The Cycle of a Stream
The cycle of a stream is a precious one and it is important not to misjudge it because one slip up can cause a lot of progress to be lost. I initially wanted to compare the lifecycle of a stream with that of a butterfly, but realized the stages of the butterfly were somewhat boring if not necessarily accurate, so I went to Peiylar and asked her opinion on it, and she suggested that a cycle of a stream can be compared to the lifecycle of a product. So I did some digging and chatted with her about it, then I related the lifecycle of a product to a cycle of a stream. I hope you enjoy the following information and I hope it helps you in your journey as a broadcaster.
The Cycle of a Stream
Beginning - The Introduction
Streaming is new and exciting! The hype of those first few months is keeping you going. You initially have zero to a few viewers per stream and you're experimenting with what you are comfortable with. You're discovering what works and what doesn't work to keep viewers interested and engaged. You reach 100 followers, which is a cause of celebration! This can take days, weeks, months.
Growth
You find yourself getting settled into a routine. You know what you like to play and what keeps your viewers engaged. You start networking and making connections with other streamers. They may start raiding and hosting you. There is little or steady growth of your stream. Loyal viewers start to emerge and become "regulars" and they return each cast. A community has built around the stream and the viewers.
Pre-Maturity (Pre-Partnership)
The push for partnership begins, whether it is for a sponsorship or partnership with the site itself. You may find that you are getting raided and hosted more. People will support your stream by tweeting it out or keeping your cast open as they do other things in their life. There is larger support overall for you and for your community. Your viewer numbers are larger. Partnership is possible.
Maturity
Partnership has been achieved! Many people congratulate you by either subscribing to you or still giving their support. Support is given through more raids and more hosts, more tweet-outs and more social media mentions. Your viewer numbers are larger right after the maturity stage happens. This is the peak of the stream. This is a honeymoon stage. Once the honeymoon stage is over, there may be a slight hit on support, but if you keep going with what worked to get you there, your stream should continue to grow and mature more.
Decline
Following maturity, the decline stage happens. There are less subscribers, concurrent viewers, raids, hosts, and more. You find there is less support overall and your broadcast is suffering.
This is the time for change.
I want to state the most important concept about changing your stream: Do not change your brand because it is what worked! There are few exceptions to not changing your brand. If you built your brand on speedruns and got partnered on speedruns, you may want to keep doing speedruns until the exception to changing your brand has been hit. I will get into these exceptions soon. But first! The time to change and what to change.
This is the time to evaluate what can change. Look at your broadcast and brand and see what worked. What did viewers enjoy the most? What are closely-related competitors doing that is successful? Don't compare your speedrunning channel to a channel that centers around mmo's or variety streaming. Look at other successful speedrunners. What can you do to build upon it to make it your own? It is important to be authentic in the change. If the change isn't what makes you *you* then it won't be a successful change. And this next part regarding change is probably the second most successful point on implementing change:
Give the change time to work.
Too many broadcasters change a concept of their cast and don't give it time to be successful. It takes time for viewers to adjust to the change. This could take weeks or even months to prove that it is the correct course of action to revitalizing your broadcast. If you've given the change months to prove successful and it isn't, then it is time to re-evaluate what else can change.
The success of your stream is your ability to identify what has worked for you and in attracting your viewers and building upon that. Keep constantly evaluating and re-evaluating your stream's success.
But please keep in mind, that there are external factors that you cannot control which may affect each of these stages.
External factors
There are factors that you cannot control which may falsely make you think your stream is in the decline stage. These external factors can include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The seasons - during the summer people go on vacation and spend time with family. During the fall school starts up and they are busy. Holidays can affect your stream's cycle.
- School - Finals week, vacations, holidays, etc.
- Weather - a hurricane, tornado, storm, earthquake, etc can affect whether or not your viewers can come back.
- Political climate - This may seem silly, but it isn't. Some countries are at the whim of their government what they are allowed access to. It also can affect internet carriers and more.
- New releases - this includes games or movies. People may want to play a game that just released over watching someone else play it. New releases of movies or a television show may affect whether or not a viewer can watch your stream during that particular day.
- Competition - your competition is watching you and if they like something you do, they will do it themselves too. You have to make sure you're watching your competition and making sure you are a step ahead of them or are giving comparable entertainment / knowledge or else your viewers will move to them once they go live.
The cycle of a stream is extremely important to keep in mind before saying "Screw it. I'm rebranding." It is easy to say this, but actually extremely hard to do. Once you've built up a brand and community, doing a dramatic switch can cause extreme losses. For example, there was a streamer who went from being a "booby streamer" to just your average female streamer. The losses to her viewership and community have not recovered since then. She built her brand around being a "booby streamer" and the viewers who were there for that particular broadcast moved on to a competitor. Another example is the streamer who went from streaming a specific video game day in and day out, who was considered a resource of knowledge on this game, to changing what game they stream or even deciding to become a variety streamer. The community takes a hit as generally people have come to rely on your broadcast being one sort of stream and now it is something they are not interested in watching. This happens. It is important to realize that rebranding is extremely tough to do because it involves you looking at yourself, your brand, your stream, your community, and more so you can take it apart and put it back together in a way that you think will work. Once you rebrand, you have to give it time to be successful.
The exceptions to not rebranding can include (but are not limited to):
The exceptions to not rebranding can include (but are not limited to):
- Life changes
- Definite entrance into a decline stage due to company changes (ex: twitch going out of business)
- Personal betterment
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