Portfolio Assignment 5: It’s an Influencer’s World
The influencer/celebrity that I chose to evaluate in my piece this week is David Dobrik, who is a successful YouTube creator that first became popular over the platform: Vine. David Dobrik communicates to his audience predominantly through a hyperpersonal way: his appeal to viewers is his down-to-earth personality. Audience members always claim that watching his videos brightens up their days and they laugh alongside them as if they were there themselves. This behavior essentially creates this hyperpersonal relationship, through the internet as a medium, where viewers feel as though they are like close friends of Dobrik’s and therefore creating this idealized image of him. Whether or not Dobrik is as good of a person as he presents himself online he comes across as very genuine and warm to his audience: he promotes fan accounts in his videos through “shout-outs”, he gives money and other gifts to viewers that he meets in person and even visits fans who reach out to him.
David Dobrik has taken an interesting approach to self-branding because even though he is a popular influencer he does not censor his content despite the risk of missing out on big sponsors and monetization. It is a breath of fresh air because his content can be very Rated R and this shows his audience the less glamorous side of his life in the sense that he does not hide who he is (and his friends are) by trying to only show this “perfect” self to his viewers. As Marwick discusses in “Online Identity” most people present different personas depending on the audience and that is true for everyone, however I believe that David Dobrik thrives off of his authentic and relatable brand where he is seemingly the same with everyone in his content or when he is featured in other people’s content. He also built his self-brand by being creative and unique with his content ideas and style. According to the article “The Brand Called You,” Tom Peters asserts that one of the best strategies to making a good name for yourself online is by standing out and being distinct and David has used this to his advantage by creating fresh content like “Swimming with 1,400 pounds of dry ice!!” or “World record foam experiment!! (Insane)” that no one has done before.
David’s identity influences the way he interacts on social media because a lot of what he uses for content is surprising people with huge gifts. He always says that his favorite thing is to capture people’s reactions and because he has such a large platform and resources/funds he gives people cars or thousands of dollars which usually generates a lot of clicks. Some may argue that he is just buying people out in order to get popular and make people think highly of him but regardless people like college students and those struggling financially are benefiting and Dobrik can get more money to keep making these kinds of videos. He is a very young ambitious person and he’s light-hearted which translates into his content and how he presents himself whether it be on TikTok, Instagram or other platforms besides YouTube. He is almost always laughing or making jokes in his videos and the photos he shares usually are of him with a big open-mouthed grin. Being that he is in his early 20s helps him connect with the younger audiences because he knows what young people find interesting and funny. He also knows how to connect in a more literal way- he utilizes a ton of social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Vine, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter to widen his scope and even contact fans/people personally through direct messaging. By taking advantage of using multiple platforms he can advertise all different kinds of content he is creating and appealing to a variety of audiences, it also helps him to be on top of what is new and trending as a way to come off as cool.
One of the biggest ways that the keyword sharing can be connected to the themes discussed in these articles is through the assumption that opening up and sharing more about yourself can only benefit you. This applies to the self branding concept because in this age of the overwhelming amount of influencers everyone is trying to stand out and break through the noise and sharing extensively is a key way to label yourself as authentic and relatable. Sharing online is also considered to be more effective and freeing because you are given the ability to manage your online identity and you can find your own personal niche communities and Marwick touches upon this when he discusses constructing identities. Throughout the piece Marwick talks about how people are essentially creating their own online identities which in turn affects their real identity through customization and sharing. By sharing your interests and beliefs through communicating and web surfing you are defining yourself and how you appear to others, this can either work in your favor or against you depending on authenticity and misrepresentation.
