Originally I was going to make this post strictly for streaming and then I realized that was nonsense. We all have social media; most likely Twitter and Facebook being the most used and most relevant for this situation. I’ve actually written an article similar to this in the past called “Promoting yourself on Social Media”. This time I want to touch on Facebook and even Instagram, but make the priority of the article around Twitter and other marketing techniques.
Instagram MAY be used by tons and tons of people, but I would definitely put it behind Facebook and Twitter for effectiveness in promotion for YouTube and Streams. One thing I will say is that it can definitely be made to work if it’s the only option you’re giving yourself. I’ve seen streams, YouTube channels and interactions for both prioritized and done effectively with Instagram; BUT you’d also be taking the hardest and least effective route. Another con would be the fact that you may not want to turn your Instagram feed into one about your channel/video games. That depends on what you want to share with everyone and an argument can be made to say Twitter is essentially doing the same thing. We’ll get to the difference a bit later.
I touched on Facebook once before, but I want to go back to it just real quick. I would categorize Facebook as being the social media you use when you don’t want as much direct interaction with your audience and more-so to grow your following and give them another way to find out when you’re streaming or have a new post/video. Obviously, this can be made different if you’re actively getting posts on your wall and you make it a priority to respond and interact (but it becomes a bit more tedious and ineffective in comparison to Twitter).
One con of Facebook is being restricted when trying to get new “followers” or in this case, people to like your page. On Twitter you can literally search a key term and begin interacting with other gamers. You will also find that people re-tweet much more then they share on Facebook. This leaves you open to tons of more possibilities. The first one is simply being able to take advantage of the re-tweet accounts that are out there for streamers and YouTubers. Every time you go live you should be telling your Twitter followers, but also tagging in those re-tweet accounts as well. Especially at the beginning when you’re struggling to get followers/viewers. The next thing you could be doing is forming more relationships on Twitter in order to carry them over to your stream. Follow people, interact, and when you get followers, let them know you’re a streamer! Sure, sometimes you may strike out and some people may be turned off and never show up; but same thing happens in a bar. You may get a bunch of no’s but eventually a few yes’s will come through and that’s exactly what you’re looking for.
Twitters Potential
There is a HUGE community of gamers on Twitter. Not only Call of Duty, but TONS of gamers are using Twitter to interact and find new stuff and gaming news. You don’t have to restrict yourself to just using it to find new viewers either. Some viewers may be right on the edge of following and they just need that extra kick to become a follower or subscriber. Next thing you know, they see another video or another live-stream update, they love it, and you just converted them. It could be as simple as that. Twitter opens up another stream of potential conversions for your channels. Take advantage of it!
Headlines and Marketing
No one likes a spammer. That much is true. BUT people do like great Headlines and “cool stuff” going on in streams. Make yourself stand out. Don’t use the same headlines as everyone else. Just because you see some big name streams doing it doesn’t mean you can write “Come hangout and talk!” and get the same amount of viewers. It doesn’t work like that. Let people know what they’re seeing. Use great headlines when posting it on Twitter AND Forums. If you’re streaming a high level gameplay stream, go to that games forums and let them know. If you’re entertaining and doing something fun, let them know that. Don’t simply expect a boatload of people who have no idea who you are to want to “hangout” with you.
Some Communities are more Welcoming then others…
You’ll find that some gaming communities are a bit more welcoming then others. When I did some tests with Dota 2 as a brand new streamer I was able to post to forums and/or reddit and have a concurrent viewership of 20-50 viewers right off the bat on a new account (having never played Dota 2 before). I was mainly a League of Legends player but that Community is way more populated with streamers and even trolls unfortunately.
Just because a Community is overpopulated doesn’t mean it has trolls though, so you may have to test that fact on your own. For example, Brittany (gamer we interviewed) ventured into streaming Minecraft for a while, and that community took her in open arms. Just because she might have been well behind didn’t mean they wanted nothing to do with her. Sometimes you have to find a community that will allow you to jump in and succeed. Pick and choose your niche (focus game) properly.