So speaking as someone who HASN'T been part of this community for more than say 2-3 years and has both an active social media presence (my blog averages about a thousand unique visitors a month) and also developed/ran the social media platform for Sprint LTD (a multibillion dollar company here in the states) I can say the following:
The social media presence here pretty much exemplifies everything I've ever heard about the British Cottage industry. It's small, tight knit with a slowly developed but functional product that's generally good when complete. *WHEN COMPLETE.*
Now from a social media standpoint there's some serious issues Lee should really consider:
1) The primary user base are mostly not only very active but generally the main drivers of progress. This makes them his 'whales' if you use the free-to-play lingo. They are the ones he should effectively cater to since they effectively pay the bills. They funded the product, got it off the ground, continue to make/purchase/sell on the store, etc. It is *VERY* bad form to ignore them or give them a token post.
2) I am well aware of the time constraints that small teams have. Writing an excerpt/blog/video is time consuming. This is generally why most groups will have someone part time (Like 10 or less hours a week) who acts as a filter. They are usually referred to as 'community managers'. They write blog posts, they moderate forums, they put up little twitter updates. Etc. Owner/operators RARELY have time to actually do that kind of thing.
3) From the standpoint of the above no news is actually good news - it means he's working. Unfortunately perception is a huge driver for customers as they must be CAREFULLY managed. If they are not, they will quickly run out of control. Sometimes this is good (hype trains generate huge $$) and sometimes this is tremendously bad (hype train causes viral dissent resulting in a sales crash/refunds/etc).
4) Humans in general need to see progress. It's something stupid that we use as an indicator of function. It works in a survival setting but oft-times in the real post industrial world we have difficulty understanding that the wizard of oz is doing things behind the curtain. Therefore more obvious moves need made.
So recommendations here?
1) Find a passionate person in the community. Make them 'community manager'. Pay them a wage either in free services/updates/etc or direct compensation with a STRICT enforcement of update policy (even if all they do is say 'I will check on that').
2) Make sure there are daily updates to twitter, facebook, reddit, forum posts as community member.
3) Make sure that there is at least a weekly newsletter. This is NOT something that needs to be a major production. It helps, of course, to make it look super nice but the reality is as long as you can show what's being worked on and talk about it proficiently enough it will satisfy the consumer.
4) Sell more products, more often. I know this is a silly concept but DLCs keep platforms alive. Perhaps break up more of the feature list of things that are being creeped and offer them as an expansion if they go beyond the stated scope of game guru.
Example:
Game guru (regular) -
Includes game guru and all stated features.
Game guru (expert) -
Includes HDR engine, event engine, etc.
Game guru (pro) -
Includes all the latest bells and whistles.
Etc.
Or not. Its your company. I just shop here ;P
