作者：Benjamin Gifford

通过话题来产生兴奋度、曝光度和新品牌相关信息并非新鲜事。对于在线游戏而言，这种宣传不但可以通过人与人之间的交流，还可以通过诸如Facebook和Twitter等web 2.0社交网站。我们可以预想到，未来所开发的软件和游戏将更具吸引力，并且融合社交娱乐中的新鲜且令人兴奋的趋势。你的工作室以及游戏将来的愿景是什么呢？

我们将在下文中分析采取哪些步骤能够改善品牌的造势行为，让公众对品牌产生更积极的认识，使得目标受众对品牌的认知达到最大化。我还会在下文中举些有用的例子，你可以从这些成功的例子中学习如何将推广做得更好。本篇文章主要针对中国市场，你也可以根据具体情况做出改变。

how-to-generate-word-of-mouth-referrals(from alexonrecruitment.co.uk)

鉴别具有影响力的个人和公司，向其投入更多的精力

在科技领域中，有影响力的人包括行业分析师和记者、决策制定者和早期用户。对于游戏领域来说，你可以查找IGDA等行业组织或者通过LinkedIn寻找有影响力的人。公司高管通常较为繁忙，你可以接触那些其他对行业有较多认识的人，他们时常能够给你提供些许有价值的信息，帮助你做出更好的选择。我强烈推荐你积极参加IGDA在当地的分会，参加GDC之类的盛会！关注那些在行业中颇为活跃的人，看看能否赞助他们举行吸引其他人前来参加的展会。

为关键人物提供样品

如果你没有数字格式的样品或者不将数字产品提供给关键人物，那么推广可能相当艰难。当美国两个儿科医师启动MD Moms销售婴儿护肤产品时，他们将样品提供给医生和许多孩子的母亲，希望他们能够在母婴网站上提到产品。这种战略最终成功了，公司在首个月末便完成了该年度的销售指标。关注那些允许你提交自己意见的游戏评论网站。但是，也要足够耐心，否则便会得不偿失。

那么，哪些是你应当关注的关键人物呢？哪些人能够理解你的想法，并且向你提供那些足以影响决策的测试反馈信息呢？你觉得要如何使用大众融资网站Kickstarter来推广游戏？如果采用这种方法的话，你应当设置出色的kicker奖励。人们喜欢游戏，人们喜欢自己成为某些伟大事物的一部分的这种感觉。你应当利用这种优势！那些有影响力的人了解你的公司或游戏吗？他们了解公司成员之前做过的相关工作吗？这些都是你应当关注的内容。

你可以利用那些有影响力的社区，比如当地的IGDA分会、LinkedIn组织、Facebook游戏开发者组织、Gamasutra和1UP等著名游戏站点。

当福特向市场推广Focus时，公司向DJ和当地时尚人物提供车辆，让人们时常看到这些新式汽车出现在城镇中。福特还在5个关键州中寻找了100名有影响力的年轻消费者，为他们提供试驾的车辆。

但是，或许你的预算有限，你没有足够的资源来做类似福特公司的那种营销。你可以利用当地的IGDA活动以及与游戏开发相关的网络社区来推广。可能你会更喜欢利用网络社区，那么你就需要关注在中国网络社区中有影响力的人。以下社区可能会引起你的兴趣：新浪微博；中国软件行业协会；中国科学院软件研究所；国际游戏开发者协会。

如果你的城市中没有分会怎么办？你不是个障碍，你可以加入附近城市的IGDA分会或者创办新分会，创建城市中的游戏开发文化和氛围。你不仅可以确立公司在当地游戏开发中的领袖地位，对游戏开发的推广还可以让行业收益。很多公司都有过此类想法，但是真正实施的却并不多。

LinkedIn

LinkedIn中有许多中国和外籍高管。你还应该成立公司门户网站，并在上面积极发布招募信息。

利用口碑营销来构建业务

专业人士通常都会鼓励用户推荐他们所使用的服务。有些减肥中心发现口碑营销对业务有巨大的影响力。找到你的主要营销渠道和次级交流营销渠道（游戏邦注：即那些让信息分享更为简便的渠道，能够起到加强主要渠道的作用）。你可以利用微博来发布新闻或者公司站点上的信息和视频。

