You’ve just started your live streaming career, or you’ve been streaming for a while, but the results don’t meet your expectations? Maybe you have thought about getting more followers on Twitch and why one succeeds while others don’t. In this article, we’ll take a look at the best streamers’ examples and talk about some good (and bad) ways to grow your Twitch channel.
Benefits of streaming on Twitch
When we speak about live streaming, the first platform that comes to mind is probably Twitch. There's no surprise here — it's a live streaming industry leader, possessing 67.6% of the market share in Q2 of 2020. If this number is not impressive enough, look at this: Twitch hosts 15 million unique visitors and 500,000 streamers daily. On one hand, it is a challenging task to stand out from such an immense crowd, but on the other, there's a great chance to find like-minded people.
Monetization is another great benefit of streaming on Twitch. There are multiple ways to make a profit, such as donations and ad revenue. Another option is to become a Twitch affiliate. The affiliate status allows you to earn revenue from subscriptions, enabling Bits, and game sales. Live streaming can be a very lucrative profession — let's look at the Twitch top streamers. According to some estimations based on such data as viewers and subscriber count, live streamers that earn the most per month are:
Being a top streamer is great, but what about others? Well, even if you have a small audience of up to 100 subscribers, you can earn about $500 a month. Not bad for a start, but you can try out our tips and increase your chances of growing your Twitch channel.
How to get more followers on Twitch
So, there's no doubt Twitch is a good place for streaming whether you treat it as a hobby or as a full-time job. Without further ado, let's see what you can do to maximize your chances of success on Twitch.
1. Create a remarkable profile
If you want to get more followers on Twitch to watch your broadcasts, first, you should attract them. Start with setting up your profile. The first thing people will see is your channel's logo, so graphics play a significant role in your attractiveness for viewers.
- Your logo should be distinctive and easy to understand both on desktop and mobile versions. Find your style — it can be minimalistic like Ninja's or xQcOW's or just your funny face like Shroud's.
- Add your social pages and schedule on your cover image. Its style should also go well with your logo, building your consistent, recognizable style. Don’t hesitate to use additional tools, such as Placeit or Visuals by Impulse.
- Keep your bio short and precise. Think of what makes you unique and put it in several short sentences to let viewers know you better.
- Add panels on your page. Here you should share all the important info, such as social media links, sponsors, and donations. Panels should match your general page style, so customize them to create your channel's unique image.
- Don't forget to add an offline image, so people won't face a flat black screen when visiting your page.
2. Define your niche
Structuring your content is crucial for becoming visible. Help viewers find you by choosing the proper categories and tags. You can start by analyzing which ones are popular, along with how many people are streaming and watching them. Get the right balance — categories with no viewers won't help you grow your Twitch channel, but choosing the most popular ones can be very challenging at first. Make sure you're competitive and have something to offer to your viewers.
Adding relevant tags — like IRL, MOBA, or speed build — will also help people find you by interest, so don't forget to use them. You should also manually input the info about what you’re currently streaming, and remember to change it if you’re switching between games.
Tip: if you change the topic while live streaming, don't forget to adjust your tags so you will meet the audience's expectations and get more attention.
3. Set goals
Having created your profile and defined the niche, you need to know what you want to achieve. Do you want to get more views and followers on Twitch or create more content or develop a particular niche? Before you set a goal, remember that it should be attainable.
For example, if you're a new live streamer and want to get big on Twitch, getting 10,000 subscribers in a week may not be significantly achievable. Break your goal into smaller steps to make it easier to achieve and measure your success. To make it more exciting and engaging, you can share your goals with the audience and reward them for helping you achieve them. There are various types of goals and ways to define and set them. You can learn more about them and shape your own way.
4. Use high-quality equipment
Let's talk about the tech part of live streaming. You need your viewers to hear and see you communicate with them. The perfect Twitch streamer setup requires high-quality hardware, a good internet connection, and software.
Hardware
If you want to grow your Twitch audience, you'll need a good camera and a mic. Even if your cam is not the best one, you can upgrade the live stream quality with proper lighting. You don’t need a huge setup — even one key light will be a game-changer. The mic is even more important — people can bear not-so-perfect video, but if they don't hear you, you will not be able to communicate. If the endless number of options makes you dizzy, you can find out more about cameras, microphones, and other gadgets and choose what suits you best in our list of best streaming equipment for every budget.
