Tips for Better Audience Interactions on Livestream

One of the most challenging aspects of streaming is audience engagement. It’s one thing to attract new viewers; it’s another to actually keep them in your stream. A lot of other streamers are doing what you’re doing, and some of them are also streaming at the same time as you, so if you don’t find ways to hold their attention, they would drift off somewhere else and may not come back anymore.

Here are some ways to better engage with your audience and keep them coming back.

1. Welcoming The Newcomers

It may seem small, but one of the most important things you can do to improve audience engagement is to make the newcomers feel as welcome as possible. These newbies are your future mods, constants, friends, and marketers, so once they start liking your streams, they will definitely keep coming back and becoming loyal supporters. Once you establish a welcoming atmosphere in your streams, people in your community may also start to extend the same warmth to other newcomers, increasing your fanbase and improving your overall engagement.

One of the simplest ways you can do this is to greet newcomers as they first enter and interact with you. Get to know them and tell them about what’s going on in your stream, then encourage your viewers to talk to them as well. You can also have your mods help you do this so the newbie will feel involved as much as possible.

2. Make Everyone Feel Involved

As opposed to videos and shows in general, streams are designed for both entertainment and engagement. The benefit of watching a livestream is that viewers can directly interact with the creator. Always remember this aspect. Similar to what music artists do during concerts, make sure to also go back and interact with your audience during your streams. Don’t just play your game or keep singing; make the audience feel that you’re also paying attention to them, and that they are involved in the stream experience.

You can do this by setting up polls within your stream, so that everyone can vote on what happens in the stream next. This works particularly well when you’re doing a game stream and there’s a major decision to be made in the game. You can also reserve some streaming days for people to just chill and talk to you, or do Q&A sessions with them, so that they feel that you are also interested in getting to know them as well. Some streamers also reserve the first 15-30 minutes of their stream for them to talk to viewers.

Another effective way of engaging your community is creating a unique fanbase name for them. A lot of streamers refer to their community using a unique name connected to their brand/streamer tag, such as Pokimane’s “Poki Squad” or Sykkuno’s “Sykkos”. Some of the names are created by the fanbase itself, while some are made by the streamers. Either way, a good fanbase name gives your community something to be proud of, and better engages them by making them feel like they’re a part of a family.

Additionally, you can sprinkle in simple interactions within the stream, such as setting a goal for your viewers to reach or asking them to type certain words or phrases before doing something funny, like dancing or singing in a silly way.

3. Appreciation Goes A Long Way

Another thing that keeps people coming back is when they feel that the streamer appreciates their support. Viewers provide support via chats, encouragement, loyalty, and gifts; in the same way, they would appreciate if they also saw gestures of appreciation from the creator. Even something as simple as calling them by name while thanking them sincerely is already an effective way to keep supporters engaged. You can also do giveaways, sending small tokens, and acknowledging those who have been supporting you for a long time already.

Using these simple strategies, you’ll be able to improve your audience engagement and keep viewers coming back and staying in your streams.