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ENCORE: Blending Community and Social Media: Insights with Fiene Ziegler of InnoGames
30 Plays6 days ago
Episode Overview:
In this episode, Greg Posner interviews Fiene Ziegler, Senior Community Management Specialist at InnoGames. Fiene shares her journey into gaming, insights on merging community management with social media, the importance of data-driven strategies, and her vision for the future of player engagement. Her experience sheds light on how to effectively manage online communities in a dynamic industry and adapt to new platforms to reach a wider audience.
Topics: Community Management, Social Media Strategy, Gaming Industry Trends, Player Engagement
Key Takeaways:
- Journey to Gaming and Community Management
Fiene shares her unique journey from studying law to entering the gaming industry as a community manager. Her initial involvement was volunteer-based, leading her to a full-time role at InnoGames, where she manages community engagement for titles like Forge of Empires. Her background adds depth to her role, as she balances passion for gaming with the objectivity needed for community management. - Importance of Game Knowledge and Player Perspective
Fiene emphasizes the value of knowing the game inside and out, even as a manager. By actively playing Forge of Empires, she stays in touch with the player experience, offering insights to developers and community managers. Her expertise positions her as a resource within InnoGames for game-related decisions, showing how deep product knowledge can enhance community relations and drive engagement. - Social Media and Community Strategy
Fiene discusses the blending of community management with social media strategy, a trend she’s championed at InnoGames. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are essential for player engagement, though InnoGames finds certain platforms, like Facebook, more effective for its demographic. Fiene advocates for tailored content that resonates with current players while reaching new audiences organically. - Leveraging Data and KPIs in Community Engagement
With a data-driven approach, Fiene and her team monitor KPIs like engagement, reach, and active player response to measure campaign effectiveness. She uses tools like Power BI to track data, helping her strategize content and engage players more effectively. Her focus is to balance entertaining existing players while reaching out to potential players through innovative, data-backed campaigns. - Future Goals and Constant Learning
Fiene talks about her career aspirations, expressing an interest in furthering her skills in social media and marketing. With a passion for learning and self-improvement, she highlights the significance of acquiring diverse skills—like using Premiere Pro and Canva—to stay current in a fast-evolving industry. Her commitment to growth serves as an inspiration for others in community management and social media roles.
Episode Summary:
In this episode, Fiene Ziegler provides a comprehensive look at what it means to manage and grow a gaming community. She offers practical insights into blending community engagement with social media strategies, leveraging data for decision-making, and building credibility through in-depth game knowledge. For gaming professionals and community managers alike, her journey and strategies are both inspiring and actionable, showcasing the impact of a well-rounded approach to community engagement.
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Transcript
Intro and Guest Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
everybody, welcome to Player Driven. Here's what you're about to hear on today's episode. Today we're doing an Encore episode. it was a holiday weekend and we all are a little lazy on this Monday.
00:00:11
Speaker
So today we are replaying our episode with Finae Ziegler. She is the head of Community Encore. you know games and it was a really cool conversation because she was one of the ones that first started connecting the dots between community and content creation it was a really fun episode and it's full of great insights for those who are new or just re-listening to player driven be sure to follow us on youtube and tiktok we create shorts of our content we have some really great information there's mediums there's longs there's all different size content that we put on the different social channels so be sure to check us out on
00:00:43
Speaker
TikTok and Instagram or LinkedIn or our website at PlayerDriven.io and be sure to like and subscribe. And we really hope you enjoyed today's episode.
From Law to Gaming
00:00:55
Speaker
Today we have a really fun episode. We're talking to Fina Siegler from Eno Games. She runs the community as well as the customer service side at Community Management Specialist at at Eno. I'm excited to kind of hear more about her role, hear how she does her day-to-day work and and just learn everything in general. So Fina, thank you so much for joining us today. Is there anything you want to say about yourself?
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. Hello everyone. It's great to be here. And yeah, excited to also share a bit of my story about how I did actually come into gaming because it's now nearly 10 years that I started in this direction of my career.
00:01:36
Speaker
And yeah, I'm very happy to be here. um Yeah, and let's start with that because you have one of those and it's funny, I see the same backgrounds often coming into but into gaming and yours is one of them, which is mind boggling. But can you tell us kind of when you were in university, when you were in school, when you were kind of starting for what you wanted to be, what were you going to school for?
00:01:55
Speaker
And how did you end up here? So my dream as a kid for a long, long time was actually to be ah lawyer, to become a lawyer, because I was always a stickler for rules. And even as a child already manifested, I want to make a lot of money and lawyers do make a lot of money. So that was kind of like my go to.
