More reasons to get involved in social media
There's much talk about how to improve the mobile game discovery process, but it tends to focus on retail mechanisms (i.e. how to improve the operator portals). What about using social media to boost awareness of mobile games though?
That doesn't get talked about as often, although Digital Chocolate boss Trip Hawkins has talked publicly about the idea, and several publishers have experimented with promotional Facebook games.
A new study from media agency Universal McCann should provide food for thought. It's called 'When Did We Start Trusting Strangers?' and involved interviewing 17,000 people in 29 countries about their use of social media - blogs, video and photo sharing sites, social networks and so on.
Here's what Universal McCann head of consumer futures Tom Smith says, in an article introducing the study's key findings:
"It conclusively proves that as we thought, social media is now directly impacting the way we buy products and services. The publishing of billions of thoughts, opinions and experiences online in the form of blog posts, videos, ratings, reviews and photos is fundamentally changing the way everybody online sources opinions on products, brands and services when they buy something."
It should come as no surprise that consumers are sharing opinions online about, well, pretty much everything they buy. IM and email are apparently the most popular methods, although 29 per cent of consumers have commented on a product or brand on a blog, and 27 per cent on a social networking profile.
"We now trust the opinions of strangers we read online as much as our closest friends and certainly more than advertising," says Smith. "What do we say to our clients? Participation in social media is not a choice, it is now a default."
What does this mean for you, as a mobile games company? Having a social media strategy will become increasingly important, particularly as the retail ecosystem opens up.
Savvy developers and publishers are already driving big App Store sales of their iPhone games by fostering online buzz on blogs, for example.
One additional thing that stood out for me in Smith's article was the part where he says this:
It's a sobering thought, given that sales success on an operator portal has often been a case of 'strong brand, weak quality'. If the mobile games industry is rooted in that way of thinking, it's no wonder games aren't creating more of a social media buzz.
You can read the full Universal McCann study by clicking here.