Shake It Off!

One thing that stood out to me while reading this chapter was the effectiveness of businesses being on YouTube. I thought YouTube was only for content related to gaming, music or vlogging. This chapter made me think about the usefulness of long form video content to big brands. What determines if content should be on YouTube is the target audience. It does not make sense for some brands to be on YouTube, but specialized content can be a big driver.

This chapter on YouTube reminded me of the prime days of YouTube content. When I was in high school, I was obsessed with a few content creators on YouTube. Safia Nygaard was someone I followed throughout her career on the platform. She started out working for Buzzfeed. After a few years she started her own channel. I loved watching her try on crazy outfits. I liked her makeup combination videos. I would genuinely look forward to when she would release more content. I fell away from watching her because she started posting longer content, but less of it.

OG holo taco

Another content creator I followed was Simply Nailogical. I was obsessed with painting my nails in high school. I would paint my nails, and the next day paint another design. I found her through a popular video that went viral, but I stayed because she was so funny. I also thought it was interesting that through all of it she kept her full-time job. Cristine Rotenberg went on to make her own nail polish brand! I was lucky enough to get her very first release. I stopped watching when I stopped painting my nails all the time.

super girl nails

Something I still do on YouTube is watch reaction videos. I love watching reaction videos to Taylor Swift albums. It is cool to see other people’s reactions to your favorite songs. I especially like it when people react to music videos. I enjoy looking at the tiny details of them and it is interesting to see other perspectives.

The song I picked for YouTube is Shake It Off! It was Taylor’s top watched music video on YouTube when it was released. It also created a lot of buzz around her first release of 1989. The video contained pop culture references and real fans dancing with Taylor. I thought it was funny because the public had made fun of Taylor for her dancing, but then she made a whole video on how she doesn’t care and is going to dance anyways.