Who is NigaHiga???
If you haven’t seen Ryan Higa on YouTube you definitely need to get click that YouTube bookmark you have on the top of screen and search him up. He is one the most famous YouTubers currently out there (search that up too). Anyways I don’t want to “fan-girl” too much but to further explain, Ryan Higa is an American comedy who is best know for his hilarious videos on YouTube. He first started back in 2006 by lip-syncing to songs, which eventually blew up and made him the gem he is today. Some of his other videos are his comedy “how-to” videos such as “How to be Ninja”, “How to be Gangster”, “How to hide your farts” and much more. From starting out his career on YouTube he has growth to become very popular on social media. However, I wonder if he started making videos now, would he still be as popular? Probably not, because it would be weird seeing a grown man teach people how to be a ninja. Although it would be pretty useful. Anyways, what I want to see is Ryan’s other use of social media and see how he creates a brand for himself.
To begin I will be using his Instagram. Ryan’s follower to following ratio is definitely on point. He has 2.6 million followers with an average of about 100–200k likes per post. He has 272 posts and his feed is looking very engaging and would definitely make his audience want to tap and see what is going on in his life. Since I’m a fan I know right off the bat what these posts are about. He recently made a video that was a k-pop song parody. But what he didn’t expect was that it would become so popular that it was one of the top songs in Japan.
This song eventually made it to iTunes which definitely took an unexpected turn. And now in his recent posts you can see him getting all dolled up because they are shooting a music video for the song which is expected to come out soon. He definitely uses his image as his brand identity it’s absolutely brilliant! So to sum up, I think Ryan’s use of Instagram would be that it is very effective in terms of engaging his audience, wanting people to follow and keeping his audience up to date with what is going on in his life. He makes his life seem very fun and interesting which is what I like to see on social media. He creates a positive hybrid space where his users can feel happy and draw inspiration from.
Moving on to his Facebook. Ryan clearly is using the features on Facebook very well. I also feel he might be using HootSuite or some platform that allows him to post to multiple social media accounts at once since his past few posts that I saw by scrolling down his page are exactly the same as his Instagram.
His Facebook allows him to not only keep his audience updated like his Instagram, but he is also able to post his full videos and add more links for users to click and view his recent upload to YouTube. This platform also gives Ryan the ability to help his audience better understand the person he is by being able to post to a social media account that let’s him post anything without very little limitations which also helps branch out to his other accounts. Thus, making him more popular and getting more viewers.
Next I will move on to Twitter where it seems that Ryan likes to keep things consistent in terms of layout design. Same header, profile picture and almost the same amount of followers too compared to Instagram.
By scrolling down the page the first thing I noticed was the different of engagement with his audience.
The difference from Facebook and Twitter is that Ryan is able to act more casual when interacting with his supporters. This platform also gives off the impression that things are more related towards viewing his viewers to see and ultimately gives off that he is a welcoming person who isn’t just about the fame. He likes to tweet out to his followers and retweet them to show he cares. Ryan’s use of Twitter is the perfect platform for communicating to his audience in a more personal and relatable way.
But wait there’s more! In the summer of 2015 Ryan Higa launched an app called “Tee-hee” which if you’ve watch some of his videos he says it a lot at the end to conclude the video. This “Tee-hee” app allows the user to keep up to date with the latest video updates from Ryan and his gang. The app also allows you to share gifs, videos, photos and more to the app (which seems like a social media app for Higa lovers). Another cool feature is that you can level up and win awards for being active in the app. This would make the user feel like they were accomplishing something just by interacting with other people who enjoy the same kind of humour as them. In relation to branding himself, he does a fair job at executing it through this app. However, in my opinion I feel this app isn’t relevant to what he is trying to achieve. Yes, this create another platform where he can show his videos and updates, but he already has enough more popular platforms that is already working for him. This just takes away from them and increases work load in terms of getting his message out there. Another way of seeing this is by using his popularity and implementing that with an app where he can go the exact same functions as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube and be able to make more money out of it. Since people like him because he is original and is not a sell out, he is able to make money pretty well for himself just by creating this app. In conclusion, this app is a great way for people to share similarities and differences with each through the life of Ryan Higa.
Last, but not least, Ryan’s YouTube Channel. Back where it all started. Clearly, Ryan’s use of himself as brand really works. People love him! He’s funny and relatable to most of his viewers. Ryan’s channel serves as the base for all of his other social media accounts. Ryan has almost 20 million subscribers and his views per video are about 3–15 million. He is a mastermind when it comes to personal branding. He creates the perfect image of himself on social media which the people adore. The main concepts that keep Ryan always relevant online is his consistency, the relevant topics that occur during that time period, and his excellent personality. These 3 things are not only important as a YouTuber but also as an individual. Ryan strives to achieve the impossible by always seeking a new project. The development of his personal brand is outstanding and gives me the inspiration to keep creating content that others and myself enjoy!
To summarize my analysis of Ryan Higa’s social media experience and personal brand development would be that he is the perfect example of transmedia and a master of creating a hybrid space/ virtual community where his audience can interact. His YouTube channel acts as his main social media platform where he branches off into Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and his own app “Tee-Hee”. The standings for his engagement for each platform would be as follows; first it would be Twitter, then Facebook, Instagram and lastly his app. Although he posts some of the same material on each platform, there are different levels of engagement he provides. Twitter seemed to be most involved in relation to talking more in depth about what is new rather than posting a YouTube video about it. He was able to communicate to his viewers by retweeting and possibly direct messaging them back if they had any personal comments. As for the rest of his social media accounts he was still able to demonstrate that he is there by posting regularly on each site, however there is no personal interaction towards his viewers on either Facebook or Instagram. But, in my opinion there doesn’t need to be because that’s what YouTube is for. To finish off this blog post, I want to add that Ryan Higa is an exceptional YouTuber and definitely someone to watch in whatever mood you’re in because you’ll get hooked.
