I recently started streaming on Twitch (because, you know, I have such an abundance of free time, I needed another time sink.. LOL), I’ve been a moderator for various streamers on Twitch over the last couple of years but I wanted to be able to help streamers more (remember, I love my Beloved Creatives) and the only real way to know what streamers encounter is to be a streamer oneself. So, I started a couple of weeks ago.
I stream at an obnoxious time in the wee hours of the morning, because I want to be available to keep moderating for the streamers that I have been moderating for and there is just no way that I could both stream and moderate simultaneously. It may look/seem like no big deal, but honestly, it’s a lot to juggle on the streamer side and, depending on what the streamer that you are moderating for is doing, it can be quite a lot of keeping plates spinning to be a moderator. At least if you are someone like I am who tends to take moderation duties pretty seriously.
So, where does “Follow” come into all of this? Content creators depend on people to “like” and “follow” their work. Depending on the platform, the actual word used for this can be different. Twitch has both followers (free-not paid) and subscribers (small monthly fee). YouTube has a subscribe button, plus you can “like” content by hitting the “thumbs up” button. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc…. all have their way (typically at least one no-cost way) of indicating your support for the content creators. It typically takes a single click. Sometimes two if you decide you are both going to follow/subscribe and another to “like” something that the creator has posted.
It may seem inconsequential if you are not a creator. It might seem like it doesn’t matter, I mean, how much weight can it carry if it’s FREE, after all. But, those follows and likes are used by the platforms to gauge interest and the more follows/likes/shares a piece of content has, the more people that the platform pushes it out to. So those clicks are super-important.
Of course, it’s always good, if you can to support creators financially, if you are able to. But there are almost always ways to support creators that don’t cost you anything and do actually help creators grow.