The Playbook for Official Game X Account Strategy | How to Design Strategy, Roles, and Posting Structure

The Playbook for Official Game X Account Strategy | How to Design Strategy, Roles, and Posting Structure

Hello, this is Toroneko.

For those who are planning to run an official X account for a game,
this article explains how to design its strategy, roles, and posting structure.

As a basic premise, the operational design of an official X account must be built on top of a properly defined marketing strategy for that game.

Also, because the role of an official X account changes before and after launch,
it needs to be designed according to the product phase of the game.

If you operate it without organizing these points first, it will not perform effectively.

Quick Summary

First, I will summarize how to use this playbook and how to think about it.

A common bad case is when the game itself has no marketing strategy, or only a vague one, but an official X account is designed anyway simply because it is considered a necessary tactic.

In that case, you cannot build an optimal official X operation.
Be sure to design your official X operation based on the game’s overall marketing strategy.

Official X Account Design Item List

When designing an official X account, decide the following items first.
These should be decided in one direction, from top to bottom, in order.

Do not skip the order.
Do not think about lower items first and then go back to upper ones later.

If it becomes a simple fill-in-the-blanks exercise, your X operation will not work well.

Also, when setting the “purpose,” it does not have to stop at operating X for a single title.
You can also set a purpose such as “building a company asset.”
If an X account is operated well, it can become an asset that helps future operations, future campaigns, and even future titles.

From here, I will explain how to design each item in detail.

Before Launch / After Launch

The design of an official game X account begins by deciding whether you are in the before-launch phase or the after-launch phase.

That is because the role of the same X account changes between these two phases.

Before launch, X serves as a point of contact to expand awareness of the game, build interest, help people understand what kind of game it is, and get them to install it on launch day.
It also plays the role of gathering followers as a contact channel that remains useful after launch, and building the foundation of a media asset.

After launch, X shifts into a role of preventing churn among existing users, encouraging continued play, creating reasons for lapsed users to return, and delivering information about events, updates, issues, and maintenance.

On top of that, it can also create touchpoints with new users through information spread by followers.

Post-Launch Is Not All the Same

Also, the role of an X account changes over time after launch.

The user state, game condition, and operational policy are all different at one month, six months, and five years after launch.

Is there still room to acquire new users?
Is it still possible to reactivate lapsed users?
Should you give up on new users and focus only on retaining existing ones?

In this way, the role of X operations changes depending on the product phase.

Purpose

First, decide the final goal (= purpose) of the X account.
If this is vague, the goals, challenges, and strategy that follow will also become vague.

Examples of “Purpose” Before Launch

・Make people aware of the game
・Make people interested in the game
・Help people understand what kind of game it is
・Get people to install it on launch day
・Establish a communication channel with users through X follows
・Build a media asset that can also be used after launch

Examples of “Purpose” After Launch

・Prevent churn among existing users
・Encourage continued play
・Create reasons for lapsed users to return
・Deliver information about events and updates
・Maintain a communication channel for issues and maintenance
・Create touchpoints with new users through followers
・Maintain the account’s power as an information-delivery medium

Points When Setting “Purpose”

・You may set many “purposes,” but you should decide which ones deserve special focus. It is easier to make later strategy and tactics clear if your purposes are narrowed down to some extent.

・The purpose of an X account is not limited to the single game. An X account can also become a company asset.

Goals

Goals are the metrics that break down your purpose.

Examples of “Goals” Before Launch

・Number of followers
・Number of engagements
・Number of impressions
・Install conversion from followers immediately after launch

Examples of “Goals” After Launch

・Number of reactivated users
・Retention rate
・Acquisition of new users
・Short-term DAU growth
・Event participation rate
・Maintenance of information-delivery power

Points When Setting “Goals”

・Number of followers = delivery power = media power

・Follower count is important, but depending on the title and market size, quality may matter more than quantity

・Even if follower count is high, it means little if those followers are low-value. You should also look at engagement and focus on increasing followers with real heat and interest

Challenges

Challenges are the hurdles blocking achievement of your goals.

Examples of “Challenges” Before Launch

・Challenges related to the game itself
└ It is hard to understand what kind of game it is
└ It does not communicate clearly who the game is for
└ The appeal is hard to communicate through videos and screenshots

・Challenges as a completely new title
└ There is no IP and no existing fanbase
└ The game is not known at all
└ There is no clear reason to follow
└ It cannot be driven by other company titles

・Challenges in the market environment
└ Strong competitors already exist

And so on.

Challenges differ greatly depending on the title. So it is impossible to list all of them here.
You should identify all the challenges specific to your own title.

Examples of “Challenges” After Launch

・The game rules are hard to understand
・The appeal of the game is not being communicated well enough
・The reason to return is weak
・Information is not reaching users
・Follower reaction is weak

And so on. These also vary completely depending on the actual game, so the examples listed here are only for reference.
You should identify all the challenges specific to your own title.

Points When Setting “Challenges”

When organizing “challenges,” you need to separate what can be improved through X operations from what requires improvement in the game itself.

For example, if the product value or the game’s own appeal is weak, that is certainly an important challenge, but it is difficult to solve through X operations alone.

Therefore, the “challenges” organized here should focus mainly on those that can be improved through X account operations.

