Twitch really is the place to head to get paid for playing video games. An idea that may sound too good to be true, but it is an everyday reality for millions of Twitch streamers. Learn how to promote a Twitch stream the right way, and you could soon be earning serious money. Effective Twitch promotion holds the key to becoming a successful streamer.
If you want to get ahead on Twitch, you need to do whatever it takes to stand out from the crowd. Twitch has more than 140 million active users, of which 30 million access the platform each day. Whatever game you stream, you can rest assured you’re up against the stiff competition. Still, a successful Twitch account can be worth its weight in gold. Small-scale streamers can earn anything from $50 to $1,500 per month simply for playing the games they love.
Elsewhere, successful streamers regularly pocket $3,000 to $5,000 each month. What makes the difference between a small-scale streamer and a successful streamer? Two things – quality content and effective Twitch promotion. In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at the most effective techniques to promote Twitch streams and profit from the world’s most popular live streaming service.
14 Growth Hacks to Promote Your Twitch stream
Building and running a successful Twitch channel takes time. It’s not something that happens overnight, but there are ways to speed up the process. Specifically, there are 14 tried, tested, and trusted ways to step up your performance on Twitch. Whether your goal is to make more money or simply get more followers on board, here’s what you need to focus your efforts on:
Get to Know Your Target Audience
In order to attract viewers, you first need to ensure you are targeting the right viewers. After all, you can’t expect to grow your channel if you’re targeting the wrong people with your content. Getting to know your target audience at the deepest possible level is essential.
Their age bracket, their interests, their values, their location, their lifestyles, even their income level – all essential insights you need. Remember that the more you know about your target audience, the easier it becomes to win them over with content they’ll love.
Increase Your Streaming
One of the best ways to stack up more views (and increase followers) on Twitch is to simply stream more often. It’s not rocket science – the more often you broadcast, the more people will watch your streams over time. Of course, you still need to create content that is both authentic and relevant to your target audience.
Streaming simply for the sake of it won’t do you any favors and could harm your credibility. Even so, quantity is just as important as quality on Twitch. By keeping them hooked with a steady stream of regular broadcasts, you’re far more likely to add a stack of new followers to your channel.
Use a Better Webcam and Microphone for Livestreaming
Simple but essential nonetheless, the hardware you use when broadcasting on Twitch is a big deal. If you go live on Twitch with a low-grade webcam and mic, nobody is going to take you seriously. By contrast, step up to the highest-quality hardware, and the whole thing instantly looks (and sounds) more professional.
Be mindful of the fact that people will only take you as seriously as you take yourself. If you sell yourself short with crappy equipment, it just isn’t going to happen. Upgrade your hardware, and treat your target audience to the high-quality broadcasts it deserves.
Schedule Your Streams When Your Audience is Active
To successfully grow your Twitch channel, you need to align your content calendar with your market’s most active hours. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it is actually one of the biggest oversights made by streamers worldwide. For reasons that should be obvious, you should only be streaming when your viewers are online and active on Twitch.
If not, you are wasting your time and effort – it really is as simple as that. Conduct all the research necessary to find out exactly when your audience is online, and plan your content calendar accordingly.
Build Your Unique Brand
Gradually, your goal should be to build a unique and recognizable brand. Something that sets you apart from the thousands of other streamers targeting the same viewers as you. This may sound vague, but it is a fundamental requirement for successful streaming.
Promoting your stream becomes much easier if you can pinpoint and promote its unique points of appeal. There must be something uniquely engaging and memorable about every broadcast you conduct, without exception. It could be your sense of humor, your in-depth knowledge, the way you play your chosen games, or even your tone of voice and the language you use.
Try to Go Viral On Twitch
If only it was easy to go viral on Twitch on demand. In reality, it’s one of the most difficult tasks you’ll ever pull off. But it’s definitely worth the effort, as there’s no better way to get lots of views for your streams in a short space of time. The key to going viral lies in being original, spontaneous, and authentic.
You need to give your viewers something they will instinctively want to share with everyone they know. After which, they’ll share it with their friends and followers, and the domino effect kicks in. Generic content never goes viral on Twitch. For your content to have viral potential, it needs to do something that’s never been done before or done better.
Engage with Your Audience
A great way to boost engagement while appealing to the Twitch algorithm is to engage with your audience more actively. Interacting with your viewers (particularly during live streams) is essential for maintaining their interests.
It demonstrates appreciation; it shows you are listening, and it keeps them coming back for more. Likewise, engaging and interacting with their content while you are offline is essential. Remember that all efforts to be as interactive as possible with your audience will be rewarded in kind.
Respond to Viewers on Twitch Chat
Speaking of which, a great way to get Twitch viewers to stick around long-term is to keep a close eye on Twitch Chat. Reading comments, giving shoutouts, answering questions, welcoming newcomers to your streams – all fantastic for boosting engagement.
