The last thing you want to do is to accidentally limit how many subscribers or followers you can have. But many creators are doing this without even realising it! This episode covers 9 ways you can stop limiting your own channel size. Now for those unaware, The Minecraft Creator Podcast has been rebranded as Follower Forge. The focus is on gaming channels and streamers and not limited to just Minecraft. The goal is to help you forge your following online.
It's a different name, but the same great content and you can join the Forge in Discord, too! I have a link in the notes for you. So, how do many creators make the mistake of limiting their channel size? And how can you avoid making the same mistakes? A major component of this is not properly appealing to a worldwide, international audience. Let's go through 9 ways you might be doing that without even realising it. First of all, acknowledge the timezone difference.
Release at a good time for your viewers, or go live at a good time for your viewers. Look at your statistics and work out where most of your viewers are located. Or, if you want to target a particular region, keep that in mind and target that even if it's not where your viewers are currently located. Then release videos when those people are likely to be awake and on the platform that you're making content on. Alternatively, if you want a worldwide audience, post your content around midday UTC.
This is approximately 8 a.m. New York time, in the US, around 1 p.m. London time, UK, or around 10 p.m. Sydney, Australia time. It's one of the only times in the world that you can match up with almost every time zone simultaneously. It's a good time to post content and you'll notice a lot of other creators posting at that time as well. Ideally, post slightly before that, so that you get in first!
As the Australians are going to sleep, New York is waking up and the West Coast USA isn't far behind them. If those times are inconvenient for you, consider uploading your content and scheduling it from the day before. Next, make sure that you're aware of timezones when communicating with others. Don't say: “I'm going live at 8 p.m. EDT” For one thing, there's multiple timezones in the world that are called Eastern Time. So if you're doing that, at least mention the country as well.
But even better, mention how many hours and days away the event is. That's better for an international audience. For example, you could say: “I'm going live at 8 p.m. United States EDT, which is 9 hours from now.” Or just simply: “I'm going live in 9 hours.” The platform that you're posting to has timestamps in the viewer's local timezone and you're giving them the missing puzzle piece.
The time difference they need to work out when you're going live in their time zone or when you're posting your content in their time zone. As a bonus tip, if you have a Discord community, make use of Discord events! Discord events are automatically converted to the viewer's local timezone, they automatically alert people when the event is starting, and they give plenty of advance notice that you've got an event coming up in an easy to access list. The events list!
Events won't get lost just because you've posted new messages on social media after your video or livestream announcement. Another thing to consider is watching how you talk. First of all, make sure you're culturally aware of what you're saying. Use common words that mean the same thing worldwide, not slang. The actor Will Smith once referred to the launch weekend for one of his movies as Big Willy Weekend.
He didn't realise that a “willie” refers to the male appendage in the UK, Australia and elsewhere. You can learn more about this by listening to the previous episode of this podcast. If you're on YouTube, let me know: What other words do you know that can be confusing when used online? Secondly, in regards to watching how you talk: If you’re referring to units of measurement use both metric and imperial.
Most of the world uses the metric system, but we want to look after our American friends 😉 If you're talking about units of measurement, it's a good idea to quickly look up the other value and provide that too. Or if you’re livestreaming, ask your chat to look it up for you. If you want some engagement, you could refer to the imperial system as “Freedom Units” 😉 and see the Americans reply in droves! 🙂 Thirdly, watch how you talk. Literally. Speak slower, and more clearly than normal.
An international audience needs to firstly process your accent before they can understand what you're saying. Just because the people around you in daily life understand you, it doesn't mean that a stranger on the Internet will as well. You can also talk the talk. Make an effort to speak the same language as a viewer does, at least in written comments.
If you receive a comment in a language that you don't speak, use Google Translate to firstly, understand what they said, and secondly, to reply in their language. They will appreciate the extra effort that you went to, even if Google Translate isn't as accurate as a native speaker would be. Next, you can take advantage of your own location and culture. Cultural awareness goes both ways.
Not only is it good for you to be aware of the viewer’s culture and how they speak, but it's also a good idea for you to share a little about your own country and language with the viewers. Remember, many in your audience may not live where you do. Therefore, even common sense things to you might be new and interesting to them. Let's sidetrack briefly on that point about language, and I'll teach you a few things.
In Australia, rather than saying “Hello” we usually say “G’day” and that's short for “Good Day”. In Vanuatu where they speak Bislama, a common greeting is “Olsem wanem” Which means “How are you?” And in China you say hello using “Ni hao”, and if you convert that to a question using “Ni hao ma?” it changes from “Hello” to “How are you?” If you're listening on YouTube, let me know a few words in your language, or something else that's unique about your country.
Now another thing that you can do is acknowledge your own accent and nationality. This is particularly important if your accent differs from others in the same country or if you have a different appearance to what people might assume is “normal” for that region of the world. One writer that I used as a reference for this episode named Christina Canters had this to say: You can also address anything ‘weird’ about you.
For example, my black hair and semi-Asian looks can be confusing for cultures who think of Australians as blond or brunette. So, I always mention I have Malaysian heritage. Own up to who you are and what you look like. They’re your culture, your history and your language. These are the things that make you unique and they're also the things that appeal to an international audience. Next, post content using an on demand platform.
If you only livestream, your viewers are forced to be available when you are live, or when you are online. If you want to appeal to a worldwide audience, make content that people in a different timezone can also consume. This could mean: Hosting your stream replays as a VOD (Video on Demand) on another platform like YouTube. Use a social media platform for text or image posts like Twitter or Instagram that can be viewed at any time of the day.
And if you're on YouTube, make use of the community tab. Or if you have a Discord community, Encourage people to chat with each other when you're not there by asking questions that lead to an ongoing discussion. By doing these things, you allow your viewers or listeners to access your content on demand when it's convenient for them. You also build up a sense of community by getting your viewers to interact with each other and feel like they belong in your community.
As you can see, there's a lot more to an international audience than just thinking about timezones. And by focusing on an international community, you aren't going to artificially limit your growth. You're going to give your channel the greatest potential to grow. If you want to help your fellow creators, share this episode with a few of them and bookmark it for your own future reference. This is Follower Forge, helping you to forge your following online. Join us in the Discord.