What Content You Should Put On Your Facebook Page

As promised here is part two of our Facebook guide for game devs. Last week we ran through the initial setup of the page. In part 2 today we’ll now go through what content you should be looking at uploading to the page that will get the most attention from your fans.

Editorial Calendar

Before you do anything else it is worth sitting down and planning through exactly what messaging you will be wanting to send out and when. Whether you plan this one week at a time or look at your 12 month schedule and plan updates and content, it is a good idea to know in advance what you want to upload and when. This way you’ll be in full control of your messaging and can ensure it matches up with any other marketing activity you have planned.

The 80/20 Rule

Across the web community managers talk about the 80/20 rule and this can and should be applied to content on Facebook. This is where around 80% of your content is specifically about you and your product with the other 20% around other world events, holidays etc. Sticking to this rule will ensure you don’t get lazy and rely solely on updates like “Morning, how are you all today?”.

Exclusivity

It is also a good idea to use some content exclusively on Facebook. This will add value to the page and encourage your community to keep visiting and engaging with the page and your content. Perhaps make Facebook the place to upload video diaries or high quality images of concept artwork?

Use The Community As A Guide

Once your page is up and running take note of what your fans respond best to and try to replicate this more often. This doesn’t mean churn out the same stuff but perhaps keep a theme running. If for example you get more Likes/Comments/Shares against images of where you work then think about how you can capatalise on that. Perhaps make Friday afternoons “Work Day” and upload amusing images of you and your team messing around.

You will also find that a few of your community members will upload their own images and videos. Often they aren’t much to shout about but at times you get some amazing stuff so think about how you can go about highlighting that. Not only will this encourgae more high quality stuff but it will make those whose images/videos you bring to the attention of others ambassadors of you and your game.

Be Funny, But Don’t Force It

Speaking from experience of managing communities we can tell you that the funnier the update/image/video the better the response. This doesn’t mean you have to keep trying to be funny however. Plan ahead, be natural and take on board the sense of humor that your fan base has.

Status Updates

There are five kinds of status updates that you can put on the page. Status (text), Photo, Link, Video and Question. I’ll talk further about the text update in a moment. Photo and Video updates are better left to directly uploading to the Photo tab into albums. If you have any important news and are looking to direct people to a specific link on another outpost then the Link update is the best option for that although you can just paste links into text updates.

The Question update is the latest addition and can be a great way of generating traffic to your page. Once a fan answers an update it is then shared to all their friends and so on. These can be used to gauge an understanding of opinion amongst your community or as a bit of fun. Just don’t forget, if you add poll options un-tick the “Allow anyone to add options” box. Otherwise you may find yourself in a sticky situation where various options are suddenly added by your fans that perhaps aren’t your original intention.

The text status update is the number one thing that Facebook is known for. It can be quite tricky to strike the right balance of updates per week, length of the updates and what exactly to right. The general rule of thumb is to stick to 3 – 4 text updates per week and fit richer content around that. This way you won’t be spamming your community and they will be more likely to want to see what it is you have said.

In terms of timing it differs from one community to the next. There will generally be two peak times per day on Facebook and those are predictably at lunch time and later in the evening. Weekends follow a similar pattern but do have longer periods of time with people on the platform.

For the length of text status updates try and stick to around 2-3 sentences. It is widely acknowledged that longer updates are seen as spam by your fans as it will take up large spaces in their newsfeeds. Also they will be more likely to read short, snappy updates and then in turn Like, Comment and Share them.

Behind The Scenes

This goes back to our previous posts to do with dev diaries. Keeping your community in the loop with the latest developments or your games alongside releasing content that shows off your personality. This is one of the best ways to help your community feeling part of what you are trying to achieve.

These can be simple images of you and your team working at your computer to video tours of where you are developing the game. Creating profiles of all those involved with the game to allow your community to get to know you all better will also prove effective.

Game Development

Your core community will love to see initial ideas, old concepts and final drafts of artwork, scripts, early build videos and soundtracks. Think about the rise of DVD extras, artwork books and the development documentaries that now spread across web people. People love seeing this stuff as it gives them insight into a world that they may not be party to. It also enables you to get early feedback on new ideas from those who will be playing your game.

Screen Shots and Sneak Previews

When your game is getting closer to release uploading screen shots and video previews are a no brainer. Make the content compelling and teasing by not giving away to much and allow your fans to speculate about what could be coming up.

Trailers

YouTube offers a lot more flexibility and more options and so it is probably best to keep the majority of your videos there and then paste the links into status updates. However it is a good idea to upload your major trailers to the Facebook page so that they are easily accessible as until Facebook unleashes a Timeline like interface for brand pages, fans very rarely search back through the page walls.

So there we go! A quick run through of what content to put up and when. In part 3 of our Facebook guide we’ll look at the different app options that are available and how they can enhance your fans Facebook experience.

What content do you think works best? Have you any other insights and ideas? Sound off in the comments below.