With the ongoing success of The Fault in Our Stars this
weekend, I think it would be a good idea to analyze how John Green and his
brother Hank built an empire of entertainment and a vast community through
independent means. It was, after all,
this built up community that is to thank for the success of the book and the
movie, so it’s something to be studied by anyone who wants to see success in
the growing world.
The first thing that’s important to note, even before I
go into the history of the Vlog Brothers videos, is that they grew this big not
by blatantly trying to grow big, or by shamelessly marketing; and most
importantly, not by seeing what had been done before and following some sort of
formula. They honestly and earnestly set
out to do something that interested them, and that they thought would be good
for the world. People latched onto that
and respected it, and their community grew around them.
So on to their history, which I think will one day be
studied in classes around the world. It
began on January 1st, 2007 when Hank Green posted a video for his
brother John Green on the relatively new site Youtube. Neither brother was well known, had any
experience in film or television, and did not live in big cities generally
deemed “important.” They were just two
young brothers who decided to speak to each other solely through video. Hank started it with this upload:
He dared John to communicate every day, and if either
faltered, the other would be able to decide on a punishment. John responded, and the two began a dialogue
every day with rules that included a short length, they had to talk about
something they found interesting, and not much else. They just had to do it on a regular basis.
They called it Brotherhood 2.0, recognizing this as a
sort of 21st century type of family relationship of the high tech
era. They also began calling themselves and
their fans “Nerdfighters,” not after people fighting against nerds, but nerds
who are fighting against problems in the world.
Their numbers were a trickle at first, though they had a few more than
someone starting today as the competition was nowhere near as fierce in those
early days of Youtube.
John was the first to miss a day, and Hank sent it out to
the few viewers to determine his punishment.
It would not involve any sort of physical pain, except to eat something
that would be very unappetizing, and he had to do it on video. When he posted it, the views climbed, as
humor and childish pranks have a tendency to get more hits. People continued to watch because their conversations
were so interesting. Hank and John are
very curious people, and each video was them trying something new out. They’re also very creative, and many of their
videos involved some trick of cinematography or editing that would make any
film school professor proud.
In fact, over the year they continued to grow due to a
perfect mixture of policies. I don’t
believe they knew at the time this was the perfect formula for getting views,
they just did it and turned out to be right.
They are:
Consistency: By
coming out with a video every day, people could rely on them and knew to tune
in to see what they were doing. This led
to the number two biggest reason for their growth…
Quantity: By having
so many videos, they littered the internet, and people couldn’t help but run
into them, especially when going on Youtube.
They were able to make so many videos because they kept them:
Low Budget and Easy to Produce: By keeping the videos as blogs where they
simply spoke to the camera, they were able to do one each day. This lent itself to speed and quantity, and
that large quantity also meant they had…
Many Key Words:
Each video had to be titled something, and they always titled it after
the subject of their video. They also
put whatever they were mentioning in the metadata, and the description. Fans also said things in the comments that
drew key word searches to them. The key
words were also about…
Things People Wanted to See and Hear: The brothers talked about things that were
famous and big at the time, and also things that people wanted to learn
about. So, if you put in a search about
Harry Potter because you were going to see the movie, you saw their video on
the Google search. If you wanted to
learn how to stack cards, you’d find their video on stacking cards in the
Google search. They did this through
their…
Charm and Charisma:
This is a trait they are naturally good at, but if anyone wanted to do
the same, they would need to make sure they have the same sort of friendliness
and likeability that gains viewers.
Speaking of which, they…
Involved the Viewers:
They asked questions of the viewers and sparked conversations among
them. This made people feel part of the
conversation, and they even referred to things people were saying, which made
them feel special. Viewers could also
get through a lot of the videos because they were…
Short and to the Point:
Making one of the rules that videos had to be under four minutes made it
easy to go through lots of their videos, and made it less daunting to put them
on in the first place. Plus, it made
them get right to the point, which made people stay on the video once they
clicked on it. No fancy graphics or
credit sequences, just the video itself.
Most importantly, they have been positive, informative, and funny, the three most important things on the internet.
After the first year was done, they had enough viewers
and enough fun doing it that they continued, despite the fact that it didn’t
really bring in any money. They just
enjoyed it, and it was getting a following for John’s writing career and Hank’s
musical career, so why not? Plus, they
were getting a lot of good friends out of it.
