I’m sure you’ve been wondering, how do these top streamers always have something to talk about in a chat room? It's actually a very time-consuming process, and they learn to talk to themselves or the audience for a long time. When starting your first stream - chat communication, one of the most important skills you have to learn. Empty chat is terrible, both for you and for potential viewers. Today we want to share with you some tips to help you master this useful skill - communicating with the audience.
Speak, speak, and speak again
There`s nothing worse than a streamer without a webcam, but a streamer who is silent is the worst thing on Twitch. The main advice for all aspiring streamers is to try not to be silent at all. If you want your streams to be interesting to watch, talk. This way you can entertain your regular viewers, and also attract random visitors who come to you by ad or from categories on Twitch. If they come to the stream when you're talking about something, it might make them stay and listen to you, and maybe even subscribe.
Continuous talk is good for viewers who run the stream in the background instead of the music. And even if there's no activity in the chat, never stop talking - because it's the conversation that helps you keep the viewer on the stream.
But what to do if your chat is empty?
The first rule is not to get upset and keep talking. This sometimes happens with popular streamers, maybe that chat is silent, and long time (sometimes 20 minutes). But how to keep talking if no one is there? Talk to yourself. It’s hard, it has to be practiced, it may look strange, but it helps. If you are difficult to have a dialogue with yourself, you can try to describe what’s going on in the game, commented on actions, read out the game dialogue, etc. This does not always help.
When you're a beginner streamer, it's important to get the viewer interested in your personality, not in the game. People come to watch and interact with a person, not to watch a game they may have already seen or played with another streamer. Of course, no one forbids you to describe the game, but it's better to try to talk a little about yourself, tell how your day was, or what you ate for breakfast today, etc.
How do you "get" people to chat?
The standard phrase, "Hey guys, how are you doing?" - literally never works if you haven't already a core of viewers who are staying with you all the time, or for a long time. Actually, the phrase about how you're doing is a parasite phrase. Streamers never care how you're doing until they know you. Well, the viewer understands this, so very often this phrase goes “nowhere”. But it's not bad. If you're comfortable and like to ask people how they're doing, go ahead, just remember that it's hardly helped, there are better ways.
For example, you can talk about the movie or TV series that you’re watching right now or recently, the music you are listening to, or the games you are still playing. Because most people may have an opinion about your favorite movie or music and might be interested in sharing their opinion with you. A dialogue that could potentially attract others could thus emerge, and that could be transformed from dialogue to discussion.
"Personal Experience"
This is another category of conversation in which other people can express their opinions. You can always tell a random story from your life - funny, instructive, sad - anything. It may be that some of your viewers have been in similar situations and can share their experiences with you. You can talk about your school, your job, your life, your first date, etc. "Personal experience" is a great treasure trove of conversation topics - go for it.
Unpopular opinions
Never be afraid to express your opinion or your point of view, even if it is different. Especially if it is different. Always talk about it, it can provoke people to express their own opinions. Someone may agree with you, and someone, on the contrary, will prove them right - this is a discussion, and a discussion is a chat activity, which is what you're trying to achieve. But never talk about politics, religion, or racism - first of all, it’s ugly, and secondly, it can get you blocked on Twitch (we warned).
For example, you can tell about how you liked some movie that most people didn't like. This is a powerful motivator to get people to talk, and by nature, people always want to share their opinion and maybe even impose them on someone, so don’t miss that moment.
Comparing things, movies, games, etc.
Another great topic of discussion is comparison. You can also combine your "wrong" opinion with a comparison. For example, you can say why you liked a movie that no one likes and compare it to another movie. For example, if you liked the new Star Wars trilogy (episodes 7-9) and didn't like the prequel trilogy (episodes 1-3) - you can compare them and give your opinion. Or with the games. There are lots of examples, don’t be afraid to experiment.
Not asking questions that couldn`t be answered
Try to avoid questions for which you might not get answers from the chat. Try to ask "random" questions. For example, you play some new game, it's better you don’t ask a question head-on, like - "How to get a new weapon here?", and ask, for example - "Will there be any more guns in this game?". I mean, it would be like a question in the air, but maybe someone would answer you, even maybe wrong, but it would make a person type it and send it to you in a chat room.
Adapt to the "rhythm" of chat
Try to adapt to the rhythm of your chat. If there are a lot of people and they're all talking, try to read everything and answer all the questions, but if not enough, try to focus your attention on these people and communicate with them more. You can read the messages, respond to them, and in between insert your opinion or point of view on the messages your viewers write to you. Anyway, don’t forget to always talk. For example, you answered the questions - talk for 10 minutes about the game, movie, music, etc. Try to develop the topics that your viewers present to you - the main thing is don't stop talking.
Ignore the viewer counter
The viewer counter does not always update on time or display the exact number of people. If the counter shows 0, it doesn't always mean that no one is watching you. Don't stop talking, tell about yourself, the game, movies, and more.
To summarize, a repeat of tenth time - never stop talking, talk about everything that comes into your head (within reasonable), express your opinion, even if it is different from the generally accepted, watch the chat, try to pay attention to all viewers, avoid questions that you do not get answers. If you stick to these tips, you'll be fine.
