Clan Creation

Using Youtube to Recruit

If you’re thinking about making a YouTube promotional video for your clan… Great, do it! YouTube is one of the greatest assets you can use in regards to recruiting for your clan; videos can give an inside look into how your clan operates to visitors and players alike. It’s very important to deliver a professional and disciplined message when recruiting worthwhile members.

Look at me!!!:  This video is very disheartening to watch. There isn’t even a real message involved, and the music alone shows that the recruiter is not even interested in recruiting.  It seems to me that the recruiter is more interested in showing off his “skills” then recruiting. This gives the wrong idea to players about what type of clan this recruiter is from, and I wouldn’t recommended this type of video.

Genetic Video Ad: This type of video is pretty generic with lots of stock and overused footage.  There are some pretty decent still images in the video, however it doesn’t show how the clan operates and it’s overall performance.  The video has some shortcomings, but it does expose the clan to a full host of visitors and players interested in joining a clan.

Recruitment Ad:The idea is mostly for realism units looking for professional and mature members. If you’re looking for something that looks like a real deal military recruitment ad, here is one example achieving this by the 29th Infantry Division (COD4).

Game Play Ad: This is not a recruitment video.  However it does give an inside look into how the organization operates within it’s chosen game.  The video shows a great deal of teamwork and organization, which appeals to the older and mature crowds of the gaming community.  This can be easily posted on the organization’s website to allow possible members to decide if this is the right group for them.  I would recommend a videos like this one here:

When posting these videos on YouTube, I would highly recommend moderating your comments on a daily basis. Any negative comments would simple drive people away, but negative responses would create unwanted judgements about your clan as well.

There is a full range of video editing programs out there including Windows Movie Maker.  I wouldn’t be able to recommend any editing software, but I will tell you that the Windows Movie Maker is fully capable in editing videos for your Youtube postings.  I will however recommend Fraps for any video capturing you’ll need to do to create any promotion ads. It does beat your system up a good bit, and you might need to lower some graphical settings to allow smooth captures.  But it’s a solid and easy to use application that is trusted by many customers around the world.

Hopefully this article helped you in generating ideas for your Youtube videos.  If you have any suggestions for this article, or for my next article, please comment away and I’ll be more then happy to respond.

Recruiting Tips

One of the most critical, and usually one of the hardest tasks for any clan is recruitment.  Bear in mind that these tips are based off of my experiences as a clan leader. The goal behind this article is to help Clan Leaders develop their own recruitment tactics and strategies within their respective games.

Before I really get into the basics, you need to ask yourself some simple questions:  Why do players want to join my clan, and what does my clan have that sets us apart from the other clans?  Think about it because when your out recruiting, these two questions are surely going to come up.

First and foremost, the most important aspect of a recruiter is their overall conduct and discipline over voice and text chats.  Their actions reflect upon not only themselves, but the clans that they represent. Think about a company that has given you poor customer service, you will think poorly not only about the representative, but the company as well.  The concept is the same for both.

“No one wants to join a clan that is full of smack-talking children”

Corporal Kevin C. MacManus, 29th Infantry Division for Darkest Hour

Games Servers are your top recruiter!

Time after time, no matter what clan I become part of, the game servers always bring in the bulk of your new recruits.  If your looking for any decent numbers for your clan, then a game server is pretty much a requirement.  You do want to make sure you get a decent game server with the maximum possible slots for your respective games.  Larger servers allow more players to be exposed to your clan’s name, and in theory the clan should gain more members.

Play The Game and Walk the Talk.

This should be a no brainer, but I’ll say it… play the game!  Exposing yourself to the community you recruit from is ideal, especially when your trying to get to know the players.  This is a good way to determine and single out possible recruits.  If your website promotes good teamwork and discipline, walk the talk.  I understand that it might be a little difficult to get public players to work together, but at least try.  Anyone interested in good teamwork will at least take a look at your website because of your efforts.  That’s a foot in the door, and possibly another recruit.

Community Forums.

There are plenty of gaming and community forums to which you can recruit from.  I would recommend joining some forums related to your clan’s game and respond to some board post before dropping a recruitment post. This gives you the benefit of not being a “No Name”, rather someone who is a respected by members of that community.  Creating a signature with your clan’s name and website address will also expose the clan for each quality post you have.

Search Engine Optimization 101

Now, this is something that is not really talked about in clan recruitment, but is still valid in gaining new members, developing the clan’s search engine optimization will get you noticed whenever someone searches on Google, Yahoo and MSN.  Always having  a lot of fresh content for your clan’s website is key.  The internet is faceless with billions of websites out there, so giving your website a face would be bumping your clan’s rank on the major search engines.  The video below shows the basics of SEOs:

Source: Vertical Measures