The presence of social media is not something that big developers and publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision have ignored. Just last week, developers of the highly anticipated Starcraft 2 announced that they will be adding Facebook integration into their upcoming title. Big players in the video game industry always play on the bleeding edge of developments in technology, marketing and business models; social media is no exception. So, if social media is the new marketing frontier, where do game developers stand?

Let’s take a step back first; before the social media boom, publishers were already creating online forums and moderating feedback from users. You would easily find feedback from users on what features they liked the most, and what features they hated. Sentiment was as simple as collecting and organizing feedback from magazines and website reviews. Marketers and producers who were tech savvy enough would post forum polls and track discussions from commercial and independent forums. User feedback on the internet was manageable, and located in pockets of communities that the astute marketer would easily find.

Today, the widespread presence of syndicated, published and independent blogs, news about upcoming titles spreads faster than publishers plan for. Biased news leaks and raw speculation leave poor impressions in the minds of discerning gamers. It is difficult to predict and find key community influencers who spark the strongest opinions. This puts developers in a position where they have little to no control of community sentiment before the release date. There are so many different influencers and communities that affect sentiment about a product; it is beyond the control of marketing directors and community managers to find the right one.

The video game blog community is large and extremely active.

We really like the idea of social media becoming an integral part of marketing activities cross the board: from market research to crowd sourcing or testing ideas to branding, pr and seo.

So, here is Frédéric’s article (original post in French is here).

Until now, when a brand wishes to assess reputation, it should have recourse to the polling that was carried down the street and in stores to meet consumers. Now it has a formidable media: social media (blogs, forums, social networks, microblogs …). Not only are they freely accessible, but they are “delivered” with all the necessary tools (search engines, rankings …). It looks like nothing, but it is a major change in how brands can understand their relationship with customers / prospects.

No, I’m not talking to you about a new marketing practice (some call it social marketing or pinko marketing) but really only about marketing.

I’d like to remove immediately ambiguity that may exist with practices such as emailing: when I speak of marketing, I refer to the substantive work (study of the needs / constraints / reasons / concerns of customers and prospects, analysis of the perceived value, collecting feedback from users …) that will feed a future strategy, not tactics to boost sales in a timely manner (emailing, buying keywords …).

I am not saying that these practices are not effective, they just respond to a logical short-term and they too tend to bridge a gap in brand strategy (positioning, promise …) that is very expensive  in social media as dissatisfied customers rarely mince their words when they speak.

Similar to  visits to point of sale or on the floor of call-centers, presence  on social media is a very effective way for brands to be present on the field to:

• Analyze market responses to a product / offer
• Check the positioning of the product vis-a-vis the world of competition or the perceived value of a brand
• Study the flow of prospects looking for information or advice prior to the act of purchase (search for alternative)
• Listen to customers in their phase of ownership of a product or operation of a service (post-purchase sentiment)
• Anticipate renewal phase

In short, social media represents a unique opportunity for brands to collect quality raw data (no filter nor interpretation) on their brand, their products, customers… This is a genuine gold mine freely accessible.  Obviously there is important work to be done to collect and analyze all this but I always find it very deceiving to outsource this task. While a buzz campaign (and other one time operation) may be outsourced to an agency for various reasons (lack of time, knowledge …), it is really a wrong move to lose this direct link with the market.

That is why I consider that the research and analysis of conversations on social media should be treated as field work and be recognized as such, not like the latest fashion of the moment (“what ?! you do not tweet for refurbishing”).

I know that this work can be converted into human cost (the famous FTE or Full Time Equivalent), but what is more important than being in direct contact with customers / prospects ?

There is a major difference between social media marketing and marketing in social media. Both are interesting (maybe critical as social media reach has now surpassed TV) and I’d like to illustrate the difference using the consumer as the starting point.

So let’s start with the consumer. In the current online world , there are two ways people get exposure to brands and products:

a- Google scenario

A consumer launches Google and types let’s say “zune bug”.  This is not new, it’s been the case since 2000.  What is new is that most of the sites making the top of the list now are blogs or sites with consumer generated content.

So, if as a brand you’re not on these blogs, you’re not on Google, and you’re not on the web. Therefore you want to have your brand on the blogs that make the top of the list either with  a comment to a relevant post, an article written by the blogger or (more traditional) a text or banner ad.   You can of course also pay to have your brand show up against this search query and many others.

This is what I call marketing in social media.

The best blogs for brands are the ones with the highest chance to get on top of a Google page and this is where Social Media meets SEO. (more to come on this ).

b- Social scenario.

A Consumer  is spending a  significant amount of his time in social media. He gets a Facebook wall message  about the “zune bug” . Her  friend has found this information on one of her favorite gadget blog.

An hour later the same person got the same link from Twitter. This time the link  is re-tweeted by a friend of a friend…  He clicks on it and read some more posts, one including a review of other MP3′s, and Bingo,  decides to buy a Creative.  Often, the content that triggered the decision can be traced back from an influential blogger, one that’s trustable and relevant in an MP3 community.

This is not marginal . A new article from Marketing Vox  shows that  Facebook overtake Google referrals on some sites.It follows another report from TubeMogul showing that blogs provide 80% of referred traffic to online videos.

To win the social game, brand have to get exposure and coverage from the influential bloggers in the community they target.

These scenarios are not exclusive as consumer do both. When I use Google, I will go down a couple of results to click on a link from a blogger I know. Similarly one can tweet the result of a search. (reframeit is very convenient for doing this).

Depending on what product you sell, what audience you target and whether you want to grow awareness, generate leads  or get conversion, you may focus on one approach or the other. .. or both.