In one push of the button Google has elevated the activity on its social network Google+ substantially, seemingly in just one day. If you haven’t heard about Communities yet then let me tell you a little about them.
First of all why should you be on Google+? There are a number of reasons, but with sticking to the theme of marketing your game and company I’ll focus on that for now. Maybe the biggest reason to be on Google+ at least on a personal account is to network. I have spoken to a lot of you through Twitter over the last few months and Twitter does a great job of helping you find people with a similar interest as you. The strength and weakness of Twitter, however, is its limited format. You get your 140 characters and then you’re done. When you’re trying to have a conversation with people this can get frustrating. “Why not just use Facebook then?” you may ask. The answer to that is that Facebook is more of a private social media site for a lot of people. You are less likely to accept a friend request from someone you’ve never actually met in real life. This means you also aren’t chatting with them.
So what does Google+ have to do with all of this? Everything. Google+ effectively combines the networking strengths of Twitter using hashtags, and the comfortable, open feeling of Facebook using chat features and no character limits on posts. Google+ actually takes this a step further by allowing anyone the ability to video chat rather easily. I’ve been using the video chat software (Hangouts as it’s referred to) for a few weeks for our “On Air” series of interviews.
To sum all of this up – You can easily find gamers and game developers on Google+, begin talking to them about shared interests, and collaborate on projects or discussions using video networking software… all for free! Sign up!
So what are Communities?
Communities on Google+ make finding others with similar interests as you even easier than hashtags. A Community can be either private or public, be a topic, a place, an interest or anything you’d like to share with others.
The owner can also customize communities. What this means is you can set up different discussion, similar to a forum, where people can post different topics within the overall community. As an example, I created the Indie Games Community earlier today. Within the Community I created the following sub topics:
- For Gamers
- For Devs
This organizes posts for members and clearly illustrates where your post should go. These discussions can be rearranged, renamed, added, or subtracted at any time by the Community owner.
Google+ Hangouts can also easily be created, at any time, with any group members. A Google+ Hangout is a powerful videoconference software built directly into Google+. I don’t like calling it video chat because there is so much more that can be accomplished with it. There is text chatting, audio, and video built in. In addition a screen share feature lets you easily show what you are working on to others in the hangout. Another great feature is Google Drive integration. You can work on documents with others in real time while all being on the same broadcast as if you were in the same room. Extremely powerful for connecting developers from around the world.
Events can also be set up from within the Community. As an example, for my Startup Gamers On Air show I can set up the event in the Community so all members can see it and join if they care to. Another option for developers would be if they were going to be at a local game store or convention demoing their game. To get the word out they could set up the event and list the location, date, and time and suddenly people that never would have known about it would be informed.
Finally, the option to share any article, post, picture, or anything you find on the Internet with every member of the Community is not only possible now, but also extremely easy. All of those +1 buttons out there now and soon to be out there have this capability.
As you can see Google+ Communities have some huge implications in networking and that means more exposure for you, your company, and your game. There is a general rule out there though: Do not use this, or any social media, to only promote yourself. If you constantly post about how great your game is then people will ignore it and on some platforms it could get you banned for SPAM. Instead take part in discussions, comment on the work people are doing, and provide help when people are stuck.
I’ll leave you with some new Communities that you should definitely be a part of if you’re an indie game developer or gamer:
Are there any other Communities you’ve found that are interesting? Let me know in the comments!
Talk soon,
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Patrick Stephens 