Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to the video and today we're going to be talking to you all about how to engage your audience when you're streaming. Welcome to the video. Hey guys, my name is Earlzwood, I'm a full-time content creator and today, as I say, we're gonna be talking all about how to engage your audience when you're streaming. Strap yourselves in. So I get many questions from many streamers about what is the general advice when it comes to how to engage your audience and there is many, many, many different tips online about how to do so. In this video, I'm going to be sharing my top four to five tips on that I try and go back to to try and make sure I'm trying to be as engaging as possible to all the viewers in the stream. So number one, which is something that can be quite easily missed but it is so important. The first thing is to turn off your view account. Now the view account can have such an impact on you as a streamer without you even knowing, you know, because you'll sit there and all of a sudden you'll be there at four viewers and thinking, okay, the stream's going okay and then you'll see it spike up to like eight or even ten, you'll start to get a hold of the adrenaline, your energy will increase, you'll get a lot more, you know, hyper on stream, you'll see it drop down to like four again and then you'll immediately just drop in thinking, okay, is that something I've done? Did I say something? Is it my stream's not good enough? And all of a sudden, your focus goes all the way from your content to stats. Now, focusing on stats can massively distract you and have a huge impact on your content. Please turn off your view account and it goes back to the old saying of stream as if a hundred people are watching you, you know, how would your energy be? And I don't mean to go out there and just like force and always be crazy, energetic and hyper and everything and, you know, something that's not you. People will watch you for you, you know, so the best advice is just to be yourself on stream, focus on your content and just turn off your view account. But the second tip, when it comes to, you know, engaging with the audience, how do I engage with people if there's no one there? Now, you've got to realize that Twitch and or Mixer, any streaming platform is very much like window shopping, you know, people come in and out of your stream without even knowing. So you've got to make sure that you have stuff ready and prepared to talk about when you're streaming. So you're not just sat there, not really know what to talk about and all of a sudden it's a very kind of like awkward situation on your stream because if it's awkward for you, it's awkward for the viewers. My advice is talk about the game that you're playing, you know, if there's been a recent update that's come out, talk about that, you know, what, what do you like about the update? What don't you like, whether it's something you would like to see come out in the game, what would you, what would you like to be changed in the game that you're playing? I stream Rainbow Six Siege, you know, there's a new season about to drop. So recently we've been talking all about that. We've had lots of people's inputs and feedback on what they think about the new operators and how it can change the game. And you'll be surprised if you're just asking a simple question about, Hey guys, what do you think about this new update? You know, do you like it? What sort of things do you like? What don't you like? And you'll get a lot of people who are, you know, just sat there just watching the stream and they will, will be more likely to, you know, want to comment and get involved. Now on that point, there are a lot of people who just like to sit back and chill watching streams. You know, a lot of people see Twitch as their entertainment and just sit back at night after a long day at work and just sit back and just watch the stream. You know, they don't necessarily want to, you know, get involved in chat and type away. You just want to sit back, have a beer or a cup of tea and just chill and watch the stream. So kind of understand that side of it, because you know, not everybody who's watching your stream is going to be engaging with the chat. Now, a very, very simple thing, playing with people online, particularly if the game that you stream was online can really, really encourage, you know, interaction because not only are you, you know, you're playing with other people online, which encourages conversations and, and, you know, more chance of content. It's a lot more kind of interactive for the street, for the viewers as well, because they can kind of see what's going on from a different perspective. You can generate a lot of content very, very easily just by playing with people online. Now, as I say, if the game that you stream is completely single player, then obviously refer to the two previous points above about, you know, just talking about what you like in the game, what you don't like and what you think would be changed. The second tip is to share personal experiences. You know, when you're streaming, what, what's happened, has anything happened to you during that day that you want to share, whether it's something that's happened at work, if streaming isn't your job, something that's something funny that's happened to you today, sharing these kinds of things allows the viewers to relate to you. It allows them to, to begin to learn more about you as a, not only as a content creator, but as a person, you know, it allows them to kind of learn what things you like to do away from streaming. That is crucial because if a viewer can relate to you, they're more likely going to want to come back and continue to want to learn more about you and get to know you more. Just a simple, okay, this happened today away from, away from streaming. I was talking about the day when I was walking Ziggy, my little puppy, we're going on a dog walk. Some dog was trying to chase Ziggy. I was trying to run after them, slipped over straight into some dog poop, you know, and something as silly as that, you know, creates a bit of a bit of a