Through my research, I classify the Twitch audience into three kinds of personas. They’re as follows:
pictured above is ninja from a red bull video
Gaming Communities
The growth of Twitch can largely attributed to the growth of the gaming industry, But in 2019, Twitch has outgrown its roots of being just a place where people come to watch others playing games. That said, Gaming Communities still make up at least half the traffic generated on Twitch.
When it comes to creating content for this audience, co-streaming or partnerships will work best. On Twitch, The Washington Post has done a great job creating content that is native to their mission, but still reeling in members of Gaming Communities. The almost weekly show called, Playing Games with Politicians, brings a politician to the Post’s studio, where the host of the show and the politician play a game and casually talk politics. This content works great as the Post is not trying too hard to fit in, but at the same time is creating content which works well on Twitch.
All in all, if you’re a News/Lifestyle producer going to get started on Twitch, this is an audience that can bring in the numbers…if you’re able to find content that interests them.
PICTURED ABOVE IS THE BROADCASTER FUSLIE FROM TWITCH
Special Interest Communities
With an approximate 40% increase per month, the fastest growing content segment on Twitch is Non-Gaming content. This is going to be really hard for me to summarize succinctly. But here goes, Twitch is now made up of numerous communities who come to pursue and/or hang-out with people who’re engaging in things that they’re interested in.
For example, a category on Twitch which is its own community is the Music & Performing Arts community which includes all kinds of artists sharing their talent with their community. The content ranges from composers creating tunes with live input from their viewers to people just viewers how to play a song or a create a recording room.
Like the example, I described above different passions = different communities, each with their own inside jokes, trending topics, channel trends and, most importantly, audience engagement strategies. So if you’re The Verge and tech is you’re thing, you can easily slide into the Science & Technology category and see what’s working. But, if you’re the New York Times or the New Yorker or any publication which covers a range of topics, you can stream for a different community every time.
Won’t that confuse your viewers? NO. Because of the category which you will mark your stream with, it will be found specifically by people interest in that specific category. Contact me, if that was confusing. Some topics are best had via a direct chat.
Polygon has done a good job summarizing the Non-Gaming categories on Twitch. So as news/lifestyle producer, this is bloody brilliant because now you can be as specific as you want and create content for specific communities.
Twitch is full of communities who just want to hang out and do things.
People who just want to hang out
There are a whole host of broadcasters on Twitch who are streaming variety shows with an objective of just giving people a chance to hang out with others. You can understand these late-night radio shows or TV shows where viewers used to call in and share their opinion on a topic.
This sub-group of people on Twitch are not looking for anything in particular, but they’re. I’ll explain. They want the sensation of hanging out with new people who’re doing things they like, but without the stress of having these people in your room or physical space.
How do you approach this as a News/Lifestyle producer? Well, the key insight here is that we know when they’re active (i.e. late night). So, your task is simple.
Figure out what content you have that is long-form or some task that you do at your publication that takes awhile.
Set-up a show/narrative arc around it.
Get a host or two with some key talking points.
Go live with an objective to build an audience who will lurk.