Up next: Twitch Livestreaming and Social Commerce Success

Livestreaming as an ecommerce tool—in other words, live selling—has been all the buzz in the social commerce world for a hot minute, ever since TikTok Shop put it front and center on its users' feeds. While it is a relatively new strategy in the US, it's seen quite a bit of success abroad and is expected to grow in ubiquity and acceptance stateside in the coming years despite a difference in consumer habits. That said, TikTok isn't the only streaming platform out there. It certainly wasn't the first to make waves; that honor arguably goes to Justin.TV, or as it's known now, Twitch. Back then, it wasn't so much about selling online as it was about connecting with like-minded people. What lessons can we learn from the early days of livestreaming, and with much of the focus on live selling now, are platforms like Twitch still worth being on?

 

 

One of the best things about streaming, and what should be the ultimate goal of any brand looking to get into it, is the direct connection you can make with your audience. There is potential for raw, unfiltered exchanges to be had in the world of streaming. "F it, we'll do it live," words immortalized by Bill O'Reilly, is the atmosphere that many people even bother tuning in to livestreams for. This kind of interaction cannot be found anywhere else online, and could only be matched by meeting your customers face to face.

 

That is a scary thought for some brand managers, and the immediate reaction might be to just ignore all this community brouhaha and jump right into live selling. That might work on TikTok, but Twitch is a different beast. In fact, Twitch has taken steps to improve community-building efforts over the years. Recently there was a crackdown on viewbotting which Twitch asserts is an effort to promote authentic viewership and meaningful engagement. At around the same time, they added the ability for viewers to rewind streams on Affiliate and Partner channels so their viewers never miss a moment. A while back, Twitch added the Stream Together feature which allows streamers to collaborate with each other, and even invite their audience to call in and join the stream as guests.

 

 

Livestreaming anywhere, whether that's Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, WhatNot, etc., is a marathon and not a sprint. You should expect to reap the rewards of regularly scheduled streaming later down the line as you gradually build up a following of dedicated viewers and fans. It can feel like a slow crawl at times, but once your viewership reaches critical mass and you start seeing regulars come in and chat, that's a good indicator that your channel has legs and can start walking.

 

On Twitch, a good milestone to aim for to get to this point is the Path to Affiliate. The requirements are as follows:

All four achievements must be fully completed to be invited to the Affiliate program. At first glance it doesn't seem too difficult, and in fact it doesn't have to be; with persistence and 25 friends (or co-workers), at least 3 of whom are willing to watch you every stream, this can be done in less than a week. And when you're done with that, there's the next goal: Path to Partner. While much more difficult to achieve, it's a good goal to aim for as it teaches the importance of regularity and consistency in streaming. After all, if people come to your channel expecting to find content and you're never there, why should they stick around?

 

 

Full stop. If your only KPI for streaming on Twitch is going to be the bottom line dollar sign, quit now. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Yes, Twitch offers revenue share on ads played to, and paid subscriptions from, a streamer's viewers. But creators who make big bucks purely through livestreaming are few and far between, and usually do so through additional revenue channels such as merchandising, sponsorship deals, and affiliate content.

 

Just last week, a creator with a relatively large Twitch audience of 45k followers shared their snapshot of what 3 months of earnings on Twitch looks like. Streaming for a total of 768 hours to an average of 180 viewers netted this creator $8,160 in revenue, or about $10.62 per hour. The bulk of that came from ad views, followed by subscriptions. And this streamer is among the top 0.1% of Twitch channels.

 

Why spend so many hours for such a small payoff? It all comes back to Lesson 1. Building a community should be your first and foremost goal when planning a Twitch strategy. In other words, it's best used as a community management tool, not a sales generator. How important that is to your brand depends on what your immediate goals are, and whether or not your brand can stomach the significant amount of time and effort it takes to get a steady stream going.

 

If you made it this far and still think Twitch streaming is the right move for your brand, congratulations are in order! We applaud your daring attitude, because that's what it takes to win at livestreaming. Livecraft has experience getting brands set up not only on Twitch but TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon Live, LinkedIn, and other platforms. We can take you 90% of the way to a successful livestreaming operation, and that last 10% is up to you. Ready to step into the spotlight? Give us a call.