00:02:19
Speaker
um But then things changed because of university admissions in Germany at that time. It wasn't that easy actually to get into law school at that time. So I switched to cultural science actually.
00:02:33
Speaker
And that was ah study where had a lot of time, free time. I know not every university course offers this. So I had a lot of time gaming, 12 hours a day, stuff like this.
00:02:47
Speaker
And this is basically how I started coming into the gaming industry because I also volunteered, um, in my free time during university. And, uh, yeah, when my studies actually finished, I was, uh, offered a job as community manager for the game that I was supporting at the time.
Managing Gaming Communities
00:03:07
Speaker
So was there a specific game that you played that kind of clicked and you're like, oo this is something I can see myself doing. um It was actually the very first MMO I played.
00:03:19
Speaker
um Spoiler alert, I'm old. So that was, oh god, long time ago. i think and it was around 2009, 2008 around,
00:03:34
Speaker
i started playing this asian m ml rpg And ah yeah, I was very into it at this time, too poor to actually play World of Warcraft and stuff. So I needed to go for the free to play games.
00:03:51
Speaker
And ah yeah. World of Warcraft was a time suck, right? You needed to have a lot of free time to ah really ah divest into World of Warcraft. That's a whole nother world. But also they had the subscription model at that time and I was a poor university student. I couldn't actually afford paying this amount of money every month and buying the expansions and stuff like this. So free to play play and just grind myself through it was the way to go. Well, that's why you have to have those aspirations being a lawyer so you can make enough money to pay the subscription to play World of War. That's how you feed that addiction.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, thankfully I have adult money now that offers me, but I don't have the time anymore. That's the problem with life, right? But I love how, you know, you're a stickler for rules and you grow up and you have the two most important things down that you want. You want to follow the rules and you want to make a ton of money. You sound like the perfect kid.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah. Then you you find yourself as a community manager and you still can help create those rules or hold people responsible for those rules. Before we kind of dive into that, can you talk more about kind of what was your role as a community manager? How did you kind of, it may have been a while ago, but what was your day like?
00:05:06
Speaker
um So at the first company that I worked for before switching to Endo Games, I was ah the community mentor for the Asian MMORPG that I mentioned.
00:05:17
Speaker
And there I basically supported the German community, had a team of volunteers as well. We did a lot of in-game events, um mostly during the weekend, bigger events that we did for our community, give raise, a bit of social media, not too much.
00:05:35
Speaker
um But ah yeah, also a lot of moderation on the forum. forums were big at that time. So um when we ran in-game talking to players directly, we were mostly in the forum.
00:05:49
Speaker
And ah yes, and development was very slow on the game. It was a Korean game and you didn't get that much development time for it at some point.
00:06:02
Speaker
So I also was responsible at game design at some point. So before I left, I actually designed, I think an Easter event um that then got into development. So I basically got up checked in with my team.
00:06:19
Speaker
We spent mostly in TeamSpeak. I checked with my colleagues, hey, what can we do? um What kind of cool events? What options do we have? Tested a lot of features. Whenever we got a new update, we were the sole QA for it.
00:06:34
Speaker
um So I always needed to check translations. And sometimes we only had Korean documentation for the features. So testing a feature that goes out 48 hours later, we only have Korean documentation for, that's fun.
00:06:51
Speaker
um And yeah, um it were long days at some point because also when we had server maintenance, it didn't go that well often.
00:07:02
Speaker
So it got, I think the longest day was, we started at nine with server maintenance and I left the office at 1 a.m. to catch the last train. and needed to start it day and day of again.
00:07:16
Speaker
where When you look back at days like that, right? And I was in a so different different vertical, right? You have those long days that stink. But like, did you get with that much exposure to the company, right? Like, did it open your eyes into how the gaming process was made and like change your view of stuff?
00:07:36
Speaker
ah Definitely, because um at some point, um It was just too much at that time. So for me, I decided to then actually look for other jobs because um being responsible for a title that you also burned for as a gamer, that you have passion for, but that is slowly dying on development side.
00:07:59
Speaker
Um, that really hurt and we couldn't be honest with players about it. So this really hurt. So this was for me, the time to decide to move to a different company, which was then at the point, um, InnoGames.
00:08:13
Speaker
And I haven't really played InnoGames games before that. And I'm actually grateful for that because I don't play the games now, um, that I'm responsible for, but I do not have this emotional attachment to them anymore.
