Follower Forge

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.