One-person media is an emerging platform service where not only celebrities but also regular people can create videos on various types of content and share them with other people online.
Societal recognition of social media has changed a lot in recent years, leading people to create and upload videos of all types, advertise their videos, and more.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are the four most popular platforms with an average of 2.3 billion, 1.22 billion, 80 million, and 332 million monthly users, respectively.
The majority age group of people that create videos on these platforms varies from 15 to 35, which supports the idea of the young Generation Z having a great fervor for the one-person social media era.
In fact, the influence that YouTube has on young age groups cannot be ignored.
In Korea, a dream job survey is conducted in almost every elementary school. The result is as follows: “content creator” first appeared in 5th place in 2018 and jumped up to 3rd in 2019. This was an unusual trend.
Many content creators upload videos, build a strong fan base, get sponsored, get involved in business, and eventually pursue their careers as professional YouTubers.
People admire content creators, thinking that it is an easy way to earn money as all you need is a sense of humor.
However, if we think of the commonly-known content creators, there are not that many compared to the number of people who upload videos on such internet platforms.
This means that it is very unlikely for people to get famous through social media platforms.
Getting famous on the internet these days involves algorithms, outstanding humor, enriching content, and quality.
When used in relation to social media, “algorithm” refers to a way of sorting posts in a user's feed based on relevancy instead of publishing time.
Usually, people of similar age groups are subjected to similar algorithms that decide whether a video will go viral or not.
Therefore, if you target your content to different interests of each age group, you will have a better chance of getting more views and eventually becoming more successful.
Another way is to find your own uniqueness.
Since too many people these days repeatedly make videos on the same topics, viewers don’t see any value in watching such videos.
To avoid this, find fresh ways to approach a common issue or view a topic in a unique way and make it yours.
Viewers value unique channels and introduce them to their friends and acquaintances, and that is how you can advertise your channel without any help from the algorithm.
The next way is to raise the quality of your videos, whether they are short 15-second videos or longer ones.
As was mentioned earlier in this article, people prefer better-quality videos to low-quality ones because they seem more credible and interesting.
For example, you can make your thumbnail neat, attractive, and easy to read, increasing the chance that viewers will click on the video.
Whereas it is common for YouTubers to make 10-minute videos or longer, videos shorter than 15 seconds are preferred by TikTok and Instagram users.
They value short and impactful videos, unlike YouTube users, who value informative, enriching content.
Based on your preference, you have a wide range of options of platforms that can give you chances to go viral and express yourself freely.
Seohyun Oh
Grade 10
Dana Hall School