Balancing Passion and Profession
00:08:27
Speaker
Like I did in my previous company. So this is, I think for me, a healthier relationship to to be responsible for projects that I do not burn for because that, yeah, can really go into your mental state if things don't go well, if updates are released that you as a player i do not support, but as a community manager, you're the speaker of the company. So you really need to,
00:08:56
Speaker
um speak this language and it's then hard if you do not really agree with it. So thankfully also at InnoGames, we do not really have it um to this degree. So it was really a step up for me at that point.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's really cool to hear. i mean, anyone that's played any mobile game in the past 10 years has probably seen and ad for Forge of Empires. I feel like it was one of the first major games. You just kind of saw ads everywhere to kind of compete against it. And I think that's fantastic because you're you're building awareness, you're building visibility. And I love your aspect where I'm sure you love the company, you love the company, but you don't want to necessarily fall in love with the game again because it's, you want to have a separation between work and enjoyment, right? The last thing you want to is finish your job to go home and start playing Forge of Empires on your phone again because you just got away from the company for a few minutes, right? And I love how you can create that separation.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, helps build you a healthy distance to the product that you're managing because, yeah, from experience, I know if, if, you do not have the separation, it really drains you.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah, you'll burn out sooner, even though you're just playing the game that adds onto it but ah it's constant and yeah, you will burn out. But do you find that that same separation kind of a challenge when you're working in the community or the forums or you know enough about it to kind of talk to it and what's going on?
00:10:24
Speaker
um I actually play, like I mentioned, Forge of Empires very very actively because this is just also the requirement I have set for myself that if I'm responsible for our product, I need to know it inside out.
00:10:39
Speaker
If I own a personal level like it or not, that doesn't matter. um I need to know what the game is about. So I have actually now kind of like um the position within the company that I'm an expert on the game.
00:10:52
Speaker
ah So also game design, QA product, they also come to me, ask me about Forge things and stuff. um especially when it comes to certain game features because i'm also a competitive player um which is that very hard in um mmos um so i also play forge of empires competitively in one of the bigger guilds of my um market so uh yeah i i do play it actively but it's still better ah um to have um the mental state in um that
00:11:31
Speaker
I'm not too attached to it, even though I like the game on a normal level. But if I wouldn't work for it anymore, I wouldn't play it anymore, most likely. So your new role, or the current role is Senior Community Management Specialist. yeah what What is that mean? And what is your day to day like?
00:11:50
Speaker
So we yeah, in gaming, everyone has fancy job titles that no one knows what they're about. um So, Community Management Specialist is a title that we established at InnoGames to differentiate us a bit from our external community managers.
00:12:09
Speaker
So, we do also have a team of externals on Forge. It's roughly 40 external community managers that we basically manage as specialists. um There are freelancers that support our different language versions because for Forge we have 26 language versions.
00:12:28
Speaker
So we have at least, depending on market size, one external community manager. um um Since they are not direct employees, they need someone to coordinate everything between them and the development team. And this is basically our job. We coordinate the teams, we update them, we give them the schedules, we set up the whole communication strategy for upcoming features and give the general direction of where we are heading from communication perspective.
00:12:58
Speaker
So my day-to-day is basically in the morning when I come in, I check in with them, like if they have any kind of questions for us. if there any urgent issues, bug issues or so on that um appeared that we need to take care of.
00:13:14
Speaker
We have gyro for reporting that they can also do, but sometimes you just have some issues that you need to kind of like put a bit more highlight on. So this is when we get in touch with product and push those things to them and ask them for hot fixes and stuff like this, because it's major.
00:13:32
Speaker
Besides this, I have a colleague that I'm working with the project um So
Social Media's Role in Gaming
00:13:37
Speaker
both of us, we kind of like separate um our work between the projects that are upcoming, for example, new events, new features, updates to existing features.
00:13:49
Speaker
And then we basically prepare um ourselves the whole communication strategy for it. And including social media, um customer service guidelines, knowledge base, discord, whatever.
00:14:03
Speaker
And this is then what we first prepare for beta release because we have a beta server where you can test those features beforehand. And then we update it for live releases and make sure we have a good communication strategy with um Wholesome campaign before actually everything kicks off and it goes kind of smoothly, hopefully.
00:14:23
Speaker
I feel like organization communication are one of my weakest skills. And I've tried notepad. I tried one note. I tried Slack. I tried teams, right. And all these different ways to communicate with different people. And it's just like too much information coming in and then I get lazy. I don't want to type it anywhere.
