Brandon Smith has recently hit 50,000 followers on Facebook in just over a year of streaming on the platform, his extraordinary growth has come as no surprise to those that know him, with his drive and determination being second to none.
Brandon’s recent partnerships with Turtle Beach, BooHoo Man and TikTok provide evidence of his development as not only a presenter, but a key part of the FIFA community.
Check out our exclusive access and interview with Brandon, where he chats about his experience on Facebook Gaming, his growth in the past year, and where he sees his future in gaming, eSports and content creation.
What does Facebook gaming do for a content creator like yourself?
Well firstly they gave me an opportunity to stream on an exclusive basis, which no other platform has offered to me. I wouldn’t class myself by any means a ‘big creator’ so to have the chance and the backing to stream full time is something I’m extremely grateful for. In terms of the what they offer a creator, there’s a lot to discuss - Facebook have made a huge pledge to support their future creators, which in return means they give the creator 100% of earnings from their content, which in itself is ground breaking. I’m excited and happy to be within the Facebook gaming space at the moment.
How have you found your journey to 50,000 followers?
It’s been a very long journey, before I started streaming on Facebook, I had an Audience of just under 20,000 followers, however this audience was inactive and that was mainly due to a lack of content being posted or shared on my part. Since my move to the platform in October of 2021, I’ve consistently been cross promoting my content / streams across multiple media platforms, in return this has slowly allowed me to change people’s habits of where they go to watch FIFA content. I’m still a long way off where I want to be, but I can be proud of myself to have achieved this milestone.
How do you connect to your audience through Facebook Gaming?
I think if anything this is one of the BIGGEST strengths of Facebook Gaming - you see profile pictures and names of people. It allows you to have a better connection with your audience, I hold several community nights and run a group chat for supporters only. I pride myself on interacting with everyone in my streams no matter who you are and where you’re from.
We love your use of the subs and stars mechanism and how you like to give away items to your followers, is that the best part for you?
It has been an interesting year in terms of stars and supporter milestones, I’ve over achieved and received some ridiculous generosity at times. So, because of this I wanted to ensure I was giving back to my community in a ways that no one else was. I saw an idea via fellow Facebook Streamer RossiHD who makes ‘insane gift boxes’ for his top supporters each month. I liked the idea of this and decided to create my own concept of VIP Boxes which in short, is a box made up of loads of goodies from a custom controllers to the latest football shirt of your chosen club. Plus, many many more. Of course, I can’t giveaway all my secrets! Since the launch of the VIP Boxes in May 2021, I’ve been able to send them all around the world from Australia to the U.S and even Monaco!
How do you split your work life balance with your commentating, streaming and content creation, as well as your other work?
Some people won’t know that on top of commentating, content creation and streaming, I work as a university lecturer and I’m delivering lectures 3/4 times a week on Esports. My free time is really limited, in terms of work life balance I think that’s something I’m still trying to figure out. This job and world needs you to put in the hours aside from a 9-5 job, it’s an ever changing industry and if you don’t stay on the pulse you’ll be yesterday’s news.
What does the future hold for Brandon Smith?
It’s a question I probably can’t answer myself. In this digital world where everything is constantly changing, it’s difficult to predict what the future holds… I’d love to be able to still do this in 5 years from now. My FIFA commentary role takes up a massive part of my life and that’s my number one passion. However, I’d love to see myself streaming on Facebook in years to come from now with hope to be one of the biggest! It will take a lot of hard work, but I’m here for the ride.
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Everyone at DSM would love to offer their congratulations to Brandon for reaching 50,000 followers on Facebook Gaming, where he will continue to stream for the foreseeable future.
DSM talent, as well as DSM staff will be joining forces in upcoming months as a whole host of blogs and interviews will be written up across the site, watch this space.
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