tastes, and cultural behavior. Thriving on the internet, the presence on social media platforms is an intrinsic part of their daily life. From discovering new releases and interacting with their favorite brands to connecting with their peers, game social media has multiple purposes for game players.
For sure, most of your target audience is present in large numbers across one or o more platforms. Therefore, creating social media accounts and having a consistent social media strategy will help you expand your fan base, increase your brand awareness, and boost your sales.
If in a previous post we revealed to you six foolproof strategies to promote your game on social media, in today’s article we’ll focus on explaining to you why social media matters and which are the best social media platforms to find your ideal target audience.
Why does social media matter?
The Trend Newzoo reports showed that there were 2.69 billion gamers worldwide by the end of 2020. With an annual average growth of 5.3% (YoY), the figures are forecasted to reach 3.0 billion players by the end of 2021, who will generate an estimated $175.8 billion this year.
Comparatively, statistics showed there were 4.48 billion social media users around the world in July 2021, equivalent to almost 57 percent of the total global population.
The chances are, that a large part of the total number of game players to be among the social media users. For example, League of Legends has over 14.7 million followers on their Facebook page and 5 million followers on their Twitter page, all eager to play the game or wanting to get updates, news, and interesting content.
So, you can also successfully use social media for interacting with your potential gamers. But you need to research your audience and create your ideal player profile, select the best networks where your target audience spends most of their time and create a consistent social media strategy.
Which are the best social media platforms for you in 2021?
Let’s find out!
With 2.89 billion monthly active users in 2021, Facebook is the most popular social media network overall. As some of the statistics related to video content show,
- 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support
- internet users spend close to 7 hours each week watching online videos
- watching a product video convinced 74% of people to download an app or software.
No wonder Facebook improved its UI and UX to provide excellent options for implementing video nurturing strategies to increase conversions. As a gaming provider, you have multiple options to advertise your brand:
- official brand/company page
- official game page
- ads
- live streaming, videos, and other types of written content
- fan pages
- gaming communities
After Microsoft decided to shut down Mixer and partnered with Facebook, the social media platform may even have new meaning for gamers. The older Mixer gaming community is encouraged to move on to Facebook Gaming. This means more players on Facebook you can connect with to get more exposure and sales.
As mentioned before, the Facebook streaming service is gaining more and more popularity. You can stream live, share videoclips and even conduct tournaments. Due to all the types of content, you can post on Facebook and the advertising options you have here, it is one of the best social media platforms. That’s why you should use it to promote your game and push your product in front of a large audience.
Unlike other platforms, Twitter has very fast become a great way to connect and interact with your potential game players. In 2020, Twitter saw 2 billion tweets about gaming and this amount increased by 18% in the first part of 2021.
Gamers around the world come to Twitter to discuss the latest happenings, news, and trends> This makes the platform is ideal for sharing new game announcements, patch notes, or highlights from major esports events.
Here are the main countries that have Tweeted about gaming most often in 2021 so far:
- Japan
- United States
- Korea
- Brazil
- Thailand
- Philippines
- India
- United Kingdom
- France
- Spain
Twitter is one of the greatest social media platforms for networking. When attending a gaming event or a conference, you will be asked for your name and contact details. Considering this, you may think of Twitter as a professional way to connect with your fan base or announce different news and trends.
In addition, gamers love to interact with gaming legends and top gamers. That’s why Twitter is also a great place to work with gaming influencers who can spread the word about your launch. Best of all, your audience on Twitter is more likely to share recommendations than those on other platforms.
All of these characteristics make Twitter a great platform to focus your social media efforts.
Instagram is a great place to share incredible visuals of your game. Part of the Facebook network, Instagram could be your one-stop shop for beautiful pictures and short videos. However, it’s not just a great social network to share your visuals. Instagram also comes with multiple specially designed features that have high engagement rates, such as shoppable posts.
