So you want to stream? Ok do it! I mean anyone and everyone can stream now a days. Hell, I used to watch a chicken stream. Yes chickens. No they did not do anything special, but it was calming to watch. They also had close to 100 people watching. If a chicken can do it, you can too!
However, will you succeed? I say this depends on your end goal. Want to be the next Ninja, TimTheTatman, Jambo, or Alinity. Hey, anything can happen, will this? Honestly I'd be lying if I said yes. Now if you said your goal was to game, meet friends, possibly travel and make a few extra dollars to boot. Well read on then because that I can help you with.
What this isn't, is a fast track to success post. A “How To Make It Big” post. No! Just..NO! Everyone moves and works in different ways. What might work for one person may not work for the next. I mean if it did we could all be like Ninja, dye our hair and rage at fortnite. Right?
What I plan to do in these series of posts is impart upon you some simple, often heard, easy to remember, but easy to forget tips. Maybe some useful tips along the way, as well as some first hand accounts.
You may have seen my #StreamTipsRight? posts. I hope no one takes these literally, however sometimes with tip 178 I feel most do.
Streamer Tip 178 - Find drama and make sure you post about it so all can see it. At least once a month.#StreamTipsRight?
— MysticMike (@MysticMikeLive) May 13, 2020
My goal with these tweets are to bring awareness to some of the simpler rules we often fall victim to off the get go. Let us start with one of the biggest ones that can hurt us in the long run.
F4F,S4S,L4L, ETC.
Something most streamers fall victim to is the often advertised Follow for Follow! It is so easy to find these posts on twitter, facebook, and even within streams sometimes (mixer peeps will remember the F4F streams in Forza). You think, "Hey if I follow Joe, and he follows me than we both gain. This is awesome!”
Now what happens is Joe never visits your stream, and you never visit Joe. So you each have one follower, but zero viewers. Or, maybe Joe comes around for a few streams, you visit him, but then you see another post. You repeat step one, get another follower, yipee. However you don't have time now to visit Joe, so Joe stops coming by. See where I am going here?
None of these techniques work. Sub for Sub, Lurk for Lurk, and Follow for Follow are time bombs waiting to go off. Getting followers and getting viewers are not always connected. I streamed for a month straight with 10 followers and zero viewers.
IT SUCKED
So I fell victim to Follow for Follow. I was excited for about a week. Yay I was at now 50 followers, whoop! But still zero viewers. Why wasn't this working? I followed them, they followed me, why aren't they watching? Odds are they were streaming at the same time. So while we got a follower out of them, they are streaming as well.
The goal is to grow your community. Your going to see this word a lot on twitter and just in the stream scape in general. It is truth though. Get to know your viewers, ask them open ended questions. I tend to write stuff down on a pad next to me on important stuff. An upcoming test, someone got hurt, or they are expecting. Then when I see them next I have something to talk about right away, and it shows them that I do actually care enough to want to remember these things.
Build A True Community
How do you build a community? There is way too much to cover on this topic. I will talk from experience, but remember what worked for me, may not work for you. Building a community is much more than meeting people and have them watch you. For me it is like expanding my personal circle of friends to include these new ones. I try to find common ground with each person, and even so within members of my community. If I can help others become great friends and end up hanging in streams together, that is a win for me.
I also like to involve my community with any big changes I may have planned. ie. chat games, currency, giveaways, etc. I know from experience it's fun to be included with what the streamer is doing. Naming characters, choosing a dialog response, or just advising on what task to take next.
Another thing to remember when building a community is not to have it totally built of only fellow streamers. Not to say you can't be their friends. But, if your entire community is streamers, tell me, how do you feel after stream. I tend to lurk in a few than get off my pc. During the day I am busy with family requirements. So the only time I have to get to my pc is when I am in fact streaming. However, there are streamers that I make it a point to try and always be there for because I love the community that they have grown.
I think this is a good spot to stop for this first post in what I hope to be an informative series. I have a few ideas of where I would like to go over in the upcoming week's post however, if you would like me to touch base on something right away email me here and ask, or drop a comment. Also if you have any tips or suggestions for this post let me know as I will make changes and credit you.
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