As a streamer, it’s critical to understand that you’re engaging in content creation beyond just live streaming. The live streaming market is very saturated, and as a content creator, you will have to create content outside of your live streaming platform to gain an audience. This article will cover multiple ways to increase your viewer count, and the various methods you can employ to improve your craft.
10 Ways to Get More Viewers on Facebook Gaming
Here are ten ways that you can increase the viewership on your Facebook Gaming account:
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1. Start Producing Content on Other Platforms
Facebook Gaming can host both live streams and VOD content. As a result, you must produce content for the platform, such as videos and clips. Videos specifically are considered evergreen content; this is content you’ll create that can be viewed by new users even when you’re offline. Your videos are eligible to be viewed 24/7, and Facebook’s algorithm will push your uploads to new viewers who are interested in the specific category your video caters.
Eventually, you’ll hit your stride, and you’ll be eligible for Facebook’s Level Up program, with this program your stream will become monetizable, and you’ll gain access to other Facebook Level Up streamers so you can network and communicate with them.
- Producing Videos on Facebook – The obvious start is to produce content on Facebook itself. On your Facebook gaming page, you can post videos on demand. An easy way to begin this is to produce cut-down highlights or clips of your Facebook Streams as 6-10 minutes digestible videos. New viewers can easily consume these videos, and if they enjoy it, they’re likely to watch your Facebook Gaming stream as it’s integrated directly into the platform.
- Diversifying Facebook Videos to YouTube – Taking the videos you create on Facebook, you can diversify them directly to YouTube. These videos can be posted on YouTube for extra viewership and growth, and you can create a CTA (Call to Action) within the Video to prompt viewers to check out your Facebook Gaming live stream. Using Tubebuddy is a great tool to help optimize your videos for YouTube’s platform. Tubebuddy helps you by showing you the best keywords for your Youtube title and description, and can also help you create eye-catching Thumbnails!
- Using Tiktok to Network – Tiktok still has the potential for the fastest explosive growth of any platform. Posting very short clips of the best moments from your stream is a great way to foster a TikTok audience and then bring them over to your live stream. You can do this by creating certain types of engaging content such as educational content, comedic content, trending content, and more.
- Using Instagram to your Facebook Audience – As Instagram is a Facebook subsidiary, there is plenty of cross-pollination of audiences between Facebook Gaming and Instagram. Instagram can be a great tool to reward existing viewers with snapshots of your life, showing them what you’re up to off-stream can give them an even more personal connection.
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2. Use a Webcam
Using a webcam can be a great way to build a connection with your viewer. They’re able to see a real-time reaction to their questions, quips, and statements. There’s an immediate personal connection between the streamer and viewer if they can see your body language, as well as hearing your voice.
In fact, StreamScheme has run two polls in the past directly relating to viewers watching streams with or without webcams. In the first, more than half of the participants polled stated that they would not click on a thumbnail without a face cam regardless of the title or what game was being played.
In the second, nearly 3/4 of those polled stated they preferred to watch streams with face cams.
However, it’s important to remember that being comfortable while streaming is incredibly important. If you’re more comfortable streaming by not using a webcam, you can supplement your content in different ways; if your stream is engaging for the viewer, it can still be a success!
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3. Improve the Production Value
Production value can make or break a viewer’s initial impression of your stream.
The most important factor to a well-produced stream is the audio quality. While more than half of your potential viewers may click away if you don’t use a webcam, nearly all will click away if you have poor audio. Make sure that your microphone isn’t peaking or clipping, that it’s loud enough and it’s clear for the viewer.
It’s also preferable to use an XLR microphone, such as the Shure SM7B, rather than a USB microphone, as it allows the Streamer to have more control over the audio they’d like to send on their broadcast. Typically an XLR microphone will allow you to adjust: EQ options, compression, and other audio tweaks.
That being said, when you are first starting out, a USB microphone that is set up correctly can still give your viewers good audio quality. You can always continually upgrade your equipment as your channel grows.
Improve Your Lighting
Another factor to consider is your lighting, if you’re using a webcam, make sure that you’re well lit so the Viewer can easily distinguish your face from the background.
If you have a limited budget, you can achieve dramatic lighting effects with a single light. One method is called Rembrandt lighting, and it’s what you can typically see in a cinematic shot.
This is a very simple method, and it involves placing a light to the side, so it only lights one side of your face. This causes the other half of your face to be shadowed, giving a very dramatic effect. You can experiment with moving your lighting source around to see what effect you’d like to have on the camera!
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4. Use Eye-Catching Stream Graphics
Branding is a marketing tool that any streamer should be incorporating. It gives you a distinct look, makes you recognizable to returning viewers, and makes you stand out from the crowd. Onstream, graphics should be used tastefully, and not to distract your viewers from the streamer, but rather as a way to complement the stream and tie it all together. Professionally designed graphics can be purchased or commissioned for your stream and here are three of our favorites:
- OWN3D – A platform that has a diverse library of overlays and alerts. These assets are professionally designed and are easily integrated into your stream.
- Fiverr – Fiverr allows streamers to commission bespoke assets for their stream. This allows you to completely have control over your stream graphics and make them unique to your brand.
