Why followers don't equal viewers
41sChallenges a common misconception, sparking curiosity and debate among new streamers.
▶ Play ClipThis video provides a comprehensive guide for new streamers on how to gain their first 50 followers on Twitch, emphasizing that followers indicate viewer intent rather than direct viewership. The creator shares his personal strategy of using external communities and unique engagement methods to build an audience, and discusses the pros and cons of using YouTube for growth.
Followers do not equal viewers; they represent viewer intent. A large follower count doesn't guarantee high viewership.
The biggest challenge for new streamers is reaching 5-10 viewers. Below 5 viewers, Twitch discovery is nearly impossible.
Select a game with a passionate community that is underrated on Twitch. The creator chose XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.
The creator made a roleplay post on the XCOM 2 subreddit, pretending to be a drill sergeant, which garnered hundreds of sign-ups without directly promoting the stream.
After streaming, the creator watched the VOD, clipped important moments, and wrote a story post about the session without mentioning the stream. This built interest.
After several posts, the creator included links to Twitch clips, which brought in viewers. This broke the initial viewer barrier.
The creator moved to party games like Jackbox, which require many players, making it easy for viewers to participate. Then transitioned to other niche games like Darkest Dungeon and Stardew Valley.
The key is to provide unique value to communities without direct advertising, engage viewers during streams, and turn them into community members.
Starting a YouTube channel is common advice but difficult. It requires significant effort and doesn't guarantee Twitch viewers. Call-to-actions only work after providing consistent value.
For beginners, YouTube Shorts are easier to create and have larger reach. Tools like Join Combo can help edit shorts without complex software.
Streaming directly on YouTube can be more effective for discovery, as subscribers get notifications when you go live, eliminating the need for Twitch.
Don't ask for follows immediately. Provide consistent, engaging content that matches what viewers followed for. Keep a consistent schedule and make unique content.
Success is not determined by follower count but by effort, learning, improvement, and being proud of your content. Keep striving to make better content.
Gaining followers on Twitch requires creative external engagement and consistent, unique content. Success is measured by personal improvement and effort, not just numbers.
"Title accurately promises a method for first 50 followers, and the video delivers with a detailed strategy."
What is the main difference between followers and viewers according to the video?
Followers indicate viewer intent, not actual viewership.
00:41
What is the first hurdle new streamers need to overcome?
Reaching 5 to 10 viewers.
02:53
Which game did the creator choose to grow his first 50 followers?
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen.
03:26
How did the creator engage the XCOM 2 community without self-promotion?
He made a roleplay post on the subreddit pretending to be a drill sergeant, asking for volunteers.
03:51
What did the creator do after streaming to build interest?
He watched the VOD, clipped important moments, and wrote a story post about the session without mentioning the stream.
04:20
Why did the creator choose Jackbox as a category to transition to?
It requires 10 players, so his small community could fill a game, and viewers could easily join without competing with big streamers.
05:07
What is the core strategy for growth according to the creator?
Provide unique value to communities without direct advertising, engage viewers during streams, and turn them into community members.
06:21
What tool does the creator recommend for beginners to edit YouTube Shorts?
Join Combo.
08:45
Why does the creator suggest streaming on YouTube instead of Twitch?
Subscribers get notifications when you go live, making discovery easier without needing to leave the platform.
10:20
According to the video, what determines success for a streamer?
Effort, learning, improvement, and being proud of your content, not follower count.
14:15
Followers Indicate Intent
Clarifies a common misconception that followers equal viewers, which is crucial for new streamers.
00:41The 5-10 Viewer Hurdle
Identifies the critical threshold for Twitch discovery, a key insight for growth.
02:53Creative External Engagement
Demonstrates a unique, non-spammy way to build interest before streaming.
03:51Provide Value Without Advertising
Emphasizes the importance of genuine community contribution over direct promotion.
06:21Redefining Success
Encourages streamers to focus on personal improvement rather than metrics.
