Tag Archives: Social Media and Mental Health

Are YOU doing your best on Twitter?

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Tired of putting out tweets that get 0 likes or retweets? Feel like you are wasting your time with little to no response from the twitter universe to give you a tip that you are doing things right? Yeah, I have been there before and was in the exact same position. It took me a long time for me to see these useful tips and a lot longer to actually put them into play to see results. Just because you may have the knowledge to have a growing twitter account doesn’t mean you have to put in little work. Growing any social media requires consistency and dedication.
*These are from my personal experience on twitter, If some are incorrect or don’t work for you, tweek them til you find a right solution for the results that you desire!

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STOP USING SO MANY HASHTAGS!
Twitter is NOT Instagram. Instagram is designed to use as many hashtags as possible to reach a wider audience. Twitter however is not. They say the magic number of hashtags to use is MAX 3. This means: STOP OVER USING HASHTAGS. Not to mention hashtags you use are also important. Stop using hashtags like #SupportSmallStreamers / #SupportSmallStreams / #SupportAllStreamers. Not only does this make you look like you are stuck in the small streamers mindset but it makes you look like a rookie. Use tags that relate to your game. Even better is tag the developer or company behind your game. Show you like playing it or that you want others who like the game to also do it. Also try to change it up. Ex: I play DBD mainly. Sometimes I use #Dbd others I use #DeadbyDaylight, Sometimes I tag the company as well too. Then add a generic tag like #Twitch, or #TwitchTV. If you are using those support hashtags then you will also need to remember that if people have those tags muted (Which a lot of people do because it will spam their home pages) Then your tweets are also hidden. And also twitters algorithm also will hide tweets with too many hashtags. AND STOP TAGGING RE-TWEET PAGES! It doesn’t help with interactions and most people also have those muted. Remember, If you use the same hashtags the entire time then you will only be reaching that audience.


Links
Apparently there was a twitter trend that if you use the same link ie: Twitch/Mixer/Youtube constantly twitter will see it as a spam tweet and begin to hide those. Now I think this really depends on which your preference is. If you want to include in your tweets “Link in Bio”, Remember that not everyone will want to click your profile to click your link but there is also some people who will come and follow your twitter along the way to twitch. And if you find this gives you more interactions from your twitch link also post that too. If you find that you posting your link is good enough keep doing that. Remember to make it interesting though and not the same tweet every time since it can be extremely boring for a reader and not really motivate them from checking out your channel where ever it might be.


Media
Add some spice to your tweets! If you have a computer and a bunch of twitch clips from your streams download them. Don’t just add the link because then someone has to click away from twitter to view it most times. Add it as a file so that way you can see how many views you have from twitter. Take photos, Maybe your meal before you stream, a pet, a selfie, your set up, going live screen, ANYTHING! Make your tweets look unique and enticing so that people want to check out the stream. If you only post a link and some text flooded with tags your tweets are going to look too busy and people aren’t going to want to watch it at all.

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Re-tweet Bots
STOP TAGGING RETWEET PAGES. They make you look lazy and unable to network. Its not going to make you grow at all. Ever look at retweet pages and see they have thousands and thousands of followers, BUT they don’t have ANY interactions on their tweets? Do you think if the page is going to be retweeting you that is going to make any more interaction to you when they cant even get any on their own things? No. I was guilt of this and as I progressed in the Twitter world I noticed it wasn’t helping anything. Not to mention I began to mute all of the pages because my home page was legit FLOODED with all the retweets and I never seen any tweets to friends or people who I was interested in.

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Interaction
It is not enough to grow on twitter if you only post tweets to your own profile. You have to put out interactions. This means commenting and liking others tweets. Make sure it makes sense and is relevant. If someone is talking about food and you talk about your stream, Or if they are talking about Fortnite and you talk about League of Legends it really doesn’t make any sense does it? Also stop RETWEETING FOR CONTENT! Retweet friends, or retweet important events, But don’t just retweet for the sake of re-tweeting. I don’t know how many times that I have muted someone I followed because their entire timeline was legit retweets. Don’t forget, People follow YOUR profile to see YOUR content. Not the content of everyone else. So when you retweet all day and someone wants to see whats happening with you, They will either un-follow or mute you when they cant find that information.


Stop Begging
A recent thing I have seen on twitter which seems to be unsuccessful is people posting tweets like this:
” I see a bunch of new followers, Let’s connect and DM”
” I see a bunch of new followers and barely any retweets/likes, Where is everyone at”
The likely hood of people going to DM you privately is very low. Put effort in your tweets and make them eye catching. Make people WANT to interact with you. When I see tweets like this its a quick way for me to legit mute or un-follow someone.

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!


Negative Tweets
We all have shit days. And it is GREAT to vent it out and talk about it here. BUT when the negative tweets outweigh the bad ones that’s when things start being a problem (In my opinion). If you go to someones timeline and every 5th post is a positive one, and the rest are negatives and veiled complaints then it is extremely hard to see what someones stream is going to be like. This also falls into the category of “Blaming my community” tweets as well. So many times I have seen tweets like “Going live blah blah blah” And the next day you see a “Stream has been going crappy, Barely any viewers, No one showed up”. Stop posting these tweets and change your energy into better ways to bring new viewers in. Remember, Our communities and viewers are earned. They do not owe us anything. And they also have lives outside of twitch the same as we, streamers, do. Posting blaming tweets towards your community and viewers when a stream may be quieter then normal doesn’t leave a good look.


Emotion
Putting emotions in tweets has been seen to help boost engagements. That being said, And regarding the last paragraph, Balance some out. Provoke emotion of your followers, Whether intriguing, controversial, humor, or another types it doesn’t have to be negative as well. Something as simple as pineapple on pizza is it good or not could be something that fires up people and worth talking about! Or different shows and what not. Maybe you love a certain type of coffee over another type or whatever you may choose. Maybe you had some funny and hilarious moments in your day to day life that are worth talking about. DO IT! Showing a personal side doesn’t mean telling your address and full name and social insurance number, It just means you are relating to people and showing yes, I may stream but I am also human too!

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Going Live Tweets
These are a great way to connect with your community and show you are live and to help drive traffic. That being said, STOP POSTING YOU ARE LIVE EVERY 30 MINUTES. Posting a pre-live tweet. A going live tweet. A mid stream tweet/game change tweet. And even an ending tweet and thanking for a great stream or a clip from the night work well. You aren’t annoying people with your continuously posted link and you are making people interested in what you have to say. Also, For anyone who is using “Wizebot” to auto announce you are going live. STOP THAT. It legit posts the same going live post every single time. When someone goes to your profile and sees all of the live tweets again, It really doesn’t help anything. Its not showing your content or what you are about its just showing “Hey this person streams and posts them going live a lot”. Its not giving any information about you as a content creator. If you go to a profile and all you see is someone posting going live tweets, Are you wanting to know more or are you overlooking this person and moving on to someone else?

As you can see twitter is a slippery slope but if you want to adopt some of these tips that I have learned since really hammering down into the twitter-verse then I am sure you will notice some difference here! And believe me, I have been guilt of more then one of these offenses when I first started streaming and with time and lots of reading and advice, and of course being stubborn and trying to “do my own thing”. Good luck and Happy Tweeting!

Mental Health and Streaming

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Mental health and streaming can have a very fine line between them. Streaming can also be a huge in opening the lines of communication when it comes to mental health due to the broad audiences that can be brought together to talk about things.

Before I even begin I think I should mention that this is one of the MOST if not IS the most important thing to remember when it comes to streaming and mental health is this:
STREAMERS ARE NOT THERAPISTS AND VIEWERS ARE NOT THERAPISTS.