00:14:39
Speaker
How do you, I mean, you're dealing with potentially up to 40 external community managers, right? what's What's the normal channel you communicate with these teams on? How do you yourself, like what's your note keeping tool of choice?
00:14:53
Speaker
Um, so internal communication, we also use Slack for the externals. We have, um, a tool called MetaMost, which is kind of like an outsourcer similar to Slack. So it's a similar, um, chat tool that we just use for the externals. Um, and we have, uh, we also have the whole Atlassian, a suit. So Confluence, JIRA and so on.
00:15:20
Speaker
So, um, I, Basically when I start a project, I set up an epic in JIRA with all the subtasks that I need to do, set the deadlines, check the schedule until when stuff ah needs to be kicked off, when it needs to be ready and so on.
00:15:37
Speaker
And this is then basically my task list that I work with. And when other issues come in between, I still kind of like check it. I also try to tick off all the boxes way in advance before I actually need it So I still have kind of like a buffer for urgent tasks that come in between without me needing to do crunch time because I'm late with other tasks.
00:16:00
Speaker
Of course, I also like to procrastinate some topics. um But usually I try to do most of the stuff ahead. I mean, after a certain time, you just know the drill, how certain communication works.
00:16:14
Speaker
So you you just apply one template, exchange the text and assets and we use it, right? Especially out with ChatGPT or general AI automation and so on. It's way easier nowadays to just create a lot of communication in an easier way. And also have um a weekly meeting with my colleague colleague that I'm working with.
00:16:42
Speaker
And then we do basically a process check. Hey, how are we with this project? What is upcoming? Who takes care of what? And we're also in daily contact with each other and syncing on and juggling tasks.
00:16:55
Speaker
Because now i'm also responsible for the whole social media content creation. um So this is now a new task. and So today I sat there all day um creating the Halloween event campaign, which is also lots of fun.
00:17:14
Speaker
I have lots of questions on that and I'm going to come back to it in a minute. But I love the fact that you talked about that you use kind of Jira as a source of truth, like creating your epics in there. I am one of those guys that they tell me to go update Jira and I don't.
00:17:28
Speaker
So I'm the one that breaks Jira at the end because I... I'm not process oriented like that, so I give you tons of credit. It's a fantastic tool with great organization skills. I'm just lazy and I can't do that. But I mean, I love the fact that I don't often find people in the CS role that are going in doing Jira updates because mostly the engineering team works at a Jira, the product management team works at a Jira. So I love that like you're all united in that single platform.
00:17:53
Speaker
um When you do Where's I going go with this? I guess when you deal with your external community managers, I think they're volunteers. Is that right? ah No, they're freelancers. there So um the the community managers are freelancers ah that we hire. um And these then have also voluntary moderators that they hire for their specific tasks, for example, for moderation or Discord moderation, stuff like this.
00:18:23
Speaker
So and when you do directly managing these. So you mentioned you have your special tool that that deals with your freelancers, but eic yeah as someone that works in community, right? You started your original job in forums.
00:18:37
Speaker
um Now we've expanded to probably still forums little bit, but Discord, Reddit, but where do you where where do you see community yourself as as being the the primary place to be?
00:18:50
Speaker
um Yeah, for me personally, it's more on the social media side. It depends a bit on on games, of course. um But I think and during the course of the last year, I got really addicted to TikTok, I must say.
00:19:05
Speaker
um At first I had trouble getting into it, but now I'm kind of like addicted to it and doom scrolling. um Sometimes and especially when Baldur's Gate 3 came out, I was ah basically in the whole bubble, Baldur's Gate bubble, especially the Astarion bubble.
00:19:24
Speaker
ah Because at that time I couldn't play the game because I was in Sweden ah working from abroad and I forgot my gaming laptop. So I couldn't play it and it was already out and I bought it, but I forgot my laptop.
00:19:37
Speaker
um So I was, the only thing I could do was basically get information about the game from TikTok. That was the easiest source because the studio updated a lot there, but there were also so many people creating videos about the game. And this is when I really clicked it for me. I'm like, wow, gaming is going viral on a platform like TikTok.
00:20:03
Speaker
That is really cool to see. And I saw a lot of, girls that said hey i don't know what this is about but this looks cool i'm gonna play the game and i think this is great to see that a platform like tick tock where you wouldn't originally imagine it can be a potential platform for organic growth and especially in a time of difficult marketing on facebook or instagram um this really struck me um to see um uh
00:20:36
Speaker
how, yeah, it spiraled and reached so many people that have nothing to do with gaming, but that got interested in it, especially women that are still kind of like seen as, oh yeah, you just play Sims.
