Stop Worrying About Social K/D
If you’ve played any competitive shooter, you’ve likely come across the kind of insecure person who brags about their K/D (kill/death ratio). Their whole sense of self worth is tied up in those stats, but in reality K/D means nothing if the team loses. A similar argument can be made for Social K/D…
What is Social K/D
Social K/D is a term I’ve coined which refers to Follower/Follow ratio. The K representing how many followers you have, versus the D, how many people you follow. Modern society has us frothing at the mouth to get more followers, and on the social networks that still show the follower/follow count side by side, we’re programmed to think we are especially important if we have a very low follow count. “I’m so important. All these peasants want to hang on my every word and I don’t even know who they are.”
F4F
It’s at the point for some people, where those numbers are so important, that they won’t follow anyone that isn’t also following them. They go around offering follow-for-follow ultimatums. “I’ll follow you if you follow me” – as if that is going to somehow bring success. Even if they convince every streamer they come across to f4f, they’re still not going to have real supporters that subscribe and donate. They’ll be sitting there analyzing their follower list to make sure everyone is holding up their end of the bargain, and maybe secretly unfollowing people to get their social k/d up, but they’ll still be broke and bitter.
Don’t allow yourself to become this pathetic. Follow people because you like them and genuinely want to see their content, and don’t expect them to follow you back. Engage with people in a real, human way, instead of being a slave to numbers and perception.
No streamer in the history of streaming gained success via follow for follow.
Bots
Society is so fake, that it’s now at the point where many people (streamers especially) are literally BUYING followers just to make themselves look good. How sad and pathetic is that? Sitting there with 8000 bot followers, but no one actually watching or subscribing and donating.
Your social K/D means nothing if you don’t have real supporters.
The most insidious part is that those who aren’t buying followers, are looking at everyone around them fake-succeeding and feeling desperate and depressed that their growth is nowhere near that – despite the fact that they probably have more real followers.
Stop stressing yourself out by looking at other people’s follower numbers. Often times, it means absolutely nothing, and constantly comparing yourself to others isn’t healthy. It only leads to anxiety and depression.
We live in a thirsty world
Gaming is traditionally a male hobby, and a bit of a nerdy one at that. Yes, times are slowly changing, but it’s still mostly a male dominated industry, where many gamers are unathletic and pretty dorky. As a result, many haven’t necessarily found it easy to approach women in real life, leaving them a bit…thirsty. Female geeks are fair game though – far more approachable, and easy to talk to.
Look at geek queen, Felicia Day, for example. She practically reached sex symbol tier in the gaming industry, and she’s really not that hot. I’m not saying she’s ugly by any stretch, but she’s no Kate Beckinsale. Her appeal comes from being a fun, approachable female in a male dominated space.
Back when Felicia hit the scene, she didn’t really have competition. Now days, though, there’s a lot more women in the industry, so being a likeable female isn’t a guaranteed ticket to success, but the flirty ones are absolutely coining it. Flirty women achieve success more easily than anyone else in this industry. They don’t need to be good looking even…just flirty.
If you’ve been in the gaming industry for 5 mins, you’ve heard incels complaining about how Twitch is overrun by ‘titty streamers’ and ‘thots’, and how they’re stealing viewers from real gaming streamers. Even decent guys that aren’t sexist, and unflirty women, may feel it’s a little unjust to see men throwing obscene donations at cleavage, while they sit there struggling to rub 3 viewers together.
Maybe it is unjust, but if that’s how you feel, it’s healthier just to realize that it’s not going to change. There’s a market for flirty women and the kind of guys throwing money at them are not your customers and they never will be. You’re not losing anything by having these flirty women on the platform or in the industry. They are not your competition, It’s a completely different target market. Let them have their thousands of pervert viewers, while you carry on, non-judgmentally with your own audience.
Put them out of your mind. They are not competition.
Different Tribes
I’m not implying that everyone with thousands of followers is gaming the system or using their sexuality. Some people are legitimately socially successful and you’ll look at them and not be able to fathom why. You might think “this guy is a fat, boring loser” or “this women has voice like cling wrap on polystyrene”. “How does he/she have all these followers?”
The simple answer is that people like different things.
In my mind only a total imbecile could enjoy the Baby Shark meme, and yet look how popular that got. Maybe there are just lots of imbeciles out there and I have to stop thinking everybody has reasonable taste. It’s the same for streamers. There are some out there that are inexplicably popular, but that’s life. If you don’t have a nice steep growth curve like them, it’s not a reflection on your own character. It does not mean that you must be an even bigger loser, if someone you think is a loser succeeds and you don’t. They just found their tribe, and their tribe is not your tribe.
You just need to accept that people who flock to their channel probably won’t be interested in yours. They have found their tribe where they fit in, and you might need to wait a while for yours to assemble, and your tribe may never get as big as theirs, but they may be a better quality tribe.
Focus on what’s really important
The point is that comparing yourself to others is often not accurate or helpful in any way. You have no genuine control of your social k/d, so fixating on it will make you utterly miserable. Rather concentrate on what you CAN control. Be good to the people that are already following you. Produce content that you are proud of. Stop looking at other peoples numbers.
If you’re relying on channel growth because you’re trying to make a career out of streaming, the only numbers you should look at are your own…but not daily. Rather take a monthly look to see if there is growth, loss or plateau, and adjust content accordingly.
if you’re a social streamer, you shouldn’t even look at your own numbers. Just enjoy yourself, or stop doing it and find something that brings you joy.
Sources
- Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash