What Are Twitch Notifications, and Why Are They Important?

As marketing and technology trends mature, it can be tough to discover new ways to build a close connection and sculpt an engaging digital landscape. However, it’s crucial to keep up with industry trends to stay ahead of the competition. Currently, video and live streaming platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch are among the hottest marketing tools for businesses.

Twitch is a social live streaming platform initially targeted toward gamers that allows the audience to play an interactive role with the broadcaster. Recently, the platform has expanded into other lifestyle topics and niche areas, reaching more than just video game enthusiasts. Twitch is a fast-growing platform that reported having over 28 million unique users per month in the U.S. alone. Twitch's interactive, social aspect and personalized branding via notifications and on-stream Twitch Alerts set it apart from other streaming platforms.

You may already be using platforms like Twitch to connect with your audience, but are you taking full advantage of Twitch notifications? Before we get into why Twitch notifications are important, let’s review what they are and how they differ from Twitch Alerts.

What Are Twitch Notifications?

Twitch notifications are concise messages alerting you to what is happening within the Twitch universe. You’ll receive alerts in your notification inbox when channels you subscribe to go live or when you receive a friend request or recommendations to channels you might like. Twitch notifications can also be sent via push messages to your mobile device, browser, or desktop.

All Twitch users will have a notification inbox labeled ‘My Twitch, ’ where important notifications related to things happening on Twitch (activity, events, reminders, or CTAs) will live. If you create content on Twitch, you will also have a ‘My Channel’ section in your notifications inbox. This is where important messages specific to your channel can be found, such as achievements or new product promotions specific to you.

There are five types of notifications on Twitch:

• ‘Go live’ notification
• Friend requests
• Event announcements
• Drops
• Channel recommendations

What Are Twitch Alerts?

Twitch alerts are real-time overlayed messages or widgets that broadcasters use to acknowledge and interact with their audience while live streaming. Twitch Alerts can appear during a live stream when a viewer shares, subscribes or donates money. Alerts can also live as a widget displayed on the “screen” for the duration of the video such as donation goal trackers, chat boxes and more.

The most popular widgets from Streamlabs are:

• Alertbox: interact with your viewers through on-stream notifications
• Event List: allows viewers to see your upcoming or recent events
• The Jar: a wallet for bitcoin and donations (tips)
• Chatbox: integrates a chat for your audience to mingle and comment on your stream
• Donation Ticker: allows your audience to view your recent donations/tips
• Donation Goal: displays a dollar amount you'd like to reach via viewer donations
• Credits: enables you to recognize loyal followers
• Loyalty: generates rewards points to thank your loyal viewers for watching your channel

Twitch Notifications vs. Twitch Alerts

Twitch Alerts are meant to enhance the quality of your brand’s live stream and create an engaging social atmosphere for your viewers. To utilize Twitch Alerts, you must download add-on software from a third party, such as Streamlabs. In comparison, Twitch notifications are a native feature of the platform and its application. The purpose of Twitch notifications is to alert viewers to what is happening on Twitch when they are not actively on your live stream. Notifications act as more of a personalized message sent to individual audience members' phones, browsers, or desktops.

In contrast, Twitch Alerts are only displayed during a broadcaster’s live stream to promote social engagement. If you want to let your audience know you’ve “gone live,” you’d send a Twitch notification. If you want to thank someone for subscribing to your channel or react to a donation in real-time during your live stream, you’d use a Twitch Alert.

5 Reasons to Use Twitch Notifications

Unique, customized notifications represent your brand's personality and are a fundamental aspect of leading your audience back to your Twitch channel. Here are five ways Twitch notifications can help set you apart from competitors and drive your business forward.

1. Reduce Notification Fatigue

Twitch offers users the option to enable smart notifications in their settings. To send smart notifications, you’ll need to use a push notification system that utilizes user-activity data. With smart Twitch notifications, you can direct your alert to where the recipient is active in real-time, even if they are subscribed to receive all forms of notifications (email, push, SMS Text).

