Twitch became one of the top live streaming services in social media - and for good reasons. It’s easy to use and comes with a variety of options, all about building and connecting a community with the excitement of sharing content live.
If you’re ready to take your channel to the next level, there are more than a few useful tools to help you strategize or add features for your community. If you’re on a budget, or just getting started, you can make it easier to use Twitch and get more out of your channel with some free options.
SullyGnome - The name may not sound it, but this is a very serious tool for monitoring the growth and performance of your channel. It’s a virtual control board for what’s happening across Twitch, and it can give you a jump on new trends that help you leverage your streams.
Twitch Tracker - This analytics platform takes a different approach to Twitch that you may prefer. The home screen offers comparisons between different users, trends and streams so you can strategize a little easier for the time you put into analytics.
Sound Alerts - If you want to get to the next level of engaging your community, this Twitch plugin gives your followers a literal voice. Sound Alerts offers a collection of sound effects - or an option for you to add your own - so they can cheer you on live!
Twitch Emotes - If you’re focusing on chatting with your community, you need emotes to get that buzz on Twitch. They’re hard to track, so this app does it for you, along with analytics on the hot emotes of the moment. It even auto-suggests emotes for you and your followers
Twitch Prime - If you’re trying to get more subscribers, start at the source and use the Prime Subscription and Loot Reminder extension. It reminds followers to subscribe to your channel so you don’t have to, although you have to disable other extensions in Twitch because you can only use one at a time.
Canva - This may not be news, but Canva is a wonderful free tool for content creation of all types. The free option of graphic design platform lets you make all the branding you need for your channels across all social media, even including custom fonts.
Pretzel - This beloved backing-track platform has a free option with a premium upgrade. Even the free version gives you access to top-quality music for Twitch and YouTube live streams. It’s also available as a desktop app for those who’d rather use a full-sized screen.
TeeBoard - Speaking of full-sized screens, TeeBoard is the closest you can get to running Twitch on your desktop. It connects to your channel with nearly all of the functionality, including status and chats, from the comfort of your Mac or PC.
Nightbot - This bot has individual reactions preset for your followers. It’s not very sophisticated, but Nightbot will encourage them to react to your streams in ways that help promote you, and helps protect new channels from spam.
And the most important tool you have - yourself! Building a following takes time and consistency, like most things in life worth building. Remember why you do what you do when you live stream. Stay positive, confident and creative. The people who appreciate what you do will follow.
