>>66996052Retention from a raid is on both sides of the raid. Raiders that enjoy you are more likely to stick around if you tell them to stick around and give your raid target a shot and vis versa. If you just dump viewers on somebody with a raid they'll say "oh, [streamer] is done so I'll do something else now" most of the time.
As for what you can do on your end to retain from those raids, there's a few things but, again, keep in mind that the average viewer will bounce regardless of what you do. That could be because the stream was long, they already expended their stream watching hours for the day, or they've just got other places to be. None of those are really on you.
-Make a good impression by appreciating and acknowledging every raid but don't make the fact that you were raided the entire focus of your stream. Make the raiders welcomed into what you're doing and involve them into the streaming experience with the rest of your viewers already engaged.
-If you recognize the channel raiding you, don't be afraid to show that you are familiar with eachother because that will make the raiders feel like they went between similar spaces. -Acknowledge the raider as well as their viewers. Don't feel like you need to trap the raider into a protracted conversation because if they're raiding into you its probably because they want to get out and take care of things not on stream. Respect their time and that they chose to raid you.
-Respect every raid regardless of size. 5 people raiding you should be as exciting as 100. If you get the moonshot and some really big channel drops 1000 viewers on you then sure, maybe exaggerate the spaghet a bit (who are we kidding, you'll shit your pants the first time it happens) but otherwise, viewers appreciate a friendly streamer that treats every raid as a treasured gift because somebody felt comfortable entrusting their viewers to you.
-Draw similarities between your content and the raider's content, if you know or they tell you. "Oh, I played Elden Ring too. How did it go for [streamer], raiders? Tell me." or "Oh, you were doing karaoke? I'm doing that at [event] on [date]. I hope you call can make it out to see me." Drawing these connections make the raiders feel like they went from one kind of content they like to another place to get content that they already like.
-Retention always works best from channels where the viewers may already be aware of you but may not have actually watched your channel or sought you out. You should already be trying to be at least known to viewers in the wider streaming community.
