Social Media Guideline— Made with Love for Indie Game Developers

As indie game developers, we need to actively promote our games and also ourselves to the world. One of them is through social media. It’s free and easy, but there’s one problem. How do we use social media to promote and build the image of our game or studio?

In this guideline, I will probably emphasize more on Twitter.

The first question is probably: Why Twitter?

Some people use Facebook or Instagram on daily basis, but once you go to Twitter, you’ll find that developers from all around the world from artists, animators, and programmers are very active on Twitter. And this might be some of the reasons why.

1. Easy to share
   Facebook is much more private and you need to press “Share” for your friends to see the post, and you can’t see the previous post you already liked, unlike Twitter. On Twitter, it’s as simple as clicking those Like and Retweet buttons.
2. Easier to get publicity
   The use of hashtags on Twitter is good for publicity. If you use the right hashtag at the right time, it can increase engagement of your tweet. Although you only have like 10 followers, your tweet might get 100 retweets or likes and people who like/retweet your tweets will bring more engagement from their followers.
3. The simpler the better
   It’s much more limited on Twitter because you can only post max. 280 characters and 4 images or 1 video/animated GIF, but it makes you get to your point briefly.

This doesn’t mean that we cannot make use of other social media. If you’re targeting your game for Indonesia, then it is better to use Facebook or even Instagram. And in some cases, YouTube works much better, too.

Brand Voice

Your social media voice is one of the top things that will distinguish your game from others. Your voice should be consistent across all mediums whether it’s Facebook posts, Tweets or Instagram posts. For instance, if you’re funny and humorous on Facebook but all of your YouTube videos are serious and straight-laced, it might send mixed messages.

In order to help find that ‘voice’, it might be helpful to look back at your past content and also your game. Pay attention to the tone and emotion conveyed. You can also look at what other games/studios/developers are doing on social media. You don’t want to just copy, but it could give you some inspiration.

Once you’ve settled on your brand voice, write it down for you to remember. The key is to be as descriptive as possible. Don’t simply write:

Funny

Instead, you might have something along the lines of this:

Clean and playful humor. Responses should be upbeat, optimistic and positive. Avoid being sarcastic or mocking followers or other games.

She and the Light Bearer (@SheTheGame) is all about forest and nature. They use leaf or plant emoji on their caption and attach calming, aesthetically pleasing art which represents the game itself. The two posts below were posted by different person yet it has similar ‘voice’.

Here are some pro tip on how to post on social media for indie developers.

1. No need to be too formal on social media when talking with followers or other developers. Make them feel comfortable and close. Unless if Ubisoft or Capcom is contacting you and they’re being all formal, then you should be too.
2. It might be hard for developers whose game doesn’t suit their personality, but you don’t always have to ‘pretend’ to be the game, you can just be yourself and present you game social media account as the developer.
3. Don’t be shy to go up to the stage and show yourself! Retweet developers’ tweets once in a while too or let your followers know that it’s the developer who just tweets.

Post Formatting

Some people use a specific format for sharing links, status updates or other types of posts. For instance, Tweets might follow a format of headline, link and hashtag. Or you might choose to list all your hashtags within the first comment of an Instagram post rather than the caption. Just be sure to stick to that format.

(Coffee Talk) Post — Link — Hashtag

Hashtag

Below are the hashtags you can use on Twitter. You can also see other games or developers’ tweets and see what hashtags they often use.You can use RiteTag to analyze the effectiveness of the hashtag and what other related hashtags you can use on your tweet.

Plus, add hashtag of your game, e.g. #infectonator3 #sheandthelightbearer #ultraspacebattlebrawl. Why? Because some people who play your game might haven’t followed your Twitter and they usually put hashtag of your game when tweeting about the game. When they click on the hashtag, your tweets might appear on the top of search result.

When you just start promoting your game or studio on Twitter or Instagram, it is very important to include hashtag because you want your post to be discovered.

Meanwhile on Facebook, it is not necessary to use hashtags because adding hashtags will not increase engagements of your post. Instead, it could potentially make followers ‘unwilling’ to read your caption when there are too many hashtags. Make sure to emphasize more on the link or the main idea of the post and remove hashtags.

Good Caption

Here are some things you need to remember when you write a caption.

1. Don’t write a caption that new follower or no follower don’t understand. For example “Do you remember this scene?” especially when the game itself is not released yet. It is okay when the game is out, but try to avoid this kind of questions.
2. When you’re not even sure what to write, you can probably use emoji.
3. You can ask questions to your follower. Which color scheme is better, or which design is better. You can also do polling.
4. Share what you know or what you just learn! For example: I just learned how to draw this, and it looks fun! Turns out I can use this brush to draw the hair.
5. And remember your brand voice. Stick to your brand voice and also post formatting.

When in doubt, use emoji

What to Post

There are lots of stuff you can post on your game social media, from image, GIF, video, etc. Here are some tips on what and how you should post. I will not only give example of what to post on you game or studio social media, but also for you as game developer.

Art

When it comes to art, there are a lot of different stuff you can share; rough sketch, work in progress, game asset, sprite animation, etc. They can be in form of static image, animated GIF, or video.

If it’s a short sequence of 1 or 2 seconds, you can use .GIF format to create a looping image. Remember to always keep it smaller than 15 MB. There are several ways of creating animated GIF.

1. Render an animated GIF directly from the software you use (e.g. Adobe Photoshop)
2. Record the screen using ScreenToGif (it’s free and easy to use!)

Make sure the image is not too small or too big. On some occasion, instead of GIF I post it as video especially when the game features awesome music or sfx.

You can also share you work-in-progress. Here are some approaches you can do when posting you WIP.

