Online video games have spawned voice and text chat programs for gamers. Any guild needs a Ventrilo, Mumble, or TeamSpeak server for online co-op. The gaming community has moved to Discord.
1. Discord is unique:
Discord is intuitive and even pretty, unlike TeamSpeak 3, Ventrilo, and Mumble, the three most popular voice chat programs before Discord. Discord offers link embeds, emoji reactions, and integrated Giphy search in a more user-friendly text chat service. Discover more: how to show your watching YouTube on discord.
These two factors make Discord more appealing and accessible to non-gamers. Gamers for gamers created Discord, but it can host all kinds of communities. Discord allows real conversation in an age of absentee friendship based on likes and shares.
Discord can help gaming or non-gaming YouTube creators grow their communities. Discord lets you immediately reach your most engaged fans, and even better, they can interact with each other. These relationships form a permanent community that can offer real friendship and support.
2. Start-Up
This post will not explain how to join Discord and set up a server because Discord provides extensive assistance manuals. Instead, we’ll discuss role management, channel organization, and emojis. Setting up a community-friendly Discord server takes effort and planning. Start with your server’s name and icon.
First, consider why you want to create a Discord community. Why and what type of server talks do you want? Do you want your server to be a casual hangout or an organized support network with community goals and expectations?
Practically, it would help if you named and icon your server. YouTubers already have a name and profile pic to use for Discord. However, be inventive. Your Discord server name and icon may represent the differences between your YouTube channel and the Discord community.
3. Creating Channels
After setting up your server, create voice and text chat channels and organize them into categories. Your server will take shape here.
Channels are like clubhouse rooms. Is your clubhouse a sprawling home or a backyard treehouse? Both are appealing. How users use and inhabit your server determines its structure.
Most servers have a generic text chat channel and may have channels for server information, community news, and event announcements. Keeping critical information distinct from busy text channels means members can always locate it.
You may need various voice and text channels for different talks depending on community size. Reconsider your Discord community goals and how to arrange your server to achieve them. If your YouTube channel largely contains drawing tutorials, your goal may be to have viewers share their projects in response to your videos. If so, create a communal art-share channel. An art appreciation channel on the same server lets users discusses their favorite artists. So, users know what to post on each channel, explain its purpose in the channel description.
Depending on your YouTube channel, you want to make space for debates without oversimplifying topics. After your server has grown, try restructuring to delete or merge inactive channels. As your community grows, there will be growing pains to handle.
4. One voice channel is required.
The most popular setups are one main voice chat channel and a few less-used channels for specific activities or quieter conversations.After creating your text and voice chat channels, categorize them. This lets users collapse irrelevant portions and maintains your server clean and structured.
5. Setting Roles
After setting up text and audio channels, decide how community members can use them. Create roles and assign permissions server-wide or per channel.
Discord’s roles are linear. A user granted a position or role receives all the permissions of that role and the roles below it on the roles list, including the default @everyone role. Thus, order matters. Channel-specific permissions allow you to control which roles can chat in which channels. Editing permissions for all channels in a category at once simplifies management. Start easy if you’re new to Discord.
Create a server role hierarchy for three reasons. General server maintenance and moderation come first. Second, acknowledge community efforts. Third, mention groups.
Each position has server-wide or channel-specific rights. Categories handle rights across text and speech channels.
Like YouTube, your Discord server may get offensive comments or content. Trolling a Discord community requires more effort than trolling YouTube comments, but not much. Member roles help. A member role distinguishes individuals who joined via a public invite link from those who want to participate in community conversations. Make your member role a requirement for sending messages in some channels. Limit picture submissions, link embeds, and regular text. You can even hide channels from non-members if you’re very cautious.
Besides moderation, roles can create membership tiers and vanity roles. The top role color appears in the conversation and the member list. Recognizing community members with colored roles is fun. Finally, roles can group like-minded persons for better communication. Discord lets you mention all members of a role, much like you can say @username and @everyone. If you’re a gaming personality on multiple platforms, add a RustFam role to notify your Rust-playing fans of new videos or a Battle Buddy role to get PUBG fans excited for your next stream.
Channels and roles make up your community. Use roles and channels to build the clubhouse you and your subscribers want. They might be simple or complex.
6. Adding Extras
After building your clubhouse, decorate. Your Discord server can use PNG files as emojis. Members can use emoticons in messaging channels and as replies to share internal jokes and bonds. Server bots can do several tasks. Music bots like Rhythm are popular, but server administration and game-playing bots can aid with administrative duties or entertain members. Custom emojis and bots are optional, especially early in your server’s existence, and you’ll likely add more of both.
7. Grand Opening
The server’s structure should satisfy you by now. Be ready to tweak settings as your community expands. You won’t know what needs changing until people use your areas. Create and share an invite link with your admirers. Create your invite link on the channel you want new users to view first. Let your invite links expire if you want to manage when new members join. The expiration duration is 30 minutes to a day.
8. Promote your Discord server to your audience.
You can invite viewers to join you there in your video descriptions. Share the exact link on other social media channels where your viewers are. The new Community tab helps reach fans.However, you recruit new members and keep the group active by contributing to debates, promoting member dialogues, and moderating as needed. Running a Discord server is hard, yet some creators profit much from it. Your clubhouse will develop true connections and viewer loyalty. Discord lets you interact with fans and build a community around your material. Learn the details : how to show your watching youtube on discord.
