How to Promote Your Twitch Channel

Would you like to know how to promote and advertise your Twitch channel and actually get some folks into your stream? If so.. Oh booyyy! 😀 I have a real goodie for you today.

We have touched on this subject already couple times in 233 Twitch Followers in 7 days and 6 Best Places to Advertise Twitch Stream while playing Apex Legends articles.

In the latter there is also more detailed tips and tricks that you can do to get more attention mainly from Facebook groups.

Most of the Streamers do the Advertising WRONG

I don’t want you to be like the most streamers. I want you to succeed in your streaming journey. That’s why i’m sharing this really in-depth guide made by Gael LEVEL where he covers all of the three most important places for streamers to advertise.

He also shares tips on the algorithms. That are the most important thing to take into account from the start so you don’t get discouraged while promoting / advertising your live stream.

Important – Thing about Facebook Pages

He also shares a really good point about the Facebook page’s effectiveness. The Facebook Pages has changed the system so much that the pages are basically useless if you don’t use paid advertising for it.

This overly sized image 👇 is an ad.. It’s not just any ad but a useful one it is!

Poof 🧙‍♂️ Now the ad is gone..

I have also stopped being more active there since the reach of each post is so low that it really doesn’t make sense to focus on that. Twitter, Facebook Groups and Instagram are where it is at for streamers!

But now! Let’s get started with the awesome guide and get your promoting and advertising efforts an awesome boost!

How to Promote your Twitch Channel

Video Transcript

• Hey guys Gael Level here and today we’re gonna talk about how to advertise your livestream. All right, all right real quick before we start. We have a new free overlay pack on gumroad.com/gaellevel. We did that live during our show, you can actually watch the vod in the channel just click on the name and yeah we made it live and I decided to give it away for free. Just go to gumroad.com/gaellevel and get it.

How to Get Started with Stream Promoting?

Now let’s talk about how to advertise your stream. Little points before we start listing off different platforms that you can advertise on. First point is advertising your stream will always depend on who you are and what you do. In this case, what you stream. Obviously there will be certain advantages at streaming something in particular and disadvantages. For example, if you’re a variety streamer it’s hard to be part of every community of every single game you stream. If you are a creative streamer, it’s going to be hard to advertise your stream in between a bunch of people that are talking about games.

Now when it comes to platforms that you will be advertising on, keep in mind that your content will dictate which platform you should be leaning on the most. Something else we’re gonna be talking about is the no spam and the smart spam. Basically there are platforms where if you post too much or if you only post one certain type of content, you will not get very successful on this platform. And there are platforms that actually require you to post as many whatever it is, just to post as much as possible. And also we’ll probably vaguely talk about influencer / leader marketing.

Let’s jump right into it. Okay, you’re a live streamer, let’s assume that you stream on Twitch. Because it’s easier for me to just talk about one platform. If you stream on YouTube, it will also, you will also get a lot of advice and it’s pretty much the same thing. But there is some, specifics that I want to touch that only apply to Twitch streamers basically.

How to Promote your Twitch Stream in Facebook?

We’re gonna do it by listing the platform and let’s talk about the, one of the biggest platforms out there when it comes to social media, let’s talk about Facebook. Oh, Facebook let’s go fast. There are three types of way that you can reach people by being on Facebook. First one is going to be a personal account.

Stream promoting in Facebook with Personal Profile

This is where you have your grandma, your auntie and also your high school friends. Second way is going to be a Facebook page. This is when you can create with your stream name and you can upload clips and everything that has to do with your stream. And then the third way is by joining groups. By joining with your personal Facebook profile. Let’s talk more about option number one. The personal Facebook page. Basically, Facebook profile, if you will. The personal Facebook profile is when you’re just starting on Twitch.

You just created your Twitch channel and you really want to get, affiliated, for example. So you can start earning money through subs and bits and all of that. Your personal Facebook profile is the best way to achieve that. Out of your 600 or a 1 000 friends, you just need two more people, also watch your own stream that counts as a view.

You just need two more people to click on your link every time you’re going live. If you’re just starting, feel free to tell them every time you’re going live. Make a post, let grandma know that if she leaves your tab open you might actually get money and she will be glad to help you. Same thing goes for any other friend.

You can say, hey you know what when I get affiliated I’m throwing a party, please help me. That’s fine, those are personal friends so they will most likely help you. But that’s just when you’re starting out. ‘Cause if you streaming more and more and you get a schedule those people will not want to see your stuff and they will be annoyed by you, spamming them all the time.

