---
title: 'REALLY GROW on Twitch? BUILD COMMUNITY.'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=YSv3175BOig'
video_id: 'YSv3175BOig'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 1146
---

# REALLY GROW on Twitch? BUILD COMMUNITY.

> Source: [REALLY GROW on Twitch? BUILD COMMUNITY.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YSv3175BOig)

## Summary

The video provides a comprehensive guide for streamers on building a community from scratch. The creator emphasizes that simply going live on Twitch is no longer sufficient; instead, syndicating content across multiple platforms like YouTube and TikTok is crucial for discoverability. The core strategy involves creating a funnel that directs viewers from passive discovery platforms to a dedicated Discord server, which serves as the community's home base.

### Key Points

- **Syndication is Key** [00:56] — The days of going live on Twitch and getting big are over. You need to syndicate your content across multiple platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube, tailoring the content to each platform.
- **Start with YouTube** [02:29] — Before streaming, start with YouTube to practice being the sole source of conversation and to get used to talking to nobody. This builds skills for when you start streaming.
- **The Funnel Concept** [04:42] — Use a funnel to bring people into your community. The top of the funnel is passive discovery platforms (YouTube, TikTok). The middle is Twitch and Twitter. The bottom is Discord, which is not algorithm-dependent.
- **Discord as Home Base** [06:04] — Discord is the bottom of the funnel and serves as the community's home base. It allows direct communication with your most loyal viewers without relying on algorithms.
- **Boost Initial Engagement** [08:49] — Use Discord to alert members when new content goes live. This boosts initial engagement, which helps the algorithm promote your content further.
- **Choosing Moderators** [10:26] — Look for active, trusted community members who are even-handed and may not even want the role. Avoid people who seek authority.
- **Consistency is Key** [12:47] — Consistency in streaming schedule helps your audience know when to expect you. Use Discord to communicate any changes.
- **When to Start Streaming** [14:30] — Start streaming when you feel comfortable carrying a conversation for about two hours. There's no set time frame; it depends on your comfort level.
- **Entertain Yourself First** [16:07] — Focus on entertaining yourself. If you're having fun, viewers will sense it and enjoy the stream. Externalize your joy and reactions.

### Conclusion

Building a community as a streamer requires a strategic approach: syndicate content across platforms, use a funnel to direct viewers to Discord, and focus on consistency and self-entertainment. The key is to create a home base where your most loyal viewers can connect with you directly.