14:15[00:00] first 50 followers on Twitch or YouTube and I'm glad you did because there are a lot of mistakes you can make early on on that Journey that will hold you back from growing and even set
[00:13] you up to feel really defeated and potentially quit streaming or generally make streaming feel kinda sucky and yes sucky is the scientific term for that now before we break down all the ways you can get more followers including how I got my first 50 followers in my very first week and
[00:29] I'll also give you an incredibly important tip for growth at the end of the video to boost retention first we need to talk about why followers kinda don't matter but they do but they don't
[00:41] but they do essentially followers do not equal viewers this is a massive misconception if they did every time I went live I would have 33 000 viewers Spoiler:I don't have 33
[00:54] 000 viewers would be good but I don't you see following a streamer is free and most people will follow because they had fun once maybe their message got read out or just generally so the streamer says their name say my name uh uh thanks for the follow bootyman 69 you're goddamn
[01:12] right so if followers don't equal viewers then what a followers good for well they show intent and that intent is really valuable to you as a Creator in fact it is the most valuable thing in the world let's say you stream a few different games in one game you get 10 followers in another
[01:29] game you get 15 followers and in the final game you get 500 followers which game do you think you'll have the most viewers come back for if you go live again that's right unless you are follow
[01:41] boarded and those are in fact real followers who enjoyed your stream enough to follow it'll likely be the third game where you got 500 followers I think that helps you understand while followers don't equal viewers they do equal viewer intent and you can continue to stream with that intent
[01:56] in mind in order to maximize your growth always targeting what people liked or wanted more of now that we understand intent we can talk about how I grew my first 50 followers with something really unique and don't worry it actually wasn't with YouTube videos like everyone else tells you to
[02:10] do I did something else but first let me tell you about our sponsor own.tv specifically the owned Pro plugin for obf that has over 600 plus overlays and alerts built in that can be installed to OBS in just a few clicks if you don't want to buy a full animated overlay pack only to find yourself
[02:25] wanting to change within a few months well owned lets you swap back and forth again in just a few clicks plus they've just partnered with epidemic sound so anyone with an own Pro subscription gets access to all of their premium music for streaming that's what I use in this video and in all of the
[02:39] videos on this channel and you can use the link in the description right now to try it for free and get access to a wild amount of tools and features then if you like it you can upgrade at any time so why not go click that and check out what they've got for zero cost okay how do they grow my first
[02:53] 50 followers now I knew streaming would be brutal to gain traction from zero viewers I had seen that the largest hurdle for a new Creator is actually getting over that first hurdle AKA reaching 5 to 10 viewers but if you can get over that hurdle you can get a bit of momentum and then if you're smart
[03:09] snowball that momentum but reaching that purely from twitch is practically impossible if you're below five viewers on Twitch you'll likely never be found on Twitch so first I chose a game that I loved and I knew had a very committed passionate Community who were always eager for more content
[03:26] but I also made sure the game was underrated on Twitch the game that matched all that criteria was XCOM 2 War of The Chosen now s-com 2 has an amazing feature for every streamer involved it
[03:39] lets you create hundreds of soldiers and customize them as much as you want but most importantly you can name those soldiers after your Chatters before I even went live I made a massive role play post
[03:51] on the rx-com 2 subreddit pretending to be a drill sergeant in need of volunteers to fight the alien menace I was expecting maybe 5 or 6 sign ups but I actually had hundreds of people commenting to join my playthrough sadly these posts are now deleted there were too many people going
[04:06] and ripping the exact word for word posts and then reusing them so if you wanted the examples blame the people who don't come up with a new idea and just steal okay that's all so was that all I did did I make this post get hundreds of comments and then just start advertising my stream to them
[04:20] no I didn't tell any of these people it was a stream i instead made all of their characters and then I went live to just one or two friends I streamed for four hours finished the stream and then watched the entire VOD back and I manually clipped all of the moments that were important or
[04:36] could be a funny thing to write about once I was done I wrote an entire post that was a story of everything that had happened in that session and I shared it to the community without saying that I was streaming and people loved it so I repeated this a few more times and on the third or fourth
[04:52] time I included links to Twitch clips from the stream and from there I suddenly had five new viewers come to my stream they were welcomed in by the two friends that I mentioned earlier from there I had my momentum I had broken that first hurdle so I kept that playthrough up for a
[05:07] bit and I was able to build a really nice little community of about 10 people but I couldn't play XCOM forever so I decided I had to move to a new category the first category I chose was jackbox it's a party game that needs 10 people this meant I had enough people that could fill a game but my
