Getting more press

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Jacobs on October 30, 2009 at 12:31pm

Maybe something we could do is start a white paper on how to advertise/market small press products. What works; what doesn't - on a small budget.

Perhaps identifying a willing fan who would be interested in managing your social media presence would help?

I also noticed that there's no Rogue Game page on Facebook, for example. It's a great way to connect with people since not everyone uses RSS - plus its free to set up and manage. Using FB advertising is also fairly cheap, and much more targeted than ...say ... Google Adwords. Once nice thing about FB pages (IMHO) is that, when they are updated and fans thumb up something - all their freinds also see that they thumbed it (whatever the it is) up, and often become fans of the page as well - thus connecting them to RG.

I dunno... considering this is a suggestion from a weee tinier phantom press (Nevermet Press), maybe it's something you _shouldn't_ do? (hence... see first suggestion above... a white paper would be very cool -- sounds like a nice Google Wave project for Small Press RPGs)

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Permalink Reply by Richard Iorio II on October 30, 2009 at 12:37pm

Yeah, the FB page is something I've thought about. It is a good idea. Have you used FB advertising? How effective is it? Any advice, things I need to look out for? Can I sell products with it? FB puts me off, because I find it to cluttered, however, I realize that I need to jump in and deal with it. :)

A white paper is something that I think would help many. I have done a lot of outreach to retailers, and I've learned a lot from that.

The other area I need to think over is message control. By that, is more important to create your own news channel, or work existing channels?

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Jacobs on October 30, 2009 at 2:44pm

Well.. i did payout some small (very small) dineros to FB for both Open Game Table and Nevermet Press advertising when I first started up the FB pages for both. It was mainly a test - and the end result was, for the money, I felt like it was worth it. My only complaint about FB is there was no way for me to track "conversions" - i.e. people who clicked the ad and then became fans of the page, or (in the case of OGT) actually bought a book. If you're interested, I'd be happy to post the details here.

Another thing about FB that I believe has caused some confusion... NMP made the error of creating both a Nevermet Press account (which you can "friend" etc) and an NMP page (which you can be a fan of). The later is better for a business, since you share less private info with NMP and its easier to get updates (as a fan).

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Permalink Reply by clash bowley on October 30, 2009 at 12:52pm

Basically, I don't. :D

-clash

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Permalink Reply by WJ MacGuffin on October 30, 2009 at 1:01pm

We have a FB page and a Twitter account, and we use a WordPress widget on our blog/site to post links to new entries on both. We haven't done any official advertising, just social media stuff.

I've toyed with the idea of creating an email group of rpg podcasts and news sites, then writing press releases and sending them out. In theory, this is a standard and easy way to get press. I just haven't found the time to make that list. I did send a press release to All Games Considered (my fave) and they quickly included it in their show.

I think cons are vital. No, we can't go to all of them, but we can give away free copies to folk who will demo the game at cons. The same goes for reviews.

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Permalink Reply by James Edward Raggi IV on October 30, 2009 at 6:33pm

I have trouble even getting responses when I contact bloggers and website admins about sending review copies. Never mind ever seeing reviews after they are sent... it's rough out there!

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