So personal Facebook profile is good for when you’re starting out. So your family and your friends can help you get that affiliate status. You can also make them create Twitch profiles and follow you so you can get that fifty followers. Is it worth it to advertise your stream on your personal profile? Yes. When you’re starting, at least.

Promoting in Facebook as a Facebook page

Option number two, the Facebook page, your fan page. Where you will get fans, basically people that are not necessarily your friends but they can like the page and get news and updates about you and your stream.

Now this sounds like the best option because I’m a streamer and I want everyone to be able to see my fan page and keep up with my news. This is actually not as easy as you think. The Facebook, the new Facebook algorithm is actually super, super, super tight.

And it’s not easy to get that algorithm to show your posts to people. Let’s say if you have one hundred people that like the page that means that they want to see content from you, the algorithm will not show your content to all of them. Actually the Facebook algorithm, the page algorithm, will hide your own post from your own fans. It’s not really, really a good option.

This overly sized image 👇 is an ad.. It’s not just any ad but a useful one it is!

Poof 🧙‍♂️ Now the ad is gone..

Unless you pay for boosting your post. And in that case if you’re just starting out on Twitch or on YouTube and you don’t have a budget to pay for advertisement, it’s not a good idea to get a page.

One other way that you could reach out to other people to get Facebook to show your page and your content to other people would be to to be posting at least six images or videos per day. And if you don’t keep that consistency and you stop posting for a week, Facebook will stop showing your content to people.

Do you remember all those pages that you liked when you first created your first Facebook page? Do you remember that? When you first joined Facebook you liked everything. Where are those pages? Well turns out they’re still there. They’re still posting. Facebook just doesn’t show their post to you because you don’t interact with them anymore.

So imagine all of these people that have thousands and thousands of fans and the fans don’t see the posts. Unless they activate notifications and it gets complicated real fast. So is creating the Facebook page a good way to advertise your streams? Uh no, because first of all, Facebook as a platform is not really that keen to gaming.

When was the last time that you watched your hour long session of gaming on Facebook? Never? Me neither. So I remember when I talked about depending on the content, you will lean on certain platforms. Facebook is not that welcome for gaming. You can post clips and some clips will go around but it’s not the most shareable content on Facebook. So Facebook pages, not the best way.

You can still use them if you want but I’m telling you, you’re gonna struggle. Now don’t be desperate yet. Last category Facebook groups.

Stream Promoting in Facebook Groups

Now this is where it’s at, okay? But it’s not gonna be easy. You already have the people that you want to reach. Basically the money that you would get Facebook on a page to show your posts to people. You already have the people. All you have to do is grab their attention.

Because obviously those Facebook groups that are dedicated to Twitch streamers, are oversaturated. Also something important that you need to keep in mind is the fact that these groups are filled with streamers, right?

It’s like you’re a fast food restaurant and you’re advertising where other fast food restaurants are also advertising but there are no fast food enthusiasts there. There are no fast food clients there. Keep that in mind that the only people that will see your post are mostly streamers. Now I’m not saying streamers can’t be viewers. But I’m saying that this is not a pool of viewers. These groups are not filled with viewers.

Do not, do not visualize these groups like that. Just because a group has forty thousand members, it’s forty thousand people who tried streaming on Twitch. Not forty thousand people who can’t wait to click on links and discover new streamers and support them. That’s not the case. Okay, now you’re in a bunch of Facebook groups for streamers. How do you advertise?

How to Stand Out in Facebook Groups as a Streamer

Well, the key here is to stand out. And I know it’s very vague and I’m gonna try to go in a little bit of detail. The question I get asked the most is, how do I stand out? How do I actually advertise in these groups in order to pull people in? Well one thing you need to know about the general Facebook algorithm, is that it hates external links. You have external links, you have images, and then you have videos.

If you post a video, it has been tested there’s no actual documentation of it. It has been tested that videos get 125% more reach than a regular post. But if you’re posting an external link, the algorithm will actually try to hide it from people. So what you need to new. What you need to now? What you need to do every time you’re posting your Twitch link inside a Facebook group or anywhere else on Facebook.

You need to add at least an image, at least. The best thing you can do for yourself is post a video. But yeah, I don’t have . You can go on Instagram record a story, download it, upload it. It’s that easy. Yeah, but what type of video? Other people are also posting videos.

