Social media is a vital channel for many streamers. It’s a place where you can engage with your community anytime and give visitors a glimpse of who you are as a brand. When used correctly, it can drive significant organic growth for your streaming platform.

However, it can be challenging to know what to focus on, especially when time is limited. Here are five tips to help you narrow your focus and kickstart your growth on social media.

1. Choose One Platform

With so many social media platforms available today, it may feel like a must to be on all of them. In reality, that’s counterproductive.

Spare your time to learn about the platform, the new community, how the platform’s algorithm works, which content formats work best, etc.

Pick one social platform to focus on, excel at it, and build your audience there. Once you have that platform on autopilot, you can expand to other platforms.

2. Post Content Frequently

To make your audience recognize your presence, you need to post content frequently. Here’s how often we recommend posting on each platform.

• Facebook: Post between 3-7 times a week. Aim for once a day.
• Twitter: Tweet around 10 times a day, but don’t do it all at once. Avoid consecutive posting.
• Instagram: Publish one post per day, but also try posting a few stories throughout the week.

3. Diversify Your Content

Promoting your live streams on your social media profiles is a great way to organically build your streaming audience. However, you’ll gain more benefits if you also sprinkle in other types of content. Offer value to your audience beyond just your streams.

Here are some ideas you can try:

• Share interesting news that your audience might want to know.
• Ask your audience to post their all-time favorite VODs. Not only will you get engagement from your audience, but you’ll also learn what kind of content they enjoy the most!
• Share tips and tricks. Are you exceptionally skilled in a particular game? Is there something you excel at in a job that your audience might be interested in (like design)? If so, try posting content around those topics. If not, try identifying issues your audience might be experiencing or ask them what they’d like to learn more about, and then do some research on that problem.

To make your feed visually appealing, make sure you post more than just plain text; include videos and images too.

If you ever feel stuck, ask yourself, “Who is my audience, and what are they interested in?”

4. Plan Your Content

You’ll be more likely to post consistently if your content is ready in advance. Choose a suitable day of the week for you and spend one or two hours creating as much content as possible for the upcoming week.

This will save you more time than you think because your mind will be in “content creation mode,” allowing you to produce more. It can be challenging to switch your brain into content creation gear if you’re trying to come up with posts every day.

Lastly, some platforms allow you to schedule posts in advance, but you can also do it using free tools like Hootsuite. Scheduling your posts at the beginning of the week will free up your mind for other tasks.

5. Engage with Other Creators

This one is crucial and often underestimated. Start engaging with other content creators on any social media platform you use.

To start, find content creators that you genuinely like and leave them authentic comments or share their content with some brief comments added. This will not only help you gain more followers from those creators, but it will also open the door for future collaborations and ultimately gain visibility from their followers.

Conclusion

Building an engaging social media presence requires careful consideration and implementation of effective strategies. By following these tips, you can create a compelling brand and grow your audience organically. Remember to prioritize quality interactions, provide value to your audience, and remain consistent in your efforts!

Streaming is a fun way to entertain your audience, but coming up with creative ideas can be challenging. Here are some topics and activities that will boost engagement and keep the chat lively!