Stable connection
Apart from the mic and camera, a good internet connection is a must, too. Big latency and lags can irritate your viewers so that you can lose them. In our blog, you can also find out more about the perfect upload speed for broadcasting.
5. Create a consistent schedule
Being random with streaming can bring you some audience in the short term, but it is not the best way to retain it and grow a loyal community. So if you want to get more followers on Twitch, create a consistent schedule. Add your plan on your profile page and share it on your social networks so your viewers know what to expect and adjust their timetable to watch your broadcasts. You should consider your live streaming category, the region you want to reach, and your stream goal.
- Category. Analyze when your target audience is online. For example, if you live stream games, weekends may be a great choice, as most people are at home and can join you.
- Region. Setting time is crucial, and it shapes your audience drastically. You can set your regular live streaming time to reach people near you or get more viewers from other time zones (for example, if you live in a big country like the US, you can cover states in different time zones or even neighbor countries).
- Stream goal. If you want to get Twitch followers, the most obvious way to achieve this goal is to stream as much and as often as possible. However, daily live streaming can lead to burnout and fatigue, so instead of being online 24/7, start several times a week and experiment with your live stream video length.
6. Interact with your viewership (and streamers!)
To grow a big audience on Twitch, you should make your viewers feel comfortable and involved.
Interact with your chat: Talk to your viewers, answer their questions, and keep the conversation going.
Keep talking: That's all live streaming is about! Your audience is unlikely to enjoy dead silence or just the noise of your breathing (not applicable if you're an ASMR artist). Prepare a plan of what you want to talk about to avoid awkward pauses.
You can involve the viewers by conducting contests, mini-games, and quizzes. This kind of interaction will boost their interest and engagement level, resulting in more followers. Think of diversifying your content. Let people get to know you during Q&A sessions, show them your setup, or even do something completely new, like sharing how you cook your favorite dishes.
And remember to communicate with other streamers! Finding new friends among live streamers allows you to make your way to success more fun and make it easier. Co-stream with your friends or raid them and multiply your audience. Together you can create a community, and other channels' viewers can get to know you thanks to your colleagues.
7. Reuse your stream on other platforms
The Twitch exclusivity policy restricts the platform's affiliates. It means you can't upload your broadcasts to any other platform for 24 hours after publishing. But once this period has passed, you are free to reuse your live stream as you wish. For example, with Restream Events, you can schedule, upload, and stream your pre-recorded broadcast to multiple platforms simultaneously. It will not only help you grow your Twitch channel but also build awareness on other platforms.
Restream Events is also a great tool to cover several time zones at once. Schedule your pre-recorded live streams for different times to see when and where your content gets the best feedback.
all at once8. Post on every social media
Apart from repurposing your live streams, there are more ways to get more Twitch followers with other platforms. Post notifications of your upcoming live streams on Twitter, share broadcast highlights on Instagram, throw polls on your Facebook page, or create teasers on YouTube — the sky's the limit. Don't restrict yourself to Twitch only. Unleash the power of social networks.
9. Avoid common mistakes
To err is human, but it is also human to learn from others' mistakes. We have covered some of the above, so let's just briefly recap:
- Going live without preparation
- Poor quality streaming
- Lack of interactivity
- Ignoring the repurposing potential
Wondering how to get more followers on Twitch can also bring you to the idea of generating fake viewers or followers. At first, it might seem tempting, but remember that if you get caught, your channel will be immediately banned. There are dozens of ways to ruin your live streaming career — check them out to know what not to do.
Wrapping up
Twitch is one of the biggest live streaming platforms globally, which makes it very attractive both for viewers and creators. However, as it is home to hundreds of thousands live streamers, it can be challenging to become famous and be successful on Twitch.
But fear not! If you want to grow your channel, follow these tips to raise your chances of success. The most important things you can do are:
- Create a remarkable profile
- Set goals
- Be consistent
- Be interactive
- Benefit from other platforms
Hope these tips will be useful and you will achieve your goals!