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It is very easily for a viewer to forget that streamers are not therapists especially if a streamer is very open with a community. You build a relationship and connection with them or their other viewers too. Mind you, Normally streamers don’t mind hearing about a shitty day you had, however there is no need to jump into the details of that either. For me sometimes I mention if I’m asked how my day was I say not the greatest but here to relax and turn it around. Which is a great way to kind of mention your feelings and yet not bring down the damper of the chat. Also, by not being super specific you aren’t putting any pressure on people to try to fix the situation. Some streamers don’t mind hearing about the details but you don’t want to make the whole tone of the stream go down either. Remember, This is not your stream. And sometimes if you are close to a specific person with in the community sending a message would be more beneficial to a person/friend then airing everything out in chat while a content creator is live.

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!

Now the flip side to this, Streamers, Don’t treat your viewers like they are your therapists. Sure, a lot of streamers who start their streams will talk about their day so far or some things that happen. And that’s okay. What is wrong (In my opinion) is when a streamer spends the next 6 hours repeating the same complaint or problems waiting for chat to magically give them an answer to fix said problem when they could have probably taken the day off of streaming and dealt with whatever their issue was for the day. It can really put a damper on streams not to mention, If you have viewers who have come to your stream to get away from a problem they may be having, coming to a stream that might not change their mood or mind off of something (Even if temporarily) might be a quick way for them to go else where. I know someone who once wanted to have their stream as an “open mental health channel”. What did it turn out to be? It turned out to be them complaining and talking about the negatives in their life for weeks and months to their viewers and then again feeling bad in tweets and things why they never seen any growth.

This also includes trama dumping. This is when a viewer will come into a streamer who is live, and talk about their major issues for the day, week, month and put the streamer on the spot or even their chat to respond. This also includes when celebrities pass away and viewers come into chat to announce that yes, so and so has passed away. This is something that is entirely unfair to the streamer since we have no idea the relationship or meaning that these statements can have on them especially while they are live.

There are great opportunities to however mix streams with Mental health days, Where chat can vent about issues and streamers kind of moderate them. Coping strategies are great as well too since everyone copes differently and hearing how others have overcome adverse issues in their lives. There is a time and place for things and sometimes streamers even have a specific spot in their discords for things like this as well too. If you know a streamer who has these days tune in, you may be able to learn a few strategies that could help you with anything you may be seeking some help with.

Another thing to remember, As a streamer, You are ALLOWED to take a day off. Whether you are sick, mentally drained, or simply put you don’t feel like streaming. From someone on the outside streaming looks easy, or fun, or no strain whatsoever on a person. That would be wrong. Trying to entertain people for a period of time can be emotionally draining and taxing to someone. And there is a good chance if your day is going crummy and you hit that live button you will also project onto your stream that you are in a bad mood. Sometimes its easier for us to click live for fear we are feeling bad or “Grinding” out time. Take time to have a break. Don’t apologize if you don’t want to. For me myself, I have missed quite a few streams in the last few weeks why? I have had my 2nd child and trying to balance a newborn, with a toddler, and a blog, and a crafting business I would like to get started too. Do I post late if streams aren’t happening? Normally. Do I feel bad? You bet. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to sacrifice myself missing out on sleep (or sanity) in order stream.

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

Whatever you decide to have an open line of communication in your streams or you are a viewer seeking this. It is totally okay. In today’s world mental health should be in the open and the stigma should be gone. That being said, no amount of venting in streams or in discords will help the same way as a licensed therapist or psychologist would. There are just some situations when you actually have to seek professional help in case there is deeper meaning or reasons why someone feels the way they do. It is totally okay to reach out to others but as people who become friends online, or sometimes in cases seem like family, unless we have proper school and credentials it can be extremely hard to help someone. Even if you have dealt with the same situation os even similar, one way does not fit all when dealing with mental health. Though a lot of times listening to a problem can be a huge help. It isn’t always the only thing that someone may need.

And, Last but not least again, TAKE DAYS OFF IF YOU NEED TO! Don’t force yourself to stream or really do anything if you aren’t feeling it. Sure its okay to feel bad, However self care is IMPORTANT in anyone’s life. No matter what the profession, Taking a personal day is great for anyone!

