Posts by Junie Wu:
- From Friends: More than 50% of mobile game-playing adults learn about new mobile games from friends and family.
- In App Stores: About 40% of adults learn about new games within app stores, where hot lists, rankings and user reviews are highlighted.
- On Social Sites: 25% of adults hear about new mobile games via social media sites.
- No one cares about your weaknesses, there is too much emphasis on being well rounded. Be great at one thing.
- Pursue your passion. Be great at this.
- Try-do it now when you are younger and have less risks. What do you have to lose? You have less to lose now than later on when you may have a family you must provide for and mortgages you need to pay.
- Time levels the playing field for everybody. Use this to your advantage– work harder than your competition.
- Define an objective
- Decide where to monitor
- Decide what to monitor
- Prioritize
- Develop a Plan
- Involve others
- Listen first
- Inbound vs Outbound Conversations
- Build relationships- “When you develop a voice and become a resource for others, people will listen to you and spread your message on the merits of the message.”
- Select tools that match your strategy
- Giving product demos and previewing the product. Watching a video on how to do something is a lot more enjoyable than reading dry instructional texts. This works well on explanatory types of products/services and/or when the product/service is highly visual oriented.
- Make the product look like it’s fun, effective and great in a video. This could make other people want to join in and make videos with your product.
- Use video as a way of engaging its audience.
Jul
13
1. Freemium Model Has Potential
Free download with in-app purchase options. This is a strategic revenue model your mobile game. If the game is addicting enough, people will be spewing money into your game with many low cost purchases. The freemium models after an arcade game (a comparison used once on the radio), in order to keep playing (or further your entertainment, you must keep inserting a quarter or a dollar. These are insignificant numbers so that it can bypass people’s inhibitions to pricy games. But when all the in-game purchases are added up, it make quite a nice revenue- often more than $2.99 or what not that the game could be selling for in a paid model (one-time fee for a full featured app).
2. Tablet Gamers Download & Play More
38% of tablet gamers play 5 or more hours per week, while only 20% of moble phone gamers play that much. Tablet gamers even download more paid and free games
What you choose to do with this information is up to you but to me, I think you should make your games more simple. If people prefer a larger screen to play games on, perhaps little details that are difficult to use or see should be scratched!
3. Users Crave Multiplayer & Social Features
People crave interaction so create an environment for people to get this. Sworcery is a good example of this. The creators have made it easy for people to tweet the sayings. This way they encourage people to “talk” about their game and thus creating a group where people can belong to.
4. Word of Mouth Is the Key Driver for Game Downloads
Continuing on from point number 3, this tip is builds upon that. Make it easy for people to do this. Have a catchy saying or a catchy tune. Reward people for spreading the game, create an incentive for people to do this. An incentive does not need to be monetary, it can be to unlock certain features of the game. Last but not least, please do not forget to monitor what is being said about your game. Show some respect to your audience. This can be a great learning experience.
5. Hit Games Can Come From Anywhere
“Hundreds of independent game developers have released smash hits” Great job! Take this and get insprired. It is no longer the rich get richer environment that we are so used to. Internet and passion together as a combo have leveled the playing field.
Mar
23
Highlights of the presentation:
Mar
15
After receiving many complaints from parents, Apple has changed its policy for in-app purchases. The change is made to prevent some unexpected bills. Sarah Kessler points out another issue, “Whether it’s appropriate to market expensive virtual goods within games intended for young children.”
In-app purchases for children-typed games are a loop-hole that allows children to purchase goods (virtual) with the use of a parent’s credit card. Whereas offline, a child walking up to the cash register with a credit card would be denied the transaction. These in-app purchases discovered an untapped market that is now under debate.
Is it appropriate to market to children who may not understand the value of money?
If this question were to be reworded, “Is it appropriate to market a good that is well beyond the audience’s means and does not understand the value of money?” then we can tell this takes place in real life. The difference between the two groups is the children versus adults. Children are assumed to not yet know these things where adults are supposed to.
This way of generating sales is quite sneaky as the bill at the end of the month tends to drop some mouths. Usually this type of strategy would not work as the product continues its life cycle but because these games often have a short lifespan and does not face returning customers (unless for another version of the game), it works. Sales and revenue could decrease because of the new prevention changes. Therefore, marketers would no longer make these in-app purchases targeted to children as expensive since parents are made aware of each purchase. Perhaps as a result, there will be a switch as more marketers make games intended for adults.
Mar
14
Maria Ogneva gives 10 steps on how to listen online and what to do with the results. These steps can be used in companies that are in the walk, run, and fly stages; it just varies on how far the company goes in each step.
What is interesting is step 7: if these are steps that teach a person how to listen, it is funny how one must be told to actually listen first. This is an important stage and I feel is often overlooked by companies eagerly wanting to jump in to the innovative atmosphere and having large egos.
It’s crucial to know the culture of the community and the norms. It’s somewhat like attending a wedding; you can’t show up in a Speedo, you must know what the dress code is. Starbucks does a good job of listening. They do not inject an advertising message on every instance the company is mentioned (step 7 and 8).
Most of all: if you do not listen well, you may end up turning away all your positive commenting people by annoying consumers and making them contemplate about privacy issues! A company needs to find a strategy that fits because there can be very negative implications if not done properly- word spreads quickly on the internet.
Mar
14
In the “5 Tips for Improving Your Social Customer Service,” it talks about how social media allows for customers to take control and force businesses to help on customers’ own terms. Social support is an opportunity to maintain engagement and stay on top of potentially damaging talk.
1. Everyone should be considered to have the same priority. Even if someone has a high Klout score, these people should be helped, “but not at the expense of helping others.”
2. Ensure the listening tool is able to notify you of any information quickly and completely so that you may be able to act easily.