So they went on to the next year.
During that second year, Hank wrote a song about Harry
Potter just before the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came
out. The subject was, of course, on
everyone’s mind because it was a hit movie based on a hit book. The song was short, fun, and catchy, so when
people found it on Google searches when they were intending to find information
about the movie, they watched him. To
make matters even better, Youtube featured the song because of the movie’s
popularity. As such, the song became a
hit, and people began flooding to Hank’s videos. This made them automatically also flood to
John’s videos, even if that wasn’t their interest.
This is where fate worked perfectly in their favor. Many of the people who had come to Hank
through Harry Potter were young book fans.
John wrote books for young fans.
These people immediately became drawn to John’s books, and became
curious about his latest book, which was coming out soon. This was The Fault in Our Stars.
John not only let the community in on his writing
process, but he also made them a part of it.
Comments on the book at that time were read, and he commented back. Fans found themselves becoming a part of the
process, and felt validated by it. Most
importantly, they felt invested in it.
In fact, the book itself was inspired by one of the “Nerdfighters”
who herself had cancer, Esther Grace, and who died from it. John was so moved by her life and plight that
he essentially made the lead character a fictitious version of her, and even
made an Esther Grace day, which is now commemorated everywhere. In doing this, he added to the formula the most
important ingredient:
Helping Others and Sharing the Spotlight: If we’re entertainers, we want the spotlight
on us. But ironically, the best way to
do that in today’s world is to shine the spotlight on someone else. Today’s technology works on Karma, and I mean
that quite literally. It’s not just a
matter of what goes around comes around, there are two basic elements that go
into supporting others comes around to supporting you:
First
of all the people you support will usually support you back, or they’ll find
themselves supported by no one. The more
people you support, the more people will send their viewers to you, and your
numbers will grow.
Second,
part of the formula of the Google search engine is to see how many links there
are to your site. So the more you link
to other sites, the more Google notices you, and the more people will come to
you.
Plus, it’s just the right thing to do.
I recently learned of someone who refused to place links
to other people on his site because, in his words, “I don’t want people leaving
my page.” That man’s page is very
lonely.
You see links in the Vlog Brothers videos and posts ALL
the time. This is one of the key
elements that has kept them popular.
But most of all, there’s the honesty and integrity. Hollywood and New York television stations,
which have controlled entertainment for more than a century, is based on lies
and deceit. They have done this because
it’s worked for them in the past, but what Hollywood producers and New York
executives didn’t realize is that it worked because no one had any choice. Once piracy came along on the internet,
people were very willing to do it because they felt no pity for these
millionaires who had ripped them off without caring about them, and who truly
felt they were more important than the general public.
Anyone wanting into the film industry, myself included, I’m
afraid, flocked to these studios and many conformed to their ways to be let in
past the velvet rope. A historic moment
happened in John Green’s video Hitler & Sex in 2013 when John Green
actually turned down a major television network to instead focus on
Youtube. Up to that time, people used
Youtube as a means to an end, placing videos up there to get the attention of
studios and networks. But with this
video he said that he only wanted to do things on Youtube, and he had no
interest in the exploitive networks.
Here is the video:
What the producers at studios and networks have failed to
realize is that people are huge fans of the Vlog Brothers specifically because
of their integrity; the very thing these Hollywood and New York producers have
shed in their constant pursuit of viewers.
They don’t realize that the very thing they’ve gotten rid of is the very
thing that would bring them viewers, not turn them away. As the Vlog Brothers started more shows with
higher production values, such as Crash Course and Sci Show, their viewership
has increased. Instead of going after
short gains by doing ridiculous episodes on aliens and the Nazi party that
catch viewers initially, they produce videos that give real information. This does not get viewers immediately, but it
keeps them over time, and slowly grows.
As such, their types of productions will continue to
grow. As they do, these same producers
and executives in Hollywood and New York who were consistently short sighted in
the past will scratch their heads and wonder how they lost power to these young
upstarts. They’ll blame video piracy and
lack of star power, as they always do, but, like an alcoholic who refuses to
admit he’s got a problem, they’ll never recognize their own faults, and will
lag behind until they disappear.
Thank you, Vlog Brothers, Hank and John Green, for
helping to shape entertainment into a new golden age.