[05:23] stream was also still small enough that anyone who wanted to play jackbox would come to me and not the big guys because it was easier to get into a game they didn't have to fight for a spot The Next Step was consistency so I repeated this process over and over naming characters after Chatters
[05:38] doing party games and then I moved into other categories that I loved but not oversaturated categories where you're in the top few rows like darkest dungeon which is another game you can name characters after Chatters another game I chose was stardew Valley which I had huge success with
[05:54] essentially I chose games with huge communities that are still active but most streamers have moved on I want to be clear the game choice is not what allowed me to grow it was coming up with unique and creative ways to engage and find new viewers category growth isn't the best way to
[06:09] grow but it's important to mention because that's how I started and how I reached 25 to 30 average in my first month or so which was a massive snowball for many people but again it wasn't
[06:21] just category it started with external unique ways to provide value the takeaway of the story isn't to go do the exact same thing but instead to take inspiration how can you provide unique value to
[06:33] people in communities that isn't just straight advertising or self-promotion how can you then engage those people while you stream and how can you make them community members how can you do
[06:45] more than just go live and hope for the best I hate the words how can you I've said them too many times okay let's talk about more common ways to get eyes on your content specifically the most common advice start a YouTube channel look it's fundamentally good advice but it's also really
[07:03] disingenuous advice and I want to be honest about the difficulties that come with this method because a lot of you guys are trying this method without really being told the truth the major difficulty being that it's really hard to grow a YouTube channel you could spend weeks
[07:19] planning unique video ideas making the thumbnails clickable coming up with good titles making the concept of the video something more than just gameplay you could spend a whole month editing it and then release it through zero viewers and in truth you could release hundreds of videos
[07:34] to zero viewers before you even get a single audience member but that's okay because when you finally get an audience they'll all go watch you on Twitch right no because there is no way to know if people will actually want to click a link in your description and head over to Twitch let
[07:47] alone if they even have twitch accounts so those things are difficult but there are ways we can increase the likelihood of them clicking that link for example spending time researching learning skills learning how to edit and really Tiding a specific audience of people say like myself who
[08:01] I don't make variety content anymore instead I make mostly content that's targeting Nintendo and Pokemon that way every time I release a piece of content I know that the audience will like it because I know they like Pokemon and Nintendo and if I make dozens and dozens of videos and grow an
[08:17] audience I can throw a few call to actions in these videos that show the value of going to my stream for example I can say something like this was recorded live on my twitch Channel want to get a Pokemon named after you then click the link in the description and check me out while I'm live
[08:30] it's important to remember though that these call to actions only work if you've provided consistent value someone won't click over from watching One video and it's important to remember that your videos aren't ads for twitch they are their own content and need to be valuable in their own way
[08:45] if you just make it in hopes of growing a stream you'll likely never grow a YouTube channel and to make a full video so instead I would really recommend starting with YouTube shorts and if
[08:59] you're an absolute beginner I would use tools like join combo to quickly learn how to edit full shorts add sound effects music subtitles and more without needing editing software you can either record little videos offline and upload them directly to combo to edit or it'll
[09:13] just take twitch Clips directly from twitch and you can edit them there this isn't sponsored it's just the best tool for a beginner to learn how to edit and to create YouTube shorts and tick tocks nothing else is needed thanks to working with a few different streamers I've actually managed to
[09:26] work out a pretty consistent method for getting traction on shorts and I honestly believe anyone including absolute beginners with no experience can start getting around ten thousand twenty thousand thirty thousand or even a hundred thousand views on shorts a day that video
[09:40] is coming soon on how I got millions of views on shorts in a month so subscribe if you want to see that I apologize it's just a really big video that needs to be very clear that said I have to be honest with you guys sadly while YouTube shorts are much easier to start creating and have
[09:53] a much larger reach than most other platforms they suffer from the same problem I mentioned earlier viewers are actually less likely to go to Twitch from a short because nobody clicks a short its description to find a link to go to another platform but look growing an audience on YouTube
[10:07] and then using those videos to promote your Twitch absolutely works it's undeniable but there is a better way these days what if and bear with me it's pretty crazy what if someone who watched
[10:20] your YouTube shorts or videos and subscribed would naturally get a notification every time you went live what if they didn't need a Twitch account or ever to visit Twitch in the first place well
[10:32] that's actually possible Now by streaming on the same channel as you make videos in shorts and if you really wanted to get 50 followers or build an audience fast then YouTube shorts and then