提供用户愿意传播的信息

公司不应该采用平面媒体或者赤裸裸的广告方式来同用户交流。应该尽量让用户愿意主动记住邮件信息或博客中的内容。这些信息应当是原创且有用的内容。原创性能够增加口碑传播的幅度，而信息的实用性决定了传播的价值。

信息不应当只通过纯文本的形式来呈现，还可以用有趣的图片或者短视频。这样呈现出来的信息才能够收到用户和求职者的关注。

为反馈投入“成本”

你无需付钱来让某些人对产品发表评论。他们原本就会这么做，但是如果你不加以控制的话，有些评论的方式可能对你并无益处。找到让用户同你交流的方法，倾听他们的意见并且实时提供支持和赞赏。他们就会踊跃帮助品牌成长。有多种反馈程序和工具可供你使用，以下是某些较为容易设置和管理的方法：

GetSatisfaction是个很有效的工具，允许你的用户提交问题和建议，而且你还可以标示这些建议的执行程度。你可以将建议标示为已阅、已执行或未执行，而且更棒的是，你还可以在主要的问题和建议之下进行解答，这样人们就会知道你确实有对评论做出回应。你应该做好积极回应的准备，否则反馈和交流就会开始逐渐减少，最终得到的只能是消极的反馈。

Wibiya也是个在社区中通过反馈进行交流的绝佳工具，你可以在网页底部加上动态悬浮的工具条来与顾客交谈或者让他们留下评论。

Facebook这个社交工具已经无需多做介绍了。你应该成立自己工作室的页面。在Wibiya工具条上提及Facebook页面，而且别让页面保持空白，你可以在上面发表某些你正在做的有趣事情。你可以利用的机会是，有些人对视频游戏的开发过程并不熟悉，你发布的任何开发期间的照片和视频等内容都可能引起人们的兴趣。

WORD-OF-MOUTH(from currentphotographer.com)

坚持开放性

推广的成功甚至包括工作室的声望都取决于口碑传播的开放性。如果你正在开展口碑传播计划，那么传播的参与者是最重要的层面。

当我发布口碑程序软件工具时，我们的目标是奖励那些口碑传播参与者及其好友，因为我们都是些喜欢与好友一起玩游戏的玩家，我们希望其他人也能有跟我们相同的想法。概念很简单，你下载那些小程序并运行，程序会自动抓取你在Skype、MSN和Yahoo Messenger中的好友列表并向他们发送带有激活码的私信，当他们创建账户开始玩游戏时，你就会获得奖励。我们在游戏中设置了很棒的奖励能够激励玩家采取这种行为。

不幸的是，我并没有预料到玩家会用投机取巧的方式来获得奖励。这导致了许多需要我们进行修正的问题，虽然对玩家及其好友来说这是个很棒的工具，但是我们不得不因为某些玩家的做法而停止这次活动。随后，我们必须对这个问题进行处理，我们想办法让那些滥用系统的玩家给我们发邮件，随后我们关闭了他们的账号。最后，我不得不完全终止这种推广行为，因为人们很简单便可以随意使用这个系统，并因此给其他人带来很多问题。

确保你能够奖励那些对你公司感兴趣的人，但是也要制定规则来解决由此产生的问题。你应该考虑到，并非所有参加推广活动的人都会如你所愿那样行动，在开展推广之前就应该制定相应的计划。

态度要诚恳

如果你有关注的话，就会发现诚实的观点更能够影响购买决策。

我们需要考虑的问题是，我们如何才能从求职者或有影响力的人那里获得有关工作室的真实反馈？我们要如何确保能够以积极的态度来做出回应，即便在我们得到消极反馈时？实现准备好某些问题的回应方式，包括那些有关公司的困难问题，这样你才有可能迅速做出回应，而不是将那些问题搁置。

帮助用户讲述故事

消费者会将产品带到日常生活中。如果某个跑步运动员的跑鞋帮助其获得马拉松赛得光军，她不会到处嚷嚷：“Just do it!”（游戏邦注：耐克广告语）。反之，她会谈论起跑鞋如何让她在比赛中带来便利。

向你的用户提供工具，帮助他们更有效地分享真实的故事。如果你不这么做，他们很可能就不会分享信息。可以利用的工具很多，包括Google+、Facebook、Twitter及其他微博分享应用。