00:20:51
Speaker
um So that is something that I feel is a platform that has great potential. I also see now more and more gaming companies embracing TikTok.
00:21:03
Speaker
Of course, not every game is kind of like fit for it. um Forge, for example, is not necessarily the TikTok native. But I think for certain titles, it's definitely a cool platform to reach people outside of gaming to attract to your game.
Content Creation Strategies
00:21:20
Speaker
And it's something that you should definitely explore more. so um I have questions on this, but usually about halfway through the podcast, I'd like to do a fireball around where I'm going to throw some random questions at you.
00:21:31
Speaker
Good to go. Yeah. So you've gone through a full circle of problems, right? You were young and you had no money you couldn't afford games. You grew up and you had money and you didn't have time for games. And then Baldur's Gate 3 came out and you forgot your laptop.
00:21:46
Speaker
With all that being said, what game are you playing now? I'm replaying Dragon Age Inquisition because next week, Whale Guard comes out and I'm not sure if you can see it, but I'm a great Bioware fan.
00:22:02
Speaker
um I like the Mass Effect. Yeah. There you go. Exactly. what you're You're traveling. You've been on the holiday for a couple of weeks, so maybe you're you're not at your normal spot, but what did you have for breakfast?
00:22:17
Speaker
Uh, today, just button with over my team. Just the breakfast bun was over my team. So because they have kind of like, uh, those, uh, this cream like similar to Nutella, but way better because it has a crunch in it.
00:22:34
Speaker
And my, um, friend brought it from Switzerland for me. So that's fantastic. Um, what is your dream holiday? My dream holiday is basically what I did last year. I was on a road trip for three weeks um from Hamburg to the Nordkap in Norway.
00:22:56
Speaker
And I traveled solo with my dog and just camped wherever I landed at the end of the day. And it was a great feeling of freedom. And now I'm really hooked on road trips.
00:23:10
Speaker
That is awesome. there and That sounds like a fun, fun experience. um What is the last book you read? The last book that's Iron Flame.
00:23:25
Speaker
Not sure if you're in the book talk bubble. I do not, but I will have to check it out. I've been trying to get back into reading. So that's why I always ask the question. What's a good way to get started with reading?
00:23:37
Speaker
more a book for the ladies, but it's great. It's with dragons. So definitely read it. Last question I have is what is the last movie you watched?
00:23:50
Speaker
The last movie? um The Lord of the Rings series, like the the whole, all six movies from Hobbit. Wow. Even the Hobbits, huh?
00:24:01
Speaker
I love the Hobbits more actually. really i haven't watched the hobbits i didn't hear great things about them i've seen all the lords of the rings couldn't i couldn't commit any more time to it and and i know that uh opinions go uh in different directions about the hobbit movies but i enjoy all all of them greatly and yeah it's a comfort movie that i watch at least once a year all right let's talk about content creation because that's a uh a struggle i face on a daily basis um It's fascinating.
00:24:33
Speaker
It's not fascinating. I think TikTok is a fantastic channel for gaming, right? I think you can, depending on the type of game you have here, right? Forge, I can see what you're talking about that maybe it's not the most exciting. Um, how does your content creation journey or day begin? Like, do you start with the end in mind? How how does that process work?
00:24:55
Speaker
Um, I can say that it's not a fully fledged process yet because I'm still kind of like exploring it still. um I got into social media a lot after I came back from my three month sabbatical last year ah where I really could disconnect and come back with fresh ideas and then also being in the whole Baldur's Gate bubble I really was blooming with ideas and stuff.
00:25:22
Speaker
um But um yeah, I needed to learn lot first. So I'm also still doing a lot of trainings on social media and stuff. And for now, what I have established for myself is that I do campaigns based on ah features or events we will have in the game.
00:25:42
Speaker
So I basically check out how our release schedule is. And um then I build campaigns around this. So for example, currently I'm working on the Halloween campaigns for the event.
00:25:56
Speaker
And this is basically looking at the um event itself, what is new, what is interesting, what maybe also from beta we see, um what kind of like where struggle points maybe for players where we could give more guidance also via social media, but also do fun content. um So it's basically really taking lot of information together and check what makes the most sense for our players to see.
00:26:26
Speaker
We also analyze the data from previous campaigns, check what worked well, what didn't work so well. Also look at competitors naturally, what are they're doing, what is working for them?
00:26:38
Speaker
um Not necessarily only competitors, but all kinds of channels. Like I'm browsing also privately, a lot of social media always with mind myself, how can I use this for my daily work?
