Wildcard


TikTok is a place for diverse social media content, which gives content creators the ability to become famous for their short-form videos. Hank Green is one of those people. While he is popular on TikTok, with 5.9 million followers, he has a much more extensive brand. Hank Green has launched and started multiple businesses and projects over the years. I chose Hank because I wanted to examine his brand and how he went from CrashCourse to TikTok, with all of his other projects in between.  

Hank Green started his branding in 2007 when he and his brother John started Vlogbrothers, a video blog that started because Hank and John wanted to make videos to each other instead of talking (hankgreen.com). According to Hank’s website, the Vlogbrothers channel is the basis for everything else Hank has done. Also in 2007, the Green brothers started The Project for Awesome charity which has raised more than $10 million dollars so far for various charities.  


In 2008, Hank launched DFTBA.com with Alan Lastufka. This company is for content creators to put merchandise online for their fans to purchase. Some of the creators put their profits toward charities. Scrolling around the site, it is easy to see the passion and work that has been put into this, just so artists, entrepreneurs, or creators can have quality products to sell to fans. The website even has a mascot, Marmalade Marmot the Marmot, who is listed as the social media manager on the DFTBA team page. 




In 2010, Hank created VidCon, one of the world’s largest conventions that celebrates online video. I have seen a lot of YouTube videos where the vloggers attend VidCon and get to interact with fans. VidCon was acquired by Viacom in 2018.  

In 2012, Hank and John launched SciShow, Crash Course, and Complexly. SciShow is comprised of videos talking about different science news and topics. SciShow has almost 7 million subscribers for their YouTube channel, and they publish new videos every day. Their schedule is listed on YouTube. SciShow has branched off to create sister-channels, such as SciShow Psych and SciShow Tangents. SciShow Tangents is a newer project that Hank hosts and his website calls it “a lightly competitive knowledge showcase.” It is an Apple Podcast that was produced by Complexly, another project Hank started.  


Crash Course is most likely on of the better known things from the Green brothers. They created this project because they want high quality educational videos to be free and accessible to everyone around the country. A lot of high school students probably watched John Green talk to them about various historical events, while Hank tends to talk about the science side. Crash Course has become a huge educational YouTube channel, with almost 13 million subscribers on YouTube.  


Complexly is the video production company started by Hank and John. It is now the way they produce their SciShow and CrashCourse videos. They have 22 different shows listed on the website, with a large range of topics. Each show seems to be unique and diverse. There is a show called “Journey to the Microcosmos,” where you can “dive into the unseen world surrounding us. There is another show called “The Anthropocene Reviewed” where they review “facets of the human-focused world.” 


In 2013, Hank launched Subbable, which is a “subscription based crowdfunding platform.” This project was later bought by Patreon in 2015. Also in 2015, Hank and John started an advice podcast titled “Dear Hank and John.” This podcast can be found on YouTube, where they have just over 9 thousand followers. It is a weekly podcast, where the two brothers will talk and answer questions, give “dubious advice,” and they also say they will give listeners “news that they likely do not care a great deal about.”  


One of the latest projects Hank started was his Awesome Sock Club. This ‘club’ has a website that only opens orders for a short window every year. The window for this year has passed, unfortunately. The way the project works is that you commit to a subscription for socks to show up at your door once a month for a year. All of their profits go to a charity to “decrease maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leonne.” This project is so important because it will help women in another country figure out what they need to do during their pregnancy so they will not lose them. Currently, subscribers helped Hank and John raise over $700,000 to charity.  

Hank is active on social media. He has a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok page listed on his website. He updates his Twitter account regularly, where he has 1 million followers. He appears to post almost every single day, with a few published on the same day. On Facebook, Hank has 347 thousand followers. Hank also publishes a lot less often on Facebook than Twitter. On Instagram, Hank has over 8000,000 followers, and he seems to repost a lot of his own TikToks. The YouTube link on the HankGreen.com website brings you to the Vlogbrothers page instead of Hank’s own YouTube page.   

@hankgreen1

♬ original sound - Hank Green
@hankgreen1

Reply to @mazamm I remembered I have edits to the employee handbook that were supposed to be done yesterday…

♬ original sound - Hank Green
I chose Hank Green for this project because I wanted to look at how he has built up his brand as well as his image over the years. Hank Green went from being John Green’s brother to one of the more popular influencers on TikTok. Overall, Hank Green has an extremely strong image. He does so much for education, and his Awesome Sock Club was created to help at-risk pregnant women in Sierra Leonne. I hope that Hank continues his educational videos through SciShow and Crash Course, but I also hope he continues to give us little talks on TikTok about the various interesting points of how life works.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts