Make your Life Easier with Hacks off Youtube

Want to feel smarter than the average bear?  The CrazyRussianHacker youtube channel gives you practical ways to use everyday objects to make your life a little simpler. Get a whole new perspective on everything from recharging your phone with a gum wrapper, to a better way of getting chips out of the bag.  What's his channel about? How is it different from mainstream? Why do I like it & what do I think made it successful? Read on to find out & check out of a few of my favorite videos at the end of this blog.

1.  Clips are about “life-hacks” and practical ways to re-purpose household items to do more useful things. 28 year old Russian videoblogger, Taras Kulakov (he actually lives in Asheville, NC but he was born and raised in the U.S.S.R.), teaches DIY ways to feel more like MacGyver in simple terms.

2.  This youtuber’s content is different from mainstream content because it has low production values and is shot in the person’s home. It doesn’t use background music and has minimal graphics compared to other channels. There is typically only one camera setup and he normally is both cast & crew with no helpers.

3.  I like this channel because unlike many mainstream channels, it focuses on egalitarian usefulness that the “everyman” can DIY, instead of focusing on conspicuous consumption such as channels focusing on makeup tips, product “hauls” and endless walk-throughs of the newest video game releases. CrazyRussianHacker has likely appeal for a broader geographic group of viewers. I would rather spend time watching a DIY channel than other more superficial topics.

4.  Factors that contributed to this youtuber’s over 5 million subscribers include: personality, intelligence, and viewer calls-to-action. He makes requests every so many episodes that encourage the viewer to subscribe, comment on specific parts of the video, and to give a thumbs-up when a project blows your mind and can be seen succeeding. I do not believe this guy would have been given a chance on mainstream media. Casting directors look for superficial over substance. In his Q&A video, he says the key to having so many subscribers has been practice, money on lighting and technology to make the videos with, and he “just loves science.”

10 DIY hacks for Back-to-School:

Water bottle hacks video:

10 Survival Life Hacks video:

10 Life Hacks for College Students:

Q&A with the vblogger includes inspirations & personal info:

Writing Eye-catching Tweets vs. Tweets that get Scrolled by

Let’s take a moment to talk about Twitter. What started as the first social media to utilize text messages in the pre-smart phone world has now become a hot bed of first person accounts and the freshest news in town. How does a person determine what goes into a tweet that makes it engaging and click worthy? I’m going to share 3 examples of tweets that caught my eye and 3 tweets that I was quick to scroll on by.

What kind of posts worked for me on twitter?

1. I retweeted @angelamlee’s post from University of Pennsylvania about the data research involved in Netflix’s original programming production choices. Netflix probably has extensive statistical data based on user viewing habits and being smart by evaluating those numbers when making production choices instead of just going on individual producer biases like in Hollywood’s past will influence more popular programming.  Considering that Netflix won 31 Emmys at the 2014 awards, their number crunching seems to be working and creating critically acclaimed and much marathoned programming. This tweet drew my attention because it featured hard numbers about a typically subjective and biased topic of what makes a good tv show. 
   
2. I favorited @agarza321’s post about getting involved with UTDTV. Her tweet drew my attention because that is a useful extracurricular to be involved in as an EMAC major. Video is definitely an influential and powerful communication tool. 
   
3. I favorited @kg14503’s post from NASA about the moon that orbits around Pluto. So glad it is a planet again instead of just Mickey Mouse’s pet dog. This tweet drew my attention because it featured a video explaining the phenomenon and it is about science which I love. I did not realize that Pluto’s moon is called Charon, which in myth was the ferryman on the River Styx. Charon is a very fitting name for something that orbits a planet named for the ruler of the underworld  
   

What didn’t work?

1. The sponsored tweet did not appeal to me because I have no need for CRM tools for customer relationship management. I feel that my newbie status on twitter led the system to feed me an ad not related to my interests because I have not fed enough interests or posts in the system yet for it to us to gauge my demographic accurately. The photo in this tweet is very generic and does not tell you anything about their product. 
   
2. The tweet from @nytimes used phrasing that felt unnecessarily like click-bait. It was overly sentimental and probably geared for a more vegetarian reader. Texas is full of hunters who are willing to look their next meal in the eye. 
   
3. I did not favorite the tweet from @dallasnews about the car accident and man failing to stop and render aid to the victims. It was not a happy story and I like to retweet things that are educational or uplifting. I avoid posting anything with images that exploit violence, hate or suffering. 
   

Basically, I found tweets more attractive when they featured:

• Facts and statistical evidence with source data clearly linked. This makes fact checking science and political articles easier.
• Life events from people I know personally about their inspirations, personal hobbies and real world activities. I find these kinds of update posts to be more interesting than just the re-posting of memes.
• Visual aids like videos and charts grab the eye more than plain text posts, and are another great fact-checking aid that gives tweets credibility.

If found myself repelled by tweets with the following characteristics:

• Ads and sponsored tweets that try to sell me things.
• Click-bait style wording that tries to hook the reader by using polarizing or divisive language in attempts to overgeneralize its audience’s demographic.
• Images that exploit or try to hook the reader using shock tactics that desensitize readers to images of death, destruction and violence.

I am still learning about what my tweeting style sounds like by sharing things I find interesting and retweeting posts that I think my followers will find useful or uplifting. It will be interesting to see how my feed changes as more things are favorited and more accounts are followed online. I am excited that my twitter feed will look very different at the end of the semester. 

Keep checking back to this blog to read all about my writing evolution online.