GrannyHandicap Livestreaming for 3 Months Now - How Are My Stats?

 

On May 5, 2021, I looked on Twitch for livestreams for handicapped people and couldn't find any that weren't marked for mature audiences. I'm a member of a Church that advises us to avoid movies with a worse than PG-13 rating and we are taught to avoid profanity, etc. So I decided to create a family-friendly one.

I began with streaming Forza Horizon 4 on my XBox, my favorite video game. I played and talked about being a disabled gamer. Those streams are archived on my YouTube Adiamaea channel. But, I decided that maybe a talk format would be better for my purpose.

I wanted to create a community around disabilities. Not just in gaming, but in RL. So, in August I began the talk format.

Here's what my stats say so far:

My goal is 50 followers as part of becoming a Twitch Affiliate. I have 13 friends so far. I won't bore you with most of my stats which would require a lot of explanation and really, I'm still learning what all of them mean! But, as I tweeted several days ago, I've had views from 15 countries. Most of those were from the US, where I am. The next highest group was the UK [yay! I have some ancestry over there!]. It is very exciting to me to get views from other countries as well as my own.

Since switching from gaming to talk, I've had a lot of friends popping in to say hi, tell me about themselves, or ask a question. Even though my views actually went down during this transition, I am happier because chatting is more important to me than views. It's all about building a community, or multiple communities, around disability awareness.

I say multiple because my friends are on many different social media sites. I don't want to exclude any of them who might not want to create a Twitch account just to join the conversation. There's very little overlap between my 551 Facebook friends, my 473 Twitter followers, and followers on other sites. My plan is to join any sites that are legal and nontoxic where my friends are and want to stay. We can talk about disabilities anyplace!

So, yeah, after 3 months, my stats are depressing. But I'm in the same boat with most new streamers. Time will tell whether my community will grow to a size that benefits a lot of folks. I'm learning more about how to make a quality livestream and trying to improve. I'm very disorganized and my learning curve is steep. Some of the programs suggested are harder to learn than I thought they would be. I am 62 years old so I don't learn as well as I once did, and I have always had disabilities that interfere with using and learning my skills. The important thing is, I'm not giving up, and I'm really enjoying my livestream. I'm loving the conversations with my new friends.

When you're disabled, you want to do things that feel like the work you used to do. My second job was as a DJ in a small town AM-FM station that played country and gospel. Livestreaming feels a lot like my DJ work when people would call in. So, as long as my livestreaming is enjoyable for me and I feel like I'm helping people understand disability issues, I'm going to keep doing it.

GrannyHandicap Livestream Mon-Sat 8-10pm EST. No account required to view! Everyone is welcome even if you're not disabled! Family-friendly channel so if you join the discussion, please watch your language! Create an account to type in Twitch chat.

Add me on https://discord.com so we can talk! My username is Adiamaea#3641. Choose the Granny Handicap server for disability talk and more! Typed chat and voice. I'm still learning Discord, but I plan to learn how to use a streaming software to integrate it into my livestream eventually. What you type on Discord will stay. What you type on Twitch is gone once the livestream ends :( This is why I suggest not leaving a link on Twitch. 

If there's a link you want to share with me, a comment, or suggestion for a topic you want to hear about, leave it on Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook Granny Handicap page, whichever your fave social media is. There is a current list of my social media links right here in my blog.

I am on Twitter a lot, so I will see it sooner there if you put the hashtag #GrannyHandicap on it. However, I'm building my community on Discord and it gives me many ways to keep kids who join it with their families safer. Reddit also gives me tools to keep my community safe for families, so I will see which site gets the most action from my friends :) Folks who already have a social media account elsewhere can just join the community there, and if you want me to add sites, I'm happy to make an account where you are comfy. As long as it's not a site that violates my community guides :)