1. Design avatars through chat. Explore character creation with chat and let them assist you in designing your avatar.
2. Host contests/goals. This will keep your audience engaged. You can set any parameters you like, including text contests or follower achievement targets. If you choose a winner, ask for their prize to be a gift or 1:1 time with you. Achieving community goals can be rewarding to your viewers by cosplaying as their favorite characters.
3. Challenge viewers to games. Challenge them to play games like Codenames Duet, Connect 4, or Skribblio (similar to Pictionary). Make sure you have boot or mod ready to guard against someone drawing something not so PG in Skribblio.
4. Share a story. It could be factual or fictional. It helps if you write it down beforehand and rehearse it if it’s not something you’re familiar with. It could be a ghost story or a story about a bad date you had. Mix it up a bit, like going on a bad date with a ghost.
5. Create musical artwork. Experiment with Google’s interactive experience where you paint, and music plays according to your brush strokes and colors.
6. Host a puzzle party. Solve picture puzzles together at various difficulty levels (easy, medium, or hard) with your viewers.
7. Use a 3D synthesizer to drop some beats. Play around with synthesizers in three dimensions and augmented reality to program various beats while streaming. Get creative!
8. Play the game QWOP during streaming. This is your chance to become an Olympic champion. I can’t decide whether it’s funnier with zero practice or some practice, but it’s guaranteed to make you laugh.
9. Wear costumes or cosplay while streaming. This can be for holidays like Halloween, Christmas, or Easter, or cosplay as your favorite anime/TV/film characters. You can easily turn this into a prize to win contests or achieve community goals.
10. Play a musical instrument or sing. If you’re one of the lucky talented people who knows how to sing, go for it. If you’re like the rest of us, you can even learn to play a musical instrument over time while streaming to create a follow-along narrative.
11. Do taste tests. Taste-testing food and drinks is always fun, but you can also make snacks. Whether it’s eating or drinking, add your opinion and review items from best to worst. Try to get rare or unusual flavors to make everything more interesting.
12. Do unboxing. Everyone loves a good unboxing video. You can do this in-game with games like League of Legends or in real life (IRL) if you want to buy packs of trading cards, Pokémon cards, etc.
13. Voice chat with viewers. Invite viewers to join a voice chat with you and have conversations! This one is also easily linked to rewards.
14. Showcase your pets. If you have furry (or scaly) friends living with you, show them off! People will enjoy seeing if you and your dog have matching haircuts and appearances.
15. Play two truths and a lie. A classic icebreaker party game. It’s a great way to break the ice and encourage lurkers to guess in the chat.
16. Display a slideshow of pictures. Create a slideshow of your recent vacation, your pets, your family, or even your favorite classic cars. Having visuals to show while chatting with viewers can make your streaming more engaging.
17. Interview other streamers. A great way to reach out to other streamers and collaborate with them. Find common ground to discuss, whether it’s the same game you’re streaming, living in the same city, or having a similar number of followers.
18. Play games with other streamers. Challenge other streamers to 1v1 matches or play co-op game modes with them. This is beneficial because both of you can increase your visibility to new viewers.
19. Arts and crafts. Around the holidays, a great way to engage is by creating on-stream decorations. It can be very relaxing and fun to do arts and crafts, or watch others do them.
20. Community movie night. Invite your viewers to vote on which movie to watch. Twitch has built-in features in partnership with Amazon Prime Video.
21. Play “Would You Rather” with chat. The only limit to this party game is your imagination. Simple mental exercises that encourage viewers to interact with you.
22. Share indie games you discover. You can also occasionally play indie games that have chat-friendly voiceovers. It’s great to mix things up now and then.
23. Discuss and vote on the next game you’ll play. Have a lively discussion about what games you’re interested in playing next, as well as what your followers would like to see you play. This can be for indie games or more mainstream ones, and it works best if you haven’t found your niche yet.
24. Rate “best” fruits. You’ll be surprised how enthusiastic people are about fruits and their own fruit rankings. Try it out and see for yourself.
25. Fashion show with the farthest outfits from your wardrobe. Whatever you wear, it should be a fun and lighthearted way to engage in the chat. If you used to dress gothic in high school and have kept some of your clothes, wear them.
26. Cook your favorite dish/live from the kitchen. Give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your stove as you prepare something you love to eat. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can try learning a new recipe and bring it on-stream.
27. Do Pokémon quiz. With chat, try to solve this quiz identifying the original 151 Pokémon. Can you spell all their names correctly?
28. Invite family members or friends to join the stream. Extra points if they know nothing about streaming, and you spend the entire time explaining Twitch emotes to them. Prepare mods to protect them from trolls!
29. Share baby photos, encourage chat to do the same. Extra points if you have an extremely awkward childhood photo of yourself.
30. Watch your all-time top clips. You can also watch highlights from old VODs. It can be a lot of fun to do this with your audience while streaming. It’s hard to observe yourself, but you can also get valuable feedback from chat about what they liked and didn’t like about past content.
31. Do a personality quiz. You can choose personality quizzes from TV shows, books, movies, etc.
32. Play 20 questions with chat. A classic game for long car trips, it works great with entertaining chat.

Conclusion

By using these creative ideas during their streaming sessions, content creators can make the experience more interactive and enjoyable for their viewers. This can lead to more engagement, keeping followers interested, and even collaborating with other streamers!

Setting goals is crucial if you aim to be a successful live streamer. Even as a beginner, it’s important to adopt a professional mindset using the SMART method.

StoneMountain64, a successful streamer with over 6.5 million followers, attributes his success to goal setting.

Building blocks, whether for big or small projects, are essential for streamers of all sizes to stay focused, build momentum, and create a compelling narrative for their communities.

