Promoting your Twitch channel is one of the fastest ways to increase viewership, yet so many streamers completely neglect this strategy. So why is that?
If you’ve ever actually tried to come up with ways to promote your stream, you’ve probably quickly realized how unnatural it feels and how time consuming it really is.
You’re a gamer, an entertainer, you’re not a marketer…
But in order to really get your stream out there for people to take notice of you, promoting it is a must.
What you’re about to read below are some simple ways to start promoting your stream – even if you’re still learning how – that are easy to knock out quickly and won’t make you feel like a sleazy salesman.
Active Advertising
When you think of promoting yourself, you need to break the topic of growth and advertising into two separate categories, Active and Passive advertising.
Active growth comes from actions you perform, whether it’s constantly updating your community via Discord, or posting stories on your Instagram feed to let viewers see a little more of your personal life.
While these are powerful tools for growth, it is easy to get caught up and become burdened by the active tasks.
Social Media
We’re going to cover the major social media platforms, and determine the best option for you to get yourself out there. Performing active advertisement is the start to your stream promotions, and will determine how fast your channel grows overall.
Twitch
Of course, we’re going to start with how to promote yourself within Twitch itself. Out of all of the platforms for networking and advertisement, Twitch will most likely become where you spend most of your time, whether it’s to grow relationships with other streamers, or just collaborations to get your name out there.
As mentioned in several other guides, it’s never okay to self-promote via another streamer’s channel unless permitted. With that one rule out of the way, let’s talk about ways you can promote yourself.
The first step to promoting yourself on Twitch is simply by making friends. It’s that simple. Whether you are an art streamer or someone who is madly in love with Maplestory, head into the directory of your passion and find streamers around your viewership level. Get to know the community of streamers, and be the viewer you’d like to have in your chat.
A little secret tip on Twitch is to transform the chat. Most streamers aren’t professional players, and they thrive off of their community and chat. Some can sink into a mellow focus, or become alive depending on the flow of their chatters.
Use this to your advantage, and build relationships within the community of your choice.
Over time, people will know your name. You will become memorable to other streamers within the community, and when they see you streaming, chances are you’ll have earned yourself another viewer.
This takes time, which is easily why it’s the most consuming task to promoting yourself. Don’t fret, as this is the most important step to promoting yourself in the early stages, so go out and build a community!
Discord
Discord is one of the most important tools for a streamer for promotion and building a community, and not just within their own server.
Discord has become the staple of communication within the gaming and streaming community. Most streamers have a server for their community to hang out in, and this is the perfect way to promote yourself.
Think about it: Not everyone is on Twitch all of the time. A decent amount of viewers in any given community might be playing a game, and getting a notification on a communication program like Discord could be their only way to know that you are live.
This is what makes Discord so powerful of a tool, and with enough collaborations, you might just land yourself an auto-shoutout for whenever you go live in other servers.
To promote yourself on Discord, make sure to set up an automated notification for yourself whenever you go live in your own channel.
Head over to other streamer’s servers and make friends as well. Most servers have a “Self-Promote” section. This won’t be what gives you a ton of growth, but it’s all about getting as many flows of advertisement as possible.
The idea of tweeting is still new to a lot of people, but Twitter has solidified itself as a means for growth and communication with everyone, including your favorite actor, or even tech support from major companies like Microsoft.
With so many eyes viewing thousands of messages a day, it’s easy to see that Twitter can be a tool for your success.
Twitter is easy to connect to, especially with streamers posting their updates and lives within their communities. Anyone who has spent time on Twitter because of a Content Creator has seen the effects it has on a person’s community.
Your viewers stay for you, and being able to relate and directly interact with you outside of stream is vital to maintaining a community.
Thankfully, promoting yourself is easy. Set yourself up a Twitter account for your channel. Try not to make your feed all about “I’m Going Live.” Connect with your viewers! One of the most powerful tools on Twitter is ReTweeting.
Follow people outside of your community that you look up to, whether it’s a famous person, or a lead designer in a video game company. The secret to Twitter is treating it like a platform that you enjoy.
Another feature that stands out is using the # to tag companies or communities that you are a part of. We’ve all heard of the #smallstreamercommunity, or maybe you’ve just always used #lit in your gameplay videos.
Either way, anyone who searches for the tag has a chance to see your post, giving you a new way to promote yourself by you just being you.
While you should let your community know when you are going live, it’s important to promote yourself in other ways. Share your opinions and ideas with others, and show people who you are. Over time, you will see the growth you have been working towards.
Most social media platforms like Twitter and Twitch give more of a worldly view, where as Instagram makes it all about the person. Instagram gives you the ability to connect your community with your life or passion.
You don’t have to share personal information, but viewers love to see pictures of your animals or your stream setup. This gives Instagram an advantage that other social media platforms skim over.
