TRW GUIDES & HOW TO’S
How To: Network in TRW
These guides are designed to help you to get the most out of your time in TRW.
Networking is one of the best tools you can use to grow your audience and, when done in the right way, can open many opportunities for you to make meaningful and long lasting connections with other streamers.
1 | INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Your introduction should be one of the very first things you think about posting in TRW. Your introduction should be used to not only talk about your stream, but also to talk about yourself as a person.
Look, here’s the deal… the majority of our members, they’re also streamers, so they know the drill. They know you’re most likely here to build up your audience, just like they are, and they know you’re most likely a streamer too. So let’s look at how we can effectively introduce ourselves without coming across as just another streamer looking for free follows.
First up, follows aren’t free. Nobody is obligated to follow you just because you’re a streamer. In general, people follow channels for 1 of 2 reasons; 1) they enjoy your content or 2) they like you as a person. Right now you’re just introducing yourself to the community, so you can’t really show off your content, so that just leaves you as a person.
A good introduction should include at least a few of the following pieces of information:
- Who you are
Just remember not to give out any personal information or post anything that’s against our Community Rules. - Your hobbies / interests
People connect with other people they have shared interest with. If you enjoy playing music, reading, art, or even just gaming. Tell people! - A random fact about yourself
This can be anything, try and keep it fun and lighthearted, it’s a great icebreaker and will make people more likely to engage with you. - The type of content you create
This should come later in your introduction, don’t open with the fact you’re a streamer. It generally doesn’t come across well. - An invitation to talk to you
This is a great closing remark for your intro. Invite people to come and talk to you about a topic you’re interested in. You’ll quickly find people with the same interest will strike up a conversation.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of introductions to see the difference between a good and bad one:
A Bad Introduction
hi im a twitch stremer and im trying to make affiliate please follow me and coem and watch my streamsWhy is it bad?
The writer is making no effort to engage with anyone. They tell us nothing about who they are as a person, what they like or dislike, or even what type of content they create. All they’re showing us is that they want free follows without making the effort to provide anything in return.
Also the grammar and spelling are pretty terrible. This is a huge turnoff for a lot of people. Make sure you check and double check your intro before you post it. Good grammar and spelling make you look more professional and proud of your work.
A Good Introduction
Hey folks, I'm Matrix! I'm a software engineer, graphic designer and blogger from Ireland currently living in the UK with my wife, our cat Eejit and our new daughter Harley.I play a little guitar and bass in my spare time and I'm a huge fan of Electro Swing & Synthwave music.I've been gaming since I was a kid back on the NES. Nowadays I mostly play Modern Warfare and Forza on the Xbox One. Occasionally I stream on Twitch, usually Friday nights around 8pm UK time, usually some crazy custom games like Realism Sniper Headshots Only or something stupid like that.I do a lot of work with streaming setups and software so if you need any technical help with your streams feel free to give me a shout!
Why is it good?
Immediately you can see the difference. It’s obvious I’ve made an effort to create a more in depth introduction. It’s nicely formatted and the spelling is (mostly) correct (is there a correct spelling of Synthwave??).
I’ve offered a little personal information about myself; my job, what country I live in, without getting too specific, and I’ve offered up some of my hobbies and interests (music is always a good one… name one person who doesn’t like music… go on… I’ll wait…).
Once I’ve given you all that, I drop in the fact that I occasionally stream on Twitch. This isn’t even a necessity to be honest, but I like to throw it in there anyway to show you that you can do it without sounding like a jerk.
Finally, I open the door for people to approach me to talk about the technical side of streaming, something I’m familiar with and can hold a conversation about. This doesn’t have to be streaming related, you can offer an invitation to talk about trees if that’s what you’re interested in, the point is you’re making the effort.
Note: Try and keep your intro brief and lighthearted. Humour is a great ice-breaker. Also, check back on who reacted to your introduction and try and get involved in a conversation with them in the server.
2 | REGISTER YOUR CHANNEL
We’ve spent a lot of time working on promotion tools for you to use in TRW, and we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to get your channel registered in our server.
At its core, TRW is a promotion server for streamers. We’ve built a completely custom bot for our Discord server that helps to promote your channel, show when you’re live on Twitch and even tweet you out when you start a stream.
When you register your channel in Discord a number of things happen simultaneously;
- You get listed as a Streamer
When you register your channel, you’ll automatically receive the STREAMER role in our server and be listed separately to non-streaming members. - Your channel gets listed in our server
We have a dedicated channel list in the server that shows our members all of the channels registered in TRW. - You get added to our live announcement system for Twitch
We’ve built a custom live-announcement system that automatically shows when you’re live on Twitch and even sends out a Tweet from our Twitter account.
To register your channel, simply head over to the Discord server and jump into the #register-your-channel section listed under START HERE. Once you’re in there, all you need to do is copy and paste your Twitch link into the channel and our server will handle the rest.
Note: We recommend you do this after you’ve written your introduction. You’re more likely to get people interested in your channel if you introduce yourself in the server before posting your channel link.
3 | BE ACTIVE AND ENGAGING IN THE SERVER
Most of the time, an introduction and a channel link isn’t enough to get people to come and check you out (although if you’ve written your introduction properly, that should have helped!).
This is the part we have no control over, it’s 100% up to you to be active and engage in the server to build up connections and get to know people. If you actively post in the server, you’re far more likely to meet people with shared interests.
You’ll notice we no longer have a self-promotion channel in the server, this is for a couple of reasons;
- We handle all the promotion for you
We’ll post for you when you go live, we’ll even tell people your stream title and what game you’re playing. - Over-promotion can have a negative impact on your channel
It may sound weird, but talking about your channel too much has the opposite effect to what you might think, especially when all people see of you is your channel link. - We don’t do Follow for Follow
Follow for Follow has been proven to be ineffective and actually harmful to your channel growth. In an effort to avoid spammy F4F posts, we got rid of self promotion in favour of better networking techniques.
There are plenty of channels for you to get involved in within TRW (if there aren’t, just ask for them!). Actively starting or involving yourself in conversations in Discord is one of the best ways you can get to know people and, more importantly, people can get to know you.
Like we said earlier, people are far more likely to follow channels where they have a shared interest with the streamer. They’re also more likely to engage with your channel through chat if they feel like they have something they can talk to you about.
Note: If there’s a conversation going on and you’ll be discussing the same topic in one of your streams, use our #upcoming-streams channel to let people know and get them involved in the conversation.
4 | WHAT NOT TO DO
Avoiding negative networking ideas is as important as implementing the positive ones. You don’t want all your hard work to be undone because of one of these mistakes.
Here’s a quick list of a few things to avoid doing while networking:
- Don’t over-promote yourself
Over promotion is a killer in networking terms. It’s the equivalent of standing in the corner shouting into a room full of people. All that will happen is they’ll avoid going near that corner. - Don’t “beg” for follows
We know that, ultimately, your goal is to get more followers. Everyone else knows that your goal is to get more followers. Try and be more creative in the way you approach it and you’ll have more success. - Don’t expect something for nothing
Nobody’s going to follow you just because you asked them to. Being a content creator takes time and effort, don’t expect people to see your link and automatically hit the follow button. Put in some work and build those connections with people. - Don’t get disheartened
Growth happens at different rates for different people. Don’t get disheartened because someone else is growing faster than you. Talk to them, ask them for tips and look for ways you can improve your content and your networking skills. It’s all about learning how best to market your own content.
What are some of your networking tips and tricks? Leave a comment below and share your tips with our community!