4 Tips on How I Use Twitter Efficiently!

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Using social media can seem like a huge black hole when it comes to filling time. I know believe me. If you are anything like me when you are scrolling, you then put your phone down, almost immediately to pick it back up though and then you do the same scrolling again. Only to find out that obviously nothing has happened in the last 15 seconds since you last closed the app. Or you start scrolling and scrolling only to realize that you are reading the same amount of garbage you just read before and nothing is changing in the process you just see the same things recycled. Well here is some tips you may be looking for on how to use Twitter more efficiently so you can spend as little time as possible on there instead of mindlessly browsing.

Scheduling tweets is something i need to do more and it has become super simple with the help of the desktop app for Twitter. Right now in the process of moving I am HOPING that I will be able to schedule tweets for the next few months up until September when I have settled things and are back into a routine. I schedule blog posts, I even schedule funny comments that I have saved to my drafts (More on that next!) and I have also scheduled funny questions and words of wisdom too. I will mention if you want o schedule a poll there is no ability to do that at this point in time however they are useful if you want to find more out. Scheduling tweets can make it seem like you are more active than you are. I like doing this on weekends especially since I don’t stream on weekends I find myself slacking completely on posting things in order to seem like I am around when I am not. You can always give the illusion that you are around even if you are taking time away for whatever reason.

Drafts are your friend. I never really started using drafts until the last year. I love using drafts especially if I am thinking of some good tweets but it might be too late or I think they will flop or not fit the mood of my timeline. I simply type it out and save it into the drafts to use at a later date. Sometimes it could be about something happening in my own life, Maybe its something happening at night and I don’t feel like posting it. Or maybe it even is something that popped up in my mind but I already posted a tweet that has been doing good traction wise and I don’t want to over lap. Saving drafts are huge in order to keep content going. Sometimes you can even save a tweet that you may have posted, but instead of it getting some sort of traction it didn’t do well and you would like to save it for a later date. A key thing to remember is maybe a tweet you posted might not have gotten a reaction you wanted, or less than you expected, that does not mean the tweet was bad or the information not useful. You can save it and use it later when you might find better success!

Comment on posts you enjoy and try to let networking or building relationships happen naturally. If you are commenting on posts to start an argument that you have zero interest or do not agree with you will find it extremely challenging to grow or have any success what so ever online. Genuinely showing interest in content you enjoy and vice versa will help in making your experience online and using your time wisely. Why comment on issues you hate or have no desire to really understand or follow? Another valuable piece of this would be if you are tired of seeing certain terms, mute them! If you have no interest in politics or anything like that, mute the terms. If you do not want to see something about a particular country, mute it. There is no point keeping somethings on your timeline when you really do not want to be part of it. Maybe you followed a fan club for some actor you liked and that is all that pops up now and you are tired of seeing it. Well, mute the phrases or sayings you are tired of seeing also! And this includes muting or blocking individual people to. Maybe there is someone who always pops up on your tweets just to argue with you. Save yourself the headache and just mute or block them so you no longer see them anywhere. This is YOUR experience not anyone else’s and if it is effecting you get rid or it from your timeline!

Stay active and be random! Don’t worry about posting things that might not flow with your timeline. Remember that the most times you are able to showcase your personal side of likes and dislikes or even opinions that will be the best way to gain traction on followers. People like to hear opinions whether or not they agree or disagree with them. The more personal you can be with someone the better you will find yourself on Twitter. This doesn’t mean sharing your credit scores or personal address this just means shedding some light about yourself to others who think the same also too. When you are more personal with people they seem to flock to you, however don’t always post negative things or struggles, keep it semi-light humored and fun!

So there you have it, That is my 4 simple tips in order to enjoy your Twitter experience. I know for myself I need to practice some of these things a bit more but I will say, when I do, I feel a whole lot better about myself. You do not need to spend every waking moment online to have a great experience or some growth. Leave some time away from the screen and share moments with the world that you think they would also enjoy too!

Do you practice any of these tips?
Is there anything new you would like to add too?

Let me know in the comments below I would love to hear them!

