Here is an overview of the 8 criteria:

1. Set Community Expectations
2. Provide Cohesive Branding
3. Be Up To Date
4. Live Authenticity
5. Participate in Dialog
6. Enable Peer-To-Peer Interactions
7. Foster Advocacy
8. Solicit A Call To Actions

1. Set Community Expectations

When setting up a Facebook page it must be clear what fans can expect from it. Is it purely informational, will there be special tips/promotions or even support? Let people know what they can and what they cannot expect to avoid confusion and frustration. Someone might vent on your page expecting support, only to not receive any and become even more angry.

It is also important that publishers (I just call the owners of those MMO Facebook pages publishers from now on) let the community know what is expected from them. Typically there are moderation and behaviour guidelines in any official game forum to make the expectations clear and create a nice experience for the users. Can they be found on the tested pages as well?

Result:

Out of the 17 observed pages only 1 page listed community guidelines on their Facebook page. Rules of conduct, posting and link sharing guidelines and more can found on Runescape’s page. What is missing though is information about what fans can expect from the page itself – none of the other sites listed that either.

How to improve:

Most publishers should already have community guidelines drafted for other purposes, so strip them down and let fans know what can and cannot be posted. The ‘Info’ tab on Facebook is a good place for it. If you want to make it even more visible, create an own tab for it or link to it from a box at the left hand side. The same goes for information about what fans can expect from the page itself. If a publisher makes these things clear right from the start, it is easier to bring order into the chaos and steer the conversation in positive directions.

2. Provide Cohesive Branding

Two goals here: the Facebook page should create a familar experience for fans, and new visitors should be able to easily recognize the brand. Information about the company and game has to be added, logos have to be visible (e.g. in the profile picture) and for even more brand recognition customized banners and landing pages can be created. Even though publishers can’t skin the Facebook page as individually as their own website, a lot can be done to make it look unique. This is also important because fans tend to create Facebook pages for their favourite games too. A publisher’s Facebook page should always look more official than any fan made page to avoid confusion.

Result:

Unsurprisingly most publishers did well in this category. Throughout the years marketing has kept an eye on the look of websites and forums for video games, and most likely continued those branding efforts when the time is right to launch the Facebook page. Around 50% of the pages made use of customised banners or even special landing pages. Runes of Magic’s Facebook page is a good example showing off what can be done. A few pages showed less effort and stopped after adding a profile picture and company information, in some cases making it not obvious at the first look if it is an officially supported page or a fan page.

How to improve:

In most cases it is good as it is, as long as publishers don’t overdo it though and make the page too corporate. The community should still be the main focus. Even though promoting the game is one function of the page, publishers should bear in mind that they will often be preaching to the choir on Facebook. Publishers with less branded pages should think about adding special landing pages and banners to create a stronger brand impact. After all, most fans also want ‘their’ game to look cool.

3. Be Up To Date

To become a lively and useful hub for the fans, Facebook pages need to be updated with content on a regular basis. Those updates must not be seen as spam, and therefore should not solely advertise the product all the time. In fact the majority of updates can be of an informational, educational or entertaining nature while only around 20% of the postings specifically talk about the product itself.

Result:

Publishers really shine in this category and most of them fill their pages with fresh content several times per week. However for games in development or long past their launch the update cycle seems to get longer. Original and entertaining content is hard to find though, often the content is coming straight from the official website with a direct focus on the products/games. An interesting example is the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page which has had less frequent and almost purely game feature related updates some months ago, then totally changed its pace and content type (more community focused) during this year’s gamescom convention in Cologne.

How to improve:

The post frequency on most pages does not have to get higher, but in general downtimes could be avoided by not being afraid of posting more informational, educational or entertaining updates. The Guild Wars 2 page shows how the ‘liking’ the Facebook page can give an extra value as most postings made during gamescom can’t be found via the normal website – and would not be suitable there anyway. It’s been a daily dose of information and insights into the show crafted to make use of the social nature of Facebook.

4. Live Authenticity

Most fans post on Facebook pages with their real name, hence publishers should stay away from appearing as faceless companies either. It must be noticeable that the Facebook page is not being automatically updated by RSS-robots, but by real people. The minimum necessary to establish person-to-person connections is to let fans know who is doing the updates. Postings can be signed with the staff member’s name, and tabs can display information about admins of the page. Showing photos and bios on a tab will immediately create a sense of familiarity and take away the anonymity. It is also important to use the right tone in the messages. For maximum live authenticity postings should be written in first person, where appropriate, and encourage deeper discussions by using a conversational writing style.

Result:

As community teams are usually taking care of similar postings in official message boards and other channels, the result is rather disappointing overall. Posts often lack personality and information about who is writing them. None of the observed pages had a special section or just a short bio dedicated to the moderators and admins of the page. It is often the case that status updates just link to news on the official website of the game without any conversational tone in the update itself (e.g. just reposting the headline followed by the link). On the positive side, some postings on the Aion Facebook page are written in the “we” form, which already makes them more conversational but still not as personal as using “I” and for example on the page for The Lord of the Rings Online moderators reply to comments and sign with their name.

How to improve:

Like on game forums, fans should at least know who is talking with them. Even if there are concerns about revealing the real names of moderators there can be a team section with their nicknames and a short description. At least in replies to comments more personality would shine through by signing them with a name and writing in first person. Ultimately this could also be done for the actual news postings.

5. Participate In Dialog

One of the key differences between managing a community and just providing a platform for a community is participating in conversations. This gives not only the chance to clarify potential misunderstandings or steer the conversation in the right direction, it also shows that someone cares about and reads what is being written on the platform. Admins should engage in two-way conversations rather than just broadcasting news and marketing messages. Acknowledging fans for commenting also helps building trust.

