When we talk about Twitch, there is still a certain tendency to think of it as a platform for young people focused on gaming. Some still think Twitch is not for them or that it does not make sense for them to be present as a brand. Nothing is further from reality. Today one of the doubts of the moment for content creators is Twitch vs. Youtube.
YouTube is a platform that has proven to be a launch pad for those people or brands that work very well on their strategy and manage to add enough value to an increasingly demanding public. On YouTube, the only frontier is your creativity.
In this article, we will compare both platforms, their pros, and cons, and answer the big question: Which platform is better for my business?
How Twitch works
Twitch is a streaming platform, which is the main difference between it and YouTube. This means that on Twitch, we will not be able to upload recorded content, but everything we do will be live.
In addition, to create content on this platform, we will need, yes or yes, a live broadcast software, which acts as a bridge between Twitch and our computer.
Usually, the most used software is OBS Studio since it is free and has many customization options, in addition to offering a reasonably stable connection depending on the type of hardware we use and our internet connection.
Therefore, the content will be very volatile since each stream is saved on your channel for only 15 days -60 if you are a partner- which forces streamers to go live constantly.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Twitch
As we always say, each platform has its pros and cons. Let’s start by looking at the advantages of streaming on Twitch:
- It is an emerging communication channel. Currently, the market share competes with traditional media and even exceeds them.
- It is no longer just a gaming platform; right now, there are specific categories for almost any sector.
- New audiences have discovered Twitch, which is no longer just focused on a young age segment.
- It is possible to monetize your content much faster than YouTube, thanks to its affiliate program.
- It has become an excellent way to humanize a brand thanks to the great interaction it allows between streamers and viewers.
But it is also true that it has some disadvantages that can put us back at first:
- Requires specific technical knowledge to be able to broadcast. At first, it can be a bit complex, a handicap for many people.
- Organic discovery is practically nil. This means that without a community, growing on Twitch is very difficult.
- Creating content on Twitch is highly volatile, meaning you’ll need to stream constantly to nurture your audience precisely because they have no other way to find you, as we have mentioned above.
- Your hardware matters; therefore, it requires a particular investment if we want a viable minimum of quality to offer in our live shows.
- Although monetizing is easier than YouTube, the earnings are lower since much of the money from the subscriptions is for Twitch.
How Youtube works
On YouTube, things change since it is a platform designed so that your content remains on your channel for as long as you decide.
This is so because YouTube is a video content search engine, just like Google is a web page search engine.
The YouTube system, the famous neural network, is based on the fact that the algorithm itself learns from user searches and their behaviour within the platform to offer content related to their interests and get them hooked so that they spend as much time as possible browsing from video to video (and in the process get more revenue from advertising).
Advantages and disadvantages of Youtube
Does it make sense then to create content on YouTube? To answer these questions, we will look at your strengths and weaknesses. Let’s start with the main advantages:
- We can do SEO, and this is the fundamental advantage of YouTube. This will allow us, among other things, to generate content that is positioned over time, as long as it adds value and is well worked at an organic level.
- It doesn’t require too much technical knowledge; you can record videos on mobile and edit them with free software like Filmora.
- We can use YouTube as a social network thanks to the “Community” tab, which is unlocked after 500 subs and allows us to upload photos, survey, publish posts, etc.
- We can combine the video content strategy with a blog strategy on our website. Extracting the audio from the video, we can transcribe it, upload it as a post, or even make a podcast.
- We can monetize the content, and if our community base is large, the earnings can be higher than on Twitch.
But since all that glitters is not gold, it also has certain disadvantages to take into account:
- Currently, the competition on YouTube is enormous. We will need to work very well on SEO, which requires some learning time or even a professional strategy behind it.
- We will have to work very well with the thumbnails to capture the users’ attention, which requires knowledge of editing tools such as Photoshop (Photopea is free and online).
- Growth is slow at first -although not linear- and often makes people/brands despair and leave it behind.
- Preparing a video with a minimum of quality at the content level is not easy and may take a great deal of time, while on Twitch, it is “just” hitting the broadcast button.
- Streaming on YouTube is possible, but it is currently very focused on gaming through its YouTube Gaming platform and does not offer too many interaction tools as it does on Twitch.
Conclusion:
The idea is to combine content creation on both platforms. The best thing would be to start building a community base on YouTube and, once established, start streaming on Twitch.
Doing the reverse process can make us frustrated and not see a real return. We have to understand that Twitch is the “tip of the iceberg” of content creation and that we will have to work very well on our social media and YouTube strategy before we get there.
Brands have an excellent opportunity to turn both platforms into a new communication channel with their customers, humanizing the brand and making it more accessible. For this, it is necessary to establish a goal and some metrics that allow us to measure whether or not we are achieving that goal.
In this sense, YouTube has YouTube Analytics, which is its analytics tool and allows us to know metrics such as new vs. recurring users, average viewing time, likes vs. dislikes per video, CTR, and, ultimately, it provides us with essential information to be able to improve our content over time.
Considering this, Twitch should be the channel where we create different content (at the format level) and focus on our target audience. Interacting with people’s lives is a great way to strengthen and humanize our brand, so we cannot miss this unique opportunity.
Also Read: How To Use Twitch For Our Company?
