On Social Media and Thrive

The use of social media to promote Thrive has been at times, a hotly debated topic. The general consensus from moderators and other established Thrive developers is that we should wait until we have more to show to start advertizing the game. However, I never saw any actual plan for how we will advertize, if ever. Therefore, I decided it was necessary to do such things as these.

Why Advertize at All?
The reason we must advertize for Thrive is simple: we are not a company, actively hiring developers to work for us and then receive monetary compensation at the end of their tenure with us. We operate solely on a volunteer, hearsay basis and we currently hope that we attract attention either by random searches, members telling friends, or our ModDB page. With advertizing we can better attract people to Thrive and get more programmers, artists and idea-makers, which are critical during this time in Thrive's history, in which in mere weeks we have gone from nothing to two prototypes, up to 0.0.9 in the official game, seen an unprecedented spike in activity and have gotten the Revolutionary Games' website up and running (more on that soon!). We need to continue to spread the word.

How should we Advertize?
I've been to many conferences and meetups that revolve around web development and advertizing, especially in the relatively new world of social media. The general consensus around advertizing experts is simply this: “Advertize well, and once you know what your influencers (customers) want, advertize often.” I suggest we do this through Twitter. We can use it to bring timely, concise updates to those who want to follow the project, without actually signing up and contributing. Remember, some of these people predate many if not most of the current users and they will be the people that start boosting the game as soon as we begin heavy development.

Why Twitter?
I chose Twitter for many reasons.
1.) Twitter is home to one of the largest developer communities in the world.
It's no secret that a favorite social network of developers around the globe is Twitter. More than half of the people I follow are Web/Computer developers anyway. The main thing we currently need now are developers, and it might just be reckless to ignore the largest community of active developers in the world

2.) The #Hashtag System allows us to reach many people with similar interests.
The hashtag system, as annoying as it can be (#SWAG #YOLO #lol) is instrumental in attracting people. We can tag our posts with tags like #gaming and #science to attract people that can help the project.

3.) Twitter plays well with other networks.
Seeing as Thrive already has a Facebook page, we can connect the two to push updates to both separate groups of people. Facebook, so far, has seemed to attract mainly fans, while Twitter seems more likely to attract developers and people more willing to help. Anyway, we have a Facebook page, so why neglect Twitter and its users?



A note about Reddit
Reddit, as many people know, could be very helpful in attracting both fans and helpers to the project as well as keeping people up-to-date on the team's latest antics. I personally am not a very active redditor, but it has helped us in the past and will no doubt help again. I approve of the idea of asking to reclaim the /r/Thrive subreddit.

So, what about the Plan?
In light of current conditions, here is what I propose:

1. Now: weekly updates on Twitter and Facebook with what we have discussed and come to conclusions on, and extra posts when exemplary new members join or when important updates occur (think new versions or prototypes available). Also post concept art to keep fans interested.

2. Once Microbe Stage is in Full Development: Start actively advertizing with prototype videos, new song releases and fancy concept art. Ramp up tweets/posts to a few per week.

3. Once Microbe Stage is Finished: Actively recruit new developers and artists using our first stage as proof that we can make stuff happen.

4. ???

5. Profit!


So, there is my plan for social media in regards to Thrive. Not only will it attract new programmers, artists and other helpers, it can also clear up any requests people have from the forum and allow one of the people running the social media accounts to help.

Therefore, I hereby humbly request that I create and manage a Twitter account representing along with ~sciocont, Nick, and any other moderators with ~sciocont's permission. Please tell me what you all think about this, its an important thing to discuss.

@ThriveGame and /r/Thrive, coming to a social network near you.

Excellent thread. I agree with what you said, and I would support your motion. You just need scio's confirmation. Just take note that I won't be able to dedicate much time to social media updates, as I already spend a lot of time on other fields. However, I still will gladly contribute in that area.

I think the best time to begin all of this is once the website is up. The wiki still needs a lot more work, but waiting for that to be completely filled out is like waiting for the Earth to stop orbiting. With the revamp of the main page I think that it is up to par as well. Once we have those two out, I suggest we release the prototypes and music bundle on ModDB. Then, begin the ads.

NickTheNick wrote:

Excellent thread. I agree with what you said, and I would support your motion. You just need scio's confirmation...

I think the best time to begin all of this is once the website is up. The wiki still needs a lot more work, but waiting for that to be completely filled out is like waiting for the Earth to stop orbiting. With the revamp of the main page I think that it is up to par as well. Once we have those two out, I suggest we release the prototypes and music bundle on ModDB. Then, begin the ads.

QFT. I'll wait for ~sciocont's conformation then finish brushing up the website for now. A really important thing to note is that (for now) what's on the website is staying. Our current redesign prospect will take weeks, so for all intents and purposes we are on a "stable" release of the website. I understand you may not have much time to post, I just wanted to make sure you and ~scio had the ability if you so chose. I can run the everyday updates so y'all can focus on other things if need be.

