I’m Ronnie Yaacoub and I spend a little too much time perusing through Instagram and Youtube. What I would essentially like to do, to become an influencer is do commentary and parodies of certain trends that are occcuring currently on Tik Tok, Youtube and Instagram. This interests me, because this is the type of content that I watch and in general envision myself succeeding at doing. This type of content is prevalent among many Youtube comedians such as Cody Ko, Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden.
Cody Ko
Cody Ko is a Youtuber who creates comedic content on Youtube where he essentially creates commentary videos around certain trends. He, has 4.29 million subscribers and his most succesful videos that he has done would be his “That’s Cringe” series. This series is essentially him and his friend Noel Miller, criticizing certain Youtube videos that are “cringe.” The videos are often vulgar, which clearly does prevent him from rising through the Youtube Algorithm. However, in terms of the actual content, it is often funny and well-received by fans. A link to one of his more succesful videos is below, however beware, as it is age-restricted, because it displays under-age vaping and vulgar themes.
The video was well received, however because of how it was received by the YouTube algorithm, I plan on making videos that will be more family friendly and meaningful, with the hopes that it will not be restricted by YouTube’s algorithm.
Cody Ko, also utilizes his Instagram page to promote videos, tours that he will be doing and music. The post below, is a picture of him on set for a music video that he was doing. Even though him and Noel Miller have only been doing rap for the past year, through his use of Instagram and YouTube and using their followers to promote this kind of content, they have effectively become very successful on their Spotify, which currently has 2.3 million monthly listeners. With their most popular song Walk Man, currently attaining 33 million listens. Although I do not believe I would be interested in rap specifically, I do believe that there is a lesson here, which would be for me not to be afraid to branch on to other mediums of media to diversify one’s content making one more relevant in all media.
Drew Gooden
Another influencer on YouTube whom I also admire is Drew Gooden, who has 2.02 million subcribers and makes commentary videos on social media trends. However, he also makes commentary videos on movies that are not well received by critics. A great example of this is his video on the movie Christmas Mail (2010).
The video has received 5.18 million views and has been well received by his audience as his comments are filled with positive feedback. One thing that I will do differently is that I will not make the videos as long as his, as more recently it is much more trendy to make videos that are shorter, as this will keep audiences captivated throughout the whole video.
Although Drew is not as active on Instagram as he is on YouTube, he still utilizes to promote his videos through his stories or promote events that he is doing. For example, below Drew has a post of him with his comrades, Danny Gonzalez and Kurtis Conner on a stand-up comedy tour, which effectively promotes ticket sales. Although I cannot foresee being a stand-up comedian, I feel that it is important to take this into account when promoting events in general, like if one was coordinating a fan meetup or anything that has to do with fan engagement.
Danny Gonzalez
A last Influencer that I would like to model my channel around is Danny Gonzalez. He is also a YouTuber who has 3.31 million subscribers and makes comedic commentary surrounding current trends on Tik Tok and YouTube. His most popular and most well received videos are the ones where he follows tutorials for making awful arts and crafts by a YouTube channel called Troom Troom.
The example above recieved well over 9 million views which surpasses the average amount of views he receives on his other videos which deviate between 2-5 million views. It seems that this could be because he distanced himself away from commentary and made physical comedy instead, which I will definitely note when making my videos.
His Instagram page however, which is often connected to his YouTube page is most popular when he is either pulling a prank on his fans or releasing music. An example from below, is a prank that he pulled on his fans to make them think that he was hanging out with a cousin, when indeed his “cousin” was actually just him merged with Tom Brady, by using FaceApp (an app used to morph ones face to look old or combine it with other people) and while also making some minor adjustments with Photoshop.
My First Approach
The first videos that I plan on making will surround the toxicity that currently exists on Tik Tok. By toxicity, I mean teenagers often taking videos of themselves and acting ashamed of themselves, despite being completely normal. The specific trend that I will be targeting, will be the why girls/guys don’t like me trend. Essentially what this trend entails, is someone taking a selfie video and text would appear above their head saying “why girls/guys don’t like me.” Then after, a list ad traits and characteristics about the person’s physical and mental state will appear. Often more than not, these traits are completely normal. For example someone will say, “brown eyes” or “curly hair.” It has gotten to the point that every single trait possible has been listed. So, what I plan to do with a couple of my friends is give someone a makeover while avoiding these traits, effectively making the person receiving the make over, a monstrosity. This will be released on YouTube and hopefully give people the understanding that this trend is senseless. I will post a chopped up version of the video on Instagram to effectively promote my video on YouTube while also posting some photos of the end result, which will be “the monstrosity.”
Ronnie Yaacoub 