Also, when deciding the “strategy” for X account operations, the most important point is how thoroughly you can extract the real challenges.
If the challenges remain vague, the strategy will also become vague, and that will lead to the wrong tactics.

Strategy

“Strategy” is the way you fight to clear the challenges.
What you decide here is the basic policy: which challenges you will solve first, what you will communicate most strongly on X, and in what order you will reach different user groups.
If strategy remains vague, target setting and operation policy will also remain vague.

The factors you should check when deciding strategy include the following:

・Game genre × game concept
・Whether there are existing fans outside the game, such as through an IP
・The game’s basic play cycle
・The game’s operation cycle
・Timing when seasonal factors make it easier to gain momentum
・Timing when the company wants to create momentum

Based on that, you decide the strategy (= way of fighting) to clear the “challenges” identified in the previous section.

Since strategy differs completely depending on the actual game, it is difficult to provide full samples here, but for example:

A “strategy” in response to a “challenge” could look like this.

In reality, multiple challenges usually exist, so the strategy will not be that simple.
But this is the kind of thinking used to create strategy.

Points When Setting “Strategy”

Also, strategy is not something you decide once and then never change.
The market, competitors, game condition, and product phase all change.
You need to review it regularly in response to those changes.

Target

Once strategy is decided, the next step is to decide the main target.

You can define many kinds of users as targets. However, because each type of user has different needs, if you do not narrow them down to some extent, official X operations will become half-baked and fail to satisfy any group well.

Examples of “Target” Before Launch

・People interested in the game concept, genre, characters, and world setting

・For IP titles, people among the IP fanbase who are interested in the game itself

・Pre-registered users (if X follows are designed to function as pre-registration)

Examples of “Target” After Launch

・Existing users
・Users at risk of churning
・Lapsed users
・Potential new users

Points When Setting “Target”

One important thing to note is that, both before and after launch, X followers do not necessarily install the game.

Some people follow out of casual interest.
Some fans of anime or manga IPs may follow even if they are not playing the game yet.
In other words, followers are not the same as players.

Even after launch, some followers are still far from installing the game.

Operation Policy

Finally, based on “strategy” → “target,” decide the actual operation policy.

What you decide here includes which kinds of posts to increase, which post roles to prioritize, when to publish them, what tone to use, and who will make the decisions and run the account.

Role of Posts

The first thing to decide is the role of your posts.
Before listing posts by tactic, organize what kinds of roles your posts need to fulfill. This should also be decided based on “strategy” → “target.”

・Posts for awareness
・Posts that generate interest
・Posts that deepen understanding
・Posts that encourage installs
・Posts that help prevent churn
・Posts that encourage play
・Posts that encourage reactivation
・Posts that deliver important information

There are many kinds of posts in both the before-launch and after-launch phases.

You need to decide which targets each post is for, when to publish it, and how much weight each type of post should have.

Operation Rules

On top of that, decide the following operation rules. These should also be decided based on “strategy” → “target.”

・Posting time
・Posting frequency
・Templates
・Writing tone, emotional temperature, and character/personality
・Reply policy
・Emergency handling
・Operation structure

and so on.

In-Game Pathways to X

Also, you should not think about X operations in isolation.

You need to design pathways that connect installed users and current players to X follows as much as possible.

That is because X becomes a point of contact for delivering future events, updates, and reactivation prompts. It also remains the final communication channel even after users quit the game.

For that reason, you should design X pathways not only from in-game links, but also in coordination with the game’s play cycle.

Defining Internal Rules

Finally, define rules so that X operation policy and quality do not drift even when the person in charge changes.

The internal rules discussed here are not only about a single title’s X account.
If you are a game company with multiple titles, you also need to connect them with the company’s overall SNS policy so that account quality and judgment standards do not become inconsistent across titles.

Defining the X Account

What must remain is not only operation rules, but also the following kinds of “thinking”:

・Purpose
・Goals
・Challenges
・Strategy
・Target design
・Before-launch / after-launch policy
・How to think about post design
・Operation policy
・Judgment criteria

Design Checklist

Finally, I have summarized a checklist so you can confirm there are no major omissions.

・Do you have an overall marketing strategy for the game?
・Is it clearly before launch or after launch?
・Is the purpose clear?
・Are the goals clear?
・Are the challenges organized?
・Is the strategy clear?
・Is the target decided?
・Are there in-game pathways to X?
・Are the operation rules decided?
・Are the internal rule definitions organized?

Summary

In this article, I explained how to design the strategy, roles, and posting structure for people who are planning to operate an official X account for a game.

In reality, many official game X accounts are in one of the following states:

・Not designed at all
・Designed, but with major gaps and omissions
・Completely handed over to an outside agency, so the internal team does not really understand it

One reason for this, I believe, is that the kind of design thinking discussed in this playbook has not been clearly documented and visualized inside companies.
I did not think that situation was good, so I created this article.

The most important points are:

In practice, there are not many cases where people install directly from an X post.
In many cases, people see the information on X and then go to the store to install.
That is why X operations must be designed based on the overall role users expect from them.

If you only look at measurement tools, installs coming directly from X posts may appear small, so it is dangerous to conclude that “X has little installation impact.”

Finally, how you should design X account operations varies greatly depending on the game title.
If you are unsure, feel free to contact Toroneko.