My Online Friend - A Vtuber Guide

(Work in Progress)

Greetings, up and coming vtuber.
The world out there is harsh, and streams are soft. For that reason, many flock to watching a stream when they're feeling down or when they're having trouble in real life.
If you desire to bond with your viewers, this is the pastebin for you.
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1. What is this all about?
At a indie level, the general atmosphere is different than that of a Hololive or Nijisanji stream. Viewers can get closer to you than they can with a +5000 CCV corpo vtuber, and that's what many people watching indies enjoy.
Intentionally or not, some vtubers have capitalized on this.

The job of a vtuber who aims to become the viewers virtual friend is simple. Remember the names of your viewers, try to cheer them up, and generally act as their friend.

Even if you don't intend on following this path step by step, you may find something to reflect on in this pastebin.
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2. Basics
This is obvious, but the main skills here are remembering the names of your viewers and having good chat interaction.
You will develop those naturally, as long as you make sure to keep a eye on your chat.

- Readjusting yourself
Its natural that you will "relax" mentally, and start putting less effort into your streams.
For most vtubers this won't be much of a issue, as long as they eventually readjust themselves.
But if this happens to you, then you will be on a slow downward spiral. Chat interaction will feel as if it has taken a nosedive, and that's one of the most important parts of your stream.

If necessary, take a short break.
When you come back, you will be ready to stream at full strength again.
Afterwards, its a good idea to hold a zatsudan so you can focus on chat interaction and greeting individual people.
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3. Out of Stream activity
Talking to your fans outside of your stream encourages a more dedicated fanbase and generates advertising.
I consider it indispensable.

- Twitter
In general, vtubers regard twitter as a tool for networking with other vtubers.
This is good, but incomplete. It can also used for interacting with your fans.
Replies not only make your fans feel like they're closer to you, but they give you a algorithm boost.

However, tweets can be awkward to reply to.
In order to benefit from this, you need to craft tweets that others can respond to naturally.
For example, try asking a question.
Afterwards, let them know you read their comments by leaving a like, or go a step further and reply back.

- Discord
Having a active discord community is only beneficial to you.
This is important and enough that it deserves its own guide, so please watch this lecture by Kongou Kokuretsu.
As a vtuber he does not have his own discord, but his job forces him to do community management elsewhere.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1434588140

He also has done other lectures which may be helpful to you. To find them, scroll through his highlighted videos.
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4. Good Atmosphere
Making people comfortable is important for encouraging active chatters and preventing a silent loss of fans.
(...)

- Stream Pace
Before starting or ending the stream, have a just chatting session for a bit.
There is no need to immediately send your viewers into a raid.
(...)
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5. Don't alienate your viewership
If your viewers are your friends, you need to treat them as such.

- Your viewers aren't a faceless crowd
You don't want to sound cold and distant towards them.
Even if you post something with the best of intentions, you can be indirectly telling people that they're just another face in the crowd.
Lets work with a example of a tweet sent by a vtuber. After someone trauma dumped in their DMs, they made this tweet.
"Vtubers are not your Lovers, Therapists, Friends, Punching bags, or Fetish.
Learn some boundaries."
This is a bad way to set boundaries.
Don't be in a rush to make a post after getting upset. Saying something while angry is a easy way to set the wrong tone.
Do not blame the entire viewerbase. Some vtubers are quick to aim posts like this towards their viewers, and that is a disheartening way to signal that you don't really like them.

- Don't give others special treatment.
Don't let others feel like a third wheel.
A example of this is VIP status.
You don't want your chat to look like a special club by giving VIP to every chatter. When every chat message is done by someone with either a mod or VIP badge, it discourages those without them from chatting.
You also don't want to make viewers feel isolated by only giving VIP to other vtubers.
Many vtubers add "gain VIP" as a expensive redeem, as this removes any personal personal responsibility on your part.
If you don't wish to use a gain VIP redeem, giving a few of your original fans VIP is another way of going about it.
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6. Further learning
Reading a guide such as this can only go so far.
You should do other things to learn more. I particularly recommend watching other vtubers that follow similar methods.
Here are a few channels that do so.
https://www.twitch.tv/arypie
https://www.twitch.tv/lilyhops
https://www.twitch.tv/corpse_ch
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7. Taking responsibility
You've done it, your viewers see you as their friend.
So, please be careful.
Feelings are on the line.

Entertainers of all kinds have obsessive fans.
Most indie vtubers, however, don't seem to grasp this.
Granted, vtubers have a degree of separation from their audience that allows them to avoid a lot of the trouble that arises from such fans, but its still something they should be aware of.

You won't be getting the upset reactions that GFE vtubers receive, but even so, always keep this guide in mind:
https://mauthedoog.medium.com/21-privacy-tips-vtubers-need-to-know-ce93082cd166