Oh, okay. So we will use that website in the meantime. I think that's everything then. I think we're ready for the next ModDB update. If we are, be sure to include a link to the new website ~scio. Also, I would suggest that it be an update in the form of News, as it will catch more attention.

What then would be the topic for our first post on Twitter?

EDIT: You should make sure that, before the ModDB update, you fix the link for the Music Bundle on the website.

NickTheNick wrote:

What then would be the topic for our first post on Twitter?

Probably just a simple introduction, something along the lines of "Thrive is a game under development focusing on evolution. We are currently expanding our social media presence. You can contribute at thrivegame.canadaboard.net."

A second tweet would probably link to the latest ModDB post.

EDIT: Hmm, I dont have access to the current code. We would need Oliveriver to change that.

Okay, sounds good. However, we should get some more discussion here once other users log in. It's just me and you right now.

Indeed, and for now I must go off to sleep. Thanks for your support Nick, it means a lot.

No problem. Glad to have you take good initiative.

Excellent thread, Jacob.
Same as you, i think we should advetrise from Twitter and similiar places.
I would definitely dissagre if anybody gets on idea about (What i hate most of all types of advetrisements)Pop ups.

@Nick i also think we need to reclaim /r/Thrive

No, we would never do ads on other websites, I only meant social networks like Twitter.

For your information, I just submitted a request about /r/thrive. Let's see what comes of it.

Nimbal wrote:

For your information, I just submitted a request about /r/thrive. Let's see what comes of it.

Great!
Operation: Reddit reclaim starts!

Perfect. Many thanks, Nimbal.

EDIT: Who would be the subreddit moderators? Do ~sciocont or Nick have reddit accounts? I know Nimbal does and I will this weekend, but who else could be a mod?

I have a Reddit account under NickTheNick, ever since our first influx back in August.

Great. Nimbal, you may want to ask /r/RedditRequests to make Nick a subreddit moderator.

WJacobC wrote:

EDIT: Hmm, I dont have access to the current code. We would need Oliveriver to change that.

I'll change it immediately as soon as ~scio releases the link, as at the moment he says he hasn't finished formatting it. This will also come with a new update to the site, which will probably make it as complete as possible for now. Once we get EE up and running, we'll replace it, but I think we might as well update the ModDB page and start using social media as soon as that happens, whether we have EE set up or not. I'll also make sure I spread the word as much as possible, though I don't have Facebook or Twitter so it'll just be word of mouth. My Youtube channel, now with links to the website, could come in handy if the website doesn't show up on search engines.

Ah, ok. I thought the music bundle was simply a .zip file, but I guess ~scio is making it fancier. I guess that's all that's holding us back from a full release. Patience, I suppose.

Wait . . . who says we only have to use social networks?

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, maybe in the very first post I wrote, but in my spare time, I write novels. For some reason, last year I decided to set up a blog about my writing and writing tutorials. I didn't mention it in the discussions about the website as I wanted to keep it separate from anything about Thrive, but just a minute ago I created a new post for it, which mentions and links to Thrive. You can view it here. Although I don't get a lot of traffic, the few people who do visit my blog may click the link to the website and see what we're doing here. If each of us squeezes as much publicity for Thrive as we can like this, it could greatly increase interest.

Oh, and I'll also tell all my friends about this, further increasing Thrive's fame.

Oliveriver wrote:

Wait . . . who says we only have to use social networks?

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, maybe in the very first post I wrote, but in my spare time, I write novels. For some reason, last year I decided to set up a blog about my writing and writing tutorials. I didn't mention it in the discussions about the website as I wanted to keep it separate from anything about Thrive, but just a minute ago I created a new post for it, which mentions and links to Thrive. You can view it here. Although I don't get a lot of traffic, the few people who do visit my blog may click the link to the website and see what we're doing here. If each of us squeezes as much publicity for Thrive as we can like this, it could greatly increase interest.

Oh, and I'll also tell all my friends about this, further increasing Thrive's fame.

Great!

I too, have a website (obviously) and I'm fairly sure I've posted about Thrive before. The problem is, none of any of our personal websites are likely to receive enough visitors to add any considerable traffic to the forum.

But, we should all help in any way we can, and that includes personal blogs.

This weekend, I'll make an official twitter, release the music bundle, and put out a ModDB update. I've been pretty swamped the past week or so, but I'm really happy to see all of you guys taking initiative.

~sciocont wrote:

This weekend, I'll make an official twitter, release the music bundle, and put out a ModDB update. I've been pretty swamped the past week or so, but I'm really happy to see all of you guys taking initiative.

Perfect. I recommend @ThriveGame as our twitter, as @Thrive is already taken. And if you are feeling busy, I can just take care of the twitter side of things for you.

EDIT: 50th post!

I'll make it.

We now have a Twitter, which is linked to our Facebook.

Awesome, twitter will allow fans who follow to keep up to date on progress and updates on the game.