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Tipster Thursdays is a monthly feature covering technology and how you can incorporate it as part of your marketing plan. We’re going to look at different pieces of technology like Twitter, Pingie, Wiki, SmugMug, Facebook and delicious and show you 5 different and unusual uses for the technology. This weeks column is going to look at podcasts.

A podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet. Once the podcast is recorded and finalized, you can post it to iTunes, your own website or for playback on iPods, portable media players and PCs. Podcasts are an interesting medium, as they haven’t gone beyond the radio show style format for the most part. Insomniac Games’ podcast Full Moon is taking off and the gaming community is enjoying what they have to say. The podcast isn’t strictly about games they are working on, but about the gaming industry from a developer’s perspective. Here are 5 great ways you can use podcasting as a tactic in your marketing plan.

1. Podcasting a side story from your game would be a great way to show off the story telling ability of your team as well as their imagination.
2. Video podcast how to use your mod kit for your game. The more people who know how to use it, the more people who could potential make a cool mod for your game.
3. Launch a video podcast fan kit competition and have your community remix and reedit a song and video from your game.
4. Podcast part of your ARG for fans to find online or on an MP3 player.
5. Take the novel you already have and podcast it chapter-by-chapter and provide another way for your fans to connect with your product.

As I mentioned in my Gamasutra column last year, Online Public Relations: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Don’t go cheap and be as creative as possible. You have to be willing to invest both finances and time into your content. If you are not going to invest the same effort you put into prepping that advertising page for Game Informer magazine, then don’t even get started. Don’t simply do what your competition is doing. as people are drawn to creative and fun pieces of content. Participation tends to yield inspiration as well. When you get the community involved, they inspire and push your content to another level. Never underestimate the power and creativity of your community when you get them involved because podcasts are a great medium.

Tipster Thursdays is a monthly feature covering technology and how you can incorporate it as part of your marketing plan. We’re going to look at different pieces of technology like Twitter, Pingie, Prologue, SmugMug, Qik and delicious and show you 5 different uses for the technology. This weeks column is going to look at Flickr.

Flickr is an online photo management tool. I’ve been using Flickr for more then a few years now… mind you I need to reactivate my pro account. Flickr has always been about the community. I don’t think it would have gotten to where it is today if it didn’t focus on connecting like minded people.

DeSmogBlog put the power of the community to use for them in their Flickr contest; The Greenest Photo Ever Contest group. They have just over 140 people following the group. These are people who opted-in and wanted to learn DeSmogBlog and help climate change.

DeSmogBlog exists to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change.

The key to using Flickr from a marketing perspective is to think about it as a community building tool. The question you need to ask yourself is “How can I leverage the community at Flickr”, which could be the following:

1. Employ Flickr’s mobile feature to upload photos from your events for the community.. in near real time.
2. Run a Wallpaper or screenshot contest like DeSmogBlog
3. Use the group feature to build a community and promote photos from the group on your website a la Torontoist.
4. Make use of the photos in your group to create a calendar/poster for Child’s Play Charity using Qoop. Have the dev team sign the poster(s).
   

Flickr is a great tool and one I use on a regular bases. Getting the most out of social media.. is more about giving your community what they want. What would you use Flickr?

Tipster Thursdays is a monthly feature covering technology and how you can incorporate it as part of your marketing plan. We’re going to look at different pieces of technology like Twitter, Pingie, Prologue, SmugMug, Qik and delicious and show you 5 different uses for the technology. This weeks column is going to look at Facebook Pages.

..,Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers. Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more.

Facebook is becoming a larger part of everyone’s marketing plan as we move forward. With their efforts put towards localization (here, here and here) of Facebook outside of the US. Having global brands for video games on Facebook makes sense with 60+ million active uses around the world and 60% living outside of the US.

Imagine if Microsoft’s Xbox team setup its own Facebook Pages to send out updates to its fans on new screens, game news and trailers. It could just include a link back to the studio’s site or your other Facebook pages on Facebook. Or what if you were EA and used Facebook Pages and other social networks to launch mini-versions of your game… EA is planning something like this. The key to using Facebook Pages from a marketing perspective is to think about it as a two way communication platform. The question you need to ask yourself is “How can I let the fans of my game keep up to date on the latest information”, which could be the following:

1. Use Facebook Pages to help launch mini-versions of your game. Check out what EA is doing.
2. If you run an MMO or virtual world. Use Facebook Pages to launch a Second life herald type publication.
3. Launch a re-mix competition for one of your game trials with Facebook Pages.
4. Engage your fans & customers with a place they can get the latest trailers, screens and information about your game.
5. Launch a video series focusing on one of the side stories in your game.

Keep in mind that everyone on Facebook may not like your brand, company or game… and you’ll need to be prepared to react to negative statement on your Facebook Pages. If things do go wrong you can read my Gamasutra column, Online PR For Games: There Is No Going Back Now, and learn how to react. However, I think the positives far out weight the negatives when it comes to using social media as a marketing tool.

Tipster Thursdays is a monthly feature covering technology and how you can incorporate it as part of your marketing plan. We’re going to look at different pieces of technology like Twitter, Pingie, Wiki, SmugMug, Qik and delicious and show you 5 different and unusual uses for the technology. This weeks column is going to look at Qik

Qik enables you to share moments of your life with your friends, family and the world - directly from your cell phone! Keep your world in the know, share a laugh, tell engaging stories.

Qik is like YouTube for the live streaming generation. It’s still in alpha mode right now, but you can sign up for an account and start using the service. Provided you have one of the phones that the system supports. There’s a public FAQ, blog, over at the Qik site if you are looking for more info. Besides walking you dogs, there are some pretty interesting things you can do with Qik.

1. Stream a demo of your game at an event.
2. Incorporate Qik with Twitter for a community based interview.
3. Broadcast your location as part of an event at Penny Arcade Expo and give away (preview) copies of your game.
4. Setup a private Qik profile and use it to record feedback at events on your game as market research for your global marketing team.
5. Record walkthroughs of your game on the fly when the mainstream media gets it wrong.. a la EA vs Fox. Post those videos for the world to see.

As I mention, Qik is still in alpha mode right now. But as it opens up more people are going to start using the service. Robert Scoble, NewTeeVee and TechCrunch have all reported on the service within the last month. Live streaming video is the future and I think this is one of the services to watch for.

Tipster Thursdays is a monthly feature covering technology and how you can incorporate it as part of your marketing plan. We’re going to look at different pieces of technology like Twitter, Pingie, Prologue, SmugMug, Qik and delicious and show you 5 different uses for the technology. This weeks column is going to look at BricaBox.

Take your audience and build your own social content website, inspired by UpComing.org, Zip411, Wikipedia, Yelp, or SmugMug. BricaBox is now offering users the ability to build their own platform. You can pick from a list of content templates (restaurant reviews, photos + maps, discussion board, video collection) or create your own from scratch. This is similar to what Ning allows people and organization to do for social networks.

1. Allow your community to create a YouTube style video collection using their best in game videos.
2. Combine Ning & BricaBox and launch your game’s first community portal. Users can upload video, photos, reviews, news and music.
3. Create a press directory for your internal PR team
4. Combine Ning & BricaBox to track and record what’s happening in your company’s next ARG.
5. Allow your community to create a Flickr/SmugMug style photo collection.

With the current success of Ning and other tools that empowered today’s people. BricaBox should gather a following of who wants to create something for their niche audience.