3. Make sure all employees are on the same page regardless of what department or office they are in. You should all work from the same customer record.
4. You will need to collaborate internally quickly by setting up the proper tools and process to facilitate this.
5. Keep in mind; this is a highly regulated industry. Therefore, you must know when it is appropriate to continue the conversation publically or switch to a private one. Nonetheless, be sure to maintain excellence in either way.
I feel these tips are better suited for a company that is at the “flight” stage of their online presence and social media. A small company would not be able to commit to these steps because it simply would not have the resources. Therefore, to make this more adaptable to the “walk and run” stages, this list should be used as boundaries and overall guidance.
Step 2 and 3 would require a company to invest in a new CRM and is likely to be very expensive. What a small company could do instead of this is to dedicate an hour a day to review the areas online (that contains talk about your company) and to offer support when needed.
Mar
8
On December 29th, 2010, drinksmartwater uploaded a “Smartwater Trailer” on YouTube that generated as of March 7th 554 views. You can say this was not very successful as not many people watched it before the “jennifer aniston goes viral- smartwater” video was posted. Since then, the trailer has reached 6,549 views and the video itself has accumulated 1,423,212 views. It is amazing on how fast this video has spread because last night, this video generated a relatively miniscule amount of viewers- just under 1,500.
BeenerKeeKee19952 also uploaded “Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral (With Me) Smartwater Viral Campaign.” This is significant because smartwater has created a evangelist by incorporating him in the commercial, which would then influence many of his own followers. Within one day, many people have uploaded their own reviews, opinions, and responses to this “viral” video. For example, MaxJohnsonTv2 said in his video, “water is water, all water is the same” demonstrates that this video is creating buzz about the product which is the objective.
Smartwater utilizes a few YouTube sensations to help make their product spread across the community. Essentially they are trying to use “viral” in an explicitly blatant and humourous way to become viral. This proved to be very successful as Smartwater was able to plunge into the YouTube pool and experience the positive ripple affects.
Mashables asks a great question about this online video ad, “What do you think? Can Smart Water have it both ways? Or is this idea not so smart after all?” I think Smartwater did a great job in creating brand awareness and a positive image (by the looks of the online comments so far). I believe they owe their success to being one of the few companies to utilize this tool and maintaining a light humourous tone in the video. Once this tool gets old, I do not think other videos will receive the positive result that the Jennifer Aniston “Sex Tape” did.
Mar
7
When making a web video, companies (big or small) have to consider: What message is their video expressing? How will it affect their customers? When should they release it for maximum impact?
This article talks about “Innovative ways to use web video”
What does this mean?
Web video is one way that helps to level the playing field for companies. Small companies are able to make great videos that become viral. Web videos are great for any product/service as Tipp-Ex is an example of this. It is a commercial about white out- something so old, traditional, and does not create a lot of excitement when thought of. But since they used video as an a way of engaging its audience through something entertaining, fun, and most of all interactive, this video has reached 15,520,133 views!
Feb
10
Charities are a type of organization that I believe can thrive with utilizing social media, such as YouTube and Mobile Apps. The YouTube Nonprofit Program is a helpful tool suitable to low budget organizations in providing an effective video message used for fundraising.
This could be paired with creating a mobile app that can intervene in the awareness and through third party conversion, lead to conversion for the charity. What I mean by this is:
1. Awareness- providing quick facts relevant to your charity every x days to educate people.
2. Third party conversion: through agreement and partnering with third party retailers, you can send push notifications on location specific promotions and coupons to the consumer.
3. Conversion: through helping the consumer save money on such things as groceries or entertainment, you have provided them with a benefit in which they may repay the charity through donations. Another strategy could be for the charity to take a portion of the sales through the coupon redemption (like Groupons) so to bypass the stage of eliciting donations.
Feb
10
Mobile web utilized by “forward-thinking retailers…to address each stage in the consumer purchase funnel- awareness, engagement, consideration, conversion and loyalty.” In essence, the plan should further the company in some way or another by opening up opportunities in a consumer’s process to purchasing. An example that the article provided is: to receive sale alters (awareness), look for better prices ad product reviews (consideration) and redeem coupons (conversion). Sephora has done a great job on mobile web.
I think a mobile strategy could be useful to grocery stores.
1. To send a text or offer an app with a promotions section about a crowd pleasing recipe of the day that students and parents can make in a hurry. They can include the ingredients and costs with the message. This would act as an opportunity window for the awareness stage.
2. To take a step further, barcodes could be provided by each produce giving suggestions of how to serve that vegetable and the nutritional value it contains (consideration). On top of this, you may even allow consumers to have input on this stage, allowing them to get involved as well, such as making suggestions.
3. Lastly, coupons may be given on certain ingredients off of the recipe of the day to play a role in conversion. These are tangible, relevant offers that include limited-time offers.
Feb
8
Paul Verna is the writer of “Social Gaming: Marketers Make Their Move,” recognizes the potential for marketers in the “faster growth track” of all forms of gaming- social gaming. Paul brings attention to the fact that contrary to the console gaming industry, the majority of social gaming audience is of an older age category and slightly skewered towards the female population (quite a surprise to me). Perhaps the reason for the popularity in older population is because this group of audience is of the owing credit card age. Therefore, their interest in such games and continual playing is furthered by the use of a credit card for virtual goods.
Social gaming is a mode of advertising that levels the playing field if “the right fit among[st] the brand, the game and the demographics of the playing audience” is considered. Small companies may still make great games or be incorporated into a game if it fits the three aspects listed by Paul. No matter how much a big company invests in a game, if it the product placement does not suit the brand, game or demographic, it will be ineffective. Therefore, success in social gaming is not all about budgets, but about suitability and fit as well (a good thing)!