laughter in chat. People are like, oh yeah, that's happened to me before. And they start to share a lot of personal experiences. People will come out of their shell very, very easy. Share personal experiences because it allows people to relate to you. Third tip. This is a very, very important tip. You need to understand that sometimes, you know, chats or streams will be quieter than normal. You know, you're going to have days where it's more active and you can have days where it's not as active. Now this is not down to anything specifically you've done wrong or it's nobody's fault. I was talking about this in the stream last night. Viewers, people have lives. You know, your viewers have lives away from, you know, away from watching your stream. They have stuff to do. So they're not always going to be around to be in your stream and chat to you. And understanding that is a crucial thing because it is kind of a mental barricade to try and get over. Because if you think, oh, they're not here today, they're normally always here, but they're not here today. Have I, have I upset them? Have I, did I say something? Have I done something wrong? You know, again, it's just taking your focus away from content. Now, just don't let it impact your mood on stream because the people who are in your stream right now will see that and it kind of will create an awkward tension as well. So focus on the people that are in your stream, you know, understand that quiet chats will happen sometimes. And this is why it's very, very important to bring in the next point, which is to have open-ended questions ready. You know, have a notepad next to you of like five different topics you'd like to talk about that stream. Whether you change those topics every single day, you know, whether it's something that's happened in the news or in the gaming industry or about a particular game that's upcoming, you know, write it down during the day. And then you've got something to talk about that night, you know, that stream, when you go live, keep it fresh because open-ended questions, you know, encourages people to try and get involved and it allows you to learn more about your viewers. And that is, that is so important, learning things about your viewers. If people are willing to share their time and their input with you, it is so important that you show that you are listening to them. This is why, and I mentioned the notepad kind of tip quite in quite a few videos now. If a viewer mentions something about what they're going through, but it's something that's happened at home or whether it's a job that they've applied for, you know, make a note of it, write it down somewhere quickly. So then the next time they come in, you can ask them about it. And you know, immediately it gains trust between you and them. It shows them that you care. And that is the most important thing in building an audience, building a community is to make your viewers feel appreciated, you know, when they're spending their time because time is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly important in life. And the fact that they've chosen to spend, you know, half an hour, an hour, two hours, whatever it may be in your stream, it is so important. You appreciate them and you show them that you appreciate them. A couple of examples of open-ended questions that you can ask, you know, are things like, you know, what's your favorite game at the minute? What are you really enjoying playing? You know, whether that's on stream or off stream, you know, what sort of games you were looking forward to, what is one kind of streaming area that you're looking to improve in their streams, you know, you know, get, get the conversations going, get the ball rolling, share advice, learn about each other. Now, and it's a two-way connection. It's a two-way relationship between you as a streamer and content creator and the viewers. Something that can be very, very fun to do as well is to have something like the question of the day, you know, so what, something very, very simple you could ask, you know, each time a new viewer comes in, simple question like, you know, what motivates you to get out of bed in the morning? What is your number one goal that you want to try and achieve before the end of the year? It'll be, it's a very, very simple way to, to bring people together, to share what other people's goals are, to see how you can even help them achieve their goals, you know, even if they're not even streaming related. So it's very, very important. And particularly with Christmas coming up, it could be a very, very easy topic to talk about. So you could say the question of the day is what is your favorite thing at Christmas dinner? The answer to that, by the way, is pigs in blankets. Oh, there's nothing better than pigs in blankets on a Christmas dinner. But you know, there are so many different things out that you can do to help engage your audience. You know, these are kind of my top kind of four to five tips. I always go back to, you know, keep things fresh within the topics of the day that you can talk about, you know, look online or whether you've seen some, you know, news about a new game that's been released or something that's happened within an existing game, whether they've changed something or an update, you know, write it down during the day. And then when you go live, you've got fresh topics to talk about within your audience. Guys, I stream five days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday on Twitch. I say everything is linked below the video. If you've ever got any questions, say, let me know in the comment section below. I'm always around in the Discord as well. You know, there is never, ever, ever a silly question to ask when it comes to content creation. You know, we've all been in the same situation. Now we're all here to help each other grow, learn and evolve as content creators. Thank you guys so much for watching the video. If you have enjoyed the video, don't forget to click the big red button. You get a free hug and maybe a Christmas present. Thank you guys. I really do appreciate it. Have a nice day. Roll the tape. Bye.