[Marketing] How often to update?

[Endorphin]

Hey there, guys~

Since I can start working on my project again this month I was wondering how often to post.
I tried to make a post only every month, so that something "meaningful" was shown, while I actually adore spamming people with concept sketches, WIPs, story snipplets etc.

So, what do you prefer?
Large updates? Small things?
RSS feeds that allow you to disable some tags?

Can't wait to hear your opinions. :>
- En.

[ShippoK]

I always feel shy to update constantly with little things. (Don't enjoy becoming a spammer, I despise spammers. Grr~!)
I try to update every 2-3weeks just to tell people I'm still alive, even if the I post was small.

So, what do you prefer?:
Updating with new finished images or screenshots if I can. My WIP's pictures are a scribbled mess so I avoid posting them a lot of times.

(Beware the scribbled pink lines, Ooo~)
Right now, I mostly just update on how many words/lines I have done in my project. (So... many... words...)

Large updates? Small things?:
Depends, I prefer something in the middle. An update that shows some new stuff but not a lot of it.
Like giving them a yummy pie that's not cooked yet, teasing them a little.

RSS feeds that allow you to disable some tags?
I don't use RSS feed. (Thats for the COOL kids)

[latte]

Personally I love frequent updates. Not like every day (unless you're doing a Kickstarter campaign, in which case it might be nice), but every few days/week. Of course that's only if you have something to show, be it a CG wip, screenshot, voice sample, word count update... If you don't it's okay, IMO it's more important to update consistently than frequently, so don't show everything you have over a month and then disappear for another two.

[Alera]

To me, something like weekly sounds nice? I personally think a month is too long and it's really easy for people to forget about things by the time the next update comes.

[leon]

For the official site or blog I think larger posts, posted more rarely are better. Once a week seems to be a good rule of a thumb. If you don't have any major updates, you can compensate by writing some interesting stuff to go with it (easier said than done...)

For smaller things I think it's better to use one (or several) of the many micro-blogging platforms out there. It's quite common for Twitter users to post several times a day for example. Marketing should be a mix of on-site and off-site posting anyhow. If you post only on the official site, you aren't getting many new fans...

[Endorphin]

ShippoK
I totally know how you feel about RSS--only discovered it a few days ago (after being against it for over a year because it's "so complicated and I don't need it") only to find out that it's like... totally useful. :'D
Thanks for your input. :>

latte
Hmm... weekly really does sound nice, I'll think about it--thank you, you've really helped me. :>

Alera
Yeah, I understand what you mean~
The problem with monthly updates also is that even I as the developer tend to forget what I did in this rather long time. :'D

leon
Sounds logical.
This had some really interesting informations, thanks. :>
^ For example the multiple platforms.

- En.

[nyaatrap]

From my knowledge about commercial games, updates should be not frequent before the release date is determined. It's how you show your confident on your work and keep user's anticipation high by hiding many things. I found more serious projects are tend to less updated.
Though you can do anything on your free projects. Nothing good or bad, do what you like.

[Klawzie]

It may also depend on what "sort" of medium you're using for your updates and what the stated purpose of the medium is.

If you, for instance, are on Twitter, people like to hear from the people they're interested in fairly frequently. So something like, "Wrote another 345 lines of script today! #feelinggood #makingprogress" and "It's Teaser Sketch Thursday! imagelink #project #lolwhoisthat" a few times a week will probably be better received by those sorts of fans.

Tumblr fans like to have their updates frequently, but not spammy-quick. Don't flood someone's dashboard. And they tend to like visual updates over text updates.

Blog (just about any service) likes more in-depth posts. They're perfectly happy with text-only updates, as long as they provide "something to read". So a quick, "Wrote 120 lines of script today!" as the post would seem rather spammy to the average blog follower. But a picture and short (or long) ramble about what you've been doing would be better received.

Noting that the above rambling is just "on average"/"what I've noticed" and will vary.

So, just figure out what sort of update is your speed and find the easiest interface for that style of update posting. (Or multiple, if you can handle it.) Also keep in mind how far out you are from finishing. I often lose interest in a game if it's been "in production" or "coming soon" for what feels like forever. Especially if it's "forever" without updates.