## Transcript

hello youtube i see you've come here to
build a community well you've come to
the right place my name is cabal i am a
horror of youtuber here on twitch.tv i
deal on all things spectacularly spooky
to include content creation in the past
year i've been able to build up a
community from next to nothing to what
it is today thriving and full of life
and definitely not trapped in the
basement if you're curious on how to
build your community well today we're
going to have a talk and i'm going to
explain to you the steps that you can go
through to build your community as a
streamer and the ways that you want to
bring people into it and use the various
platforms at your disposal to do so and
there's a lot of things that go into
building a community a lot of things
that don't seem very intuitive at the
moment a lot of people when they are
like man i want to be a streamer i want
to build a community i want to you know
have people come and you know interact
with me and watch my content everything
like that it's like what do i do it's
like i just go live on twitch right
wrong sorry to burst your bubble the
days of go live get big on twitch or
long dead and that's just not something
that happens anymore today it's all
about syndication syndication
syndication syndication if you don't
know what syndication is basically what
you're going to be doing is you're going
to be taking your content you're gonna
be putting it on as many platforms as
possible and tailoring it to those
platforms for example if you're going to
be on twitter maybe you want to put
funny clips on there maybe you want to
put you know like little tutorials on
there something that's going to you know
have somebody want to interact with it
if you're on tick-tock maybe you want to
do something that's a bit more memey
maybe you want to do something that's a
bit more of a trend you can also do
clips on there as well youtube you can
do what i'm doing right now produce a
video put it on youtube you might have
to edit it down yourself but hey guess
what it's good practice and the reason i
talk about these things is because
utilizing all the tools at your disposal
is what you're going to need to do to
build your community when you're
starting off nobody's going to want to
watch your content nobody's is going to
actually you know care at all because
that's the way we all sought out
everybody starts out from nothing with
content and it's up to us as the content
creator to build ourselves up but cab
that sounds hard that's because it is
[Laughter]
but it's not impossible and that's what
this talk today is going to be about
about giving you the tools to build that
community that's going to interact with
your things on the various platforms and
give you the ability to grow as a
content creator which we're actually
going to talk about in another youtube
video you know canvas is high just like
any business it starts from zero
absolutely correct chad
you may be thinking okay well you know i
want to build a community i want to go
out there and i want to be known how do
i get started i'm going to tell you
right off which is not your answer more
than likely what you're going to want to
do starting off is yeah you want to be a
streamer try youtube first i'll use
myself as an example so when i started
out with content creation did i start
out streaming
no i actually started out making youtube
let's play videos and yeah i've since
moved past that content but one of the
things it taught me was to one be the
sole source of conversation like right
now we have notifications turned off i'm
not looking at chat you know i'm
actually just going off on tangent
that's not something i'm naturally able
to do it's something i learned over time
it's something that you can learn over
time not only that but when you produce
content on youtube and things like that
you get used to streaming to nobody
because guess what you're not streaming
to anybody you're recording things and
that's going to pay dividends in the
long run it's going to allow you to
improv it's going to allow you to be
able to tell stories it's going to allow
you to be the sole source of
conversation which when you're starting
out with streaming you're going to need
not only that but when you produce
youtube content and you put it on
youtube you are at that point in time
using their machine learning using their
algorithm to reach people that you're
really not going to be able to reach on
twitch otherwise when you're doing
things like content you want to use
passive discovery platforms like youtube
like tick tock because on platforms like
twitch when you're live you're only ever
going to be discoverable when you're
live that's when you're going to be
popping up in people's recommended it's
when you're going to be popping up in
people's feeds go ahead and use tools
that are available to you it may be like
cab i don't like tick tock well i'm
sorry you're just going to have to get
over it that's one of the tools
available it's what other people are
using to make themselves discoverable as
well if you want to play if you want to
win the game you have to play it use all
the pieces on your chessboard exactly
and so you know on that topic on talk
about you know using the passage
discovery of these different platforms
one of the things we need to talk about
is we need to talk about funnels because
the concept of funnels as a business you
know as marketing you know as strategy
is
integral to building a community even as
a content creator like it's not a
foreign concept for you know a lot of
content creators kind of dive into
marketing um and this is something i've
actually learned you know friends that
are professional marketers or you know
professional we got you know they have
history as being you know community
leaders for very very large communities
or even like entire studios what the
heck is a funnel i'll go ahead and tell
you what a funnel is a funnel is
essentially how you're going to get
people into your community and how
you're going to filter them into the
community so you have people that are
actually like dedicated participating in
it everything like that when we're
looking at funnels we're going to be
looking at the top and we're going to be
looking at the bottom what is the top of
the funnel the top of the funnel is
going to be your things like youtube
like tick tock these massive platforms
with innate discoverability where you're
going to be posting your content and
people can find you whenever it's going
to be things that you know people will
be able to just stumble across and
they'll be like this person looks nifty
and then they'll be able to follow links
or other such things to the second part
of your funnel the second part of your
funnel is going to be things like your
twitch like your twitter and you may
think to yourself well wait a second no
like i want people to come to my twitch
that that is that's the bottom of my
funnel that's my destination no no no no
no you're missing out on something very
very important you see when you're on
twitter when you're on twitch things
like that you can do things that are
called ctas what is a cta a cta is a
call to action called actions are
essentially like hey chat type in
exclamation mark discord and it will pop
up in the chat and you can go click on
that link and join the discord just like
that when you're using that ability as a
