Game design that goes viral
Sana N ChoudarySocial Fest
October 24, 2009
To learn
what social hooks are about
get ideas for some quick fixes
So you can go back to what your enjoy and are good at focus on game design
What you think you are here for
But actually...
There are no silver bullets
Why?
Anything that worked in the past has diminishing returns over time because:
users get desensitized over timeFacebook changes technology rules
What do you have to do to succeed?
Build virality into game playProvide social media and marketing supportLook at analytics and constantly iterate and optimize (not covered in this presentation)
Who am I?Sana N Choudary aka traffichoney.
Work with traditional game developers
Help them use and optimize Facebook viral channels and social media marketing to build popular social apps
Curious?
How?
1) effective in game virality
2) social media and community marketing
What is virality?
Virality defined
techniques that use pre-existing social networks to increase customer acquisition to your application through self-replicating viral processes, enhanced by the network effects of the Internet--paraphrased Wikipedia
Why viral loops are important?Gets past Facebook allocations limitsExponentially increases number of users to monetizeViral factor discounts customer acquisition cost
Casestudy: Farmville
What is Farmville?Facebook farm game where you
grow, harvest, and sell fruits and vegetables
rear farm animals and sell them or their produce
buy other decorative farm items
Have your friends as farming neighbors
Top Facebook game since August
More than 51 million monthly active users (As of Oct 1st)
Keys to success
1) effective in game virality
2) social media and community marketing
Viral Channel 1: MinifeedPhotos
Viral Channel 1: MinifeedIn game acts
Rewards
Viral Channel 1: Minifeed
Status messagesViral Channel 1: Minifeed
Viral Channel 2: Newsfeed
Add and Remind neighbor
Viral Channel 3: Invite with a twist
Send giftsViral Channel 3: Invite with a twist
Cross promotion
Other support
Community marketingBlog
Application fan pageCommunity marketing
Social media marketing
CaveatsSpending millions upon millions of dollars on advertising. They're reportedly spending 50 million dollars a year buying up facebook's ad inventory. Good at viral growth, user engagement, etc. But also spending dollars
Intensive Cross promotion and leverage
Summary
Incorporate viral elements within game play--EARLY!
Dedicate resources to community and social media marketing--focus on small measurable goals and results for whatever time you can spend on this.
Q & A?
Think you have the next transformative game idea?
Consult for a very limited number games that I think are creative and have solid business potential.
Contact:Sana N Choudarywww.facebook.com/traffichoney@[email protected] keep in touch!
Blog:www.traffichoney.comweekly post dissecting virality elements and marketing of a top social game
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