Social Media: The Game!

Social Media might just be the largest, most-played game on the planet—of which many participants may not even be aware they take part!

See, in most games you are thrust into a persona which you manipulate (like a puppet master), pulling the strings to have your avatar move or attack, or interact with the virtual world in some (hopefully meaningful) way.  Similarly, Social Media is a Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game where you choose a persona variably based on yourself, where you interact with other players in a variety of ways.  What’s the goal?  Followers, friends, likes, pins, retweets, reblogs, upvotes, subscriptions, and maybe even some cash! This is not different whether you’re a singular person, or a company/brand.

The Social Media game is not always played on the same platform, and often the abilities within the platform determines how the game is played.  Ultimately, if social is involved, the idea is still the same.  In traditional media, participants are usually broken up into only one of two groups: content creators (or publishers), and consumers.  In the Social Media game, the paradigm has shifted radically away from a one-way content progression (creator/publisher to consumer) to a multi-directional path (consumer/creator to publisher, consumer/creator to audience via publisher platform, publishers to creators to consumers/audience, etc).

Let’s be honest: the Social Media game is not one successfully played on easy mode.  Like many communities both online and off, the interactive digital frontier has multiple cultures of its own.  Social Darwinism can prove fatal for those who don’t give proper respect, and sometimes there is no way to “respawn” or recover from a disaster.  Those corporations which have chosen to take the easy route by using scripted bots to interact with their audience have committed the number one sin in social media: do not fake it with your audience, it’s disrespectful and spammy.  Success hinges on every post and tweet made, especially when it comes to the quality of interactions.  Mistakes are rarely tolerated by the hyper-awareness inherent in the environment — and in that, it’s not different to a customer’s relationship to a much beloved gaming empire, including any new releases, versions, or updates (the relationship between Developers and Players can also ride that fine line, and there needs to be a mutual respect).

The best advice is: Know what your goal is, what your voice is, what makes you interesting and alluring to the players/community, and what the outside world expects from you.  Also, in regards to the content you provide on your social channels a) be nimble with creativity and humor, and b) keep respect and your facts intact and clear.

Some companies have taken to the Social Media game like fish to water with an almost cult-like following in certain campaigns.  Most notably this can be seen with:

• The Denny’s blog,
• The Twitters for Spaghetti-O’s,
• Taco Bell‘s Twitter account,
• Domino’s Pizza Twitter account,
• The ongoing adventures of the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile
• And the ongoing campaigns by Old Spice (particularly their Youtube interactions).

Again, the key is complete assimilation into the culture, and understanding what appeals best to your community via the tools of your social media presence.  In the end, it’s the players that need to have the best experience: as consumers, fans, or creators, and the companies who bring the most fun to the table are typically the companies who survive!

CJ Vaughn
Moderator