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Getting One Million LinkedIn Followers

2023-04-07 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Personal life) · mode: Comedy & performance

Hank tells John that after reaching 7 million TikTok followers he set out to grow on LinkedIn, scaled back a million-follower goal, and shows his goofy LinkedIn posts pairing science facts (elephant testicles, Venus flytraps, meteorites) with absurd business lessons, claiming LinkedIn as his platform.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — TikTok growth to 7 million followers and whether he could grow on another platform

  • ★★ Hank says a few years ago he decided to try to get big on TikTok because he missed being part of a new platform's rise, as with YouTube. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · TikTok, YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says he now has 7 million TikTok followers, more than anywhere else. — 00:00:00 · TikTok
  • ★★ Hank says growing on a platform depends not on its age but on whether it is underused by current users, creatively fulfilling for him, and whether he adds value. — 00:00:29 · social media
  • ★★★ Hank says a couple of weeks ago he decided to get to a million followers on LinkedIn. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The LinkedIn goal revised; LinkedIn's seriousness versus Hank's public goofiness

  • ★★ Hank says he had not realized that a million LinkedIn followers would make someone one of the top hundred business influencers in the world. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says he revised his goal to making better content than most people on LinkedIn, which he says does not seem hard. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says his biggest problem is that most people use LinkedIn quite seriously. — 00:00:58

  • ★★ Hank says that while he is serious in some ways, he is publicly goofy, which he likes about himself and how he uses the internet, so he turns to that toolkit. — 00:01:27

    “I am publicly goofy, which I like.”

00:01:49 — Hank's LinkedIn posts: science facts with absurd business lessons

  • ★★ Hank's LinkedIn post: an elephant testicle can weigh more than a human head, and unusually for land mammals elephants have internal testicles. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ Hank says that, from his long time online, platforms stop being fun once popularity on them brings significant social status. — 00:02:19 · social media
  • ★★ Hank's LinkedIn post says things besides taxes, such as traffic fines, should be a percentage of income. (playful) — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Hank's post jokingly suggests an income-based surcharge on cheap time-saving things like fast food, since charging him more would be the free-market thing. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Hank's post: Venus flytraps place their flowers far from their traps so they do not kill their pollinators. — 00:02:43
  • ★ Hank says the Venus flytrap post, with a business lesson he admits he does not understand, is now his top LinkedIn post. (playful) — 00:02:43
  • ★★ Hank's post: 25% of meteorites falling on Earth come from one asteroid-belt collision half a billion years ago, and their rate has fallen every year since. — 00:02:43
  • ★★ Hank says this goofiness is obviously where he is at, he does not dislike it about himself, and he will lean on it. — 00:03:13

00:03:42 — John shares TikTok, but LinkedIn is Hank's; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says that after he took off on TikTok John joined and they now share it, but LinkedIn is his. (playful) — 00:03:42 · John Green, TikTok

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description invites viewers to follow Hank on LinkedIn. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • After explaining that elephants have internal testicles, Hank draws a business lesson. — 00:01:49

    “The business lesson here is you don't have to be showy to make a huge impact.”

  • Hank says platforms stop being fun once popularity brings social status. — 00:02:19

    “This explains why LinkedIn has never been fun.”

  • Hank's Venus flytrap post concludes that product teams should be separate from sales teams. — 00:02:43

    “I don't actually know what that means, but it sounds like it's smart, and it is my top LinkedIn post now.”

  • Hank's meteorite post, about a declining but still large share, ends with a business lesson. — 00:03:13

    “you should probably accept that the fact that you were bullied in middle school was still a pretty big part of your personality”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: LinkedIn · TikTok

Also: Organizations: YouTube

Concepts: bullying · day-fine · elephant · Fast food · free market · influencer · meteorite · social media · Testicle · Venus flytrap

Places: asteroid belt

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