Hi and welcome – in this conversation I’m chatting with Sarah from CSquared Games about how we’re using social media to market our games. We’re no experts, but we’re learning and hopefully some of this will be useful to you too. If it is, make sure to check us out on Instagram and to sign up to new What If blog posts at the bottom of the page!
Joe: Hey Sarah. Thanks for agreeing to this conversation. Before we dive into all things social media, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Sarah: Absolutely! My gaming journey began back in about 2004 with games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride with my friends in college. My now husband, Ian, joined our gaming crew when we were just dating, but was hesitant to join at first because his exposure to games had been the typical Monopoly, Life, and Sorry types of games. After being exposed to this new realm of gaming, he was hooked as well.
We have been married now for 15 years and started creating our own games back in 2020 with Balance of Powers. This game opened the doors into game creation for us. We found that people were highly interested in our ability to take “boring topics”, gamify them, and turn them into fun and engaging learning opportunities. Now that we are on the path to publishing these games, we have had to dive into the world of social media to help with promotion and letting the world know who we are and what we are working on.
It seems from our social media profiles, we started our pages around the same time. I have noticed in recent weeks that your profile has had a sharp uptick in followers. I can guess what has contributed to that rise and interest, but I am curious to know what you think has resulted in that interest and rise.
Joe: I really don’t know. I joined Instagram back in January after about 10 years away from all forms of social media. I realised if I was going to make a game that anyone might actually play, I’d need some route to tell people about it. So instagram seemed like as good a platform as ever.
But in terms of followers, it’s been a steady climb. I think the type of posts you’re making matters, and that attention to detail and good graphic design helps. People like seeing interesting stuff, and it helps if it looks pretty.
Sarah: That makes sense, I would also add that what I have seen in your posts is there is intention and quality behind your posts which people appreciate, it’s predictable, and it is trending in 2024.
Joe: When you’re making posts and reels for social media do you have any rules you tend to follow?
Sarah: Regarding any rules I tend to follow, that’s a good question. I have experimented mostly with reels as I find those as a more creative outlet for me. On the simple side, when creating reels I always go through the trending audio in my professional dashboard to save any audio that I think might work for my upcoming ideas. Another simple rule I follow is trying to keep the reel short and not text heavy. I figure, if I don’t like those, then my audience won’t either. Think TedTalk slides. How can visuals convey your message rather than tons of words? Finally, I add collaborators to all my reels. If a collaborator accepts, then the content is shared with all their followers as well. This has been a great way to get our reels and information out to a broader audience.
On the more complex side, I also try to keep in mind three tips from Richard Shotton, an Applied Behavioural Scientist who has good tips for marketing one’s products in a world filled with noise. Those three are: 1) Be memorable. Concrete words and phrases help us visualise the product, stimulating our ability to remember better. 2) Build trustworthiness. Using quality references and specific information and data builds the trust of current and future customers. 3) Recognize your flaws. Find a flaw and use it to your advantage. At the moment we are running with, we take “boring concepts” and gamify them so people can engage and have fun learning about complex topics. I will also add that if you haven’t read Richard’s book, The Illusion of Choice, it’s a great read.
For you, when making posts, about your projects, do you have a posting schedule you try to adhere to? If so, do you think that has or has not helped with engagement in your feed?
Joe: When I started, I went a bit mad, a reel or post every day. Part of that was because I enjoyed making them, it’s another creative outlet for me – so I didn’t mind. But then I realised it was taking up too much time, it was fun, but a bit stressful trying to think of a thing each day.
Monday quickly became #BoardGameProtoHype
Then over Easter 2024 I went away for a week, so couldn’t do any instagram, and what happened? Well, the world didn’t end, in fact I got a load of followers from doing very little at all. When I got back I decided on a posting schedule – 3 times a week. Monday quickly became #BoardGameProtoHype, Wednesday was something related to my games development, and then Friday is a post alongside a blog post. This makes for a super simple schedule, with post types which become easier to write with practice.
Some people may well think 3 per week is too much, and I think it’s worth me explaining why I’m doing that. To end up with a successful game I need backers, and I simply don’t have the funds to run significant ad campaigns. So every person who follows I’m going to have to find; I think Instagram is one route to those people for me, so I’m not paying in money, I’m paying in my time.
Sarah: Your posting schedule is great, makes sense, and is predictable. It lets your followers know what to expect and you are right, it gives you time to think and get creative with your posts. I personally really enjoyed the post you where the planes flew through the sky if you held the dots and scrolled. Very creative.
Joe: Thank you! I think we’re both using the Meta Business suite to manage some of our social media; you can get loads of data about how your posts are performing, but which metric is the most important for you?
Sarah: You ask a good question regarding metrics, I pay a lot of attention to the reach and who is engaging in the content, followers vs. non-followers. I seek an even split between the two categories. From there I look at who decides to click the follow button. Are they following from the reel or in general? That helps indicate two things to me. What kind of reel is engaging to people and what type of reel is getting pushed better. The data can be all over the place, but the reels that seem to “do the best” have a few things in common. Some of those include good lighting, a clear message in a short period of time, and people. The ones with my family and data statistics seem to be the most popular with large reach and thus higher engagement.
Learning Instagram and the power of social media has been new to me. I was on the Facebook train back in college, but then we moved to China for six years and missed the culture shift to all the different social media platforms. So getting up to speed on the tips, tricks, and tools has been an education. This brings me to a three-part question, what has been the most interesting, the most challenging, and the most rewarding thing in engaging in social media for business?
Joe: The most rewarding – the people; everyone wants some form of connection, and the people I’ve met through my posts have been brilliant.
The most interesting – I’m constantly trying to push the limits of what you can do on Instagram. I’m already trying out next types of posts. Exploring these has easily been the most interesting.
The most challenging – nice posts are great, but I’m regularly challenged by the fact that they don’t convert into prelaunch backers or blog subscribers (hint, hint). This is probably where some actual training in advertising would probably help!
Let’s go for the same question back at you.
Sarah: The most rewarding – I would have to agree that it has been the people. Designing games and trying to publish them can feel lonely and isolating. Getting connected with the #BoardGameProtoHype group on Instagram has given me a community to reach out to, gather support from, and foster a sense of belonging, which is something we all long for.
The most interesting – I find the data really interesting and also mind boggling. I would like a straightforward answer on what works and then replicate that everytime, but that’s not how it works. However, if I line up all our reels that have done well, I can start to see a trend in the style and content that attracts people all over the world. Therefore, being able to gather a series of data points is very helpful and again, interesting.
The most challenging – Defining our social media brand is challenging for me. I want to create content about our games, but I also want to create content about other gaming topics like my most recent post on bringing toddlers to conferences. I think that information is important, helpful, and genuine, but is it really about the games we make? No. Therefore, I toggle between being only about our games and then showing our humanity. Is both okay? Should it only be the games? I haven’t decided yet.
Thanks again to Sarah for her time and insight – if you want to join the conversation, head to the accompanying Instagram post and comment. And remember to subscribe to the blog below!
