What is Twitch?

Last week, we hosted our first ever #MisfitsLive with Twitch. We were joined by their Global Head of Brand Partnership Studio, Adam Harris, who started the session by giving us an interactive demonstration for the benefit of those who weren’t familiar with the platform.

Bought by Amazon in 2014 for just under $1 billion, Twitch is the world’s leading social live video streaming platform. From last year, the platform has seen a 50% growth month on month with nearly 24 million daily unique users.

It’s much more than just a gaming platform. It’s a streaming service where millions of people come together every day to chat, interact, and make their own entertainment, together. Twitch also provides an avenue for many purpose-led organisations to raise donations for their causes. Since the platform’s inception, nearly $130 million has been raised in donations.

While the main audience of Twitch is mainly Gen-Z and millennial gamers, it should not be overlooked as a key option to drive your organisation’s goals. Below we’ve listed a few top tips for mastering Twitch.

1: Utilise Existing Communities

We’re living in very strange times right now, and the need to stay connected with people and maintain personal communities has never been higher. Welcoming people into our homes, digitally, has been normalised by the pandemic’s lockdown measures on society. Twitch offers a digital replacement for community gatherings and an element of light relief during these unprecedented times. From music, e-sports to gaming streams, users can watch entertainment together with their favourite streamer.

You do not need to build your own community to see success on the platform. Twitch influencers have already built extremely engaged audiences which organisations can tap into. Make sure you’re taking full advantage of all the existing communities on the platform by carrying out a few simple steps:

1) Twitch offers a highly engaged audience. The average user will stream for seven hours a day, five days a week, this provides organisations with a massive window to connect, chat, and help influence content.

2) Support influencers to enable them to continue playing and inspire their communities with content.

3) Promote a fundraising campaign on the channel — Twitch is an open platform for anyone to create charitable initiatives.

4) Gamers on the platform have a host of interests and you can interact with them in real-time. Gamers also spend hours of their time on their channels, so you can afford to spread your campaign out.

2: Don’t “Dad Dance”

It’s very important that organisations know how to communicate to a younger audience. Twitch is occupied by mostly Gen Z gamers, and (assuming you’re not born in the same era) it’s best that you just stay truthful and honest, otherwise it may come across as fake. Don’t “Dad Dance” to make yourself more engaging and don’t speak in gamer language if you don’t know what you’re talking about!

The most common mistake that people make on the platform is the assumption that everything is either easier or scarier because most content is “live”. In truth, it’s not easy but ‘guard rails’ on the platform make it less scary and that little bit easier! The most important thing about pushing content “live” is the way you present yourself to your audience.

Try not to treat it like Instagram or YouTube where you push content out at people. Always make them feel a part of the content, invite them into it, and let them shape it. This is the way you will see the most benefit. An indication of popularity is how many people are watching at one time — reach is not an indicator of success on Twitch.

3: Utilise The Platform’s Influencers

Like many platforms, using influencers is a great way to promote your cause or message wider pools of communities you may not be able to reach independently.

Before you choose to work with an influencer, make sure they have the right personality and their interests align with your organisation. The collaboration needs to make sense and shouldn’t be forced.

Twitch has made it easier for organisations to pick the right influencer from a safety point of view. All top influencers should have a purple tick next to their account handle, this means they have proved to Twitch that they are committed to the platform and they’ve been vetted thoroughly by the platform’s verification team. In order to get this verification, streamers need to be streaming for 5 days a week, 7 hours a day.

Twitch stresses the importance of making their communities safe so that brands and causes can sponsor them. If a user becomes “unsafe”, they won’t be partnered with anymore — it’s heavily monitored.

If you’re able to work with an influencer on Twitch, have them talk about your organisation on their other social media platforms where they will be followed by others who might be interested.

4: Make Full Use of Platform’s Features

See below for a host of new features that Twitch has recently introduced:

Plug-ins for the video player — An interactive overlay or panel that allows viewers to donate directly to a charity in real-time. Streamers can add these mechanics to drive live donations.

Hype Train — Short term drivers that if you fulfill a certain objective — donating ‘X’ amount by a certain amount of time, they receive a digital reward. This is how people use Twitch and appreciate it from a viewer's perspective.

Additional Resources — There is a team dedicated to charitable causes and on the Twitch website there are a whole host of resources on how to engage with this team. There’s an initial best practice document with relevant contacts at Twitch, whether you’re building a community or tapping into a community.

5: Understand The Fundraising Methods On The Platform

Donation economy is a big part of Twitch. As mentioned previously, over $130 million has been raised since the channel’s inception — it’s a natural platform for organisations to utilise to drive donations. Short-form content doesn’t really exist on the platform, so lengthy streams are the best way of executing a successful strategy. The most rewarding areas to target your organisation’s fundraiser are the e-sports and competitive gaming sectors. While streamers are competing against each for long periods of time, an in-built fundraising feature allows viewers to make direct payments to charities.

If you are a small, local campaign, think about how you might appeal to a global audience. You could look for an influencer who is passionate about what your organisation stands for at a local level. Using their followers will push your organisation’s message across a wider pool of people outside of the campaign’s local community.

‘Stream Aid’ is a great case study that demonstrates ways organisations can utilise the platform’s channels for a fundraising event. The initiative was launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was the platform's version of ‘Live Aid’. It was a 12-hour charity stream that featured some of the biggest names in gaming, music, and sports with special guests and lots of feel-good moments for the greater good. This was an experience that everyone could share virtually. It was accessible over three different channels and the streamers involved were encouraging people to donate throughout. The event raised nearly $2.7 million dollars!

There are so many different features of Twitch that purpose-led organisations can use to drive donations or build awareness. The ‘new-norm’ has shifted behaviours and communities to be more digitally focussed, and organisations need to pivot with it. With the resources and niche audiences’ that Twitch possesses, it should be taken into deep consideration when planning your digital strategy.

Social Misfits Media is a social media and digital agency. We regularly host events for purpose-led organisations to help shape social media strategies and encourage all readers to check out the links to articles and campaigns featured in this blog. Use the best practice advice, stay safe, and wash your hands. Follow us on Twitter to find out about upcoming #MisfitsLive events and keep up-to-date with our work.