Promoting via bravado, playing to people's fantasies and emotions if done correctly can be a key to success for some on Twitch.tv.
- Fantasies streamers - typically are attractive females who only play in the top game directories. Things to note is the over-sized webcam overlay, they wear lewd apparel and want to show as much as possible within the rules of conduct. Most use donation overlay's with sexual references ie "Biggest D." Some use gimmicks as in a whiteboard were they list donators handles and amounts while writing on the board they bend forward showing their rear ends, most of them time they are in yoga pants or shorts. Basically a non nude reality stream with some gaming on the side in order not to get banned. Majority also promote their instagram profiles in the info section.
- Emotion streamers - using a disability, charity, illness ( some casters have been caught faking disabilities and have been perma banned )
- Bravado streamers - hyperbole persona, troll
Perception is also extremely valuable which comes in the form of the viewership number and follower stats. People will generally flock to whatever stream has the biggest viewership in the game category they want to watch. Follower number is also used as advertising by some streamers, they will list follower number on stream titles to hype it up or attempt to gain more. Twitch.tv's directory system is setup to show streams that have the most viewers on the top of the list. Being on the top will give big traffic boosts to which should assist in growing a viewer base. This has created a snowball effect that keeps benefiting the top streamers to get bigger and bigger. The negative of the system is the growing number of 3rd party viewbotting services which some casters have been using to pay for boosted viewership numbers in order to get higher placement on the directory.
- Hearthstone streaming directory is a good example of perception gone wrong, a couple of the most well known hearthstone streamers have been outed as having viewbotting boosts. Over the many months of streaming with the viewbotting boosts they have been able to grow their base viewership of real viewers. They are now household names in the Hearthstone community built upon view botting, which has benefited them. Twitch.tv will not ban broadcasters due to viewbotting unless there is direct evidence that the caster is the one doing it and not someone else who is maliciously targeting said caster.
Another anomaly that hearthstone streamers benefit from is the hearthstone subreddit which displays and promotes the top hearthstone streamers on the sidebar.
(Click picture to enlarge)This subreddit has over 100k unique visitors and over 1 million page views daily being the single best free advertising for Twitch Hearthstone streamers.
(Click picture to enlarge)
Being listed as the 'Top Streams' on the Hearthstone subreddit all the time will create a perception.
In closing, bravado and perception is another niche of many niches in the media world of things.