mute as a community leader uh this
allows you know to direct people to
things like your youtube or you know
direct people to things like your
discord speaking of discord though
that's the bottom of your funnel and
maybe like the cab i don't really want
like why why would i have a discord i'll
tell you why you have discord because
the discord is the bottom of your funnel
you see all these platforms
youtube tick tock twitch
twitter
instagram everything like that these are
all platforms that rely on algorithms
for people to see your things for people
to know that you're going live for
people to know you know how they can and
you're like when they can interact with
you and like oftentimes can really only
interact with you uh on like a like a
non-live basis with the exception of
twitch and because twitch is a live
experience discord seems like a lot to
manage or yeah no it absolutely is uh
but that's part of the reason you want
to stop building your community you want
to find the people within the community
that you really you know you really work
well with you know that are actually
folks that contribute to it you know
that are really into it and you know are
about your content and about you as a
creator um and you want to find those
leaders within the community and those
are the people that can help you you
know help you build that community help
you manage that community um
ultimately it's going to be up to each
and every individual to choose you know
like what their team their mob team you
know uh whoever is uh but that it's also
a topic for another video why do we want
to get people into the discord well
discord basically serves as a home base
for your community when you have the
discord you're not relying on algorithms
you're not relying on the whims of other
platforms you're not relying on anything
like that the people that get in your
discord that join your discord are more
likely than not going to be some of the
most loyal of your viewers the most
loyal of your community and they're
going to be the people that want to
genuinely interact with you as a creator
and yeah you may be busy because content
creation is a lot of work but having
access to those people being able to
communicate them communicate with them
on a one-on-one basis that is insanely
valuable as a content creator and that
is the foundation of your community
being able to communicate it being able
to interact with it and not having to
worry about oh is twitter going to push
this tweet out and anybody going to see
it you know oh is anybody going to
wonder about oh when does this youtube
video go live no all those things you
don't have to worry about on discord
because you have a handy little tool
called at everyone side note please use
it sparingly because if you're just
constantly at everyone in people will
mute it for example
we have my discord we have over a
thousand members in this discord it will
actually show me when i go to at
everyone how many people are going to be
receiving this message for me with the
size of my discord it's only about 600
people why because people hate getting
pinged but yeah you know when you have
that ability to
you know talk to your community to alert
them when you have new content coming
out you're going to have in higher
engagement rates one of the things
you're going to be looking at with a lot
of platforms is because they run off of
algorithms the initial going live of a
video or piece of content or something
like that the initial engagement that
you're going to get on that is going to
be integral to how far it goes in the
long term for example when we put out a
youtube video hit on the youtube i go
into the discord and i'm just like hey
we have this youtube video that has gone
live and what do people do they go and
they click on it they go and they watch
it also another strategy that i use is
whenever we put out a youtube video
oftentimes instead of raiding into
somebody off of twitch i'll be like hey
we have a youtube video that has just
gone live because i will keep the video
unlisted until i'm about to end stream i
will then list the youtube video it goes
live and i'm like hey here's the youtube
link go check out this video we just put
out that in turn boosts it in the
initial algorithm which will then send
it out to more people and more people
will be able to see it more people will
be able to watch it more people will be
able to enjoy it you know and like it
comment on it and everything like that
it essentially it feeds the algorithm in
a positive way that is going to promote
your content to more people which
ultimately as a creator that's what you
want because when your content is
promoted your content is going to be
seen by more people when it's seen by
more people you're more than likely
going to have more people following
those links checking out your different
platforms and ultimately some of them
will filter into becoming community
members i made that mistake of adding
everyone every time i'm in a small
update unfortunately cap i mean like hey
it happened at the end of the day none
of us really know what we're doing like
it's about gaining the experience it's
about you know uh figuring out what you
want to do with content and you know
like learning and that's what these
entire videos about are just learning
but cab how do we moderate discord and
twitch how do we get moderators yet
again that's what i was talking about
earlier you're going to look for those
individuals that are very active within
community but they're also you know
trusted and and you know very
i guess you could say moderate members
of the community it's people that are
going to interact but they often
interact with an even hand uh my me
personally when i go and i look for
moderators i look for people that often
are like yeah i don't want to be a mod
and you know i'll talk to them about
them i'll talk to them about it i'll get
a feel for them and you know see if i
think they're going to be a good fit
oftentimes one of the things i look for
is like people just like yeah i don't
want to be mod but i love this community
i love this you know entire thing that
we have and i want to help make it
better because one of the things you're
going to be having to deal with is you
know there are people that i want quote
unquote authority you know within a
community and those people no get them
out so you know with access to all the
people in your community in your discord
that is going to be the foundation of
your community and yeah it's going to
start off slow you're not going to have
a lot of people one of the things i want
you as a content creator to understand
is that yes in the beginning you're
probably going to be interacting a lot
on the discord but as you get busier you
know as you grow as a creator oftentimes
it can be hard to continue to be you
know active especially in voice calls
like for example i'll sometimes join in
voice calls in my discord and we'll have
like maybe 20 sometimes 30 people join
into a discord call it can get chaotic
it can really wear on you especially
when you're already giving so much of
yourself as a creator you know to the
community through your content through
videos you know uh through answering
questions it can be draining and that's
okay the people that are there for you
and really enjoy your content they will
understand all right it's not something
