There are just too many influencers now. On Twitch alone there are over 7M active streamers every month, and that means over 7M potential partners to sift through for an influencer marketing campaign. Even with an initial list of names in mind, they may no longer be as popular as you once thought, or maybe they’ve shifted content style completely. Live streaming is a fast-paced industry of ever-shifting personalities: Finding influencers that are right for you may feel overwhelming; more like a lottery than anything.
To simplify this whole process, we’re going to walk through three key steps in the influencer discovery pathway. These three steps filter influencers based on different factors:
- Reach: The popularity of the influencer
- Engagement: The response from the influencer’s fans
- Sentiment: The tone and substance of the influencer’s content
By following these steps, you can go from millions of candidates to just a few dozen candidates that are popular, engaging, and suitable for your brand. We’ll be discussing a lot of live-streaming stats, which you can read more about here if you need any clarification.
Reach: Start by Establishing Which Streamers Are Currently Popular
A few key live-streaming metrics are commonly used to gauge the general popularity of any given streamer, including their hours watched, peak viewership, and average minute audience (AMA). Hours watched and AMA are useful for consistent streamers that constantly generate new content. Peak viewership, on the other hand, is a better indicator of reach for streamers who stream irregularly, such as esports players or legacy streamers that only cover big events. You can access this kind of data for free via our publicly available ranking pages (like the one shown above) to find the most popular streamers right now.
However, you’ll often want to cast a wider net than just the big-name streamers like Kai Cenat or zackrawrr. For starters, you may not have the marketing budget to secure partnerships with these kinds of streamers and may need to be a bit more strategic in generating the same response. But even if you have got deep pockets, you can’t just throw money at big streamers and hope to generate engagement (like SNK did with its launch for Fatal Fury). When filtering streamers by popularity, then, consider the lowest limit of reach you’re willing to accept and then create a cut-off point.
Reach goes beyond just on-platform followers though: Streamers and other creators will always have social media following to take into account which can massively amplify their voice. If a YouTuber that regularly makes pre-written content decides to start a Twitch for occasional streams, then it may seem like their Twitch isn’t that popular. But the fans that tune in on Twitch could be commenting en masse on YouTube VODs later, and possibly reposting content via Instagram and TikTok. Taking into account social media reach is therefore crucial in this preliminary step, made easier with tools like Sideqik’s Creator Discovery.
Engagement: Figure Out if Influencers Have Audiences that Care
Once you’ve got a list of streamers with enough reach, you want to make sure their fans are actually engaged. Inevitably your influencer marketing campaign will have some kind of CTA, and if viewers aren’t really interacting with the stream, then they’re less likely to convert. They’re also less likely to amplify your activation on social media (as previously mentioned). Hence, you can further restrict your pool of potential streamers by only selecting those with high chat engagement.
It’s worth establishing that popular ≠ engaging (necessarily). Across the Top 1000 streamers on Twitch, the median chat engagement is 29.2 (where chat engagement is the number of messages per unique viewer). But the top ranked streamers actually fall below this median chat engagement, while lower ranked groups tend to have more active fans. While this trend doesn’t correlate perfectly, it’s clear enough that engagement should be assessed separately from reach. In most cases, you will need advanced tools to accurately measure chat engagement – but with Stream Hatchet, you can quickly assess the chat engagement of any streamer (or group of streamers) you like.
Sentiment: Only Select Influencers That Suit Your Brand
Now we have streamers that are both popular enough and engaging enough for your influencer marketing campaign. In essence, what you’ve figured out is a pool of influencers that have found their niche on live streaming… but not every niche is suitable for your purposes. If you’re publishing a cozy game about cats going fishing, the most popular Call of Duty: Warzone streamer probably isn’t the best fit for your activation. So now we need to get more specific, focusing just on those streamers who appeal to your brand’s core audience.
Our first way of doing this is by looking at the type of content streamers are putting out. In the past, this would have been done manually for every single prospect, which burns time and often leads to certain assumptions having to be made to speed up the process (that means cutting corners). But Stream Hatchet now uses an AI-powered Discovery Tool so that you can look at every single streamer on your prospective partner list and get a quick idea of the type of content they produce. Five of the key categories we assess are listed in the graphic above, but if you want more info then reach out to our sales team who can walk you through exactly how this process works.
Ultimately, however, there’s no beating expert insights on the state of the industry. Even the most popular streamers with content that seems to fit a brand’s needs might have red flags. Maybe they’re embroiled in a controversy at the moment, or maybe they’re popular but taking a step back from live streaming. These bits of insider info can only be provided through consultation with people who have managed campaigns in the past and are in constant talks with people behind the scenes. Additionally, a human agent can help talk through the final selection process and address any of your personal concerns/requirements.
Stream Hatchet & Sideqik’s consultants can facilitate the entire influencer marketing process, from influencer discovery right through to campaign management. Working with a consultant means you can simply voice your goals and leave the data-scraping to trained experts. Plus, our consultants can then lead you through the next step by actually reaching out to any influencers you’re interested in partnering with.
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With the pool of potential influencer partners narrowed down based on reach, engagement, and finally sentiment, you can start trying to secure one or more partnerships depending on the activation you have in mind. But opening up your wallet isn’t the only way to get influencers on board: If you want to actually convince an influencer to partner with you (or figure out how to contact them in the first place!), you’ll want to check out our full Stream Hatchet & Sideqik Influencer Marketing eBook:
