Key Aspects of Social Media Marketing for Video Games in Russia

In the Russian market, social media platforms provide extensive opportunities for brands to reach and engage their target audience, making them essential for game promotion and communication. However, it’s important to note that social media is more suitable for long-term game development and promotion, rather than short-term or fly-by-night games. In this article, we will focus on the specifics of creating, managing, and promoting public pages in the gaming segment.

Choosing the Right Platforms

When deciding where to create a community and promote your game in the Russian market, it’s crucial to understand the country’s unique digital ecosystem. The most popular social networking service in Russia is VKontakte, followed by Instagram, Odnoklassniki, TikTok, and Facebook. However, Twitch and YouTube are the primary platforms for collaborations with streamers and gaming bloggers, both in Russia and worldwide. To determine the most suitable platform, it’s essential to consider the target audience of each social network and analyze competitors’ communities in terms of reach and engagement.

VKontakte, with its massive user base (71 million monthly users and 38 million daily users), is where the most comprehensive gaming communities are formed. These communities either don’t exist or are smaller on other social media platforms. VKontakte hosts communities for both AAA games (such as Warface, CS:GO, and World of Tanks) and free-to-play and casual games. Therefore, including VKontakte in your game’s communication strategy is highly recommended for the Russian market.

Additionally, it’s worth mentioning Discord, a popular messenger among Russian gamers. In April 2019, Discord ranked among the top four most visited desktop messengers in Russia, with nearly 1 million users aged 12-64 accessing it within a month, surpassing Skype in popularity. Discord allows text and voice communication within and outside the game, making it an excellent platform to engage with Russian gamers. Given the sociable and collaborative nature of Russian gaming communities, leveraging Discord’s communication features can greatly enhance game promotion in the market.

When to Launch a Public Page?

We highly recommend creating public pages well in advance, even before the game’s release. Since social media pages serve not only as entertainment platforms but also as sources of information, it’s optimal to start developing a community and launching an advertising campaign 2-3 months prior to the game’s release. It’s crucial to actively promote the game during the initial 2-3 months after its launch. Afterward, the marketing efforts can gradually transition into a supporting role. However, this doesn’t mean you should stop working on content. Regular posts should continue according to the content plan, while the advertising budget can be scaled back slightly until the next major game update release (if applicable).

What to Include in the Content?

Consider incorporating regular sections that help the community stay engaged and active. You can share in-game world news, provide situational content, update manuals, describe game updates, organize competitions, discussions, and conversations, and share information about game-related publications and media coverage.

Create informative materials on how to avoid common mistakes, utilize equipment effectively, or obtain loot. These can be in the form of manuals, knowledge hubs, FAQs, or how-to guides.

Encourage your followers to contribute to game guides, share lifehacks, and propose content for publication. Strive to foster user-generated content (UGC), such as playthrough videos, screenshots of funny moments or in-game situations, and walkthrough tips.

By engaging your community and encouraging their participation, you can create an active and vibrant social media presence for your game.

Video Game Social Media Marketing

In addition to other digital advertising channels, social media platforms provide excellent opportunities for promoting game apps, allowing users to seamlessly transition to the app store and start downloading games. Furthermore, social media platforms often connect you with a cost-effective and engaged audience. In general, there are three key formats for social media game promotion:

1. Targeted advertising with options to follow a group, visit a website, and instantly install a game from the store.
2. Advertising in third-party communities. The advertisements you publish should be relevant and interesting to the readers of specific public pages. Analyze previously successful posts with high engagement and transform your direct ad into an engaging story. If you plan to advertise in multiple communities, tailor individual posts for each group, considering their unique community dynamics mentioned earlier.
3. Collaboration with game bloggers and streamers. It’s crucial to select bloggers who play games within the same genre as your project. Pay attention to the presentation style of streamers by watching their videos to assess how effectively they can showcase your game on their channel. To achieve seamless integration, involve the streamers in crafting the advertising content to avoid scripted texts or walkthrough instructions.

Another important consideration is that not all social media platforms support collaborations between game brands and bloggers. For instance, VKontakte lacks a specific blogger concept. However, there are thematic public pages where you can conduct an effective game marketing campaign through interaction. On the other hand, Instagram functions as an influencer platform, but collaboration with bloggers on this social network may not be as effective for game brand promotion.

Feedback

During the initial days of your game’s release, your followers will eagerly anticipate your immediate response, leading to a surge in messages. Even if you have a dedicated user support portal, it’s highly likely that users will reach out to you through social media platforms. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain regular moderation of your social media channels. It’s recommended to assign a dedicated team member who will be responsible for promptly addressing feedback in chats and comments. This role is often given to either a content manager who handles all the posts in the community or a dedicated community manager who focuses solely on responding to user inquiries and comments.

The feedback you receive from your first users and the initial reviews they write can greatly influence your game’s trajectory. For example, if users initially give your game a 7 out of 10 rating, subsequent reviewers who want to praise your game will likely give it an 8, while those who write negative reviews may rate it a 5 or 6. If you start with a 9 rating, dissatisfied users are more likely to give you a 7 or 8. Additionally, providing assistance and showing compassion to users in their initial interactions can go a long way in earning their forgiveness and support.

As mentioned earlier, VKontakte is a popular social networking service in Russia for maintaining game communities. However, you can also successfully utilize other social media platforms such as YouTube, Odnoklassniki, Twitch, TikTok, or Facebook. It’s not necessary for your game to be present on all social media platforms. To determine which platforms are best suited for creating and developing your community, as well as to align your market entry strategy in Russia, consider consulting with QB Agency Games, experts in game marketing in Russia.