that you have to stress about like yeah
some people will come in maybe some
people will be weird chimp maybe some
people will be a little monkey ass it
happens all right but at the end of the
day that's your community you moderate
it and you need to make it a place that
is going to be comfortable for you
because it's not comfortable for you
you're not going to have a good time and
if you're not having a good time you're
not going to be able to produce the best
content that you can and you're not
going to be able to make the best
community that you can and that at the
end of the day should be your objective
make the best community that you can all
right so now we're going gonna have a
bit of a q a question from chad uh we've
got them live here you know people have
questions about building community about
uh things like that and so we're gonna
go ahead we're gonna answer these so
we've got a question from judo kami is
being consistent helpful in growing your
channel yes yes consistency is actually
really key to in my opinion growing your
channel growing your community things
like that analogy i like to use is the
concept of a movie theater content and
like you know your channel your content
things like that especially with
streaming it's kind of like movie
theater are you going to go to a movie
theater that doesn't have times posted
that you have no idea when it's going to
be open and you have no idea what the
movie is what movie is going to be
playing like does that mean that you
have to go out and on twitter you have
to have everything scheduled like every
week everything no but kind of sticking
to a schedule is one of the things that
you want to do you want to have you know
available to people that are looking for
your content if somebody's like hey what
time are you going to be live you want
to be able to at least you know have a
time frame and have the days that you're
going to be going live me for example
here on twitch i'm live mondays
wednesdays thursdays and fridays 11 to
noon est is when i go live and people
know that if they pop in around that
time i'm more than likely going to be
live and if i'm not i'm probably going
to put something out on guess what the
discord because i can let everybody know
that hey i'm not feeling well or i've
got other things going on or maybe we're
working on a project i just don't have
time to stream that day that's one of
the upsides of having your community in
a medium like a discord you can let
everybody know hey there's not gonna be
a stream today because i know i'm
feeling sick or i'm not feeling well or
i have other things going on or maybe i
have you know finals or something like
that and keeping people informed is
going to make people feel like they're
connected which with when you're
building a community you want people to
feel like they're connected they want
you want people to feel like they are
part of the community it's a very very
good thing to be have all right so we
have a question from purple nigel how
long should we do youtube before trying
out twitch assuming there's a
recommended time frame uh i don't think
there's a recommended time frame i think
it's getting to the point where you feel
like you're comfortable uh being able to
go live and carry on a conversation for
uh i want to say like you know around
two hours like if you can stream for
around two hours it's pretty good and
you can then take those two hours of
content make those into a youtube video
something make it into a highlight reel
it doesn't have to be anything fancy
it just has to be something that you can
use for content don't let your vods sit
and go to waste
that's a personal mistake i've been
doing for the last year and it's
something that now i'm looking to
correct i'll go ahead and use myself for
example when i was doing youtube i knew
that i did want to stream however i knew
that i was a very quiet person i was a
very soft-spoken person i knew that i
didn't really know how i wanted to
stream and ultimately the way i made
content and the way i wound up streaming
are now very very different like
actually if you look down on the youtube
channel if you look through all my old
content you can see the very first
youtube video i ever made uh it is very
very different from the content today i
spent about eight to nine months doing
youtube before i even thought about
streaming because that's where i started
to feel comfortable in my skills as a
content creator and my skill as a
narrator everything like that to get to
the point where i was like if i'm
streaming to nobody i can still keep
talking i can still carry on a
conversation and be entertaining so if
anybody does come into my stream they're
like hey this guy's pretty nifty i might
want to stay around and watch and become
a part of his community and we've got
another question from go tastic what is
the first thing one should focus on in
content creation streaming my opinion
and this is probably gonna be a hot take
for a lot of people is that you are
entertaining yourself now you may be
like oh well now i gotta sit there i can
play a video game and you know i just
sit there in silence and it's
entertaining to me yes it's entertaining
to you but you need to learn how to
vocalize the entertainment take that
entertainment that you feel and channel
it into being a outward force as well
that's one of the things that i adhere
to why do i stream it's because i enjoy
streaming but it's also extremely
entertaining to me every day i go on i
turn on the stream i do it because it
entertains me because i enjoy doing it i
enjoy the process of it i have a fun
time doing it one of the greatest things
that people underestimate is the ability
for people to sense
if somebody's having a good time i go
and i stream i go on rants i go on
tangents i'll yell at video games i'll
just you know all sorts of chaos will
happen but at the end of the day i am
having a good time and i am entertaining
myself i then take that entertainment
and i project it outwards so other
people will maybe stuck at work maybe
they're stuck driving maybe something
else they can also
have a good time they can enjoy
themselves through me because guess what
sometimes
life sucks
[Laughter]
and at the end of the day we as
streamers
we're entertainers you're luck exactly
externalize your joy reactions feelings
vibe
yes that is good look at chat chat's so
smart but anyways yeah that's going to
be our basic lesson on how to build your
community as a streamer if you have any
questions we're going to have links down
for the discord in the youtube comment
section or you can always join me live
here on twitch like i said before i'm
live mondays wednesdays thursdays and
fridays january from 11 a.m est around
to noon est are the times when i go live
and i'm generally live for about five to
six hours you can pop in i'm always open
for content questions feel free to ask
away i love talking about the subject i
love educating people that you know want
to get into content creation it's
something that is a central tenet of
this community or if you just want to
pop in you want to watch a purple noodle
man yell at things or talk about spooky
things you're welcome as well but that's
it for today i hope to see you in the
next youtube video where we're going to
be talking about more chilling content
creation topics
until then though
have a good one youtube
[Music]
you