00:26:55
Speaker
So, I'm a workaholic at heart. So I'm always kind of like checking, oh, is this something that we can use? is Would this work with our community, with our channels?
00:27:06
Speaker
And then trying out stuff, see how it works, reiterate on it and yeah, finding the right balance. We're currently in the middle of planning our strategy for the next year.
00:27:20
Speaker
um So it's really just also looking at a lot of data. It's less content creation than actually preparing what kind of content you want to do because once you have the schedule, creating the actual content is easier.
00:27:34
Speaker
But I think creating the schedule is the most tiresome thing because you really need to think you have only limited space, right? And a limited format. So you really need to decide what is that you want to communicate, what would bring the most engagement, the most reach with your channel. Because um with social media, our first goal is to entertain our existing community.
00:28:01
Speaker
But we also want, of course, go a bit beyond and try to still organically spread a bit awareness of our game and might maybe raise interest for users that are not part of our playerhood yet.
00:28:16
Speaker
So there are always things in mind where we need to think about, hey, how could we also attract players on an organic perspective here? And it's basically then balancing the between entertaining your existing players and trying to reach new ones and trying to find content that fits and looks good.
00:28:36
Speaker
That's fascinating. i love how you said you're a workaholic and I feel like that's the lawyer and you still and just kind want to go workaholic. Yeah. um You mentioned a couple of times the k the the metrics you're measuring, and and curious, come what are those KPIs? What are those common metrics that that you take a look at?
Communication and Project Management
00:28:54
Speaker
um i already mentioned it, I think. so The most common ones for us is ah reach and engagement. ah so How many players engage with the content?
00:29:05
Speaker
ah How many did we reach? Then also checking how many of those that we reached were followers, which are not followers. um Also, with it's different KPIs on every platform.
00:29:19
Speaker
Also, Meta just recently changed their KPIs again. So we now need to overhaul our whole reporting because nothing works anymore. um It's always fun.
00:29:30
Speaker
And then it's also different a bit. They call it differently between the different platforms because on YouTube, different KPIs are relevant. Then for Meta, TikTok again has different KPIs.
00:29:43
Speaker
So it's actually looking um what are those KPIs and which are relevant for us, but it really bottles down to reach and engagement. These are the most important ones for us because we want players to interact and consume our content.
00:29:58
Speaker
Do you use a tool to help measure some of this stuff? I know I just asked because i used to work for a company that measured reach and engagement. So curious, how do you do that? um We use Agorapult in general, um but we are are um currently also ah working on getting all of the data into Power BI so that we can also create dashboards ourselves, especially what we want to do for Forge right now.
00:30:25
Speaker
We set up all those fancy strategies, but then you define the KPIs for the goals that you want to reach. um But then it's tiresome to actually follow up on it and see it. So we now want to actually create BI reports where we can easily see how much on track we are with our strategy, how much of the goals that we wanted to achieve do we have already ah achieved without pulling the data somewhere, putting it into a format and doing the same thing over and over again. So we want to have automated reports.
00:30:58
Speaker
We're not quite there yet. Still work in progress. um But this will make things so much easier. I also love that you talked about creating the content calendar first. I think i think that's insightful. It's a thing I need to take a look at myself and decide how that makes. so I just appreciate that in little nugget like that because You don't really know until you know, right? You just kind of got to jump into the pool and just start figuring this stuff out. And it's fascinating to hear how different people take an approach to it, because I think there's no one wrong or right way to do it. It's just what is working for you. And also kind of backing me up. It's finding out what is the right platform for you, right? Is it TikTok? Is it Facebook? Who's playing the game? What are the age? What are the demographics, right? You're not going to find
00:31:41
Speaker
the older generation is on Tik TOK. So you're not gonna want to advertise that you're probably gonna stick to Facebook. So I think that too, is kind of like a juggling scene of, Hey, what, what is my audience and how do I reach them the best? Exactly, for us, we are game that is not super attractive on TikTok, unfortunately.
00:31:59
Speaker
We still post there because if we have real content, we can just mirror it on TikTok. That's no effort on our side. um We are definitely looking more into YouTube because we have a nice YouTube channel, but we have seen um that we want to look into better ways to utilize it.
00:32:19
Speaker
ah so There are a lot of things that we investigating currently for our YouTube channel to make it more popular. popular um and ah yeah facebook is our biggest channel still um but we do not and we um still post the regular content there but we also put focus more on instagram so i would say currently it's more instagram and youtube that are the main focus for us while still posting and supporting facebook When we did our pre-call, you made reference that you see the merging of community management and social media.