In this article, we will discuss on how to be a successful streamer with the goal-setting method using the SMART goal-setting framework that StoneMountain64 uses every day.

Separate Your Goals Into Two Categories

Goals for live streamers can be categorized into two main categories: personal goals and community goals.

Personal goals are the goals you set for yourself, such as the number of weekly streams, VOD uploads, or social media posts you make. These goals are internal, and you don’t need to communicate them to your audience.

Community goals are external and usually involve achieving a certain number of followers, subscribers, shares/retweets/likes, etc. These goals should be shared with your audience so that they can feel they are part of your journey.

Here are examples of personal goals versus community goals:

Personal Goals

• Number of weekly streams
• VOD uploads
• Social media posts

Community Goals

• Number of followers
• Number of subscribers
• Shares/retweets/likes

Note: Everyone’s goals will look different. Personalize your goals to fit your current situation and ensure they are realistic.

There are benefits to separating your goals into personal and community categories. Achieving your personal goals each week will support you in achieving your larger community goals.

For instance, let’s say you have 1,000 followers in November, but your stretch goal is to reach 2,000 followers by December 31. You might feel uncomfortable with that gap when you should be celebrating your first 1K follower milestone.

That’s why having personal goals is important for focus. You break down your big dreams into manageable pieces that won’t overwhelm you.

Set Your Goal Using the SMART Goal-Setting Method

Want to do it like a pro? This is how StoneMountain64 thinks when he sets goals.

S – Specific

Be clear and specific. The more specific your description, the more likely you are to achieve it. For example, if you start with the statement “I want to be a full-time streamer,” does that mean you want to make enough money to pay bills so you can quit your job, or join a professional e-sports team, or become the next Ninja? Because achieving those goals will look very different in your daily life.

M – Measurable

Use numbers and other ways to track your progress.

For example, if you want to grow your YouTube channel, your goal might be “I want to make money on YouTube.” Being specific means you can refine the goal to “I want to become a YouTube partner to unlock monetization features.”

A – Attainable

Your goals should be realistic and achievable for you to be successful. Consider the effort, time, and other costs required to pursue your goals in relation to your current priorities and obligations in life.

R – Relevant

Make sure that what you’re doing is worth your time and makes sense to pursue now.

If your goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel, but you don’t know how to edit videos for upload, it might make sense to set a goal of learning video editing for yourself.

T – Time-Oriented

Give yourself a timeline for all your goals.

For example, “I want to have 1,000+ subscribers” becomes “I want to have 200 subscribers in 2 months” and “I want to reach 1,000 subscribers by the end of this year.”

Put pressure on yourself with deadlines, but also make sure these deadlines align with your schedule. Don’t be afraid to review and revise your goals from time to time if your schedule or priorities change.

Evaluate with 3R: Re-examine, Rethink, Revise

When setting goals, regularly review them every month or every three months. Consider if they are realistic, if you have set the standards too low, or if they need revision as time goes by.

When life happens, you’ll want to revise your goals to ensure you maintain emotional well-being and avoid burnout.

Conclusion

In conclusion, setting goals is a crucial aspect when aiming to become a successful live streamer.

Categorize your goals into personal and community goals, utilize the SMART method for goal-setting, and regularly evaluate progress with the 3R approach every three months.

Stay consistent with your goals, and you’ll be on track to achieve your dreams in no time!

Many people find it challenging to juggle life and content creation. We tend to deceive ourselves into thinking that by staying busy. In reality, we need to measure productivity by the time we spend on tasks that will have an impact.

Building an efficient routine is easier said than done. That’s why we’ve gathered some practical tips to help you accomplish more with the limited time you have. Choose a day of the (Sunday or Monday, up to you) week and sit down to do the following weekly planning!

1. Prioritize Your Tasks

When you have limited time, the first thing you should do is prioritize which activities to focus your time on. Ideally, you want to spend the most time on tasks that will move the needle.

Make a list of everything you have/want, then categorize tasks based on their impact and the effort (money or time) they will require to complete. You can use this priority matrix for further clarity.

Everyone’s tasks will be different, but in general, you want to focus on Easy Wins as much as possible (inevitably, you might also allocate time for Incremental tasks). I suggest reducing some Big Bets as well, just make sure they don’t consume all of your time.

2. Break Down Your Tasks into Smaller Tasks

Once you’ve identified your top priorities, break them down into smaller tasks that don’t require further planning once you sit down to work.