不可使用固定模式

长久以来，营销人员都在不断向公众灌输那些好像自己的每款产品都无懈可击的信息。强迫口碑传播参与者重复这些信息是很难实现的目标。而让参与者不断重复某个观点的营销话语更是糟糕。

向那些自愿体验和讨论产品的人提供产品的历史、便利性以及独特的功效，然后让他们自行传播。你不要强迫他们怎么去做，让他们自己发微博或以自己的方式来讨论产品。通过这种方式，你可以获得非常有价值的反馈，为你的产品增添光彩并且培养起一大批忠诚的顾客。这是种双赢的做法。

不要制定刻板的计划

口碑传播是种自发的无意识行为。它随时随地都可能发生，当然，它也有可能不发生，即便你非常想让它发生。如果你想要强制性要求口碑传播发生，那么结果可能就不会像预期的那样自然了。

关键在于，要让人们对产品有自己的想法。当有人倾听他们的话语时，他们就会分享这类信息。

不要强行推销

可能你的公司会雇佣许多训练有素的销售人员。让销售人员做自己的工作，不要干涉口碑传播志愿者的做法。没有人喜欢强买强卖。我们更喜欢的是了解产品的功能，然后根据自己的意愿来做出行动。你的口碑传播志愿者不是销售人员。他们是朋友、同事或其他熟人。

通过利用他们的社交网络，你可以将自己品牌的积极面展示给那些有兴趣获得产品相关信息的对象。

无视反馈是大忌

良药苦口利于病，倾听产品的用户反馈可能是一个短暂的痛苦经历，但它却能带来长期的实惠。虽然有些反馈可能较为消极，但是这种反馈却更有考虑的必要。诚实的反馈可以开启你的反馈改进循环，你倾听的反馈越多产品就可能越好，品牌的口碑自然也会变得更好。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How to Start a Buzz Fire: Using Social Marketing and Word of Mouth for your Game

Benjamin Gifford

We have four people following us on Twitter! How great that our Facebook page grew by 200% and now there are ten people who want to know more about our product! I saw company X with a promo on Google ads, we ought to do the same too. The sounds of a discussion on many studios in their executive levels but what does it really mean? Are any of these sites helpful to actually getting pickup on your brand?

Generating excitement, publicity and new relevant brand related information through buzz marketing is not new, and there are many examples of excellent pickup on product as well as failed attempts which even fostered a very negative image for the product brand. For online games, word of mouth can quickly be generated not just person to person physically, but also through web 2.0 social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and new upcoming social graphs in which raw feedback is given by customers on a wide range of products. We have a vision of software creation and games that are highly engaging, groundbreaking and incorporate new and exciting trends in social entertainment and become recognized leaders. What is your vision for your studio and your game? How will you be able to get these simple points across to your candidates and customers via public education?

We’ll take a look at how one can take certain steps to improve your changes that word of mouth will generate a positive buzz and cause maximum pickup to get your brand into the minds of your target segment, as well as some helpful examples that I used so you can learn from our successes and areas you can improve and be even better. This is written with a more China focus, but you can adapt it to your specific situation.

Identify influential individuals and companies and devote extra effort to them.

In technology, influences might be large corporate customers, industry analysts and journalists, selected policy makers and a sampling of early adopters. For games, you can look at industry associations like the IGDA as well as influential leaders via LinkedIn. While executives are quite busy, many appreciate small indies who are trying to get their feet wet and often can pass on valuable information to help you make a better choice but appreciate that everyone is busy making games, and that sometimes you might need to look at lower tier. I highly encourage you to be actively involved with your IGDA local chapter, go to events such as GDC and start connecting! Look at those who are actively assisting in the industry and see how you can help them sponsor an event for others to join up too.

Supply key people with product samples.

Granted, you might not have a product sample available except in digital format and getting that digital product to a key person you’ve identified can be difficult. When two paediatricians in the US launched MD Moms to market baby skin care products, they liberally sampled the product to physicians and mothers hoping they would mention them on Internet message boards and parenting web sites. The strategy worked; the company hit year one distribution goals by the end of the first month. Take a look at some great game review sites that allow you to submit. Give them time though, don’t rush it through as you’ll probably not receive anything except getting someone irritated for no reason.