But maybe one of the most important characteristics of Instagram is that it’s a network to connect with popular personalities in different niches. You can choose between people who have a large number of followers or micro-influencers. If you want to include influencer marketing among other online strategies, Instagram is a must-have platform.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the best social media platforms for game marketing. The greatest advantage it comes with is the possibility of ranking higher in Google SERPs if you optime the videos and your channel for SEO. This means including specific keywords in your video’s description and title. Many tools can help you boost your YouTube views and maximize your organic search, one of them being vidIQ.
Using YouTube is an excellent method to ensure some good organic traffic to grow your reach.
Apart from organic traffic, YouTube is also well-known for the presence of a large number of gamers. All the gaming streamers and gurus are present of the best video social media platforms and they also come with a massive followers base. For example, PewDiePie, a top YouTube gamer, boasts 105 million followers, JuegaGerman has 35.2 million subscribers, while MrBeast comes with 39.7 million fans. Not being on YouTube means losing out a huge number of potential customers.
When you want to nurture your audience, you have several options:
- trailers: you can create short (30 – 60-second) videos to increase exposure. Share them not just on your YouTube channel, but also on your website and game pages.
- work with influencers: top gamers who have millions of followers give you the opportunity to reach the best audience to promote your games. By working with influencers, you can market your game to high-potential leads.
- behind the scenes videos: release videos of how you and your team work together to capture the imagination of gamers.
- walkthroughs and tutorials: you can keep your audience engaged by publishing frequent gaming content that is interesting, helpful, and insightful to them.
- YouTube ads: like all the other social media platforms, YouTube also gives you the possibility of increasing your exposure by using paid ads. If you have the budget, you can invest in them.
Discord
With 150 million monthly users, Discord is an important place and one of the best social media platforms to create a buzz around your game. As a gaming developer, you can easily connect with gamers and find out what’s on their mind. The live chat platform is mostly to interact with your audience. At the same time, Discord also provides you with some benefits, such as:
- selling games: Discord allows you to create a storefront on your server and sell your game directly to fans.
- get great profit: Discord shares revenues on a 9/10 basis, helping you keep a good profit margin.
- test your game: give early access to your fans and influencers and they will help you to increase the awareness of your game.
- go viral: by using Rich Presence, fans can show off your games on their profiles and let anyone know they play your game!
- analytics: generate insights on your games and audiences using advanced analytics with top-of-funnel attribution tracking.
- create communities: Discord is one of the best outlets to start creating your own gaming community.
Steam
While it is not necessarily one of the well-known social media platforms, Steam is kind of a Mecca for gamers. Describing themselves as “the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games” Steam is a place where you can find a mix of the latest and greatest games – both existing and upcoming.
To get the most out of Steam, you must join the platform and create a page for your game. Then you can grow a community around your game and release regular updates or different features, add game guides, walkthroughs, and even conduct live streams. Also, you should join the discussions and interact personally with your audience.
Twitch
With 2.2 – 3.2 million monthly broadcasters and 15 million daily active users, Twitch accounts for over 72% of all hours users spend watching live streams on the internet. As many of today’s gamers are millennials, Twitch is one of those social media platforms for gamers you want to use to make your game reach that specific target audience.
Twitch’s focus on viewer involvement, such as viewer rewards, goals, and incentives, seems to be paramount on the platform. No wonder that it is one of the preferred options for the most popular streamers. A Stream Hatchet report shows that in the first quarter of 2021, viewers spent a total of 6.3 billion hours watching Twitch streams. And this is a very good reason for which you’ll want to work with Twitch influencers and make your game succeed.
Twitch also lets you advertise your game on the platform by using images and video products. Your ads will play before videos as they do on YouTube. They will also appear on some Twitch pages and generate more clicks.
Wrapping up – use social media platforms to find your ideal gamers
Creating and managing your presence on some of the social media platforms (if not on all of them) is a daunting task. You need a powerful and consistent social media strategy if you want to get your game in front of the right target audience. But more importantly, you need to define the profile of your ideal gamer and, select those networks where your audience spends most of their time and focus your social media plan there.
