How We Build Community
I was recently asked about our social outreach and community building. Or specifically what has been the best way to build a crowd in terms of engagement per…
Dollar spent
Hour spent
Unit of frustration
It’s an interesting and surprisingly complicated question to think through. Sure, free platforms like this blog, and our Facebook page don’t cost anything (other than some website hosting and Square Space fees), but nothing exists in a vacuum.
Each platform we are on plays a bit of a different role and creates an overall ecosystem. We get some cross-over between platforms – but that crossover is an area I am working on strengthening.
Where and How We Engage
Forums: Most of our engagement is organic. I was an active member of r/tabletopgamedesign r/boardgamedesing, and the Board Game Design Lab Facebook group, long before we took the plunge into starting up a publishing company. I still check the forums daily, and believe that the relationships I’ve formed through them are the foundation of most of our outreach.
The Blog: Between 2 and 4 thousand readers visit this blog every month. It’s humbling and fulfilling. The blog is a huge time commitment, as I am not a fast writer, and I like to be thoughtful around the content we put out. When I share the blog, it gives us an opportunity to talk about interesting subjects, and to learn from our peers. But, I think the primary benefit of the blog for us, is that it gives us a bit of social proof. People know that we are thoughtful, and see a bit of the hard work we put into our games.
The Facebook Group: We have a small Facebook group for Nut Hunt, at around 250 people. We have some fun stuff going on over there, like our Illustration Showdown tournament where all of the illustrations are going head-to-head in a March Madness style playoff. We do get some activity from our community posting pictures of them playing Nut Hunt, and some squirrel-based memes – but a nut I am still working on cracking is increasing the organic engagement within the community. I’m hopeful that once the game is out in the wild it will become even more of a space for people to hang out and share their experiences around it.
TikTok: I’ve been surprised with how vibrant of a community of designers and indie publishers hang out on TikTok. I haven’t quite settled on what content I am both good at, and resonates, but I do have 1,000 followers on the ap, and have built some strong relationships. It’s a pretty informal place, with a lot of interaction. I’d encourage more indie designers and publishers to check it out.
Conventions: Conventions have not been cost effective in terms of dollars and time spent per community member, but my goodness are they worth it anyway. Nothing beats meeting people face to face, and really connecting with them. Some of the most active community members are people we met at cons, including people who have helped us dev our solo mode, create a digital version of the game, and dedicated tens of hours to perfecting our rules copy.
Paid Advertising: We’re in the midst of a paid ad campaign for Nut Hunt. We also do monthly giveaways ($100 to your LGS!). Our paid advertising while effective at getting the word out about our game, hasn’t felt like it’s fostered real relationships. My hope is that over time, as people interact with us, and consume our products, they’ll migrate onto our other platforms.
Monthly Newsletter: Pulling together a lot of our outreach is our monthly newsletter. We use it to keep our community up to date on our games, and direct them to how to enter each month’s giveaway. The newsletter has ok readership (about 40% open rates), but it doesn’t feel as interactive as many of our other channels.
Other Platforms: We have a sparse presence on Instagram and Discord. We mostly use Instagram so that we are discoverable there, although we haven’t focused on fostering a community there. We use discord for playtesting.
Pulling it All Together
Thinking through our engagement and our platforms, I think we are doing well in some areas and have a lot of room to improve. Most notably building engagement and touch points across multiple platforms.
That is why this month, rather than tie our giveaway to joining our monthly mailing list – we’re giving away $100 in credit to your LGS to one lucky winner who joins our Nut Hunt Facebook group, and comments on the giveaway post with their favorite nut.
What strategies have you seen to foster community across platforms?