There are like major simple psychology tricks to get people’s attention. When they’re scrolling down a group for example. What does the human brain like? My analogy is always like, the human brain is stupid, you can entertain it so easily. What are things that the human brain likes? Uh, colors try to include colors. Try to include flashy lights. Try to include a human face, preferably yours. Because there is this emotional, this human connection that is made when the human brain detects a human face pattern.

Weirdly enough something that I hear often is, I share my link on Facebook groups and no one ever likes or ever comes by but when women post their selfies with cleavage they get all the likes. Guess what, you are posting a little description with your link and the algorithm is putting you down.

The reason why they get more likes is because they show a human face, they actually post a picture which the algorithm prefers. So the algorithm, the algorithm will show them at the top of everyone’s feed. They just get more attention than you because they use Facebook better. That’s it. I’m a guy, every time I post on to Facebook group I get more liked than most of the members of those groups. So stop trying to blame anyone else, you’re not doing your research, you’re not doing the work.

So posting something as simple as a selfie is better than not posting anything and just dropping your link with that little generated thumbnail. When I see those, in my, ’cause I’m the admin of Twitch connect. When I see those in my groups, I’m like this is not gonna work, this is not gonna bring you anywhere. And unfortunately and fortunately, thousands of people are doing the exact same thing.

How do you expect to stand out?

Do you think people are scrolling down a group with forty thousand people and just clicking on every link and then supporting those streamers forever? Not my group by the way, my group doesn’t have forty thousand, I’m just using that as an example. So stand out, okay? I believe in you, you’ve got this. Stand out, use your brain.

Now we’re done talking about Facebook for now but something you need to know is that Facebook could be the easiest platform to advertise. Because it doesn’t require you to use Facebook the way it was intended to be used and you’ll see why in a couple seconds.

Promoting in Instagram as a Streamer

Let’s move on to Instagram. Oh my god Instagram okay, The thing that I just said right now is that Facebook does not require you to use it blah blah blah. Instagram does you require you to use it the way that it was meant to be used. You’re not gonna go on Instagram just putting, I’m going live now, I’m going live now. And now all your feed is that. And then you get famous on Instagram.

That’s not gonna happen you’re not gonna reach anyone and no one is going to click on your stuff. Instagram, just like the other social media platform we’re gonna talk about in a bit. Requires you to actually be active on the app.

The more time you spend on this app, doing stuff, interacting with other people, the more you will be rewarded. The more Instagram will show your stuff to the people. Just like Facebook, ironically Facebook actually owns Instagram now. Instagram does not show all of your posts to everyone. They show posts to people because these people have interacted with the user.

Interaction – Post Stories and Ask Questions

So how do I get them to watch my posts? Get them to interact with you. Now how you can do that? You can use stories, you can post a question. You can just post engaging content that will get them to interact. Ask them what their favorite game? Everyone’s gonna type, and their gonna have more interaction. These people that are interacting with you they will see your posts more and more in the future. The more they interact with you.

A good way to really, really make sure that everyone see your stuff, is stories, every time someone clicks and it interacts with your stories. The little emoji slider, the question, the polls, the more people interact with those, the more Instagram will show your story first, every time you post something in your stories. And that is absolutely valuable, because they may not see your normal posts, your images and videos but they will see that story, as long as you get them to often interact with you.

And post often, obviously. Now what do you mean by being active on Instagram? You will pick a bunch of hashtags, first of all I want to give you the basics. I forgot to talk about the basics. Should I have a public account or a private account? You should have a public account. That will help you use hashtags. If you put hashtags in your pictures or your videos everyone looking for that hashtags, will see your picture or your video, so keep it public.

Should You Have Personal Account or a Business Account?

Technically it doesn’t matter but if you want to have access to specific analysis and boosting your posts, paying for Instagram to show your post to more people then you might want to get a business account.

Okay these are the basics, what do people actually want to see on an Instagram account? If I can just post, I’m going live now, I’m going live, come watch me, I’m going live. What do people want to see on Instagram? Guess what? They wanna see your face.

They wanna see you, they wanna see your personal life. Basically, if you’re eating something, share it. It’s like all this stereotype, of the Instagram app or the basic Instagram user, it’s exactly what people want to see on Instagram. This is what, this is why they use Instagram.

