Is Social Gaming Good For Business?
You know those social games where people answer questions about you? Here are some of the questions that are frequently asked of gamers, who answer them about their social media friends:
- Do you think So-and-So is cute?
- Do you think So-and-So ever lied in a job interview?
- Would you like to go on a date with So-and-So?
- Do you think So-and-So would steal from their employer?
- Would So-and-So make a good boss?
- Would you like to see So-and-So dance like Michael Jackson for money?
These are actual questions of a Facebook app called Get Revealed. They’re fun questions to answer about your friends and it can be fun to see what your friends think about you. But should you, or is it just a silly time killer?
Many business people would say it’s a time killer, but there is one reason why you might want to do it. Your friends are typically people you know, but you may not be doing business with them. By playing the game with them, you could be opening yourself up in a new way, allowing them to gain some insight into the true you. That could lead to a deeper relationship and finally a business relationship.
One thing is for certain, though. If you don’t play the game, you’ll get nothing.
Advertising To MILFNs
Chances are, if you’re a strapping young man between 18 and 25, you know a few MILFNs – Moms I’d Like To Farmville Neighborize. They’ve dropped their overalls and moved on to Cityville to build a thriving metropolis instead.
That’s what moms are doing these days. They’re playing Zynga games. They’ve traded in their soap opera cards and started playing Cityville, Farmville, and Frontierville – the triumvirate of Zynga games.
So how do you reach this new gaming demographic? Bing bribed them with Farmville dollars.
In the last day or so, I saw a Cityville offer to plant some sweet potatoes for charity. That made me wonder if Zynga game product placements might be down the road. Will Cityville citizens get a chance to build a community building named after a famous Las Vegas casino? Or maybe they’ll get a chance to name their streets after famous celebrity personalities.
Social media optimization has reached a new milestone. No longer are you relegated to bookmarking your content on such sites as Delicious (which, rumor has it, was sold by Yahoo recently) and Digg. Now, you may have opportunities to reach the 25-44 year old female demographic through Zynga social gaming.
What’s next? I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be interesting.
Are Social Gaming And Real World Commerce About To Marry?
You have to hand it to the companies that create these applications for Facebook where you can play games, send gifts and enjoy the company of friends in far away places right across your Internet connection. Zynga is one of those companies that has truly made a name for itself in social gaming.
Virtual gifts through these gaming applications has really caught on. But what if you could send real world gifts through these games, would you? If you could make real world purchases through social games, would you do that?
32% of social gamers said they would.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s enough of a market that social gaming creators could introduce the opportunities and see what happens. Here’s a quick example of numbers:
Let’s say your social gaming application has 100,000 users. If you create an opportunity for them to make a real world purchase through the game and 32,000 of them do so within the first year. If you make just $1 profit off of each of those gamers then that’s a nice increase in your bottom line. Grow your application by 10%-15% per year and in just a few years you’ll have a pretty nice income from one real world purchase opportunity. Diversify and, well, you know ….
What’s your take? Do you think social gaming and real world commerce have a chance? Is this the new wave of social media optimization?