[10:44] streaming on YouTube will always be faster and better for Discovery than twitch look it would be incredibly disingenuous of me to make this video about growing followers to talk about external funnels like YouTube and to not bring up the difficulty of convincing people to leave YouTube
[10:58] and go to Twitch instead I wanted to give you the real solution of just streaming to that audience directly on YouTube so keep it in mind and don't shut down the idea of trying out new Platforms in short the actionable tip here is to start out by trying to learn more about short form content
[11:14] oh and please don't use apps or plugins that just automatically convert the clips or recordings then send them out they're often really trash and any tool that converts content to Vertical format but doesn't let you then edit it or add graphics and subtitles isn't worth it you won't grow from basic
[11:31] clip converting tools Clips need to be edited and if you need to use an app that's why I recommend join combo it is a browser based editor that lets you make your clips into good content rather than just a quick converter to help you be lazy it can just be a Clip Converter but it's not it's
[11:46] an actual browser-based editing software aimed at vertical format so those methods build your reach you will have more people see you with your UniQue Ideas like I did on Reddit and with shorts on YouTube which means you might get more people dropping by your stream but when someone joins
[12:00] your stream they won't follow immediately and you don't actually want them to follow you immediately because they aren't actually engaged with your content at that point so instead you want people to follow you as I said at the start with the right intent for example a massive mistake I
[12:16] made here on stream scheme was to tell you guys about my twitch stream and then link it in the description yes I built huge followers but the majority of you weren't interested in my gaming content so I had a large follow account but only 150 to 200 average viewers a better option is to
[12:31] make discoverable content that matches what your stream is going to be about as well and once we have people visiting what can we do do to increase the odds of them following and coming back well that's easy you keep providing the content they followed for consistently so not changing the
[12:46] game you're playing or not changing the style of content you create every week and keeping a consistent schedule so they can always find you when they need to but the most important part is to make good engaging content unique content that stands out and they enjoy like giving them the
[13:01] option to be an x-com 2 character or just telling really funny stories and making it a fun stream I hate to say this but you can't just sit there in the dark and play a game without talking anymore you need to do something unique you need to go further and go beyond and at the end of the day
[13:16] that is the actual tip for this part of the video always be trying to find ways to make your content better than the others that are out there you need to stand out so increase your reach with good
[13:28] external content and then do something valuable to keep people watching that is actually how you increase followers and remember if you're going to ask someone to follow or subscribe you should make sure sure you provided value to someone first so before I tell you my final tip and the most
[13:42] important tip of this entire video I just want to say if this video has given you ideas value or help at all then consider liking and if you want to see more subscribe I hope it was valuable okay so you've done all of these things you made a really unique interesting way to stand out
[13:57] you've made a heap of YouTube shorts that aren't Just Clips converted you've made YouTube videos you stream on a consistent schedule and you're streaming while doing the very best you can to be engaging but you might not actually be getting followers yet does that mean you suck yeah it does
[14:15] yeah yeah you probably stuck that isn't an insult though I sucked and I still suck and as gross as that sounds guys if this video can help you at all I want you to know that gaining followers and
[14:27] viewers doesn't actually determine your success which gives you these little achievements to aim for and it makes you feel like that's the goal but it isn't I hate these things success is determined
[14:39] by the things that you control like how much hard work you did or how much you learned to try to be a better Creator how much have you as a person improved heck success is also just determined by whether you're proud enough to show what you've made to someone else if you're not proud to share
[14:54] your content well then it means you need to strive to make something that you are proud of though you might not be getting many followers or viewers right now but as long as you are aware of what you need to do to improve and you keep working hard to make better content than the last piece of content
[15:08] you made well then you're succeeding so keep it up you got this I believe in you despite the fact that you suck well I believe in you if you put effort in if you don't put effort in then I don't believe in you is that harsh I don't think that's harsh that's fine I'm leaving that in oh and if
[15:23] you want to learn more about making short format content well then click this video right here you don't need to be an editor you don't need to be an expert but it will help you learn a lot about join combo it is specifically aimed at Tick Tock but I also have a video coming soon about YouTube
[15:36] shorts and it'll still help with YouTube shorts anyway not sponsored I just love the platform because it's great for beginners so there it is there and I'll see you guys next week bye
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