{"id":2129,"date":"2023-03-22T12:44:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T12:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2023-03-22T12:44:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T12:44:51","slug":"why-mario-could-learn-a-lot-from-sonic-the-hedgehogs-twitter-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/2023\/03\/22\/why-mario-could-learn-a-lot-from-sonic-the-hedgehogs-twitter-page\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mario Could Learn A Lot From Sonic The Hedgehog\u2019s Twitter Page"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re a fan of platformers, it\u2019s pretty much impossible to dispute that the genre\u2019s two biggest stars are Mario and Sonic. As you\u2019ll know if you\u2019re a devotee, Mario got his start back in 1981, when he was known as Jumpman, but his first platforming starring role was 1985\u2019s iconic Super Mario Bros<\/em>. Sonic, meanwhile, debuted in 1991 with Sonic the Hedgehog<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Since then, both have gone on to become huge gaming stars, but their fanbases are rather different, and some of that can be attributed to the fact that Sonic arguably has a much stronger social media presence. A quick look at the Twitter pages of both Super Mario <\/em>and Sonic <\/em>as franchises will tell you a lot about the differences between them, and we think Mario <\/em>could learn a lot from Sonic<\/em>\u2019s Twitter page. Here are some of the reasons the two should set their differences aside and collaborate on a social media strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Twitter is still a big deal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the surface, the outlook for Twitter looks gloomy. As revealed by ExpressVPN<\/a>, user numbers are set to dwindle throughout 2023, but despite that projected fall, the platform is still hugely popular, enjoying 260 million daily active users. With that in mind, both Mario <\/em>and Sonic <\/em>clearly still need to court a Twitter audience, and it\u2019s pretty much undeniable that Twitter will be a big part of the strategies for both franchises moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Sonic<\/em>\u2019s Twitter approach is much more fun<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Taking a quick look at the Sonic the Hedgehog <\/em>Twitter account<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to see the approach that Sonic <\/em>is taking to social media. The tweets sent by the account incorporate far more memes and jokes than those of Mario<\/em>, as well as nihilistic Gen Z humour and non-sequiturs. By contrast, Mario<\/em>\u2019s Twitter page<\/a> feels cleaner and more \u201ccorporate\u201d, which is perhaps to be expected, given that the property is owned by Nintendo. The account does tweet jokes and funny images, but it\u2019s nowhere near as bizarre or humorous as the Sonic <\/em>account is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Mario<\/em>\u2019s games speak for themselves, but Sonic<\/em>\u2019s don\u2019t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so if you\u2019re a Sonic the Hedgehog <\/em>fan, we might be about to drop some uncomfortable home truths on you. However, it\u2019s pretty much accepted that most modern Sonic <\/em>games aren\u2019t of great quality. Mario <\/em>appears to be going from strength to strength, with the recent series entry Super Mario Odyssey <\/em>receiving rave reviews. Sonic Frontiers<\/em>, however, has been reviewed with mixed enthusiasm by critics, and prior series entries such as Sonic Forces <\/em>and Sonic Boom <\/em>were loathed by critics and fans alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is likely to be one of the reasons behind Sonic<\/em>\u2019s Twitter account being so chock-full of memes; since Sonic <\/em>can\u2019t quite fall back on the quality of its game lineup, it needs to rely on social media humour in order to maintain and engage its audience. However, we think that Mario<\/em> could do with \u201ccoming down\u201d to Sonic<\/em>\u2019s level a little more. All it would take on Mario<\/em>\u2019s behalf is one flop, and suddenly, its more family-friendly and less unfiltered social media approach wouldn\u2019t feel so successful anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Mario <\/em>could use Sonic<\/em>\u2019s demographic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sonic the Hedgehog <\/em>community consists mainly of players under the age of 21, and it tends to skew more male than female, although its demographics may be changing<\/a>. Super Mario <\/em>seems to aim for a broader demographic than Sonic<\/em>, but if you ask us, Mario <\/em>could use the Sonic <\/em>demographic; while chasing families and broader appeal makes sense to a certain degree, Mario <\/em>arguably couldn\u2019t be said to have a similar core of loyal fans to Sonic<\/em>, but perhaps if Mario <\/em>took a leaf from Sonic<\/em>\u2019s social media book, a more consistent core of fans would solidify around the franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Sonic<\/em>\u2019s engagement is much better than Mario<\/em>\u2019s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although recent trailers for the Super Mario Bros Movie <\/em>may have changed this to a certain degree, conversations on social media tend to revolve around Sonic <\/em>more than Mario<\/em>. This is because Sonic’s <\/em>social media presence encourages discussion and debate far more than Mario<\/em>\u2019s does. While it is certainly true that some will draw fanart or write fanfiction for Mario<\/em>, it\u2019s far less common for them to do so than it is for Sonic<\/em>, and so we think if Mario <\/em>adopted Sonic<\/em>\u2019s social media strategy, then fans would become more interested in the core tenets of the franchise as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>It\u2019s more fun to check out Sonic<\/em>\u2019s tweets than Mario<\/em>\u2019s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On a basic level, engaging with the Sonic <\/em>social media presence is far more enjoyable for fans and those who play the games casually than doing so for Mario<\/em> would be. If you take a cursory glance at both feeds, you\u2019ll likely spend longer scrolling through Sonic<\/em>\u2019s tweets; they\u2019re funnier, more engaging, and stranger, while Mario<\/em>\u2019s tend to be more blandly promotional (with the occasional exception). All Nintendo would need to do in order to change this is to adopt a more off-the-wall social media strategy, and Mario<\/em>\u2019s tweets and online personality would be far more fun to engage with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Of course, both Mario <\/em>and Sonic <\/em>have their individual demographics and fanbases to consider, but we think that Mario <\/em>could learn a lot from Sonic <\/em>when it comes to social media and Twitter in particular. While Twitter may be struggling a little at the moment, there\u2019s no guarantee that it won\u2019t end up on top again in a few years or even a few months. Mariowould do well to remember that Twitter is still hugely important in any social media approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a fan of platformers, it\u2019s pretty much impossible to dispute that the genre\u2019s two biggest stars are Mario and Sonic. As you\u2019ll know if you\u2019re a devotee, Mario got his start back in 1981, when he was known as Jumpman, but his first platforming starring role was 1985\u2019s iconic Super Mario Bros. Sonic, meanwhile, debuted in 1991 with Sonic the Hedgehog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_info"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2130,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions\/2130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}