Who are your key people that you’ve identified? Who can get your ideas and provide you with some valuable testing feedback that can influence your decisions? Have you thought about using Kickstarter to get your game out? If so, look at making the kicker rewards outstanding and not just holding your hand out; people love games, people love to feel that they are part of something exciting. Use this to your advantage! Do the influencers know about your company or game? Do they know about related work that members in your company have done? Use this.

Work through community influential’s such as local IGDA chapters, LinkedIn groups, Facebook game developer groups, Gamasutra, 1UP, etc.

When Ford introduced the Focus, it handed out cars to DJs and trendy people so they would be seen around town in them. Ford also identified 100 influential young consumers in five key marketing states and gave them cars to drive around.

You however have a limited budget, and you have no resources to do something like what Ford did nor is that directly applicable to your situation and goals. But you can engage by being active at your local IGDA chapter as well as online communities that are involved with game development and begin to network this way. You will more than likely prefer online activities only at first, and due to this you need to review the community influencers in China. But a few groups you may be interested in are: Sina Micro-blogging; China Software Industry Association; Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences; International Game Developers Association.

Don’t see a chapter in your city? There is nothing stopping your company in either being a part of an IGDA chapter nearby or creating a new chapter and becoming active in setting the culture, pace and interest of game development in the city region. Not only would this have your company looked on as a leader, it also sets corporate culture in being interested in philanthropic endeavours and making the industry better. All ideas everyone has but not so many put in practice.

LinkedIn

There is significant presence of Chinese and foreign executives and senior position leaders within LinkedIn. You should create a company portal site as well and maintain an active presence for recruitment and messaging.

Develop word-of-mouth referral channels to build business.

Professionals will often encourage clients to recommend their services. Some weight-loss centers find that word-of-mouth referrals from someone in the program have a huge impact on business. Identify your primary referral channels and secondary communication referral channels (those that reinforce the primaries and make sharing more easier). News that is posted upon micro-blogs plus being able to share easily information and videos upon your company site, either via e-mail or micro-blog, etc.

Provide compelling information that customers want to pass along.

Companies shouldn’t communicate with customers in terms better suited for a press release or direct advertisement. Make it easy and desirable for a customer to borrow elements from an email message or blog. Information should be original and useful. Originality increases the amount of word of mouth, but usefulness determines whether it will be positive or negative.

Not only should information be presented in textual format, but also with interesting images and also short interview videos. Engage your company and present information so your candidates and customers can be educated otherwise you risk others educating your targets.

“PAY” WITH FEEDBACK

You don’t need to pay cash to get someone to say something about your product – they’re already doing it and chances are if you aren’t controlling it, they’re doing it in a way that isn’t helping you. Find a way to let your customers communicate with you, then listen to them and provide real support and appreciation. They’ll volunteer to help a brand that lets them be part of the process. There are quite a few feedback programs and tools that you can use for your game and community; a few that are really easy to set up and manage are:

GetSatisfaction is a great tool that allows your users to submit questions and suggestions, but also allows you to have a level of transparency that usually isn’t available between a studio and playerbase in what suggestions are being looked at. You have the ability to mark suggestions as being reviewed, being implemented, or not, and better yet, you can also put your answer to the top under the main question/suggestion, so people know you’re responsive. Be prepared though to be active here otherwise the feedback and communication will start to slip and you’ll end up with negative feedback.

Wibiya also allows a great set of tools to reach out and communicate with feedback back and forth with your community through chats, posts and comments by injecting a toolbar that floats dynamically on the bottom of your webpage. It’s very customizable.

Facebook is a social graph that more than likely needs little introduction. Get your studio page up. Refer that to your wibiya bar and don’t just have an empty wall; get out there and post interesting things you are doing! Chances are, people aren’t knowledgeable on the development process for a video game, and any photos/videos/etc you can post along with your diary of development (within reason, you don’t want to give your IP away) is excellent.

INSIST ON OPENNESS

Campaign success – and perhaps your studio’s reputation – hinges on the openness of your word-of-mouth participants. If you’re creating an organized word-of-mouth program, require that your volunteers are above board.