Sending the same notification to a user’s desktop, mobile device, and email simultaneously may cause the user to feel as if they are being spammed. Use smart notifications for Twitch to help you avoid notification fatigue, redundant message clutter, and customers opting out. For instance, your audience will receive an alert directly to where they are active when your stream goes live. If they are using their mobile phone, they will receive a mobile or in-app push notification. Smart messages are successful because they are personalized and relevant to the user's activity, location, and time zone, reducing notification fatigue.

2. Deeper Connection

Build a deeper connection with your audience by sending Twitch notifications. Twitch has become more than just people live-streaming themselves playing video games; it offers interactive social elements in real-time. Your viewers can ask questions and receive real-time responses that feel authentic.

With Twitch notifications, you can personalize message alerts to create a community atmosphere where your viewers build relationships not only with you but also with each other. Invite viewers to schedule streaming parties with a notification reminding them when you’re going live. Who’s bringing the popcorn?

With personalized, smart Twitch notifications, you can tap into the social aspect of Twitch. By encouraging your audience to communicate with each other, they'll create emotional bonds over their interest in your brand or channel. Few marketing tools offer this type of emotional connection and trust.

3. Brand Recognition

With traditional media and paid ads, you don’t always have the flexibility to reach your fans authentically. Twitch notifications offer a unique opportunity to reach audience members in real-time by simply talking with viewers in a natural and unfiltered atmosphere. Unlike obviously scripted and edited content, live streaming allows viewers to participate in more genuine interactions.

Whether you partner with an influencer, purchase ad space, or create your own streaming content on Twitch, you are introducing your brand to an audience that craves engagement. The users on Twitch want to be alerted when a live stream starts. Viewers want their interactions to be acknowledged. They like participating. Twitch users opt-in to receive notifications so that they don’t miss out on the experience. It’s not just about the video stream; it’s about the interactive social experience and feeling like they are a part of a community. Not many platforms create this kind of desire for marketing features like notifications.

4. Lead Generation

If you’re creating content on Twitch, it’s essential to use notifications to generate new leads for conversion. Let’s look at how Wendy’s utilized Twitch and notifications to create a successful campaign to launch their channel.

Wendy’s collaborated with the popular video game Fortnite to hype up the launch of its Twitch channel. Instead of simply advertising on the entertainment channels, they became the entertainment. Wendy’s and Fortnite used notifications to let their audience know when they would be destroying frozen beef in the game. People found this quite hilarious as it played directly to Wendy’s “savage” brand personality. Wendy’s reported that their freezer-smashing “Saving Fortnite From Frozen Beef” campaign generated more than 1.5 million views and increased social interactions by 119% across social channels.

Notifications can be an integral part of the success of a campaign or live-stream channel. Even though the content was popular, their audience wouldn’t have known when they were going live if they hadn't received a notification.

5. Increase Your Viewers

There’s nothing more awkward than launching a live stream to an empty audience. If your business is new to Twitch, it may be tough to build up viewers when no one knows your brand. Add your brand personality to your Twitch notifications with rich media such as images, memes, or a specific tone of voice to set you apart from competitors. For instance, instead of a notification simply saying you’ve “gone live,” add a custom message that fits your brand personality. Branded notifications allow your viewers to get to know you, which will build up trust.

Once you’ve built up a following, keep them by using notifications. Viewers aren’t usually sitting around all day waiting for companies to go live. Most people follow multiple channels, and well, most people have lives. Even if you stick to a regular streaming schedule, your viewers will still need a reminder. Sending Twitch notifications can increase viewers by simply alerting your audience of what’s going on with your channel and reminding them of important dates, promotions, or special events. People forget things, so remind them and increase your viewers! It’s that easy.

Conclusion

In summary, creative Twitch notifications specific to your brand’s personality will ensure you stand out against competitors. They will also open up new revenue and lead streams, build brand recognition, and strengthen the bond between you and your audience.