If you consider yourself an avid gamer and you love to share your gaming experiences with others, becoming a gaming influencer may be a great path for you. With the rise in global popularity of both console and mobile gaming, many gamers are transitioning from leisurely hobbyists into influential voices within the industry, often producing content that is shared across social media platforms and channels. Becoming an effective gaming influencer not only requires skill in playing video games but also the know-how to create specific types of content that will resonate with followers.
Today’s gamers are much more diverse in terms of demographics, platforms, and game choices, with some even shifting into what some might call “full-time play.” Just look at these statistics from Insider Intelligence:
- In 2022, 54.2% of the U.S. population were digital gamers.
- 162.9 million people in the U.S. play games on their smartphones.
- Gen Z and millennials spend more of their leisure time playing video games than any other medium.
- Two of every three people under 18 play video games online, an activity second only to watching YouTube videos.
In this blog post, we’ll look at what it takes to become a successful gaming influencer and provide some tips on how to get started.
Identify your gaming niche
Being a gaming influencer doesn’t necessarily mean that your entire channel has to be dedicated to one particular game, or even just gaming. Some influencers choose to create a mix of content that also covers gaming culture or simply lifestyle content that’s relevant to your target audience.
Even under the gaming umbrella, there’s room for creativity in terms of focus. Consider offering a mix of the following:
- Streaming with commentary while you play your favorite game
- Unboxing videos
- Reviews of games (FAQs, features, benefits) and equipment
- Game-related news
- Game tutorials
- Funny commentaries on other live-streaming games
When in doubt, focus on games you enjoy and are good at or on making your personality the focus, as it will make the commentary more interesting.
Create a personal brand
Branding, creating a distinct identity with visual design, tone and style, isn’t reserved for corporations. Influencers, too, can benefit from creating an authentic look, feel and even sound to help their audience recognize them with predictable colors, fonts, imagery, and names.
With cohesive visual components like a logo, avatar, character or channel name, photo, and colors, gaming influencers can also create branded merchandise to sell to their followers and fans. Popular gamers can even have popular catchphrases they use that they then put on merch. From hats and T-shirts to hoodies and consumables, merch serves not only as a way to earn money but also as a walking advertisement to help promote your brand as a gamer.
Develop a plan for growth
Every bit of time you invest into your gaming influencer goal could pay off in the long run. The trick is to build a solid foundation of content along with a strategy for growth.
Choose your platforms
Although most gamers will probably already have some social media, you may want to create new accounts on one or more platforms to separate your personal posts from your branded gaming-related content.
To determine which platforms to use, you’ll need to figure out where your target audience spends time. For gamers, these platforms include Twitch, Discord, and YouTube, although you TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram are options, too.
Create a schedule for streaming and posting
Once you’ve decided on one or more platforms, consider creating a monthly or quarterly content schedule to build consistency for your audience. When your followers begin to recognize patterns in the days and times that you post, you’ll build trust and predictability.
Create a mix of content for variety, but aim to be especially reliable on your most substantial content, such as live streaming or weekly vlogs.
Build your audience
While follower count can certainly be important, it’s not the end-all, be-all. In fact, niche influencers with smaller follower counts are often sought-after for their authentic voice, dedicated followers, and low influencer partnership rates.
Of course, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to grow your audience. Start by learning about analytics, that is, data that offers insights into who your followers are, which pieces of content they engage with the most, when they engage with your content, and how long they view each piece.
If your followers tend to like and share game tutorials more than any other content, you may want to invest more energy in tutorials. If you find that no one views videos that you post first in the morning on weekdays, you may need to adjust your posting times and days.
It’s also important to include a call to action with every piece of content in order to drive your audience to like, share, subscribe, donate, or buy your merchandise.
Be sure to follow other streamers and gamers who might share your target audience. You may pick up some new viewers or followers.
Market yourself as an influencer
Worried brands won’t be able to find your up-and-coming channel to offer you a partnership on their campaigns? Consider signing up for IZEA’s Marketplace, where you can create a listing for a sponsored stream or post and set your own price.
Follow these steps to start building your brand as a gaming influencer today. The only thing better than sharing your love of video games with like-minded people is getting paid to do it.
Influencers:
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Marketers:
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