Vimm University: Making a good post!

Hey there! It's Hive account@ddrfr33k, back again to drop some more nuggets of wisdom on all you awesome streamers! Seriously, you guys are great. We love you. But you come here because you're thirsty to learn! Well, take a seat children! Class is in session!

A good post goes a long way on Vimm. A lot of people kind of ignore it when they're in a rush to go live. We see a lot of people who don't change the "My First Vimm broadcast" and that's fine for the first stream you make. But if you're still running that a month later, we need to talk. If you look at the "Go Live" section on Vimm, you'll find something like this:

This section right here? This is a very, very important section. You'll want to flesh out this section, because it will make it easier for viewers to find the content they're looking for. Name the game you're playing, it really does help! Choose a category that matches your content. People will want to know what kind of content you make, and this is a good way for viewers to find out!

But the important part is down below. See that Stream info? Not only does that show up on Vimm, it also shows up on the Steem blockchain! So anyone that's looking at your profile will see all that information. Make it spiffy! We've got several people who do some awesome stream posts. For example:

Patrick Ulrich

Calimeatwagon

And, of course, me!

What do each of these posts have in common? Go take a look. They're all posts that talk a bit about the stream, link to their other social media, and encourage their users to follow/upvote/engage with them. When it comes to streaming, networking and advertising is just as important as actually doing the blasted broadcast. It's something a lot of us take for granted! We don't think of it, and it actually does more harm than good. If you have social media channels, you owe it to yourself to share your stream to that social media.

If you look at my post for a brief moment, there's something in my post that I want to point out. Just like this post for Vimm, I have a footer. It has a couple images that link to my other social media. Humans are very, very visual. We respond better to pictures rather than words. So if you're actually reading this and not just looking at the pretty pictures, good on you!

Anyways, to set up an image as a link, use this text:

[link text](link url)

And for an image, you can put this inside the link text up above:

![you can leave this part blank if you want](image url)

So when you put it all together, it should look like this:

[![](Image URL)](Link URL)

It's a little bit of effort on your part that will make all the difference down the line. Learn how to use markdown if you haven't already, it's incredibly useful and worth learning.

Speaking of pretty pictures, set up an offline image to go with your stream! What is an offline image, you ask? It's a picture that shows up at the top of the stream post (see above) and shows up as a thumbnail on the Steem blockchain. If people go to your channel after the stream ends, they'll see this picture as well. Most people use a generic offline image, like Hive account@calimeatwagon's post I mentioned above. And that works! If you have something unique, something that shows off your brand, it works. Remember that branding identity post that we made? And our intro to branding post? This offline image is a great space to show off your brand. You don't need to be a professional artist, nor do you need to hire one. You can do a lot of really great stuff! Look at Canvio or GIMP or any of the other free image editing programs out there. I made a basic background using a gradient, my logo, and then saved just that so I have a template:

From there, when I want to add a game, I go online, grab the logo in PNG format with a transparent background (this is important!) and a few pics of characters from the game. Toss it all together, and I get something like this:

Obviously, some images work better than others. The higher the resolution of your source image, the better off you'll be when it comes time to add it in. Now, you don't necessarily have to go just this route. When I was prepping to stream The Division 2, I went to the Ubisoft website and downloaded some concept art from from the game. I used that to create this awesome pic:

There are many ways to make awesome offline images for your streams. Don't assume my way is the only way. Make what works for you! I will say that having different offline images does add a bit of flair, but it takes more effort. I personally feel like it's worth it, but that's just me.

Once you have your pics ready, upload them by going to Settings in Vimm, and go here:

Click on that "choose file" option and upload your image. You need to scroll down and click on "save" to apply the changes. I know there's a lot of information to process here, but this is all relevant stuff. You're all awesome streamers, and we love you so! Thanks for reading, we love your upvotes, and we would love to chat with you on our discord! Click the links below and get in touch! Class dismissed!