Tech Personality iJustine Spills Her Secret to YouTube Success
Posted on by Kristen Tischhauser
As a part of Mashable’s weekly video series Behind the Brand with host Bryan Elliot, “How iJustine became a Media Mogul,” sought to reveal the ‘secret sauce’ behind creating a million-plus member community of online viewers.
According to Wikipedia, “as of June 1, 2009, [Justine Ezarik] had over a half a million Twitter followers, and almost 100,000 subscribers to the iJustine YouTube channel. [And] by December 2009 these numbers had grown to about 1 million Twitter followers and 300,000 YouTube subscribers… [with an additional] USA Today estimates that her videos have attracted a total of 64 million viewers.”
In addition to her online following Justine has been nominated for a number of tech based awards and won a Webby for Best Personality in 2011. Given her success- what we can learn from iJustine’s model? What has worked for her and what hasn’t?
- Parodies garner you great SEO but can backfire if the material has devoted fans.
- Tweet your idols for access to seemingly unobtainable partnerships.
- Don’t underestimate the power of raw, honest coverage.
- Record your own audio, manage your own editing, build your own site; in short, have a hand in every aspect of your production.
- Have fun with it!
- Build a community through consistent, topical content.
- The term “viral video” is often misused, and is different than having devoted subscribers. Subscribers are the key to building your online community.
- Work via all networks- all the time.
- Don’t expect corporate sponsorship even if they seem like obvious partnerships.
- Loyalties should lie to products not companies.
- Learn from your community which things to improve upon from each blog post and video.
- Diversify your content. Engage multiple platforms.
- Good audio and lighting is key but you don’t have to spend a fortune on equipment.
- YouTube is really generous with their content creators with grants for future development.
- Interactive TV. is a game changer for current content creators.
CLICK HERE to read the original article and watch the video interview via Mashable.
