Imagine a world where you are growing vegetables, fruits and performing day to day tasks of a farmer and that too without breaking a sweat. Yes you got it, this is Farmville. Time magazine marked it as being the most addictive of Facebook games. Facebook games have achieved a phenomenal success in terms of user engagement. Candy Crush, Pet Rescue Saga, and Farmville 2 became a household name due to their reach, impact, and addictive nature.
It is also amazing to see that even small Facebook games are attracting a large numbers of fans. The success of small games like Oreo Land and Pack a Truck forced brands to rethink and re-evaluate strategies to utilize the Facebook application platform to reach people with bold new ideas.
Interacting with Facebook fans through small games
Initially brands were cautious and concerned when it came to associating their reputation with an online game. Soon they realized that a popular Facebook game can spice up the brand awareness with minimal publicity cost. Facebook games and contests are great when it comes to engaging people with your brand for extended periods of time.
The world’s best cookie brand “Oreo” is encouraging people to save the last poor Oreo through its popular Facebook game Oreo Land. Have you ever imagined leading an Oreo back to “Oreo Land”? Sounds strange but yes, brands are trying to engage different people with different approaches these days. So if you see a last Oreo stranding in the middle of a plate, try to guide it back to the Oreo Land.
Going Viral
Updating statuses, posting pictures, sharing videos and reading blogs was becoming too mainstream. Beating your friend’s best score on a Facebook game is the new trend. Posting and sharing a story about successful completion of a game gives people bragging rights and a sense of accomplishment. Inviting your friends to help you achieve a particular goal in a game is now the new definition of teamwork. Staying up late just to water your farm becomes an important task for you. This is how games spread virally through social networks.
It is considered a tremendous achievement in terms of reaching more people and creating brand awareness if any of the above mentioned things happens on your brand’s social media page. All this can be achieved through a simple word search, picture puzzle, Sudoku, and Oreo Land type of game application.
Other ways of interaction with your fans
Even if you are not willing to associate a Facebook game with your brand, it is useful to engage people through different activities. This only requires an innovative social media manager. Social media managers can engage people through several different activities. For example, a clothing brand can ask their followers to participate in naming their upcoming T-shirt and winners will be awarded a T-shirt from the first batch of the production. Any publishing enterprise can engage followers through “add the next line in story” contest; the outcome can be an astounding story. Naming feature films after your life can also be a very fun thing to do with your followers.
All these activities provide tremendous opportunity for brands to reach their existing followers and it can also help in acquiring new followers and building a strong and loyal customer base.
Building a Brand Identity
A Facebook game must add some value to the brand identity. The ultimate goal for all these activities on social media is to build an identity for your brand. The important aspect of this step is to monitor your progress. A small comment, feedback, and gameplay error can put all your efforts off-track. It is very important to monitor the campaign. Facebook Insights provides an easy way to monitor fans’ activity on Facebook pages. Campaign monitor is another web based utility which can help you monitor the statistics related to your Facebook app. Brands can monitor which interactions are the most influential in terms of engaging fans. All these tools can help in building a strong customer base which can ultimately reflect in sales sheet.
Conclusion
Games are not only meant for kids. They provide mental stimulation and entertainment value for adults too. Online games are quite addictive and can yield amazing results for brands. Building a loyal customer base can be easily achieved through engaging customers. Facebook games are quite easy to play and keep people engaged for longer durations as compared to traditional banner ads. The tendency of engagement shown by Facebook games can be monitored through different analytical tools and the results thus far have been incredible.