00:32:58
Speaker
And I love that observation because you know I think the name of the game today across the industry is retaining your players. And you either retain your players by having a great community and you send out cool content. When they see cool content, they're going to want to come back to the game.
00:33:11
Speaker
and do what you're creating. So I think it's a really insightful way to look at kind of how the roles are evolving and they're kind of turning into this similar role. And
Continuous Learning and Career Aspirations
00:33:20
Speaker
are you, i know you talked about it, but are you feeling that internally, you know, that you're kind of like helping lead that and kind of helping um push that? Because I think more studios are going to start doing stuff like this.
00:33:33
Speaker
ah Actually, did already do it, though not intentionally. So beginning of the year, I offered to help out our social media team because I wanted to gain more expertise on social media and they were understaffed and I wanted to do way more for my game.
00:33:51
Speaker
And I saw um that I needed to push it more actively from my side to see the results that I wanted to see there. So I engulfed myself. um And this has been working well so far that it's actually not temporary anymore at this point because I'm getting more and more involved in all these social tasks, like now also with the content calendar and stuff.
00:34:14
Speaker
And um yeah, this is now something that most likely will be pushed also more for the other teams as well. Not sure how happy they're about it.
00:34:26
Speaker
um ah But I definitely see that on community management side, um Social media and community management shouldn't be separated. i already said this 10 years ago when I was at my old job um because for me, community management should be everywhere where the community is.
00:34:46
Speaker
And we reached so many players via social media. and we also now saw that the more we actually tailored our social media campaigns to really go also from a community management perspective, the more positive results we actually see.
00:35:04
Speaker
And I think this is proof that ah social media and community management doesn't need to be separated at all. Do you, I'm just more curious, right? Do you have any reporting that shows, hey, when we released something on social media that was great, we saw our daily active user spike or something like that. Have you been able to see any trends like that?
00:35:29
Speaker
We have those trends, but we cannot fully attribute it to social media. um because we usually have this that we also send out newsletter campaigns, right?
00:35:43
Speaker
So when a new feature or new event starts, then we also send out news um newsletter campaigns and stuff. And we also see it really from activity levels that players are most active when a new feature or event starts.
00:35:57
Speaker
um We might have an influence to it, but we cannot prove that this is really the case and that all the traffic really comes from it. We actually saw a positive impact though when we advertise our beta server, so when something new hits our beta market.
00:36:15
Speaker
because this is usually something that is not so widely known to our community, that we have this market and that they can test new stuff there. So when we actually started advertising this on social media, we saw quite an increase compared to before we announced this on activity levels on beta. So it has definitely influence, but it's very hard to prove um correlation costs and so on between these because, yeah, it's not like they're directly going into the game from our platform or social media platform.
00:36:56
Speaker
They have the game on their mobile app and they just re-log in there. We don't know. Just take the credit anyway. People are always on social media say, hey, they saw the video. It's ours.
00:37:07
Speaker
um If you can go back to university with how your role has evolved and adapted over over the course of the last 10ish years, right? um What would you want to study more in depth or get a better understanding of?
00:37:21
Speaker
um I'm actually studying again. Never stops. I'm and studying economics. um And I think this is something that I would have also liked explore right from the beginning more to go more into the marketing or economics.
00:37:43
Speaker
um Because with how life played out right now, um it would have made more sense than cultural studies that I just studied because plan A didn't work out.
00:37:56
Speaker
ah you are where you are. That's all that matters, right? Doesn't matter how you got from A to B, as long as you got there. Exactly. What are your career aspirations? i know that's a big question, right? You kind of take a look at your, your in kind of social media creation, community management, kind of what would be that next logical step for you?
00:38:18
Speaker
um That's hard for me to say because ah if you would have asked me last year, it would have been progressing in my team lead career because until last year I was a team lead for customer service.
00:38:33
Speaker
um And then we had restructuring at the company and I switched roles. So right now I would definitely like to go more into the social media management, maybe marketing role, but I also still like the attachment to community management.
00:38:56
Speaker
So I actually do not really know right now. um I'm currently doing what is the most fun for me. which is basically being more involved into social media and growing more into it. And then I will see what develops out of it. If there is maybe something, a different role or career level that is more attractive to me.