- Nerd or Die – Nerd or Die’s graphics are appealing to many different audiences. They produce fantastic transitions and scenes that keep your viewers coming back.
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5. Use Catchy Music
DMCA or (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has recently had increasing enforcement in the live streaming community. Facebook has mitigated these issues by allowing purchasing licenses for partners to use copyrighted music in the background of their streams. Furthermore, if a DMCA song is detected in your live-stream or video upload, Facebook will notify you and allow you to mute those areas while retaining your content.
Although these solutions exist, you can also opt to use copyright-free music that won’t get DMCA struck as a streamer. This will allow your videos and live Stream VODs to live on Facebook without worrying about making it DMCA compliant.
A great platform for royalty free music is Epidemic Sound. They have over 30,000 sourced songs in a wide variety of popular genres and add new tracks on a weekly basis. The best part is, you can try out their music on your stream with their free 30-day trial.
Their affordable personal plan allows you to use their music on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. You can easily select a portion of a song to use in an intro or another portion of your stream. The platform also has several categories of sound alerts that you can use under the same plan.
Here are a few other services you can use:
- OWN3D – you can find their Spotify playlist through their site. There are over 200 LoFi and Synthwave royalty-free songs you can use at no cost to you or your fans.
- Bass Rebels Streaming Playlist – this account provides a link to the licenses for all the songs on their playlist.
- Streambeats – A bespoke playlist that has been made DMCA compliant, by design. This playlist can be used personally and commercially.
- Pretzel.rocks – A music player built for live streamers with curated stream-safe music.
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6. Chat to Every Viewer Who Chats During Your Streams
One of the unique features of a live stream is real-time interaction. As a streamer, it’s super important to be engaging with any viewer that comes in constantly; they need to be a part of the conversation to keep your live stream engaging. Here are a few ways to foster engagement in your chat:
- Yes, and principle – A great improvisation tool is to follow the “Yes, and” principle. This is essentially the idea of always adding value to a conversation. For example, if a viewer was to ask you “Have you seen the new Marvel movie?”, and you have not seen it, one way to respond would be to disregard the statement – “No, I haven’t seen it”. However, following the ‘Yes, and’ principle, you could instead say something like “No, I haven’t seen it, but do you think it’s worth watching it?”. Phrasing your answer with a question gives value to the viewer and asks for their opinion, which drives the conversation.
- Remembering users – Remembering the users that have watched previously is incredibly important to fostering a positive and inclusive community. Viewers enjoy returning to previous conversations, whether for informative or comedic reasons; it’s a great way to drive engagement in the chat.
- Asking Questions – Ask your viewers questions, whether it’s about a new game or something that you’ve experienced recently. Viewers love to be included in a conversation where they’re asked for their values and opinions on a topic. A good method is to prepare questions you can ask, to any viewer, before streaming and keeping it on the side if you’re struggling for ideas on the spot.
It’s worth noting that there are viewers who are lurkers. Essentially these viewers are in your chat to watch your stream and enjoy the show. It’s good etiquette not to call out lurkers and to let them enjoy the Stream in the background if they’re comfortable to chat they will – so please don’t call them out!
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7. Network with Other Streamers
It’s easy to view other streamers as competition. However, you stand to both benefit if you’re engaging in collaboration! It’s worth spending half an hour scoping out your competition, such as people who stream similar games, have a similar personality type, and a similar viewer count. Building relationships with these individuals through Discord, email, or instant messaging can lead to great opportunities.
You can also find interactive groups through Facebook Groups; there are plenty of streaming communities, or video game community groups you can join in expressing your interest in a certain category with others.
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8. Improve Your Content
Iterating upon your content is a critical skill that every content creator must engage with. You can do this by self-evaluation, which is critiquing your content by watching it back and making notes on which areas can be improved and why. Alternatively, you can ask viewers for their opinions on your recent content posts to see what they like and what they’d like to see changed or added. Here are a few ideas on how to improve your content:
- New Content – As your producing content, you should be keeping a list of new content ideas you can experiment with. This can either be new content ideas, or a mixture of previous content ideas you can combine. It’s a fun way to keep your content fresh and ultimately improve your craft the quickest way.
- Adapted Content – This is essentially putting your spin on existing Content. This can be an existing video idea that you’ve seen from your favorite content creator, and you can adapt that content to fit your personality and Stream.
- Special Occasions – It’s always important to celebrate special events with your Stream. These can be important milestones relevant to your Facebook streaming careers such as achieving Level Up status or being more general like a birthday or a seasonal event.
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9. Share Your Stream on Relevant Facebook Groups
One way to get exposure for your Facebook Stream is by sharing it with relevant Facebook groups. This can be groups such as streaming groups, or it can be a group for a specific category you stream under: a video game, a craft or profession, and more!
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10. Bring Your Special Sauce
Being able to market a unique talent or trait is paramount in the live streaming industry. Being different from the crowd is something you should celebrate on stream, and innovating new ways to keep things fresh will always keep viewers excited to join your next stream.
Conclusion
Growing a Facebook Gaming page is a marathon rather than a sprint. Remember always to be self-critical and have a desire to iterate and improve your Content. Strive that your next stream or your subsequent video is better than the last.