Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

I'm writing this newsletter post-jetlag from the conference I attended in Taiwan, so this will be shorter than usual. To make up for it, here's a shirt I found while I was there. I hope today and everyday is Tos day for you. (# Let's eat a yummy toast.)

We're learning about crafting apologies in this feature, so hope you're ready to be sorry. (Threatening.)

Community Activity 📝

Every month we do a new community together. Here's the new one!

The question:

Feel free to email me back with your answer - I always respond to them! My answer will be in the next newsletter, and since this one can have so many answers, I may share your answers too. (But I'll ask permission first!)

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Previous Community Activity 📫

Here was the question from last month.

Question refresher:

Whew, one of the most heart-pounding parts of the job! But hey, mistakes happen. While not every situation warrants an apology (remember: the correct answer to anything is always "IT DEPENDS!"), being able to properly convey your feelings goes a long way. The goal here isn't to convince anyone of anything - it is to be accountable for your actions and rebuild some level of trust, hopefully.

It's important we learn this skill early because when you're in the heat of the situation, the adrenaline and confusion pumping through your veins can cloud your judgement. Having some sort of guideline can help centre you. And we've all seen how insincere apologies can make situations even worse for said person (looking at you, YouTube apology videos.)

Steps for Communicating an Apology

This is a rough guideline, and please don't forget that this is merely a template. Be thoughtful with your tone and voice and make sure it's customized to the situation.

Step 1: Own it

• Accept responsibility.
• Apologize. (Actually saying the word "sorry" can go a long way! Concern! Sympathy!)
• Admit to it.
• This is ownership of the situation. You're not trying to blame anyone or dodge responsibility, but can acknowledge how your actions lead to this situation.

Step 2: Explain it

• This is your time to explain exactly why it happened.
• The context, why, what the circumstances were, etc. You don't need to dive into ALL the details, especially if it goes over any NDAs or personal information.
• This is not your time to make excuses or manipulate the situation to gain sympathy. This is simply the recounting of the situation.

Step 3: Promise it

• This is how you get OUT of the situation.
• State how you’re going to fix it. How you’re going to help, how you'll do your best to never let it happen again, etc.
• Speaking about the promise is VERY important. It gives everyone a direction to look - they’re not paying attention to it anymore, they’re paying attention to what you’re going to do.

And even if you've crafted the perfect apology, no one has to forgive you. That's their choice, and the best thing you can do is to learn and grow. Everyone makes mistakes. You got this!

Community Chatter 💬

Here are the interesting and helpful things I've seen this month.

General News

• Twitter is being rebranded to "X" (🙄) (here's an extension to fix that and other clutter oop)
• ​Threads is working on developing a Following feed, edit button, post search, desktop app and clarified that deleting an account doesn't involve deleting your Instagram
• ​Threado released its 2023 Community Benchmark Report - great for checking how other industries are doing and averages on things like new member retention (3-12% after 6 weeks), active user benchmarks (5-14% MAU), and churn rates (12.8% for direct to consumer?? Wow)
• ​YouTube Shorts added new creation tools

Games Resources

• ​Twitch is rolling out "Featured Clips" to be shown on their Discovery Feed
• Blitzkriegsler's thread on how to best contact content creators
• ​Google Play opened its Indie Games Fund for small studios in Latin America

Community & Marketing Game Jobs​
​These are not endorsements.

• ​Diablo - Senior Manager, Global Social Media Marketing (Irvine, CA)
• ​Digital Extremes - Performance Marketing Strategist (Irvine, CA)
• ​Evolve PR - Public Relations Specialist/Senior PR Specialist (Remote, Canada)
• ​Insomniac Games - Senior Employee Engagement and Communications Specialist (Remote)
• ​IO Interactive - Global Community and Social Media Manager (Hybrid, Copenhagen)
• ​Kobold Press - Media Production Manager (Remote)
• ​Lightning Rod Games - Social Media & Community Engagement Specialist (Remote, Canada)
• ​Paradox Interactive - Community Manager (Stockholm, Sweden)
• ​Robot Entertainment - Social Media & Community Manager (Remote)
• ​Snowcastle Games - Marketing Manager (Remote timezone max +/- 2h CET)
• ​System Era Softworks - Senior Social Media Manager (Remote, but Seattle, WA preferred)
• ​Tencent Games - Public Relations Manager (California, US)
• ​YRS TRULY - Senior Social Media Manager (Hybrid, London, UK)

And that's it! I'll be at PAX West this September, so if any of you will be there, I hope we can say hi. :)

Have a good August! (Also I don't think this newsletter ended up being shorter than normal, I'm a LIAR.) (Sorry.)

❤️

Victoria

WholesomeMemes @WholesomeMeme 8:0 AM • Aug 1, 2023 6931 Retweets 65991 Likes Read 85 replies

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