00:39:22
Speaker
But currently I'm still in the orientation phase, I would say. Back again. There's some joy in just being able to talk to players or end users and see the excitement that they have. And I remember that was my hardest part of getting our customer services. Like I like genuinely talking to these people. Like they're interesting people. Like you form these relationships with these people. And i mean, Forge has been around for so long, you probably have some really, really like players that you know, right? Like you you recognize these names. And I think there's just such a cool connection there. And I think the player base feels that too, right? They feel like, hey, like,
00:39:56
Speaker
They hear me. They know me. right If I give feedback, I know they're listening. right like i think there's just a real ah I remember customer service as being a thankless job at the end of the day. right You do all this work, but you know when players come back to the game and they keep doing what they're doing, it's like, all right, like I did something right and it's good at the end of the day.
00:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, unfortunately I'm not too close to the players currently because as part of the coordinator role more that we have, we are a bit more detached from them.
00:40:25
Speaker
If time allows it, I'm lurking around Discord and also answering there and there i also have made myself a name, but due to the busy busy schedules of um Forge currently,
00:40:39
Speaker
We have a lot of stuff that is coming. um i just don't have currently the time to regularly chat with them on Discord, which is a pity because this is really fun and just directly engage with them a again.
00:40:51
Speaker
So I totally agree with this. With the content creation side of the job, are you learning any tools like Premiere CapCut or any of those editing tools? um ah Yes, Premiere Pro definitely is a learning curve. um Also, um I work with Audition because I'm also doing voiceovers for some of the videos.
00:41:16
Speaker
um So I'm now able to basically record my own video, edit it and then put it into the video, which is kind of nice.
00:41:27
Speaker
and And I also use Canva basically for social media content creation, because for me that's easier than doing Photoshop or anything because it has such convenient features.
00:41:40
Speaker
um But for video content, definitely Premiere Pro. Yeah, I feel the pain of learning Premiere Pro. It is a ah tool I never thought I'd have to learn in my entire life. And now I spend my day. YouTube is helpful.
00:41:53
Speaker
There's this YouTube channel, like Premiere Pro tips in one minute. It's like fantastic. One minute. Easy. I usually look not for kind of like general tutorials, it's more like, I need to blur this. How do I do it?
00:42:10
Speaker
How to do keyframes? That was my day yesterday. I was Googling keyframes for like an hour. I'm just like, wow, I could do all this stuff. And then that's like a whole nother world. It's like, oh God, what am I going to do here?
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's going down the rabbit hole. Yeah, the dangerous rabbit hole. um But I love it. It's great stuff. You know, if you're not spending your time learning new stuff or doing new stuff or pushing yourself, you're just going get kind of bored, right? And I think it's awesome to be able to kind of learn these new tools. And maybe you don't want to become an expert in them.
00:42:38
Speaker
But if you know what you're talking about, you know how to kind of how to use it, I think it makes you more powerful. That's something like it kind of goes back to when you were at your original gaming company, right? Like you you weren't a developer or engineer, but you kind of took part in what they were doing, right? You kind of have this idea of what the conversation is and just be able to be there. Like it's a massive, it's jack of all trades, master of none.
00:42:59
Speaker
Sorry, that just a random tangent. Exactly. Something like this. ah Dina, thank you so much. I think that's all the questions I have for you today. I think this is such a cool conversation. I love how, how,
00:43:11
Speaker
it all comes back to your, you want to be a lawyer, kind of a lot of things that you do. it doesn't feel like it, but your structure, you're kind of following the rules. and and And I love that. I love how you saw the connection between community and social media. I think it's awesome what you're doing. And i appreciate you coming out today. um Before we do end the call today, I was curious, is there anything you want to talk about or share?
00:43:33
Speaker
um First of all, thanks for the opportunity. It was actually my first podcast. So I'm very thrilled to be there. Exactly. I have learned something new. So that was great because, um yeah, for me, it's it's really, it's all about learning for me.
00:43:53
Speaker
i have the feeling I'm constantly learning and I'm always trying to expand my knowledge, not just work related, but all kinds of knowledge because I'm just very curious. Sometimes I have a thought in my dreams and I'm next day the first thing I do is open Google and check it out.
00:44:10
Speaker
um Otherwise, and cannot really. ah So it's it's a great opportunity and ah yeah, it's I'm always happy to get in touch with more people also from the business um and also getting to know what they're doing, how their approaches are.
00:44:29
Speaker
So would be happy to also connect more about this and also learning from others. We really hope you enjoyed today's episode with Fina Ziegler. She was a really fun guest, really insight so really insightful and some really great stuff.
00:44:45
Speaker
Be sure to check us out on Spotify, Apple or YouTube and subscribe to PlayerDriven to keep hearing some more great content and have a great day.