How to communicate with people on streams. Part II.
Hello and welcome to destream! For today we have part II of the creator-audience communication article. If the first part was about more general things, here we’re going to delve deeper into a processual part of creating live content.
And if you correctly follow all our recommendations (part I included), the chances of sharp growth in your career will increase exponentially. Enjoy reading!
What do viewers want from you?
This question is pretty obvious and most of us are surely able to answer it. But the problem is that there are hundreds if not thousands of things that viewers can desire to experience, so let’s just go through the 3 overall things we think viewers need from a content creator… well, most of the time:
To have a good time.
And by saying “have a good time”, we mean to spend it so as not to understand how quickly it passed. Like watching an awesome movie or playing a great game.
To be emotionally engaged.
Although we’ve made a comparison with movies, a broadcast (quite obviously) is not a movie, so people want to be a part of what’s going on.
But don’t forget, engagement doesn’t always mean writing something in the chat and communicating with everyone: lurkers also want to be engaged, and this is why we wrote the word “emotionally” here.
To see non-standard things.
Viewers (especially on Twitch) aren’t the ones who just need some content to consume. They’re here looking for some good humor, severe drama, an argument, knowledge, Mastercraft, doesn’t matter what. The main thing is that a creator must show them something they are unlikely to experience on their own or something that requires serious skills to do.
As you can see, viewers don’t need anything supernatural. In fact, their expectations are pretty simple.
Nevertheless, not every creator knows how to approach the content delivery process to provide the above types of viewers’ experience.
So, here are some practical hints for you to reach the four milestones above:
Show passions
People love watching other people being passionate about something, so if you love to do something, do it on your broadcasts. And if you love to talk about something, feel free to talk! And don’t forget, when you’re passionate about something, others also start to subconsciously feel permitted to be passionate about the same thing.
Be confident
You are who you are, don’t try to be everyone’s best friend. Here’s the thing: many-many creators have tried to do it, and no one has succeeded. Do the opposite, show viewers that you’re a confident person that can like and dislike anything in the world and is not afraid to share opinions (this doesn’t apply on illegal opinions).
Just believe us, confident people can be disliked, but no one will treat them with disdain.
Ask
Let people share their opinions, argue, have fun, and communicate on various levels. Don’t just ask a question, receive an answer, and go on. Instead, try asking questions coming “from previous questions”.
This will help the audience have a good and useful time.
Monologue
This is a very, VERY important skill, especially at the start of your career. Learn how to get comfortable talking to yourself as people often tend not to respond to your questions or requests. And, you know, it’s absolutely ok, they don’t have to. But what is not ok, it’s when the creator gets too much embarrassed and worried by this.
So, don’t get upset, just give them a show, but don’t get “over monologue-ish”, people will think that you ignore them and they will soon leave your stream (humans are so controversial).
Prepare
Write a script for EACH broadcast, and try to utilize it with maximum effect. Treat it like it’s a must-do thing in your everyday life (like eating, sleeping, or drinking water). At first, this may seem useless, but over time you will fully realize its significance.
Start with a short brief containing main questions, topics, a set of activities, and so on. This point is also related to the previous one: prepare some topics that you can monologue on, write a speech, and you’ll never get embarrassed during the stream.
Give power
Conduct votings among viewers on what game to play, ask them for their opinion about your actions, ask for criticism, and so on. In short, do everything so that people feel that they can influence your broadcast. The more their influence, the stronger their wish to stay on your channel.
P.S. Make sure to not cross the line with this one, or your channel will suddenly stop being yours.
Be silent
Silence is ok, especially when you’re watching something or going through a tense moment in your game. Don’t push yourself to speak EVERY second of the broadcasts. It looks awkward… sometimes silence is the best way to entertain people. In the end, the people are here not only for you but also for a game you play (a dish you cook, a video you watch, the music you play, etc.)
Notify
It is important for almost everyone to be involved in the broadcast process and receive some sort of feedback, so you’ll surely need notifications and widgets. However, our advice is not about making notifications, it’s about making them unique. Try to design and edit them according to your personality. Make them reflect your character and passion.
Appreciate
You may think this advice is too obvious, and, in some ways, you’ll think absolutely right. However, as success starts knocking on the door, lots of content creators begin to forget where they’ve started from and treat the audience with disdain. First, they stop thanking people for “just following” their channels. Second, they start joking sarcastically about "too small" tips viewers send. Next, they start banning and shouting at people for literally nothing. In the end, they’re left without an audience with a channel large, but forgotten by everyone…
The funniest thing here is that avoiding such a fate is a cakewalk: just never forget where you started and treat kindness with gratitude. That’s all.
Have fun
We are here to educate and entertain the world. But this doesn’t make sense if we’re not having fun. Be happy, share your happiness, enjoy every second of your streams, and success will come very soon!
Choose us
And finally, don’t forget that we are destream — a financial ecosystem that creates convenient tools and functionality for content creators of all kinds, allowing them to monetize their content with quickness, ease, and security. For more information, visit destream.net. Have a nice day and good streams to you!
