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A Guide to Social Media Done Right for Game Developers

Published 6th August 2016

Internet

I don’t usually write this kind of thing, but I feel I just have to share this with you. Doing social media for games is hard, and media fragmentation makes getting attention for your product virtually impossible at times. If only somebody would write a clear, concise guide about best practices in order to give your game the edge it deserves in this crowded marketplace.

Fear not. @Origamiwars is here to show you how to do social media right. Rather than just give you a dry list of rules, let’s take a look at how this pioneering account did things. If you’re at all involved in social media in a commercial context, then what I’m about to tell you is well worth your time.

Incidentally, don’t worry that the account is currently called “AppleCustomerService”. There’s some spectacularly clever stuff that this account does later on which will explain everything. Suffice to say that until this morning, this account was called “OrigamiWars”. All will become clear.

This is the very first mention of the game Origami Wars on the account. This is genius. Either the account was still called @Origamiwars back then, in which case it’s interesting that an official account for the game would be speaking about their own product in that way. Or the account wasn’t visibly linked with the game back then, in which case the person writing is pretending they are nothing to do with the game and are merely a fan telling people it’s great. Top work all round.

Ah, by this point, they’ve definitely admitted who they are. The use of capitalisation in this tweet is just TheBest.

A top tip: consistency in spacing when it comes to the name of your game is not important.

Nor is consistency in the capitalisation of your game’s name.

This tweet is so full of top tips it is worth you gazing long and hard at it. A few highlights:

  • Don’t worry too much about single quotes. A colon will do just as well.
  • Spacing is irrelevant. Playstore works just as well as Play Store.
  • Spelling is also irrelevant. If you wish to say your game has been “priased”, go right ahead.

Taking care with your promotional tweets to make you look professional is just simply unimportant. I cannot stress this lesson enough.

#LatestAndTheGratest

This is a crucial point: along with spacing and capitalisation, spelling the name of your game correctly is not important either. Especially in a hashtag.

Switching languages randomly in your feed is another top tip.

Randomly schilling another game with no context is also a corker of an idea.

Now, this is where things get special. A seemingly random tweet about a car, from a Twitter account that is supposedly promoting a game. Don’t worry though, things go back to normal for a bit after this.

See.

Wait, we’re back to the beef with BT. See, you’re probably just being stupid at this point. What has this got to do with Origami Wars? Frankly, if you’re too stupid to understand what this social media genius is up to, that’s your problem.

Oh dear.

Ah, back to Origami Wars. If you were thick, you’d think this account was thrashing around between being a professional social media account for a game, and somebody’s personal rant account. Us experts know differently.

Now, here is the crucial bit of genius. After this tweet, the account now takes a full year-long gap, where they post absolutely nothing about either Origami Wars, or BT vans. Finally, in July of this year:

I think the sheer magic of this tweet should stand on its own merits. I’m not about to sit here and analyse it. Please – just step back, read again, and whistle in absolute awe.

Surely now we can look forward to a new update to Origami Wars? After all, they’re now back in action, after a year of no updates. What can we expect? Something big, I hope. Maybe a brand new version of the game. This is exciting! And sure enough, a month later…

Wait, I thought I was going to get an update on the game. Instead, we get the beginning of a huge – and as I write this, ongoing – rant about the Apple Store in Watford.

This is sheer experimental theatre brilliance. Surrealism at its finest.

I’m afraid it’s upset them quite a bit.

“Money grows on #Apple tree”. That’s sheer poetry.

They were still talking about it when they woke up the next day. Endless tweets. Nobody needs Waiting for Godot – this is the real thing.

There are still genius social media tips to learn, however. Don’t bother to copy in the correct account name of the company you’re complaining about. It’s not important.

That’s just so clever. A worm in an apple. Amazing.

I tried to share some of these tips with other people I know online, but sad to say the account accused me of working for Apple. A quick check through my account would have proved this wasn’t true, but when I tried to explain, they blocked me. Still, I can’t begrudge them this slight misstep. Not when they’ve done so much right up to now. At least after they tweeted me, they renamed their account from “OrigamiWars” to “AppleCustomerService”.

Mind you, a blocking may mean it’s time to leave this saga. I admire the account so much, but if they don’t want to talk to me, so be it. So I will leave them, having posted 60 and counting tweets about Apple in the last 48 hours.

Good luck with the Apple Store Watford, Origami Wars. I wish you all the best. And thank you for showing us all how to use Twitter. I learnt so much. All about hooking and intriguing your audience.

When we find out the connection between the Apple Store Watford and Origami Wars, it’s going to blow our fucking minds.

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One comment

Tim on 7 August 2016 @ 2am

The ranting today was briefly interrupted by a number of retweeted pictures of puppies.


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