Just like Twitter, it’s easy to set yourself up. Once you have an account, Instagram is all about your photos. Whether you have a fur baby that you absolutely adore, or maybe you have a collection of items that you are absolutely proud of, show your community.
You don’t necessarily have to share pictures of yourself, but in doing so, you’ll connect your viewers to your personal life. This creates a bond within your community, and ensure growth and consistency in your viewership.
Instagram also has a tag feature with the #. You can upload videos of your #LeagueofLegends games, or show off your new #Razer gear to everyone. This opens up your feed to plenty of people, and opening yourself up is key to creating an avenue of growth.
YouTube
It isn’t possible to talk about ways to promote your channel without looking at the 2nd most viewed website on the internet. YouTube has remained at the top for years. It’s no wonder that so many Twitch streamers have created success using the platform.
Users spend hours watching hundreds of videos ranging from cats to insane outplays from Ninja. Without a doubt, YouTube can serve as a fundamental tool to your success.
YouTube has a place for more than just vine video compilations, even though we’ve all failed a time or two at not trying to laugh. Creating content isn’t just about being viral.
The world of video creation is in your hands on what you want to use a way to promote yourself within the platform. This also means that you don’t have to work on YouTube videos to create success on Youtube.
You want to use YouTube as a way to connect your viewers with videos outside of your streams. Throwing up simple videos of the greatest moments of your Twitch adventures that week is a great way to show your best moments.
Not everyone has time to watch every time you hit that “Go Live” button. YouTube creates a platform for passive growth. Once a video is published, it’s out there. You won’t have to work on it any more aside from moderation.
The beauty in this is knowing that you can transfer people from your YouTube to your Twitch, even when you aren’t streaming.
To promote yourself, start off small. YouTube takes a lot of time to grow, and some say it’s even more difficult than Twitch. If you are looking to use YouTube as a way of growth for your Twitch stream, start off by making stream highlights.
Go through your previous videos and create montages of the greatest moments using a simple YouTube video editor. This gives your current viewers a way to relive some of the action that happened that week, as well as an opportunity to put yourself out there.
You can also start weekly podcasts with members of your communities. Discuss what’s going on in the streaming world with other streamers, or talk about the latest patch in your favorite games.
Make sure to promote yourself and other streamers within the videos to ensure people are finding you outside of YouTube. The key is putting yourself out there for viewers to find you.
The greatest part about YouTube is that once the video is published, you can continue on networking elsewhere. Find your niche that others want to see, and push yourself forward to success.
You probably have one. Your grand-parents probably have one. They might not use it properly, but without a doubt, Facebook is the leading platform for communication within your personal life.
Although the platform does host several fan pages and businesses, most people use Facebook to keep up with their friends.
In the beginning, you might just be streaming to your one friend from your personal life that wants to support you.
At the start of your streaming career, this can be the difference in staying at 0 viewers, or breaking through the 20 viewer mark. While we all want our friends to support us, it’s easy to give too much personal information.
Start off by starting a fan page for your channel. This can be just something that you keep your friends and community up to date on events happening within your life and stream. You can keep it as professional as you like, and only invite others that you trust from your personal Facebook. Without proper Facebook advertisement, it’s not as easy to get your page out there.
To counter that? Using your fan page, join communities that share your passion. There are plenty of “Gaming” communities or art communities that you can join and become active in.
Some allow you to post your Twitch stream, and this can be another way for you to get eyes on your channel. The key to this is becoming active in communities to bring together people for growth.
Just like other platforms, Facebook can be another way to bring people back to Twitch and increase your viewership.
Passive Advertisement
While most of the advice so far is about active ways you can step out and grow your channel, having passive growth is just as important.
Growth comes from multiple sources without you having to actively work for it. A prime example of this is YouTube. As mentioned earlier, once a video is uploaded, it’s out there. You can extend the growth that comes from it by advertising on other platforms such as Twitter. Otherwise, over a length of time, people will find you.
There are multiple ways to do this. Most of them come from active projects. If you’ve become friends and collaborated with other streamers, there is a chance that other viewers can find you from their videos or tweets.
Passive advertisement will come over time with a decent amount of work. Start off with all of the active ways to advertise yourself, and with time, some of the flows of growth will take less and less work.
This will give you time to promote yourself more on Twitch or land yourself sponsorships to increase your viewership and earnings further.
Working together with other streamers is a vital part of gaining passive advertisements as well. People will support you when you support them. Having your name in communities can promote your channel in ways that you can’t do yourself.
With all of these tips and ways to promote your stream on Twitch, take the steps that you need to today and grow your channel. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Guide written by AlfredGG. Check out his Twitch stream here, and YouTube channel here.