– Stacey

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5 Tips to Make Your Social Media More Enjoyable!

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Being on social media can be great however there is also a dark side of things as well. You ever check your phone or computer for the time but get distracted instantly by looking for something else and forget to even check the time? Or have you ever by chance went on Facebook or twitter and you find yourself 30 minutes deep into a “doom scroll” where you continuously are scrolling and not really taking in the information you are reading you are just trying to scroll this infinite page? Here are some of my tips that I have only recently just followed for myself, and by doing so my enjoyment on social medias have become that much better also!

1. Un-follow Negative People. I know this might seem like a no brainer but it really isn’t. I was following people who perhaps might have had drama around them whether it be streaming or people I have seen through tweets too. This also includes people who post nothing but negative things all the time. This is not the person who is venting or who is commenting on something in the world with their opinion. This is the people who post “Having a bad day” every single day, and then when someone tries to cheer them up they immediately respond with something to enforce the helper that nothing can be done to turn the day around. Un-following these types of people can be hard because you feel like maybe un-following them might impact them mentally however at the end of the day if reading these constantly sour posts impacts your view and experience that should come first. Always. Since un-following these types of people my timeline especially on twitter or the “Streamer Twitter” has been that much more positive also too.

2. Follow interests you enjoy. This was something that honestly took me so long to do and I have no idea why! For the longest time since I started streaming a few years ago I followed streamers or anything video game related. Well, believe it or not I do have other interests besides streaming, case in point this blog! What I started to do was search in the search bard for tags like #Blogger, or #Blogging. Another thing I did was I wanted to get more in touch with the art community and creating so that I could potentially tap into that when i wanted to by searching again hashtags like #Artist, #Painting, #Crafting etc and then I would check out their profiles (A lot of them really retweet others so the spam is real but you can mute a profile so that it is not always near the top or clouding your personal timeline as well too). This was great for me to keep an eye on trendy artwork that people are making money off of as well.

3. Limit time on it seems like a pretty easy thing to say. But when you spend hours and hours on it per day you can lose track of time and that can be challenging. Set some time away and limit when you want to interact. A few tips I started doing was that I stopped taking my tablet to bed. Not that I don’t bring my phone and that isn’t bad also but when I had my tablet I found that i was spending so much more time trying to fall asleep. Another is I don’t typically check social medias until I am awake a bit and then I just quickly browse. A lot of the times too I try to “forget” about my phone. I won’t carry it around the house with me because I find I check it more frequently. I also try not to have any notifications on it either. I find when my phone is constantly buzzing I am more inclined to reach for it. I also have my phone on silent nearly 95% of the time unless I am anticipating a phone call which I then would turn it up. This helps to get out of the habit for reaching for it.

4. Block or mute people who you really do not like! This goes a step more than un-following. Sometimes when you have a lot of mutuals with a person simply un-following does nothing because you still are going to see many things popping up if people you follow interact with them. To stop this all together just mute or block them. Some people I know who I un-followed like to be social justice warriors recycling the same tweets and praying on others with guilt and for sympathy and others eat it up. I muted their profiles so no matter how many people like these fake tweets I wont see them anymore. It just doesn’t make sense. And I am tired of seeing it cloud up my timeline!

5. Disconnect. I know this may sound difficult and hard to do. But think if you are camping what are the chances you are going to be sitting on your phone instead of socializing and enjoying the company you are with. This might be the hardest of all because disconnecting can be tough. And if you are saying you are disconnecting, DO IT. Don’t just post about how you are disconnecting only to sit on there all day. That will not be doing anything for you mentally or to recharge. Some of the best days is when you barely touch your device and you have the day pass and you think whoa, I accomplished a lot!

There you have it! That is my top 5 tips for making social media more enjoyable. We all have been trapped down the rabbit hole of wasted time trying to search and find the best tips and tricks that help you. This is just what I have found to work for me and if none of these work experiment with things that will work for you!

What is something that you do to disconnect from social medias?
Do you do any of these tips or tricks? And did they work for you?

Let me know in the comments below!

-Stacey

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