1. Simply take picture or press that Print Screen button on your keyboard and share whatever you are working on.
2. Post step-by-step of how you do your art, it can be timelapse video or combining several steps into a GIF.
3. Ask question! Something that will raise engagement with your follower, e.g. which color scheme is better or which style suits the character best.

Programmer’s Stuff

Probably sharing stuff on social media is not an easy thing for programmer. It is probably easier when you are a technical artist. Just make sure that you don’t reveal too much of your code on social media.

One thing I observe that programmer can share and people (well, other developers to be exact) like is sharing knowledge. This also applies to artist. If you’re afraid you would sound like Mr.-Know-It-All, you can make your tweet sounds more humble by saying “I just learned this and I want to share with everyone. Let me know if you have something better than this technique!” or something like that.

And don’t be afraid to post something that you think is “boring”, because for some people it might be interesting. I saw this tweet where they just write a code and attach video of the result of the code. It seems boring for me who doesn’t understand game programming, but it receives quite a lot of likes and comments.

Music

There are a lot of options on how to showcase your work. You can also use game art or gameplay preview on the background of the video, but make sure you don’t just pick random picture or video. Pick one that fits the music. In case you use real musical instrument, don’t hesitate to record and upload the video. This applies to not only music, but also voice acting.

When you want to show the sound or music, make sure you tell the follower to turn the sound on or tell them that you’re working on the sfx/music.

If your game isn’t really done or you’re still in early development of your game, make sure you don’t post full song. Just show like up to 1 minute of the music you’re working on.

Live Video

Live video or live stream can be done in all social media and live streaming video platform. You can go live on Facebook, Twitter (using Periscope), Instagram, YouTube, YouTube Gaming, Twitch, Mixer.

How to go live on different platforms all at once?

You can try Restream for free with limited features, but it still comes in handy when you have more than one platform.

Now that you have your social media and streaming platform ready, what software to use for streaming?

Again, here’s a free software you can use: OBS Studio (Open Broadcast Software). This software is easy to use and you can also create your own layout easily and insert text and image.

Don’t be afraid to share the link everywhere when you’re live so that people will watch your stream. Also, respond to comments from viewer because that’s the point of doing live stream! To interact with fans. Say hi, ask random stuff, anything to make them stay and watch your stream.

None of the Above?

You are neither artist nor programmer? Worry not! There’s always something you can share. Writings, game design, review on other games. If you are the marketing person, you can share your thoughts on how to promote game better, or you can share photos of you going to game conventions and meeting developers.

When you are running out of materials to post, make sure your social media will not be a ghost town because you don’t post anything for a long time, unless you have stated that you are going on hiatus or that you need to focus on something else that you will not post anything for a while. Simply say hi or retweet or repost something your colleague posted, but don’t retweet/repost too much. Your work might be drowned in your own timeline and when people check out your profile, all they see are just someone else’s work.

When To Post

Honestly, I cannot really tell exactly when. Each game is usually popular in different countries and that makes the social media high traffic time different from one to another.

One way to find out is try posting at different hours and see which post has highest engagement (more likes, more retweets, more shares, more replies or comments). On Facebook, you can easily check on the Insight section to see when your followers go online. As for Twitter, you can also check your Tweet Activity on analytics.twitter.com.

Here are some hours that you can use as your guide when to post on social media. Remember that it doesn’t have to be exactly at that hour.

08 AM to 10 AM — In the morning when people just woke up or are getting ready to work/class or are already on their desk and warming up by scrolling through their social media.

12 PM to 3 PM — Lunch time and after lunch time, people tend to get bored during work at these hours and check their social media.

5 PM to 7 PM — After work.

Midnight — Midnight after 12 AM is the time when developers and gamers are all awake, working on something or playing games. It’s not really a bad time to tweet actually!

Again, remember that the traffic on each social media is also different. Your Facebook page and Instagram might have different high traffic time to Twitter.

Pre-release

When you just start your game and you still got a long way until your game will be released, don’t post too often, but consistent. For example, post every 1 or 2 weeks. But make sure that every 2 weeks you post something. This is to avoid running out of materials to share on social media. If you post too many in the beginning, and suddenly you post nothing for a month long (or more), followers might think that you’ve stopped developing your game.

When the release date is near, increase your post frequency. Post more, and encourage the whole team to also post on their social media, not only on game social media. Don’t forget to also announce on Steam page (or usually the publisher team will handle this one).

Release Post

At this time, too, you want you game to be known by people. Post more, reply more. Don’t forget to include all these:

1. Trailer
2. Promo image if there’s no trailer
3. Link to your game page
4. Hashtags related to your game to target the audience you want to see your game (Twitter and Instagram)
5. GIF or videos prepared beforehand

It is important to already prepare enough materials to post because you will want to post more and by the time your game is released you will be busy and might not have time to create content for your social media.

Remember to keep it scheduled; you don’t want your tweet or newsfeed to be spammy. For example, you post everyday at 10 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. Also, you can retweet or repost from media or people who mention your game. Also, it would be nice if you can reply to people’s post and let them know that you feel grateful for them playing the game you have developed.

Post-release

After a month or two after you release your game, you might run of of materials and ideas of what to post, especially when you have no plan on giving an update or anything. There are many people out there following your social media and they already add your title to their wishlist but they are waiting for a discount or something. Don’t let it be ghost town. Post something; fan art, old artwork, or simply ask “How are you?” or promote the game. It doesn’t have to be frequent. Be consistent. For example, posting once a week or every 2 weeks consistently.

I hope this could help other indie developers out there to increase awareness of the game they’re deveolping or their studio on social media. And if you have anything you can share with me or other readers, please feel free to post a comment and share your thoughts (like sharing this kind of post).