By Hernan Diaz
Facebook is a platform that is widely used for communication purposes by a large number of Marketers and Social Media Managers in different industries, including Gaming. Many of us choose to have a unique global page that identifies our games or brand to provide consistency in many areas like branding, communication strategy, customer support, content, and more, however, depending on the case we can also choose to have a pool of local pages to target different audiences, geographies, and languages… so what is the best approach?
The decision between having a global Facebook Page or localized Facebook Pages in reality is not standardized, and it will never be easy to determine the right choice for you without some context first. For a gaming company, this depends on specific goals, target audience, and available resources. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, and one should balance out all sides of the equation and contrast it with the desired outcome. Here are some considerations for each option:
Global Facebook Page:
1. Simplified Management: Managing a single global Page is more straightforward and requires less time, effort, and resources than managing multiple localized Pages.
2. Brand Consistency: A unique standard Page can help maintain a consistent brand image regardless of the regions and languages its audience identifies with.
3. International Reach: Having a single platform presence can attract a broader, international audience interested in your games, diversifying your audience and making the conversations around it richer and more frequent.
4. Avoid Confusion: From a customer perspective, having just one global page makes it easier to be found on Facebook and connect directly without anyone having to figure out if the page they are interested in is the right one targeting people like them or not.
Localized Facebook Pages:
1. Audience Relevance: Localized Pages give you the ease to tailor content, promotions, and communication to specific regions, cultures, and languages, making it more relevant to local or targeted audiences.
2. Community Building: You can create and build strong communities in any page regardless of its shape and form, however, in localized pages you can find more engaged communities addressing unique interests, topics and preferences that are aligned to the also unique interests-oriented content posted in the page. This reality gives local pages a special feeling because they address directly the desires of those local players and followers, strengthening the community around it as a result.
3. Targeted Marketing: Following up on the previous point, localized Pages enable more precise targeting for advertising campaigns or organic content promotion, ensuring organic content and/or paid ads to reach the right audience in the right time.
4. Cultural Sensitivity: You can be more sensitive to cultural nuances and preferences, which can be critical in gaming where cultural differences can impact communication decisions.
5. Search Engines Positioning: Localized Pages can enhance the visibility in local search results and improve SEO positioning for specific regions if anything related to the game or the Game’s Facebook Page (posts, username, contests, Facebook events, etc.) is searched in local languages .
6. Regional Events: Thinking about hosting regional gaming events or promotions? Localized Pages can help promote, target, and manage these activities more effectively.
In summary, the choice between a global or localized Facebook Page depends on the game’s priorities, its players or targeted audience, and available resources. There is no right or wrong answer. Any approach will work for different scenarios depending on the circumstances. If the gaming brand you love has the capacity to manage multiple Pages and want to connect with local audiences on a deeper level, localized Pages can be beneficial for them. However, if they want to optimize your resources or are primarily targeting an international audience, a global Page may be a more strategic choice. It’s also possible to strike a balance by having a global Page as well as localized Pages for key markets or regions. Ultimately, the decision should align with the overall communication, marketing and business objectives.
If you play any of our games or follow us on social media, you might have realized that In InnoGames we have in the past decided to take both approaches, and some of our games have launched with local pages like Tribal Wars and Grepolis, and some others, have launched with just international global pages like Rise of Cultures and Sunrise Village. Along the way, we have shifted our strategy for some other games, and switched from a local page approach to a global page approach, like we just recently did with The West. Currently we have a mixed approach for one of our biggest titles, Forge of Empires.
The good thing about social media is that it is very dynamic and one can shape their communication strategy to fit their own brand and game. Follow us on our fun social accounts, and discover how we love to interact with our lovely players!
HD
Social Media & Communications
InnoGames
Vivien Redmann