For example, if your highest-priority task is creating a new highlight VOD on YouTube, you can break it down into the following tasks:

• Rewatch your broadcast
• Create a list of best moments and timestamps
• Compile a storyboard
• Clip highlights and edit
• Work on the thumbnail
• Think of a title and video description

See how easily those tasks can be planned? Now, instead of feeling like you have to spend hours watching a video in one go, you have a series of simple tasks that you can handle throughout the week.

3. Block Your Calendar

Once your task list is ready, open your calendar and find time slots to fit them in. Then go ahead and create events for those tasks so they appear on your calendar.

Conclusion

Now you’ve eliminated any kind of thinking requirements beyond what’s needed to complete the tasks. All you have to do is show up! We hope this tips will help you!

Sound effects or music serves as attention grabbers to keep viewers engaged with our content. Modifying the audio can differentiate what we offer as a streamer from competitors.

However, it’s important to exercise caution when choosing background music. Before deciding to use specific sound effects or music, as a streamer, you need to ensure that the music is free from copyright restrictions. Otherwise, your video content may be deleted, or you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement.

To learn more about copyrighted music for creators, let’s explore the tips below.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is the exclusive ownership rights of a work granted to its creator, which is automatically obtained upon declaration. As regulated by Law No. 28 of 2014, violators can face legal sanctions.

The purpose of copyright is to protect someone’s work or content from being misused by irresponsible parties. Therefore, as a beginner streamer, you must always be cautious when selecting background music for your video game content.

How Do Streamers Avoid Copyrighted Music in 2023?

Nevertheless, you don’t need to worry because there are now plenty of royalty-free or copyright-free music options available. When used correctly, you can avoid copyright issues. So, how do you obtain music without copyright? Let’s explore the tips below.

1. Use Software for Editing

Most video editing applications provide a variety of music options that can be chosen according to your needs. Rest assured, all sound effects or music within editing software are copyright-free. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about it.

Using audio within these applications is user-friendly. However, some may require an upgrade to a paid membership to access specific sound effects or music features. The music feature in video editing applications is a go-to for beginner streamers.

2. Design Your Own Audio

If you want to be copyright-free and create something new, you can choose this approach. Designing your own audio is the safest option but comes with a higher level of complexity.

If you don’t have experience in the field of music, you can learn through video tutorials or use audio design software such as Adobe Audition, Audacity, Reaper, and others.

3. YouTube Audio Library

Utilizing the YouTube Audio Library is the most practical and safe method for selecting copyright-free music. It not only provides free music but also allows you to use free sound effects for your game streaming content. Although it’s free, you need to pay attention to the usage ethics that may require you to provide credit.

4. Copyright-Free Music Provider Websites

Using websites that provide music without copyright restrictions can be both easy and challenging. It requires careful attention because even though most providers offer copyright-free effects or music, you still need to pay attention to their terms and conditions.

Copyright-Free Music Provider Websites

It must be acknowledged that not all music provider websites are available for free. Even if they are free, there may be charges for premium features.

Also, before deciding to subscribe or download music from these sites, read the descriptions carefully. This is done to minimize misunderstandings regarding copyright. Here are the websites or applications that offer music without copyright restrictions, both free and paid:

Free Sites

1. Pretzel Rocks: Provides various music options that are safe for streaming on Twitch, Mixer, YouTube, and Facebook. This site can be used for free.
2. Royalty Free Music on Soundcloud: Soundcloud offers a variety of royalty-free music from different genres available for free.
3. NoCopyrightSounds: A YouTube channel that showcases songs and playlists without copyright restrictions.
4. Facebook Sound Collection: Part of Facebook’s Creator Studio, the songs in this service can be used for direct broadcasting or live streaming on Facebook or Instagram.
5. YouTube Audio Library: A part of YouTube Creator Studio that provides free music and sound effects for your game streaming content.

Paid Sites

1. Pretzel Premium: The premium version of Pretzel with a subscription cost of $4.99 per month. This paid version directly supports musicians. In addition to removing the requirements of the free version, this version also provides access to Discord.
2. Epidemic Sounds: Offers unlimited access to over 30,000 songs and 60,000+ sound effects. Its features support individual content creators on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. It costs $15 per month after the free trial.
3. Bensound: Provides royalty-free songs that can be downloaded for approximately $160 for the first year.

Conclusion

Using music is an excellent method to keep your stream audience engaged. However, it’s crucial to ensure that the music you choose for your stream is royalty-free to avoid any complications. We hope this guide can help you to kickstart your streaming career!