Big Brands Get Personal with Twitch
On social media, many people are not shy to interact with brands. People’s access to brands on social media gives a significant incentive for brands struggling to build brand awareness to join the niche platforms to market to the brand’s target audience. Most of the larger, general audience social media platforms are crowded with brands competing for attention from potential and existing customers. While niches exist on these popular social media platforms, they do not give people personalized content and access to leaders in their communities. One solution for brands to stand out online is to join a niche platform and post high-quality and relevant content to drive brand engagement and awareness. Niche platforms are popular because they offer a place for people with similar interests or goals to meet online.
Social media marketers can take advantage of niche platforms to enhance their social media strategy. Brands use niche marketing to stand out from the competition, build relationships with consumers, build partnerships, and convert leads to customers. Another way brands use niche platforms is to gather data on what customers think about its industry, product, or service offering. These benefits are why fans can find many brands on the popular nitch platform named Twitch. We will focus on three examples of influencers using Twitch, a live streaming service, to improve their brand’s social media strategies. The three brands are Gotham Chess, NBA, and Soulja Boy.
Levy Rozman’s brand is Gotham Chess on Twitch, YouTube, and social media. Gotham Chess streams chess games on Twitch, and he interacts with fans on the platform. While he does post educational content on YouTube, the Twitch platform allows him to add personalization to his social media strategy. Fans can engage closely with Gotham Chess on Twitch by commenting on the live streams, liking the live streams, sending monetary gifts, and following his profile on the platform. Gotham Chess utilizes Twitch’s streaming service to share content with a highly engaged and relevant audience. He also repurposes his Twitch content on YouTube, which provides access to other fans in his community and increases the potential of paid subscribers for his Twitch account.
The NBA is a professional basketball league that has a solid online presence. The NBA uses all of the popular social media platforms, and they also use Twitch. On Twitch, the NBA shares exclusive content that varies from what fans see on the more general popular social media platforms. For example, the NBA streamed a classic game featuring professional basketball player icons from 2005. They had two hosts make commentary about the game during a live stream on the platform. The personalized content gives fans a chance to connect with other basketball lovers, strengthening the NBA’s brand awareness and engagement.
Soulja Boy is an American rapper who is also a record producer, actor, gamer & entrepreneur. Soulja Boy uses Twitch to market himself and engage with his community. His live streams incorporate a mix of entertainment, gameplay, advertisement, and engaging with his fans. One strategy that stands out is how he keeps communication precise by showing his screen and responding to live comments from his audience in the comments section. This strategy helps his brand stay in touch with how fans think his new music sounds and keep his fans updated on tour information. This social media strategy is a great way to use a niche platform to help his brand increase brand awareness and engagement.
All three examples show brands in various industries all using niche platforms to advance the brands’ social media strategy by connecting with audiences highly interested in engaging with these brands. Twitch encourages brands to optimize channels across social media websites and dive into analytics to make the most of the brands’ live streams. The Twitch Creator Camp has guides on personal branding, social media strategy, engaging viewers, and more. Having guides on social media marketing and branding emphasizes how beneficial Twitch is to brands and influencers.
