How Creators Can Use Twitch to Build Community with Live Streams

This week, we are talking all things Twitch. And if you’re wondering, “Huh? What are you on about?” then don’t worry - by the end of this, you’ll know all about what Twitch is, how you can use it to build your brand, and why you might want to get your booty on there, either to try it for yourself or check out all the other amazing content! 

So what is Twitch? It’s a live streaming platform initially designed for people to watch and chat with gamers playing live. Nowadays, Twitch is home to a lot of different creators using it as a way to grow their audience, share their personality, create a community and let people in on the behind-the-scenes. 

It’s a super exciting place to be and a really cool opportunity for creators (which is exactly why you’ll find Maker & Moxie on Twitch showing off our whole branding process one step at a time). There are so many different ways to use Twitch, so let’s talk about what they are, why you’d want to use Twitch, and some superstar creators to inspire and entertain you!

‍Why Twitch? 

You might be thinking, “Ok, so it’s a live streaming platform. I can already live stream on other platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Why would I want to use Twitch?” 

Let’s go through the 4 key reasons why Twitch is a really darn exciting place to be right now. 

1. Showing Off Your Personality

You can tell a lot about a person based on how they talk, what they talk about, what they’re wearing, what they’re doing and even what their surroundings look like. When creating videos or live streaming, you can show off all these things to show people that little bit more about who you are. 

On Twitch, you can do this for a whole lot longer. It’s not an Instagram Story, Reel or Snapchat that disappears or can only be 30 seconds long. You often stream on Twitch for at least an hour, which is a great amount of time for people to get to know you, what you’re passionate about, what makes you unique and awesome, and why they would want to work with you or buy from you. 

2. Sharing Your Process

People are inherently a little bit nosy. They love getting that inside look behind the scenes. They want to see how you sketch your drawings, how you start making your earrings, how you package your orders. It’s fun and it can be really satisfying and soothing to watch. 

Sharing your process is a really cool benefit of Twitch because you get to spend an hour or two (or more!) letting people in on what you’re doing, how it works and what you’re up to. 

3. Growing Your Community

As we’ve said, people can be there with you on Twitch for quite a while. They’re coming to this dedicated place where they can get to know you really well, connect with other people through the chat function, and they can chat with you as you answer their questions and reply to their comments live on stream. It’s a really cool way of growing a connected and engaged community of people who are interested in similar things and in what you do. 

4. Creating Transparency

Live streams are, well, live! Things can go wrong and people can see everything you’re showing them. 

On platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat or TikTok, it can feel like you’re just getting the shiny, positive bits that people choose to share with you. On Twitch, whatever it is you’re doing - people can see it. You might smudge your artwork, undo something that you just drew on your iPad or have to rewrite your work. 

It might sound a little scary, but it’s a really fun way to grow connection with your audience and create a level of transparency that’s hard to emulate anywhere else. 

Twitch Creators In Action

If you want to see some examples of everything we’ve talked about, I definitely recommend checking out some of these incredible Twitch creators. 

• Pepper Raccoon
  Pepper is an artist and illustrator who creates artwork on Twitch. She’s often working on large-scale, detailed ink drawings, but sometimes streams fun, quick illustrations, as well as doing gaming streams from time to time. 
  

• Cheyenne Barton
  Cheyenne is a really well known illustrator with a great Twitch community. She live streams her illustration process from start to finish, so you get to see her coming up with ideas, sketching them, and then fully drawing and inking them.
  

• Charli Prangley
  Charli is a marketing designer who streams her design process on Twitch. You can watch her creating a wireframe, designing a website, or auditing a website by seeing what’s going on and how she can fix it. She takes her audience along for the journey and asks them for questions and feedback so they can work on it together. 
  

• Meg Lewis
  A designer, comedian, illustrator and more, Meg has started a live stream where she eats fast food and does comedy at the same time, proving that you can be creative on Twitch in any way that sounds good to you! 
  

• Ben Burns
  Ben is one of the members of The Futur. He does branding and design streams, as well as a series where he goes through his design archive and chats about the process behind past designs. He chats with his audience and they can ask questions, making it a cool way to connect with each other. 
  

• And...us!
  Maker & Moxie are using Twitch right now to live stream the full process of building a brand, from thinking out loud and typing ideas to creating designs in Figma and Illustrator. We have plenty more ideas for the future, like branding challenges and creative games to build our community and connect together over branding and creativity. 
  

There are so many more examples out there, from live DJs to wood carving and ceramics. Whatever it is, it’s so exciting to be a part of seeing somebody bring something to life in front of your eyes. Not only that, you get to connect with the creator, see exactly how they’ve done it and ask them questions along the way - how fun and exciting is that? 

There are infinite possibilities of what you could live stream on Twitch. Just like any other platform, think about what sounds fun to you, what you want to be known for and what you want your audience to see. And as always, be creative! It’s a platform that I believe is just going to grow and get more and more creators on there. 

If you feel like Twitch is a fit for you, then grab your laptop and give it a go! I can’t wait to see all the creative things that you do on Twitch, so make sure to let us know what you’re doing so we can support your wonderful work.