How to involve users in the gaming world: contests and interactivity in social networks. Cases of the Krasnodar studio Plarium

Official communities on social networks are an effective tool for promotion in almost any sphere. They are needed to communicate with users, understand their mood, receive feedback, as well as build audience loyalty to the product and a sense of ownership. In the geymindustry, the correct flow of content and increased activity of subscribers stimulate interest in the game. In this article we will talk about one of the most effective ways to engage in the example of the official communities of Vikings: War of Clans.

Ways of engagement

First of all, it is important to understand that this is a whole complex of various events: contests, polls, maintenance of headings, publication of user-generated content, posts with news and useful information, music selections, interviews with players and much more. Choosing methods of work, focus on the features of the project, the specifics of the social network and its audience.
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There are many effective interactions that provide participants with an exciting pastime in the community. You can publish crosswords, rebuses, puzzles - it all depends on your imagination and the interests of users. For example, on the occasion of World Architecture Day, we held an event in the Vikings: War of Clans group in VK. Subscribers were offered to help Torah in the construction of a building of 100 logs: Like - 1 log, repost - 2 logs. As the players collected the material, they saw more and more clearly what construction they would end up with.

Yet one of the most effective methods of engaging are contests, mainly because people have a powerful incentive to participate in them — reward. Let's take a closer look at this method, drawing on the experience of specialists from the Krasnodar studio Plarium.

Why gaming community contests

Contests are an integral part of working with users. They help the young community to find its audience, and then, as it develops, they continue to attract new members. When the community is already formed and these tasks fade into the background, the main goal is to maintain the interest and activity of subscribers.

The type of competition depends on the purpose:

• Attracting new users.
  A prerequisite for participating in such interactions is to share a post or join a community. Please note that Facebook prohibits contests that involve the dissemination of information using a repost, but subscribers can post content on their page, noting the community and / or putting a certain hashtag.
• Increased activity within the community.
  Basically, such contests encourage players to share opinions or stories, invent signatures for pictures and gifs, and like.
• Create custom content.
  As a rule, these are creative interactions or events that are held with the participation of a third party - other companies or bloggers.

On personal experience, we have seen that combining contests of various types increases their effectiveness. For example, in April of this year, we launched a Facebook interactive with the video blogger JoergSprave. He is known for making weapons of unusual types: from crossbows and elven swords to ammunition from spinners. Especially for the Vikings: War of Clans community, the blogger built a working catapult from wood, similar to the one that can be seen in one of the game's commercials.

The terms of participation were quite simple: in four weeks to build a catapult of any size, post a photo or video on your page that demonstrates the process of its creation, and also use the “@” symbol to mark the Vikings: War of Clans community in a post and put a hashtag timed to interactive. The main prize is 5 million in-game currency.

During the competition, users designed about 20 unique catapults. Some of them functioned and reached human height. All publications related to this draw accounted for 35% of the total engagement rate for the month, while the number of subscribers increased by more than 2500 during the interactive period. You can find photos of the work and video clips in our official Facebook community by clicking on links: goo.gl/CS3oWs and goo.gl/hg6jjD .

Search for ideas

At this stage, a lot depends on the team of community managers: well-coordinated work, joint discussions and brainstorming help to find great ideas. Also an important role is played by the personality of the specialist, his experience and vision. A professional always has some ideas and ideas; he is able to competently present game features and updates in his community.



Below is a list of key points to look out for when searching for ideas:

1. Goals
   It is necessary to clearly understand the goals and objectives of the team.
2. Lecture hall.
   Good idea can prompt users themselves. To do this, the community manager must know his audience, take into account the interests and needs of subscribers, listen to requests and monitor the mood of the community.
3. Product.
   Well-versed in all the nuances of the project, knowing the trends and typical game situations, you can find relevant, close to users of the topic of competitions.
4. Trends.
   Loud discussed events and holidays - a great opportunity to create an interesting interactive.
5. Experience and successful cases of other companies.
   You should not be limited to one area - find and adapt for your project bright ideas from international practices in different areas.

Do not be afraid to try something new. Even if you have in your arsenal a few successful jokes, thanks to which you received a good response, you do not need to stop and work only with them: there is a risk that subscribers will get bored.

Implementation of contests

User involvement is largely dependent on the prize pool and competition mechanics. If the community has appeared quite recently, you should not run sweepstakes with complicated mechanics - wait until you have an audience that knows your product and is loyal to it. In addition, in order for a participant to fulfill difficult requirements, he must have a serious motivation - appoint an award that meets the conditions.

Another important point is the summing up of the competition. Winners can be determined in several ways:

• Randomly (we use this method if the interactive does not involve creative activity).
• By the decision of the community administration (in this case, we assess the quality and authenticity of the content, as well as its presentation).
• Voting subscribers.

In creative competitions it is better to use two methods for determining the winners: the choice of the audience and the choice of the administration. So the assessment turns out to be more objective, and the likelihood that the reward will get only to those who wound their likes, is minimal.

Very interesting and successful is the mechanics, in which participants themselves influence the prize pool. To increase the level of involvement such interactivity can be made multi-stage, however, based on our experience, we recommend adding no more than two intermediate stages.

We recently held a similar contest for the Vikings: War of Clans community on Facebook. The winners were determined randomly, and the main reward was a complete set of things the invader, formed on the basis of the intermediate stages:

1. The survey, in the course of which we found out which set of invaders the players want to get.
2. Determination of the quality of things in the set, which depended on the number of likes typed by the publication.



The community engagement indicator obtained through this raffle was 45% of the total monthly engagement. Our goal - to increase the activity of the audience - was achieved.

Starting interactive, do not forget to read the rules of the social network. For violation, the community is most likely banned, which can harm your reputation. Try to work out all the details and create the most transparent conditions for participation.

Treat each contest as a case. Check if you are able to achieve your goal. To do this, mark in advance the indicators by which you will evaluate the effectiveness: if you want to increase activity, then you need to measure the number of likes and comments, and if your task is to attract new users, you should fix the number of subscribers before and after.

Tips

- Run contests with multiple prizes. The more satisfied users, the better.

- Always keep balance in rewards, mechanics, conditions and the number of interaktiv. If you make jokes too often, you can spoil your audience, and if you only publish informational posts, subscribers will get bored.

- Do not hold a contest for the sake of competition. Determine in advance the main indicators for which you will monitor performance, and measure statistics at all stages of implementation: before, during and after.

- Use in the publications game slang, which is used by subscribers. This increases the loyalty and, accordingly, the involvement of participants. Thus, we show that we are on the same wavelength.

- Do not be afraid of negative comments, learn to work with them. Even if the user writes negative reviews, he is involved in the process and is not indifferent to your game.

In conclusion, we want to emphasize: when conducting contests and interactives in social networks, first of all, be guided by your goals and remember that priority is quality, not quantity. A small but active audience is much more valuable than a millionth and not showing any interest to the project.