Irrespective of the type of content you stream, people, love it when they are recognized and mentioned in a live stream. There’s really no better way of building connections with new and existing viewers than to show your appreciation to them in real time.
Show Gratitude to Viewers
Sticking with the appreciation theme, a direct show of gratitude can be the ultimate relationship booster. It’s simple but immensely effective – just thank your viewers directly for watching your stream and give special shoutouts to regular viewers.
When a newcomer subscribes to your channel, say thanks for subscribing and appreciate them publicly. Never forget the importance of embracing the “social” side of social media. And remember – interaction, engagement, and appreciation are all highly reciprocal.
Use Host Mode
If you’re not yet using Host Mode, it’s about time you caught up. Host Mode is a useful feature that lets you host other people’s broadcasts on your own Twitch Channel without affecting the chat. It can be a fantastic way to keep your audience interested and engaged between your broadcasts, giving them something to entertain them in the meantime.
Just as long as the third-party content you host on your channel is of relevance and value to your viewers, it can be just as engaging as your own original content. A great way to boost your performance and build a bigger audience with no effort required on your part.
Promote Your Stream on Other Social Channels
The number-one rule when it comes to social media success – is never to limit yourself to a single platform. It is absolutely essential to promote your Twitch channel via as many other social networks as you can. If you have an established audience on any other social channel, chances are they’ll dig your Twitch streams. In particular, the following social networks could hold the key to building a bigger Twitch audience:
Twitter is bursting at the seams with incredible viral potential and is the ultimate instant-gratification platform. Post links ahead of planned streams to get more viewers on board, and invite people to check out your channel on a regular basis.
Instagram can be a great place to upload short clips from your best streams, highlighting your most engaging and entertaining work. You can also share behind-the-scenes images of what you get up to off-camera as part of your brand-building efforts.
YouTube
Promoting your recorded streams on the world’s biggest video-sharing platform is a no-brainer. Never forget that YouTube is also the second biggest search engine in the world (after Google) and holds massive potential for getting as many eyes as possible on your content.
Facebook still rules the roost as the single biggest social network on earth. Total active user numbers are fast approaching the 3 billion mark, making Facebook a uniquely powerful promotional platform. Perfect for showcasing your best work and posting regular links to your Twitch channel.
Discord
Last up, the fact that Discord is practically identical to Twitch makes it the perfect place to promote your broadcasts. If they take an interest in your content on Discord, they will almost certainly check you out (and subscribe to your channel) on Twitch.
Ask Your Friends to Share Your Stream
When looking to generate high-level publicity for your streams, it’s easy to overlook the simplest options of all. For example, why not simply ask your friends, your family members, and your colleagues at work to help you out? Ask them to check out your channel for themselves and to recommend it to their own friends and followers on social media.
The more social networks they are active on, the more likely you are to pull in plenty of new subscribers. Spreading the word among those you already know is always a good idea if it’s not something you have already done.
Networking with Other Twitch Streamers
To collaborate with a recognized figure in the gaming community is to potentially propel yourself to superstardom. Just a single word of recommendation from an influential individual can be all it takes to kick your performance into overdrive. Tracking down influencers and presenting a convincing case can be easier said than done, but the results can be quite remarkable.
Plus, you don’t necessarily need to target the highest-level influencers, who may charge a small fortune for their services. Collaborations with lower-level, small-scale influencers can be equally beneficial and are much easier to arrange. Find others within the gaming community who target the same viewers as you, and reach out to them with your proposals.
Run Twitch Giveaways
Last up, one of the simplest and most effective ways to get more Twitch viewers is to incentivize them with some kind of giveaway. Free gifts and prizes are the ultimate motivators on social media. If they think they have the chance of walking away with something for free, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll take full advantage.
A Twitch contest can be run with just about any kind of prize on the line – branded merchandise, access codes for games, special account privileges, and so on. It doesn’t even need to have a high monetary value – it simply needs to be something they’ll want. When hosting giveaways on Twitch, but sure to promote your contests via as many external social channels as possible. And, of course, make it mandatory to subscribe to your channel to take part.
Final Thoughts
Nobody said that launching and running a successful Twitch channel would be easy. But with a few tips and pointers from those in the know, making good money on Twitch is perfectly possible. There are (literally) thousands of ways broadcasters can promote Twitch streams to their target audiences.
Some of these have been shown to deliver faster and better results than others, including the 14 growth hacks above. Incorporate each of these growth hacks into your Twitch strategy, and you will soon be looking at a measurable performance boost. And remember that the more followers you get on board, the easier it becomes to start turning a profit on Twitch.
Leave a Reply