Internet Marketing Advice Blog

Facebook has done it again! Traditional Online Gaming Publisher companies are seeing a major drop in their traditional traffic channels, as high as 50% to their sites in 2009, due to the change in online consumer behavior because of Facebook. Online gaming companies that have not already created Facebook gaming applications are already at a loss because of Facebook application companies, such as Zynga, which are highly dominant on the Facebook Games applications page. If you’re an Online Gaming Marketer, encourage your company to build Facebook applications and use Facebook as a channel. Check out Zynga and how they market their games.

Take a look at the homepage of Facebook Games Applications page and you will see at a minimum,6 Zynga games with the most users and popularity, which is everything to being promoted through Facebook.

Here’s why consumers are playing more at Facebook, rather than seeking out games through old traditional channels:

1. Consumers are already in their ‘downtime’ when they are at Facebook, so an option to play a game directly from this portal is much more likely, than seeking out another site

2. ‘Real Offline Friends’, not pseudo MySpace ‘Online Friends’ challenge each other in the games, so it’s more fun to compete with one another
3. The games are short and don’t take much effort
4. Other games are promoted, after a game is completed, so it encourages the player to continue to play at Facebook, rather than seek outside of Facebook alternative games

So, how do traditional online gaming publishers compete? Build a FB application and use it as a channel to drive traffic back to your site. Cross-promote the other games to the database of players, so that they will invite their friends to come and join. Do this now, before it’s not too late!