Why You Shouldn’t Fear Getting Unfollows on Twitch

“The only thing that a follower count actually does is make your ego bigger. It makes you feel good when you compare yourself to others.”

We have ALL done it…

Clicked over to somebody else’s youtube channel, twitter page or twitch stream and seen a number of “follows” that instantly makes us feel good about ourselves, or makes us feel insignificant.

If they have more followers or viewers than you, you get down on yourself. You secretly wonder if they are cheating to get fake views or say that their videos aren’t even good.

If they have less followers, you get a nice boost to your ego and think that you must be on the right track and disregard that maybe they are new.

It is the big house that impresses all your neighbors and friends, but when you walk inside, there is no furniture. People are afraid to have lower numbers, even if they are more impactful. When you see 12,000 followers on twitter, you think somebody is legit, but how many conversations are they having and how many connections are they making? Who are they helping?

The Most Powerful Thing About Twitch Streams

Would you rather have 15,000 followers but only 50 people in your chat when you go live?

OR

Would you rather only 1,000 followers but 250 people in your chat when you go live?

Which would help you grow faster? Youtube is one thing, but Twitch is a whole different monster.

Communication and interaction is the game changer and the thing that makes this platform so powerful.

It is not about dead followers, it is about true audience.

Why An Unfollow Doesn’t Matter

When you lose an individual viewer, it can hurt. When somebody types in the chat “unfollowed” to let you know on any platform (youtube/twitter) too, it stings. You think, what could I have done different?

Instead, tell them thanks and let them go. Not only are they looking for a reaction, but you don’t want a viewer like in your community anyway.

Pro Tip: If you think it is an honest person or a long-time viewer, email them and really find out why. (I used to love your content when it was long form, but now it has shifted to quick videos where you are trying to only cover big topics) and really consider the feedback. Try and figure out if it was genuine and how you can adapt. Still, your channel will evolve.

We talked about Giveaways and how they can generate some lower rates of people sticking around. Don’t try and mold everyone to watch your stream. Your true audience will enjoy it and the people that “get it” will stick around and blend in. Use it as a tool to get more views, but don’t expect the same rates of conversion.

Think about tourist towns, that is what your stream becomes when you host an event or do a giveaway. You don’t need as many grocery stores as a town where people live all the time. It makes no sense to try and sell people on vacation things that people who live in the town need (schools)

How many unfollows is too many?

As long as your core audience is growing and hopefully slowly so it doesn’t take a strange shape, no amount of other unfollows matter. If you are keeping your best viewers and slowly bringing new ones into the community, you are doing your job on twitch. There will come a point where it reaches critical mass and starts to explode, but it takes time.

Resolution Time: 

In 2015, try not to compare yourself to other channels or their view counts. Take what you can learn from the successful people but don’t measure yourself and let your thoughts turn negative.

What is your resolution, leave it in the comments!