When I launched our word of mouth program software tool, our goal was to reward openness and word of mouth participants and their friends who joined in, as we’re gamers who love playing games with our own friends and appreciated that others probably had the same viewpoint as us. The concept was simple, you download the small program and run it, it would grab the friends you select from your common accounts like Skype, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and then it sends them a very private message with a key, and when they create an account to play on your server, you get rewarded. We had some terrific rewards there too incentivizing players, and were giving a few cents out too.

Unfortunately, I did not expect that players would not be above board and try to simply get rewards in a black hat way. This caused a lot of issues for us to fix up, and while it was a great tool for players and their friends, we unfortunately had to stop it due to the poor choices some players did in spamming. We then had to create a position in dealing with abuse and a press release which showed those affected by the spam to notify us with just a simple e-mail, then we were able to close the accounts of those who abused the system. In the end though, I had to shut it down as it was just too easy for people to abuse and spam and caused a lot of issues for everyone involved.

Ensure you have methods in place to reward people who take interest in your company, yet rules and procedures to deal with issues created. Have expectations when you create your campaign that not everyone will be conducting themselves like you think, and plan for when that happens before you start.

DEMAND HONESTY

If you listen closely, you’ll realize that honest opinions influence purchasing decisions more so than questionably positive opinions.

Questions you need to think are how can we obtain honest feedback from candidates or influencers about your studio? How can we ensure that we respond in a positive manner, even when we have potentially negative feedback? Look at having prepared responses for the top questions you can think of now which include difficult questions for the company so you are prepared for honest opinions and how you can potentially respond quickly rather than letting it sit unanswered. You aren’t going to be perfect in everything, but you can respond.

HELP CUSTOMERS TELL STORIES

Consumers place products in the context of their daily lives. If a runner’s footwear helps her set a personal best in a marathon, she doesn’t exclaim, “Just do it!”. Rather, she talks about how the sneakers benefited her stride. In a word-of-mouth campaign for Levi’s Dockers, participants described the pride of being dressed sharply at social events.

Provide your customers with tools to help them share their real stories more effectively. You need to provide your customers and your candidates with tools to help them share their real stories more effectively. If you do not make it easy to share, then more than likely it won’t be shared. Again, there are plenty of tools that assist in this such as G+, Facebook, Twitter and other micro-blogging share applications.

DON’T SCRIPT

For years marketers have delivered their messages as taglines that make every product sound perfect. Forcing word-of-mouth participants to repeat these messages is awkward and unnatural. Worse still is asking participants to repeat a marketing script of a perfect opinion that’s not their own.

Communicate the history, benefits, and unique attributes of your product to those who volunteer to experience and discus it – and then get out of the way. You should try to have some reinforcing statements so that positive public education happens, but let them micro-blog and discuss in their own words. Through your engagement with your product champions, you will get very valuable feedback to help make your product even more polished plus develop a community that feels valued and appreciated. It’s a win-win.

DON’T PLAN

Word of mouth is a spontaneous event. It can happen at anytime or anywhere – and yes, it can not happen, even when you want it to. If you try to force word of mouth to take place when it’s not appropriate or comfortable, the result will no longer resume real word of mouth.

The key is to help people become more conscious of their opinions. They’ll share them when others are really listening. As more than likely many do not know of your company or games, carefully get an initial bit of public education out there and then allow it to be picked up; encourage and reinforce the pickup!

DON’T SELL

Odds are your company employs a trained and qualified sales force, no matter how small. Let them do their job, and let word of mouth volunteers do theirs. No one likes to be forcibly sold a product. We like to learn about the pros and cons and then arrive at our own decision. Your word of mouth volunteers are not salespeople. They are siblings, friends, co-workers, and accidental acquaintances.

By tapping into their social network, you will be able to get your positive brand image out to candidates who will be more interested in applying or getting information.

DON’T IGNORE

Listening to word of mouth about your product can be like a trip to the dentist: It’s uncomfortable for a moment, but the benefits last a lifetime. However difficult the feedback may be to hear, it is even more powerful to incorporate. Honest word of mouth provides you with a unique opportunity to use real opinions as an incredible feedback loop; and the more you listen and perfect your product, the better your word of mouth will become. (Source: Gamasutra)