Daily there are new streamers logging onto Twitch for the first time looking to make a career from playing their favorite game. If you haven't been around other streams or watched other people, you probably don't 100% know what to do. A lot of new people think just push live and the folks will come. But, that's not all exactly true. I have come up with a few small points that may help to make your streams a wee bit better.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert. This is advice is all things IN MY OPINION and how I feel will help people grow. I do not claim to be a master streamer, nor will I ever. I am just a person with some advice.
BUILD A BRAND
If I ever taught you anything at all, it is to build a brand. Decide exactly what you want to be known for. You need to decide exactly what that is and then try your best to have your stream and things you release for the stream to match up with this.
EX: I worked with a Fortnite streamer. He streamed Fortnite entirely and his whole brand was based around it. His sub badges were of the ores in the game, his sub emote was of a llama he had drawn, and even his panels and alerts matched up with it. This was how he decided to represent himself on the Twitch platform.
EX: My theme is rainbow galaxy and aliens. My community is called Skartonia, a planet that I am the Alien Queen of. All of my overlays and panels reflect this. My sub emotes all either reflect that or an element of my stream/community. Sub badges are little aliens next to name for subscribers, and even my logo includes an alien queen with the rainbow galaxy behind.
What kind of impression do you want to leave on your viewers? What will they think when they think about your stream? Take something that's apart of you and make it a brand you can be proud of.
GET ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Now you have decided what you wanna do and what you want it to look like, you need to start getting some social media accounts. You may have personal ones, but these are more like ON BRAND "business" accounts. Of course, they're not SO SERIOUS you only post about your streams. You need to be active on them, interact with people.
Twitter and Instagram are the best ones to get to be able to start growing your community. Use hashtags(#) to engage people in looking at your posts. Make these about your stream, what you're playing, and the platform you are live on.
TIP: Doing the # for Follow4Follow or Support4Support MAY get you follows, if that's your only goal, but they will not bring the support and community feels to the stream.
TIP: Don't empty follow people to expect a follow back to help you "grow" or whatever. Follow people you intend to interact with. Like the Sims and stream the Sims? Follow other simmers. (Trust me, there's a lot out there.)
Discord is also another tool you can use to grow a community. You can start your own server for your audience to talk about games, your stream, and things like that. You can also join other servers, make friends that way, and socially interact with people there. I personally have created good relationships by connecting on Discord.
MAKE CONNECTIONS AND FRIENDS
Streaming has really become an outlet for me personally to meet so many wonderful people. People who I can call my friends, even though it's through a screen. A lot of relationships can start by you just searching a game you like and clicking on a new streamer.
Go to streams and talk to other streamers. I cannot STRESS this enough!!! The worse thing to do when you are a newer streamer is to log onto Twitch, stream, and then sign off. That should NOT be your only reason to log onto the site. Find a game you like and make a friend with another streamer. It's really as simple as saying hi in their chat.
Raids. Upon making these friends, you may find someone who streams when you do or has an audience similar to yours. A good thing to do is after you've finished casting is "raiding" the streamer you'd like to show to your community. You can come up with a funky message and spam their chat to get them hype and you as well! (EX: When I raid other simmers, my community does "Aliens Invading" with my emotes in the other streamer's chat.) To do this when you're ready, you just simply type /raid and the username you want to raid in your chat! Twitch will transfer you and your viewers to the other person's channel!
Hosts. When you want something chill(not raiding) or you are just hanging out not casting, you can also "host" your connections/friends on your channel. This is a way to show other people what you enjoy when they visit your channel. It also helps with exposure for other channels. Hosting is super easy. Just type /host and the username to show someone's broadcast on your channel.
Join a stream team. Of course this is 100% optional, but a good way to make friends is to join a streaming team or community. These are places to learn, grow, and make lasting friends. Some good communities that I am aware of are: Crusty Sock Crew(I am a member of this one and it's literally amazing), Twitch Kittens, To Be Determined, and Twitch Connect.
This also can go back to making social media connections. If you have found a streamer you like, you can also interact with them other ways than being on Twitch. This can create new relationships and bring good people into your life. A big part of Twitch is creating an amazing community of people you can keep around for a while!
BE CONSISTENT
This is important when you're trying to build something. Make sure you have some kind of schedule laid out and be consistent with what you want to do with the stream.Your community will understand if you have to change things up for schedules and stuff but you want to be on top of your game whether it's a set amount of days or hours. A small example would be PhireHero. He is a Sims 4 streamer who has a busy IRL during the day on the weekdays so he streams in the Am at 4 AM CST til 6 AM CST. This has been consistent for him and you know if you want an early morning streamer, he's the one you will see!
HAVE FUN
The best and most important thing I can tell you to is TO HAVE FUN!!!!!! Being able to have fun and enjoy casting is so so so so important!! Streaming should bring you joy. It should make you happy, laugh, and have the best time for however long you are doing it that day! A lot of the times if I have been having a bad day, streaming really helps me feeling better! All my friends hanging out and chilling makes it worth while.
Play games you enjoy. If you don't like the game or enjoy it, don't play it. Your audience will be able to tell if you're in it to saturate or to enjoy the game.
Take breaks. If you need a break for any reason, don't be afraid to do it. Your community will understand, promise me. This also applies if you are burnt out on a game or something. Don't be afraid to switch it up if you want.
It's your channel, do what YOU want. It's important to understand that this is your stream and though you DO need to listen to your community, you should also stream and do what you want with it.(Within Twitch TOS of course.) Being keen to change and moving stuff to accommodate you and your feels is important.
It is also important to set guidelines or rules of things you don't want in your community so people know before chatting how they should approach you. Trolls and rude people should know what lines not to cross to make your streaming experience nice.
Of course, all these things I have mentioned are things in my opinion. Use them at your leisure and most importantly, BE YOURSELF!! Don't become someone you don't want to be to make money. Stream because you enjoy it and love it whether it becomes a career or not! I am glad to be able to share my wisdom with you as a streamer myself. If you ever have any comments, questions, concerns, click those social media icons below or click "contact" to get in touch with me!! I am always up to help if I can!
xx Skar