[00:00] One of the biggest pieces of advice you hear about growing your stream is to network. But people have a lot of different ideas about what networking is. Is it making friends? Is it making business connections?
[00:12] How do you network the right way? What's up, streamers? It's Ashlee, and today we're going to talk about networking. This is one of the most pervasive topics in the streaming community, and a lot of people have a lot of different ideas about what networking actually is
[00:28] and what it should be or is allowed to be in the streaming space. When we talk about networking, there's really one person that comes to mind. And this person that I'm speaking of is a master networker.
[00:42] She grew her stream. She became partners. She got thousands of people following her journey on Twitter because of how fantastic she is at supporting other people and helping people grow relationships for themselves as well.
[00:55] That streamer is Miss Alley Cat, and I want to introduce you all to Miss Alley today. I actually brought her on to talk to you and to give you her secret about networking on
[01:07] Twitch. Hey, I am Alley, also known as Miss Alley Cat, and I am here to tell you about the wonders of networking. Because the thing is, networking really works.
[01:19] The downfall is that Twitch is always changing, and networking is always changing, but thankfully there are multiple ways to do it and there are always multiple ways to grow. So never freak out and if you get stuck just try out these tips and I swear to you that it'll
[01:34] help because that is how I grew. So here we go. Don't be afraid to be yourself especially when entering a new stream. Different strokes for different folks. People who enjoy your personality will swap to you and vice versa.
[01:50] So if they like you, odds are they like them too. And there you go, you've made your first friend, which is awesome. Be upfront about who you are. Don't try to be your favorite streamer or a different streamer that you look up to.
[02:06] Be yourself and have fun. Don't alter with expectations but excitement of getting to know a new streamer. Be interactive. Get to know their chat.
[02:18] Be consistent But even if you being consistent it doesn mean that you have to be in a specific person stream every single day Just stop in and be like Hey how are you every once in a while and seriously that will go a long way
[02:35] And they will remember that. If keeping a relationship on Twitch is hard, just stop for a little bit, don't give up, and just think, What is going on in this relationship? Why is it hard for me to be friends with this person?
[02:49] Or why is it hard for me to watch these streams? think is it because of work is it because of family or is it just life being life but the
[03:01] thing is after you think about these things just try your best to find time to just message that person or stop by their stream and be like hey i miss you just even if you just pop in every now
[03:13] and then the streamer will remember you and you'll have a friend what streams that you enjoy if you're watching a stream that you don't necessarily really like very much, then it's going to
[03:25] be hard for you to hang out in that stream, and it's going to feel more like a chore or a job than having fun. So, because that's what I do. I hang out in streams that I really
[03:40] like, and that makes me enjoy it that much more. Don't neglect or feel intimidated by chats because of their size or because they aren't very big or because there aren't a lot of chatters
[03:54] or because there are too many chatters you know you want to hang out in streams that you are comfortable in so don't go too far out of your comfort zone go where you're comfortable and what feels good to you you also want to at least try to game with streamers because when you do
[04:11] then the chat will see that and they'll be like oh the streamer trusts this person so I can trust this person and then they're going to come by your stream and get to know you. So, duo streams are super important and very helpful and just a lot of fun. There's always different
[04:31] ways of supporting. It could be reaching their stuff, liking their stuff, lurking in chat, or even just saying hi. All of that is awesome and you want to do that. So, like for me,
[04:45] I use Twitter for everything. Like, I use it to post pictures. I use it to post pictures of my animals I use it to talk about my life It give streaming advice And people see those tweets and then they like oh Miss Alleycon is really cool
[05:03] I want to go check out her stream. So they'll come by my stream, and then they'll be like, I read your tweet, and you're so awesome. Like, I love what you stand for. And then they'll stick around your stream for a day, and then they'll be like, I love your stream.
[05:17] You have an amazing personality. and that is something that people look for. Always remember there's not one way to do it anywhere from experience.
[05:29] So what do you all think about what Abby said? Feel free to leave what you feel about networking in the comments down below. Now, I personally was in the camp whenever I first started really growing on Twitch. I believe that networking was just making friends.
[05:43] I wanted to grow, but I just wanted to make friends and I didn't want business relationships because I felt like that was a little bit scummy. So I've grown a lot as a person and as a creator,
[05:55] and a lot of this was because I started researching a ton about relationship building and how relationships work and how human beings are able to make relationships with each other.
[06:07] And one of the things that I figured out throughout all of my research is that there's actually a limit to the amount of relationships that we are allowed or able to handle in our brains. after this limit we can't really keep up with people anymore and our relationships start to
[06:21] diminish in value so this limit is called Dunbar's number and it's generally quoted as being around 150 now I think the problem here is that we all wish that we could be friends with all the cool
[06:33] people in our industries I'm that same person too I wish I could be friends with everybody but the problem with that is that my brain just can't handle it and as much as I wish that I could say networking is all about making friends, at a certain point it has to become something
[06:49] that requires a little bit less work from you. See, 150 relationships might seem like a lot, but those numbers fill up really quickly for content creators. What do you do when all of those spots are full?
[07:03] We look to form business relationships. So the thing that I thought was wrong months ago is actually what I find myself doing all the time now because I've realized that I can't possibly make friends with all of the people that
[07:17] are in my space now But I think like if you in the beginning of your journey absolutely If you don have all of those positions filled meet as many people as you can Make as many friends as you can Keep in contact with people Talk with them as much as you
[07:31] can. But at a certain point, you have to start being a little bit more choosy and you're going to have to let certain relationships start to slide away if they're not serving you and not helping you become a better creator and a better person. And you're going to have to start welcoming
[07:46] more people into your life that will do that for you. And I think this is where we get a lot of negativity for the people who are too big or too successful or too important for us and they don't give us the time of day. It's not because they think that they're so much better. It's because
[08:01] there are so many people that are asking for relationships from them, asking for collabs, asking for things, asking for emotional labor especially because there's only so much that we can give from our own thoughts and our own emotions. But that doesn't mean that we don't
[08:17] want to love everyone and get to know everyone as much as we can. I mean, people definitely do, but I think that we, at some point, have to be choosy. So what are you going to do when that time comes? So I think the secret to being the best networker on Twitch is realizing that you
[08:35] have a finite amount of relationships that you can keep up with. And in the beginning, yes, absolutely get to know as many people as you can but have a plan for whenever you can't do that anymore because at some point networking is not going to help grow you anymore there's only so
[08:51] many relationships you can have and once those spaces are filled they're pretty much filled aside from doing collabs and pursuing more business relationships with people how else are you going to get your content out there at that point hopefully you've figured out how to put more
[09:04] value into your content, how to inspire people or motivate people or educate them or entertain them. And so that way people are just sharing your stream of their own free will and you don't
[09:16] have to shoulder all of that burden yourself. That's why we've got all of the videos that we've got here too. So there's hundreds of videos about streaming, content creation, there's some about networking and social media and putting value into your content.
[09:28] Make sure and go and check those out. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. before I start rambling let's go ahead and end this video I love you all so much I hope that this was helpful let me know how you feel about networking now that I've had this here's my
[09:40] friendship I'll see you in the next one bye