Speaking to your audience

We know there’s a lot of information to send out in the lead up to any large event so Aftergame will be one heading among many. As you almost certainly know, it takes several instances (conventional wisdom says up to seven) of seeing something new before a person engages with it. Sometimes board gamers are excited about advancements in their gaming lifestyle and sometimes they’re content doing things the way they’ve been doing them for fifty years and worried about learning a new way. You know best what kind of audience you have and the best way to reach them.

We have some sample posts you can use and edit but the best thing is for the post to be in your own words so it fits your style of communication and your use cases.

Media Schedule

Here is suggested a media schedule based on what has been successful at previous conventions. These posts would be in addition to brief mentions in a few other places to bring us closer to that coveted seven instances. Obviously, it will look very different depending on your conventions (pun intended) and norms so use it however you like.

• Around the time you announce dates: Announce you’ll be using Aftergame to power game scheduling and to make sure people get to play all the things they’re most excited to get to the table.
  • Include a link to download so they can set up their account and start getting acquainted with the app.
• Around the time tickets go on sale: Announce that the event is now live on Aftergame so people can go claim seats in official games like learn-to-plays, demos, and big games (Blood on the Clocktower, for example).
  • Include the link to the public webpage for your event so people can check out what’s happening even if they don’t have an account yet.
• A couple of weeks before the convention: Announce that people can set up their own games at your event for other players to join. (Hopefully some people have already figured this out but for those who haven’t, it’s a great prompt for them to think about what they want to bring to the table this convention.) Also, if people don’t know what they want to play, they can take a look at the games that have empty seats and see if anything looks good.
  • Include the link to the public webpage for your event so people can check out what’s happening.
  • The post could also include a note about your games library, if you’ve connected one, and how people can see what games will be there to help them plan.
• A couple of days before the convention: Announce that [a number of] games on offer have already filled up but there are still [a number of] games with seats available. Remind them there’s still time to plan games in advance or claim seats in other peoples’ planned games.
  • Link to the public webpage and remind people they can easily download Aftergame from the event page. The people doing it now are usually the people who haven’t been paying much attention or who have just got tickets / learned about the convention, so a note about downloading will head off a good percentage of questions.

<aside> <img src="/icons/exclamation-mark_blue.svg" alt="/icons/exclamation-mark_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Make sure any of the points above are true before you post about them, primarily that you have actually set up some games in the event before you send people there to check out the games on offer.

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