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Infographic: Glu Mobile, Gameloft and Com2uS best at working the social networks

Retweet me, right?

Infographic: Glu Mobile, Gameloft and Com2uS best at working the social networks
We know social media is important, right?

But how important and in which context is something that's much more complex to work out, especially in these days when you can spend lots of money for real Facebook likes, let alone dollars for fake Twitter followers.

So, to investigate the situation a little deeper, PocketGamer.biz checked out how well integrated the big social-mobile games publishers were when it came to the most obvious two networks, Twitter and Facebook.

#tweetmethis

When it comes to Twitter followers, there are some surprises about which mobile companies are doing well.

Perhaps hampered by @EA's almost 1 million Twitter followers, @EAMobile can only manage around 50,000; roughly equal to Korean outfit @Com2uS and dwarfed by rival @Gameloft's 220,000 followers.



Another surprise is @PocketGems. The pure social-mobile outfit has built up a strong following for its company Twitter account, despite only having made 44 tweets.

Of course, for many companies, social media is made more complex in terms of whether you focus on one centralised hub of information - typically the main company account - or have feeds for individual games.

For example, the official @AngryBirds Twitter account has almost 500,000 followers, while @RovioHQ less than 15,000. (We've included Angry Birds on the Twitter and Facebook graphs to provide a benchmark.)

In this context then, @GluMobile (380,000 followers) and @Zynga (360,000 followers) demonstrate how to make the most of Twitter, with Glu being especially active on its channel. Zynga's activity is split with a separate, smaller, @ZyngaSupport account.

Like me please

When it comes to Facebook, the network's global appeal means absolute numbers are much, much higher than Twitter, suggesting many companies have focused their marketing here.

A simple example sees Angry Birds having 21.4 million likes on Facebook compared to its almost 500,000 Twitter followers.

Interesting though, many of the same companies ranking high on our Twitter graph also appear on the Facebook equivalent. Most significant are Gameloft's almost 7 million likes; much higher than Zynga's 3.1 million, despite Zynga being a Facebook publisher.



Similarly, Crowdstar, another Facebook publisher (although now mobile-focused) performs well. Glu Mobile has a decent 1.5 million likes, with Com2uS featuring again.

Japanese social mobile platform GREE is making its mark on Facebook too. This makes sense as unlike rival DeNA/Mobage, it lets partners publish their own games so focuses on a centralised GREE branded hub.

It needs to work on its Twitter strategy, however. @GREE_Corp has 2,100 followers and @GREE_Games 8,200 - not great for a company that boasts 190 million users.

(Incidentally, Mobage is similarly pitiful with @Mobage having around 14,000 followers on Twitter and around 23,000 Facebook likes.)

Don't really cares

But enough of absolute numbers: let's finish off by looking at some simple ratios.

First off, it's the companies that are the most Twitter-centric i.e. who have a higher ratio of followers to likes.

By definition, such ratio are likely to capture companies who have low numbers of both, although with its massive Twitter audience, Pocket Gems is by far the most Twitter-centric. It has almost 70 times more Twitter followers than Facebook likes.



Companies such as @BackflipStudios and @ChairGames focus their social attention on their highly popular games; Dragonvale and Infinity Blade respectively. Still, their social network totals - even for those titles - are fairly poor.

@NimbleBit has a couple of popular social games, but as a tiny indie doesn't bother with social networks. Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes don't have Twitter accounts.

As a publisher of other people's games, Chillingo has a similar issue. Still, considering it's a strong iOS brand, you'd think it would be somewhat stronger on Facebook.

What's perhaps more interesting is that @ZeptoLabs has a third more Twitter followers than its key game @Cut_The_Rope, albeit with the game being vastly more popular on Facebook - 1.1 million likes.

Android publisher Animoca is the final company on the graph, with decent traffic on both social networks.

Big beasts

Looking at the most Facebook-centric companies highlights the most mass market-friendly names.

With a small Twitter presence, one-time Facebook game publisher Crowdstar is the most Facebook-centric. Zynga and GREE feature strongly - the latter with around 70 times more Facebook likes than Twitter followers.



Indeed, thanks to its brand name, and tiny Twitter following - Disney Mobile is another company highlighted, with Korean publisher Gamevil demonstrating a surprisingly highly oriented Facebook presence, although not particular substantial in terms of absolute numbers (15,000 Twitter followers and 110,000 Facebook likes).

Double reach

In conclusion, then, it's clear that Facebook and Twitter are used in different ways and attract a different sort of audience. Companies need to be bear this in mind, particular in terms of whether to focus on a company brand or a game brand.

The smaller the company, the more sense it makes to focus on a game, especially if you have very popular one.

For most, however, the company is likely the best place to make a longterm bet.

In this way, the presences of companies such as Glu Mobile, Gameloft and Com2uS - and to a lesser extent GREE and Zynga - on our first two graphs demonstrates a well balanced approach to social media and the ability to interact with mass audiences.

Many companies have the latter, but few seem able to do both, despite the advantages in terms of reducing marketing costs - something that's becoming an ever more expensive issue in this space.



You can see the complete infographic in full resolution by clicking below. 







 


 

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.