Right? If I want to watch Fortnite videos, I’m not going on Instagram to watch Fortnite videos. If I wanna watch a stream, if I wanna watch a one hour long Overwatch session, I’m not going to Instagram, I’m not going on Facebook.

I’m going on Twitch. I’m going on YouTube. But it makes no sense for you to just post a certain type of content on a platform that is where they don’t really appreciate it.

Post pictures of yourself, learn how to take selfies it’s 2018. I don’t care what you think about your face, people want to see it, people want to connect with you. Personally. Give them what they want or they will just not come by.

And you will not have a lot of followers. Many people asking me, hey, how do I get more followers on Instagram? How do I get more? And I go in their account and their posting everything except anything that makes you think that there’s a human that owns the account. Like oh they like Pokemon, let me post Pokemon stuff. Oh people will like Dragon Ball, then they post Dragon Ball stuff. Yeah, you’re just catering to people, to a fan base.

But no one knows who you are. And that’s what you want them to know. If they know who you are, they might want to go watch you live and interact with you live. It’s so easy to get lost in the whole social media thing. And be completely disconnected and not feel like people want to connect with you. But the truth is, if there’s no one behind the screen it’s just not the same. This is why I said I was gonna touch about influencer marketing / leader marketing.

Basically influencer is taking all of your content and assimilating it to yourself. To you as a person. This is why vlogs are so popular ’cause it’s so up close and personal. It’s really you, you, you. It’s not a company, it’s not a team, it’s not a squad call it whatever.

Promoting content as a influencer as a person, as a personality, a celebrity if you will, will always have more success than promoting it as a group or anything because if you ever post something about being sad your fan will be sad.

If you look like you’re happy they will be happy for you. If you say, hey my company is not doing that well. Or this company, hey guys this group, this squad is not doing to well, blah blah blah. People won’t feel emotions connected to an association or a company. So use Instagram the way it’s intended and from time to time you can slip in some advertisement for your content and maybe some of you people on Instagram will go and check you out.

But it’s not the other way, you can’t just create a Instagram account and just promote your stream, your stream, your stream. You will get, you can get, kind of successful but you’re limiting your potential. Jesus Christ, I’ve been talking for a while now.

Bonus – The TRUTH about Instagram Stories for Streamers

Promoting in Twitter as a Twitch Streamer – Avoid These

Let me move on. Let’s move on to Twitter. Twitter just like Instagram requires you to use the platform the way it’s meant to be. Okay? What is your favorite Twitter account that is just doing going live, going live, going live, going live, going live.

None. None. No one loves those Twitter accounts. No one likes them, no one, I follow my friends that do that and I unfollow them ’cause I don’t want that on my feed. Cool, you’re going live that’s, that’s great. Cool, you’re going live that’s great. Cool okay you’re just spamming my feed at this point.

How to use Twitter for promotions?

So there are many ways to use Twitter, obviously. You can type texts, you can put on videos, so use that to your advantage. Also the thing that I said about personality about the human connection, is really, really real.

It’s really true on Twitter because people share their thoughts and what’s going through their mind and other people connect with that. And that’s the most popular content on Twitter. So if you’re just streaming I’m going live, there’s no room for that. To me you’re just like you might as well have a bot that post that every time you go live but I don’t want to follow your bot.

What You Need to Know About Streamer Hashtags

Talking about bots, I know a lot of you will look at other small streamers and what they’re doing and you will come across the famous hashtag support small streamers, support smaller streamers, support small stream.

There are no viewers clicking on those hashtags. None. Zero. You know who clicks on those hashtags? I do, why? Because my community is streamers. My content here on YouTube appeals to streamers.

Leaders that are trying to profit off of small streamers click on those because they will invite you to teams. You will get DMs, you should join my team, blah, blah, blah. But at the end, they’re mostly trying to promote their own stuff. My good advice is you will not get more viewers from those hashtags and if you do it’s literally people trying to profit off of you. So avoid using those.

Also, if I’m a viewer and you use that hashtag support, it comes in with the begging. I made a whole video about it. I’m not sure I’m gonna put something but I made a video about begging. To me if you put hashtag support smaller streamers that means you’re begging me to support you. Instead of promoting your content and showing me what I’m missing, to me your content is bad.

Unfortunately I automatically prejudiced but I don’t have time to check out for myself all the time. So i automatically assume that your content is bad. If you need to beg people to support you.

