by Amanda
Attending the Harrisburg University Social Media Summit for the second year in a row, I chose to check out the "Social Media & Game Development" panel.
We have a few clients that use the gaming side of social media, such as foursquare, but I was interested to hear how I could learn more and better serve our clients.
I was expecting the panel to focus on using the gaming side of social media to attract more customers to … more of a "play this game and win a piece of our merchandise" type deal. However, it was more about playing games that certain social media platforms offer and games on the web in general.
As the panel was coming to an end I asked about foursquare and QR codes and where they see those types of things going in the future. They said, "QR codes are out, brand image recognition is the new reality." So instead of scanning a QR code or checking in at a location, a consumer can simply scan an image of a brand using an app called Aurasma. There, a video, or whatever the company wanted their aura to be, would pop up for the consumer to see. The panel said that an image is more pleasing to the eye than a black and white box.
I thought this was interesting and immediately downloaded the app. I have yet to check it out to see what it is all about, but I am excited to see where this new media takes us.
A couple of other points I thought were interesting:
• Online gaming is more cooperative then competitive
• The largest gamer segment is women 40 and up
• Some companies are using games so that people can interact with and learn about the company as an alternative to power points or sales meetings.
How do you see online gaming improving in the future?
