While follower counts are the least important metric on your channel, some of the people who hit that heart button will return, adding to your viewer counts and potentially becoming an active member of your community.
As you are watching other channels and naturally engaging in their chat (don’t promote yourself), some viewers may want to learn a little more about you and may visit your channel. For those instances, it is important that you have good branding in place.
Offline Screen for Your Twitch Channel
Have a detailed offline screen that displays your content, mentions when you stream, and has a call to action to join you the next time you go live. Channels with an offline screen will stand out among the many that don’t. If you can entice them to scroll down to see your profile, they could learn even more about you.
People who are attracted to your visual branding and intrigued by your information are likely to follow your stream with the intention of returning to it in the future. Even if they don’t ever actually watch your stream, you will have gained a follow.
Clear Detailed Twitch Profile
Take the time to fully fill out your Twitch profile. Add information about yourself, your steam, and your community. Add branded Twitch panels and images to help it stand out and look visually appealing. Write your information in a way that will attract your target audience. Use a bit of humor and be endearing. People will follow and hopefully return to your stream in the future.
Schedule Widget in Your Twitch Profile
While you are adding Twitch panels to your profile, add a schedule widget as well. Most are customizable to your brand. These widgets will show your audience when you plan to stream next in their own time zone. The countdown will also let them quickly gauge how soon they will need to return to your stream without missing a beat.
Add a little text before or after the widget reminding people that they can be notified of your next stream if they follow your channel. Some will follow just so that they can be sure not to forget.
Be Active on Social Media
Be active on social media. Add interesting posts frequently and engage with other people’s activities. As people begin to connect with you and enjoy your online content, they will want to see more of you. If you have your Twitch channel listed in your social profiles, several people are likely to visit it, watch a few clips, then follow.
Don’t come across as too needy or beg for viewers on your social media accounts. Instead, find ways to make people laugh or build other people up. You should be able to grow multiple accounts simultaneously.
Post Content on YouTube
It is a lot harder to be spotted on Twitch than it is to be seen (at least a few times) on YouTube. Post compilation videos or how-to videos to a YouTube account. Find ways to create original content that people will find entertaining or educational. A few of the people who come across your work on YouTube will visit your Twitch account to follow.
The nice thing about YouTube is that good content can generate views for years, not only creating passive income from ads and affiliate links but passively suggesting that people visit your Twitch and give you a follow as well.
Conclusion
Your goal should be to find ways to generate passive follows so that you can continually build your follower count, even when you are offline. Even though several of these people may never return to your channel, some of them will become solid contributors to your community over time.
Chris
Chris is a marketing major with a strong background in small business and influencer branding. He applies his knowledge of content and promotional strategies to design actionable advice for new and intermediate streamers. When he’s not busy crunching analytics, he can be found in the salt pits of League of Legends.