Result:

A very disappointing result. Most observed MMO Facebook pages feel abandoned once the status update has been posted. It is understandable that publishers focus on their own platforms (e.g. official forums) first, but this way a Facebook page’s social potential is not being used. It leaves a bitter aftertaste as it might look like the only reason to post a news is the hope that it spreads virally and fans pass it on to their friends. The previously mentioned Facebook page for The Lord of the Rings Online scores high here because it already has admins replying to comments and engaging with the fans.

How to improve:

When setting up a Facebook page it should also be taken into consideration that there will be people talking and commenting (if admins don’t disable the function) and that those conversations also need attention. Publishers should dedicate someone to step in and show presence when needed.

Facebook pages with a very high number of fans and thousands of comments will struggle to keep on top of it and granted, not many fans will notice their reply within all the other comments (They might be better off pointing people to the forum style ‘Discussion’ tab on Facebook pages). However this is a luxury problem and no excuse for smaller pages to not pay attention to comments.

6. Enable Peer-To-Peer Interactions

Publishers should make their Facebook pages an environment that encourages peer-to-peer interactions. After all they are a place where fans can easily get in touch with each other and share their opinion and enthusiasm with others. Admins can actively ask fans to respond to each other, submit their fan contributions and highlight the best contributions on the wall itself. Larger communities can make use of the integrated discussion forums and bring back interesting Q&A’s to the wall itself.

Result:

Poor performance for this criteria. It is very rare that postings actively encourage users to respond to each other, exchange ideas or contribute to the page. A reason for this might be that comments in general aren’t moderated anyway, as we have seen, and encouraging fans to do so would just mean sparking unmoderated discussions and creating a negative impression of neglect.

How to improve:

Use experienced Community Managers to highlight fan participation. Similar to showcasing such contributions on official websites or forums, the same can be done on Facebook pages. When fans ask good questions in comments or discussion forums, don’t hesitate to make them visible on the wall together with an answer. Creative fan contributions can also be showcased on the wall to inspire others. Always solicit comments and actively encourage fans to share their opinion. Remember that whenever someone comments on a posting, they also subscribe to this thread and receive a notification when an admin responds to it again. This will keep your fans informed.

7. Foster Advocacy

Sharing and passing on information is an essential part of the Facebook culture, and this behaviour should be fostered. In the simplest case, admins of Facebook pages can ask fans to suggest the page to others or ‘like’ content. Custom applications where fans can e.g. vote, send in submissions or share media also give the opportunity to gain visibility on their wall.

Result:

Very low scores here for almost all pages. There is not much effort being done to actively encourage and ask fans to share content and spread the word. It might be implied when posting content but with a little encouragement (not begging), more fans would consider sharing it. Special activities or even apps designed to foster advocacy are very rare. Some positive examples can be found on the Facebook page for Star Trek Online where fans can tweet in Klingon or create a Star Trek style avatar picture of themselves.

How to improve:

There is no need to beg fans to share content with their friends, but admins don’t have to be afraid of asking to do so from time to time. If the content is valuable and interesting enough, they will understand this request. Special activities and apps need more preparation but can be really powerful. It is possible to let fans vote for their favourite faction or new feature and share their vote with a comment (why they chose so) on their wall. At a later stage one could even think about an app on the Facebook page letting fans distribute codes (items, buddy keys) up to a limited amount or post a link on their wall which encourages friends to also ‘like’ the page and get a free bonus (item) out of it. (And the evangelist gets a bonus, too, of course). There are a lot of possibilities but often they will wear off after the novelty factor has gone. Think long term, and plan to replace older campaigns with new ones.

8. Solicit A Call To Action

Ultimately each page is there to promote the game and help growing the user base so there should also be opportunities on the page which lead them directly to playing the game, purchase items, sign up for newsletters or similar.

Result:

Mixed results. Only around half of the observed pages offer any permanently visible option to buy the game or try it out. However, the other 50% of the pages include such options but often only as a simple text link in a box to the left hand side which can easily be overlooked. One page scoring high here is Runes of Magic. New visitors will see a landing page first telling them straight away how to get the game, and those you are already fans of the page will still see a graphical banner with this option on the left hand side.  Beyond that there is also a tab leading visitors to a merchandise shop. It seems to only have worked on the German version of the Facebook page though, and was hidden under the extended tabs section at the time of writing.

How to improve:

Sites that do not offer any sort of client download link or a way to purchase the game can make it easier for interested visitors to become actual players by doing so. A text link is a quick way to do this, but ideally a dedicated tab or banner would be there to make it more obvious. For people who are already fans and playing the game there’s also the opportunity to show them what else is available for them. Merchandise, virtual items or maybe things like printed fan magazines.

Conclusion:

Similar to the results in the original report, MMO Facebook pages are lacking maturity and don’t tap into the full potential of the social environment. They’ve certainly progressed since the beginning and are being taken more seriously than before but this is mostly represented in the frequent status updates being made. When it comes to advanced features, which often require several departments to work together (e.g. Marketing, Community and Web-Design for a landing page), they lack interesting ideas which can help spreading the word and bring in more potential fans.

So while publishers have noticed that Facebook pages are a way to push information to fans, there seems to be uncertainty about how to progress from there. Advanced networking methods need a strategy and someone needs to drive that to make it happen. It needs to be understood though that this is different from traditional websites or forums, and there might still be cases where it is not entirely clear who is responsible for it.

After all this you are probably wondering which Facebook pages deserve honourable mentions and indeed there are some. Runes of Magic and Runescape got comparable scores to other sites while scoring higher on some of the advanced features. Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online can be considered runner-ups. Still, most pages reach similar scores and in general there is a lot more that can be done than posting status updates.

What is your opinion on the status and features of MMO Facebook pages? Let us know in the comments.