Game Online Community Marketing - Essay Example

City, State

Online Community Marketing

Introduction

Understanding the clients of a given product an organisation is the most basic step in ensuring that the firm attains increased sales and profitability. With the current trends in the technological world, a special component of the clients has been identified as the online community (McAlexander, et al., 2002, p.43). The idea has become so pronounced and caused a great success as with the social media marketing. In a real sense, people are regarded to be communal by nature, in the course of their functioning, various disciplines, and the need for information as well as regarding the professions that they are in. Building relationships therefore with the people, either in a direct way or an indirect way calls for the creation and building of communities.

It is notable that the online communities have been in existence and functional for a long time and also have the need to grow (Szmigin, et al., 2005, p.489). In that line, it is observable that online community marketing has some aspects that need to be entirely considered in the line of operation. Online groups are very functional in ensuring that personal relationships are built through networks of trust. Additionally, the groups serve to bring together people that are of common interest or that operate in common profiles (Szmigin, et al., 2005, p.493). Further, the specific groups need to be engaged to ensure that there is mutuality and servicing of the interests of the specific people. Depending on the goals and the specific target groups that one needs to engage in, there is developed different types of online communities.

Behavioral Tendencies for Online Communities

By its basic definition, a community encompasses a natural phenomenon, an engagement way as well as a specific mindset. As for such, there has always been the existence of online communities long before even there was established blogs. The community involves a group of people with a set of common interests or having shared interests, experiences, ideals, and goals. For instance, there are social communities, which use social platforms as the point of connection (Schau, et al., 2009, p.42). Such are the cases of platforms such as LinkedIn. The members of the community have a profile and further operate with by a given proximity. In some cases, however, online communities usually overlap with offline communities, as the case with Twitter, where the followers of a given individual or firm may include friends, family members, family as well as colleagues.

Invisibility is a common characteristic of most of the firms. Considering the case of blog readers, for instance, there are some people that are engaged in the activities of a given blog but cannot be easily identified since most of them do not comment frequently (Kozinets, et al., 2010, p.81). Such kind of a community usually includes readers that are very loyal; fans that have an interest with a specific blogger, for instance; as well as those that may be interested in a given topic and therefore they keep coming back for that topic. Identification of such members may, therefore, lead to activities such as the development of forms, polls as well as some mechanisms that are aimed at capturing the data of the people for their recognition. The case is very vital in conversion.

For the classification of a given community, there are different parameters that are employed. Such include scale, where different components and members that constitute the community are included (Fuller, et al., 2006, p.61). The scope of the group is also essential where the functionality of the specific group members is considered. Additionally, there is the consideration for the setting of the group, including openness of the group or the community. Such may also incorporate the maturity level of the members.

Marketing Strategy for Games

Considering the basics of an online community as shown in the discussion above, penetrating into an online community for the marketing of a game will, therefore, require mastery of the specific roles and the objectives thereof (Zhou, 2011, p.75). Similarly, understanding the preferences for a given set of members is essential in ensuring that there is the supreme satisfaction of the needs presented. In addition to that, getting to understand the most appropriate model of reaching and equally serve to win the attention and trust of the community members is of importance and therefore the need to develop it fully. Evidently, games are a preference by teens and most young people, who also prefer social media sites. The platform for reaching them will, therefore, incorporate mastery of the social media sites.

Additionally, gamers are considered to be information consumers, in that, they love and relish challenges intensively, they are very detailed and further they love crowding information. Proper communication is, therefore, essential in marketing to online gamer community (Hsu & Lu., 2007, p.1649). Protocols that can be followed in the entire process include listening to the member, proper identity of specific influencers and recognition of discussions underway. Additionally, the marketer needs to track down the congregation points and consequently have and develop a proper understanding of the market (Hsu & Lu., 2007, p.1653). Worthy to note however is the need for the given game to be lined with the specific traditions and morals set by the community.

Game Public Relations (PR) Marketing

The success of a given marketing strategy is basic an attribute by the public relations marketing success. With recent trends, advertising has lost a lot of familiarity and recognition and the adoption of public relations in its place very eminent. The case is true with a great deal of major brands such as Microsoft, Intel, BlackBerry, Google PlayStation and Linux, just to mention but a few. It is a fact that most of the major brands have been built with practically no advertising at all. Considering the case of Anita Roddick, she virtually did not incorporate advertising in all her transactions with The Beauty Shop but went around the world in a person resulting in increased publicity of the products that she was involved in.

The Rise of PR

PR majorly entails building or formation of a relationship as well as the management of communication between a firm or an enterprise and its clients or the public. One of the enablers for such a course is the social media (Wright & Hinson, 2008, p.13). Through social media, a platform is created where PR professionals are provided with an opportunity for actively and directly engaging with the clients or the consumers of their products. A powerful and an additional channel is created where consumers are listened to, and there is developed a conversation that is two-way.

For the online social community, Facebook is one of the most recognised media services allowing people to exchange interactive, user-submitted content among a network of friends (Miller & Dinan, 2000, p. 23). The process is done through personal profiles as well as comments on discussion posts. With such, a direct and innovative platform was facilitated which enables correspondences from the created community of friends. Additionally, there are Facebook fan pages where members can like and follow the proceedings thereof (Pitt, et al., 2002, p.11). The platform is the willingness of the client and the follower where they are not forced with the information that they do not what to hear. At the end of it all, the enterprise or firm engaged in the activities need to be mindful of the culture and the social norms that are established by the site.

The fall of Ads

Before the development of the PR, advertisements were the basic mode of communicating to the public as per the new inventories and products that have crowded the market. Their fall was however attributed from a lot of reasons since their effectiveness was at stake. Banner Ads are very prominent cases with such. The Ads ruined both the appearance and the usability of the web because of the coverage with lots of sponsorships. Additionally, the Ads appear to be perverted in the content that is presented. It has similarly been noted the fall can be linked with the privacy issue that is so profound therein. Moreover, it is projected that the major problem with that is seen to affect the fall of the Ads is because they are so directed to the marketability of the products and not on the perfection of the relationship with the clients, hence the fall.

How Game Companies do PR to Market their Products

With most of the game companies, PR development in the marketing of the products is mostly aided by the online social media sources. The fan pages, for instance, developed on Facebook are a proper ground to ensure that marketability of the games is facilitated and that the relationship between the clients and the enterprises is strengthened (Van Ham, 2002, p.253). With such, most of the companies have initiated reviews, which enable the clients have a glimpse of the game that is being advertised and further ensuring that the responses from the people are effectively and efficiently considered. The communication platform that is therefore developed with most of the firms on the social media is very vital.

Similarly, it is observable that most firms have also instituted websites that are used to show what is in the galleries of the firms and what is to be expected (Berthon, et al., 2012, p.267). The websites also have chat-rooms where the clients can engage with the firm on an extensive level for consideration. On top of these, promotions by the company grant the clients a chance to create a relationship with the firm thus they can air their views to the firm (Berthon, et al., 2012, p.269). The media sites, however, remain relevant for the transactions that are to be taken on the specific game by the specific people groups.

Reference List

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