I’ve thought of myself as a “foodie” ever since my childhood self was introduced to the sweet sweet tastes of Chef Boyardee.
My mother, bless her heart, wanted the best for me and thus was determined for me to eat “real food” – but I refused. How could anyone in their right mind turn down the delicacies of canned spaghetti and meatballs or beefaroni?!
Things began to change, however, during one dinner with some extended family members. I idolized an older cousin of mine – always wishing I could be as cool as I imagined him to be. That fateful evening together, he ate this meaty food called “steak” and praised it’s many mouth-watering glories.
And thus, I found myself at a crossroads: be lame and profess a lifelong commitment to my beloved Chef Boyardee, or join the cool kid club by trying this “steak” thing?
I learned a lot of lessons that night, especially that trying new things can teach you a lot. A few months ago I decided to try out streaming plugin development on Twitch, and today I want to share with you a few things I’ve learned from my time on the platform. Though I’m coming from the perspective of a Twitch streamer, you can put these to use on any platform where you share your work online.
- Consistency pays
- There is so much room for creativity
- You need to define success
On Twitch, consistency pays.
None of us need to be a rocket scientist to know that getting the results we want comes with consistent effort over time. Usually, this effort requires boring work and consistent frustration.
I was afraid to have any audience for my first Twitch streams because I didn’t want to look stupid or awkward – so I treated them more like appointments with specific friends. I failed in the most basic and embarassing ways – like audio levels being wrong, my camera not working, etc.
As I worked through those things and got over my fears, Twitch streaming turned extremely entertaining, and then rote and mundane. I decided to stream every Saturday at 2pm pacific, and shortly thereafter came the Saturdays where I didn’t feel like streaming. Then the Saturdays where I wasn’t sure what to stream. Also the streams where nobody really showed up or chatted.
The simple trick to defeating the lack of excitement or viewers is to keep streaming anyway. Today, I’m regularly streaming to more people than I did a few months ago. I’m also finding more fun ways to engage with my audience such as learning with them live on YouTube.
A year from now, I’ll be even better at streaming than I am today with plenty of additional ideas for content. The biggest focus especially when starting should just be consistency of output – and one great way to keep that up is finding ways to stretch your creative wings.
On Twitch, there’s so much room for creativity.
The most consistent first question anybody has when they get curious about streaming is “will anybody watch me?” Here’s a list of weird things currently broadcasting on Twitch that people are legitimately watching:
- Chickens in a chicken coop (117 active viewers)
- A fish/toad feed pond (67 active viewers)
- A fish tank (36 active viewers)
- Somebody doing their homework (12 active viewers)
- Ducks (12 active viewers)
- Feeding sheep with bitcoin (5 active viewers)
- Weed growing (4 active viewers)
To me, Twitch is proof that people will watch just about anything. Four people are literally watching a plant grow – which is the equivalent of watching paint dry in real time.
Of the rest of the streamers we care about, there’s really only a few categories left:
- People who stream themselves playing games and interacting
- Internet celebrities or podcasters who chat with their viewers
- Musical performances
- Developers making video games
We live in a world were there are at least 3.3 million unique streamers going live per month. Yet, there are really only 4 or so categories that are popular to watch on Twitch. Most people only know the platform because “people stream games on it”.
Therefore, the amount of room to get creative, crazy, and have fun on Twitch is incredible. Even just taking a category like musical performances, you could add live, interactive animations and videos, crowdsource setlists, broadcast your own music videos, etc. How creative you can get is really limited only by your own imagination and what you have the capability to broadcast.
Twitch isn’t the only platform you can get much more creative with, either. On Instagram this week, I found a musician who edited anime fight scenes to the beat of his music and it was awesome. I’ve started visualizing concepts from these articles using simple shapes and texts as easy-to-remember Instagram carousels.
Give yourself 10 minutes to brainstorm, and I bet you come up with 1-2 ideas yourself! Don’t just play copycat to what those folks with more followers than you do. Especially because follower count likely shouldn’t be your main metric for success…
On Twitch, you need to define success.
99% of Twitch streamers only care about their active viewer count. This is Twitch’s equivalent to any other platforms “follower” count. Yes, you have followers on Twitch too, but that count isn’t front-and-center and only matters for you to become a Twitch affiliate or partner.
But that active viewer count is important for one reason: money.
Being real, the majority of streamers are on Twitch to get paid to play video games. The math here is simple: the more people who watch you, the more people who are likely to pay to subscribe to you, the more money you make while obnoxiously screaming at your computer about video games.
But I believe this is a long-term losing battle.
Twitch is not a fantastic money making platform. Subscriber payments are shared with Amazon, Amazon can also suspend your stream or change their monetization model at any time. You may think it’s unlikely for that to happen, but that hasn’t been the case for YouTube creators. At the end of the day, you have no control over the platform itself, and are therefore subservient to it monetarily.
You might then think that building up your follower count and active viewers to “grow your audience” is a better idea. But, I think that this is also beside the real key point of Twitch. This is akin to saying “I just need to increase my follower count on Instagram!” without asking why that’s important. I’d argue that if your goal is anything other than celebrity, a numbers-of-eyes metric is less important than the thing that Twitch is really built for: connecting you directly with your viewers.
There’s nothing like sending a message to a Twitch streamer and having them reply back and smile at your message in real time. Quite literally, Twitch is the closest thing that most of us have to a direct video call or hang out with creators that we love. If you’re creating then you have the opportunity to connect with people who love your work directly, get feedback immediately, and just hang out to enjoy their company!
This is much less about quantity of eyeballs than it is quality of time. That quality time is what exponentially increases word-of-mouth about your reputation which then increases your odds of gaining income – hopefully via your own means and not just sharing it with Amazon.
So, I define success on Twitch with how much fun I have and how well I connect with my viewers. I’m coming around to think that this is a good idea to adopt for our usage of most platforms. If you’re on Instagram to connect with game developers, for example, then your follower count is actually secondary to how well you’re doing building relationships with those developers. If you’re a musician, what’s most important is building an ardent following with fans who will emotionally engage and spend money on things relatied to your musical career.
So I suggest that you think about why you’re on your platforms, like I’ve had to ask myself why I’m on Twich – don’t just follow the numbers herd!
“So Adam,” you say “Do you think I should start a Twitch channel then? I’m already on Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube, but it sounds like you’re enjoying this!”
I am enjoying Twitch! In fact, it’s by far my favorite online platform.
But, I think Twitch streaming is a very acquired taste. Maybe you should start, but maybe not too. The only real way to figure it out is to stream once or twice and see if you enjoy it or if you feel awkward and run for the hills. Guaranteed, your first streams are going to be bad in terms of production quality – but you’ll also be surprised at how supportive the majority of viewers are.
So, I’d suggest you drastically limit the number of social media platforms you use – but feel free to try streaming at least once if you’re interested! Otherwise, stick to what you already enjoy and…
Remember three key lessons:
- Consistency pays
- There is so much room for creativity
- You need to define success
Steak was definitely successful.
Yep, I ate that damn steak and I loved it. I betrayed Chef Boyardee forever and I don’t regret one minute of it. I also don’t regret my choice to start streaming on Twitch!
So come watch me!
I know you haven’t come to watch me yet (unless you’re one of 4-5 specific subscribers – hi and thank you!! You know who you are!), and you know what? I’d love to have your company!
I’ve been working on building a plugin I’m going to give away for free in a few months every Saturday from 2pm-4pm Pacific time. I’ll continue to be there every week and remind you because – that’s right – consistency pays!
So come by this Saturday and legitimately say hi, I’ll definitely respond to you. The stream link is: https://twitch.tv/adamtcroft
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