Share Interesting Content in Twitter

You’re a content creator, you’re putting out content. If people like it, they will come and watch it. If they don’t like it, they won’t. You don’t need to ask for that. You can advertise it, you can put a trailer, you can put your best clips, your best moments, show me what I’m missing. Show me why I should watch you. Don’t ask me to support you, I don’t know you.

Thing about Retweet Bots in Twitter for Streamers

There’s also retweet bots. Twitch, Twitch re-tweeter, like whatever. Basically people would put a bunch of hashtags and they will tag a bunch of bots and they will get eight retweets from eight bots. And they will feel glad, like oh wow, I got eight retweets on my going live post. I got zero viewers from them, guess why? Because they’re bots, they’re literally bots.

No human connection, no people involved and there’s no one scrolling down those bot accounts looking for new streamers. Except maybe community leaders, that are trying to get you to join their community, so that you can promote them and they can profit off of you.

What Should you Focus on Twitter?

So focus your Twitter account by showing who you are, show a personality, show people something that they connect with and that will make them want to follow you.

That will make them want to click on the link. And if you don’t wanna do all that you can show what’s happening on your stream. What they’re missing out, it can be funny moments, it can be cool MLG moments where you got a triple kill, a quadruple kill in your FPS game. Anything that’s impressive, you found a glitch in a game and it was pretty funny or spooky, share that. I will click on a stream if I see that. I will not click on a stream because you put support smaller streamers.

I guarantee I will never click on your stream if you put support smaller streamer. So, you got this. I know this is something that small streamers will see other small streamers do and then they will replicate it because they don’t know any better but I’m glad you’re watching this video right now ’cause this is the truth behind it all.

Who Should you Follow, Retweet and Share on Twitter?

And same thing, stay active follow accounts that are active, I don’t know, the dev accounts of your favorite game. If you’re streaming a game, follow the dev account. So you can know about the updates and all that. You can retweet their stuff. Get yourself noticed, if you’re not active no one will notice you.

It only takes, I don’t know, one retweet from, I don’t know Blizzard, for your stream to blow up. So instead of just using Twitter to just say I’m going live, I’m going live, I’m going live. And then put tagging a bunch of bots. Tag the people that matter. You found a weird glitch? In a game that you’re playing? Tag the devs, post a clip, show me something interesting. If they retweet that glitch, you’re getting followers like crazy.

And if it’s a big triple A game, you’re good. You’re good you made it with that one clip. But guess what? If they say, if they see all of the hashtags and all of the retweet bot, they’re not gonna retweet you. ‘Cause it looks like spam.

Basic of Promoting your Twitch, Mixer or YouTube Stream

Anyways those were the basics of how you can advertise your live stream on three different platforms. The most popular platforms, if you will. I have videos on specifically if you’re playing video games, skill based video games, I have a video on that called “How to blow up on Twitch“. And it’s another way to get viewers without actually advertising at all. I also have a specific video if you’re doing art on stream.

How you can, I don’t know if I’m gonna put them up I have a video on that too and how you can blow up and this one is using Facebook and charitable content. Cause artistic content is more welcomed on Facebook than gaming so you can use that to your advantage and actually be pretty successful with a Facebook page and Facebook groups.

So check out all of those videos. If you’re a new streamer and this is the first video you’re watching well like and subscribe, hit that notification bell ’cause I’m posting a lot of content related to streaming and I also already have a bunch of content related to streaming.

Go around channel, look at the videos if you have any questions, chances are I already made a video about it. So, go look it up. I’m gonna put some social media up there. You can follow me on Twitter that’s Level_Photo.

You can follow me on Instagram that’s @Gael.Level. You can follow me on Twitch Twitch.tv/GaelLevel and of course if you’re looking for overlays I have a bunch of free overlays and the rest are cheap you can go gumroad.com we recently released a new free pack and if you’re not streaming yet, or you’re using a different program consider downloading Streamlabs OBS.

I will have an affiliate link in the description. You download it for free on this link I will get a little bit of money, charity will also get a little bit of money. So please consider it. That being said, I know I went a little fast and I’m a little aggressive but um I believe in you guys, you know, this is the type of information that people are not sharing because they are afraid of competition or whatever, people are selfish I guess?

I don’t want to bash anyone, I believe in you. If you have that information you can use it to your advantage and become what the purpose of this channel is, better content creators. So you got this, make me proud! But thank you so, so much for watching. I will see you guys next time, Gael Level out.