I have an idea of how I'd be spacing out my updates, but I need a better idea of my actual VN pace before I can start putting any sort of real estimate on what my process will be. I don't want to talk all sorts of crap about, "I want to wait on showing art until I have at least 75% of the game's planned artwork done." if I end up finding out that my progress is easier and I'd stay jazzed by sharing more, earlier, because I gain a group of fans who give great feedback or if I get lots of radio silence so keeping anything but a really basic blog that only posts about releases would be a waste of my time.

But, all things equal (ie: you don't have a preference about what sorts of updates you like to do or how quickly you like doing them), I'd say between 1 - 5 times a month is about my preference, depending on how quickly you work. Unless, of course, "parsed" as some sort of WIP blog where the point is to show off your daily progress. (Still, I prefer threads for that.)

[Endorphin]

Hey. =)

nyaatrap
Definitely agree with you when it comes to commercial games.
(I'd actually prefer it sometimes if they'd put less time in spamming and more in debugging.)

Klawzie
Makes sense. =o
But this got me wondering.

Could anybody explain me the difference between tumblr and a "normal" blog?
A lot of people seem to use it, but I don't really see the difference--I mean, aren't both... blogs? (You can even get noticed about updates via RSS etc.)

- En.

[nyaatrap]

Ah, BTW (I forgot to say what I'm prefer), I personally prefer to projects with less updated even they're free. Just my taste - I like developers who's working on their main things rather than writing random showing offs.

[leon]

Could anybody explain me the difference between tumblr and a "normal" blog?
A lot of people seem to use it, but I don't really see the difference--I mean, aren't both... blogs? (You can even get noticed about updates via RSS etc.)

- En.

Well there is a thin line between a blog and a micro-blog. It all depends on how you use it... Tumblr is more like a micro-blog, but that's just because that's how people use it. There is no limit like with Twitter (140 characters) and some people do use Tumblr like a proper blog (longer posts, but done more rarely).

Also, here's a list of some of the most popular micro-blogging platforms: http://wiki.renai.us/wiki/Websites_and_ ... _Platforms and "proper" blogging platforms: http://wiki.renai.us/wiki/Websites_and_ ... _Platforms

But for most of these there isn't much distinction (you can use Blogger or Wordpress.com like Twitter if you wish). It's more about how people usually use these.

[Klawzie]

I've noticed with Tumblr is that blogs that mainly post images tend to have higher followers than blogs that post mainly text. In my experience, people use it as a sort of "inspiration" site or to get visual updates from people/companies. That way they can scroll through their dashboard for the day's updates from the tumblr blogs they follow and not have to think too much.

That said, there are plenty of people who use it as a combination image/text chat - and there are plenty of people who do that well. If you run across like-minded, similarly chatty people, your circle of followers can grow as friends-of-friends follow the conversation stream to the people who they find interesting. (But since I'm one of those people who mainly uses it for updates and inspiration, I eventually unfollow "chatty" people, even if they're friends. I follow too many people to want to sift through the chit-chat to get to the sorts of posts I'm really interested in: the updates, the inspiration, and the information posts.)

Tumblr does straddle the gap between how most people use Twitter and other micro-blogs and how people use "regular" blogging services, and ultimately, however you use it will determine who finds it useful, since it can be used however you like. But it really "feels" designed to share short bursts of text, videos, images, and short conversation streams. (Text starts to act a little funny the more of it there is, and conversation streams can be difficult to track since the "follow" and "like" system doesn't always work the way it's supposed to.)

And, in my experience, the more narrowly focused the Tumblr blog is, the higher number of followers it has. Especially if updates are mainly images or video.

I hope my rambling helps any. I'm hardly an "expert", especially as I can't keep up with Tumblr right now (I fell behind the last time I got sick and eventually had to just give up on catching up - which lead me to log in less frequently), but I've had conversations with artists about the best platform for their work, and it was one of the considerations for me creating a tumblr account at all was how easily it could be maintained and how easily people could share things they liked with their friends while being easily traced back to you - similar to retweets on Twitter, I think.