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'Influencer' Must Die.

2025-06-20 · letter vlog · Hank · 5:26 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, on location

At VidCon 2025, where he was inducted into the VidCon Hall of Fame, Hank argues that being a YouTuber is a craft, not a business: he hates the advertising-industry word 'influencer', compares creators to musicians, and says the new part of the craft is being your own distribution, which is about empathy and building an audience.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Good mornings from old-school YouTubers, the John age jab, and Hank's VidCon Hall of Fame induction

  • ★ Hank tells John that at VidCon 2025 he found out the dad of one of his favorite YouTube musicians is one year older than John, and apologises for telling him. (playful) — 00:00:00 · John Green, VidCon, YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says he was inducted into the VidCon Hall of Fame along with the people who said good morning at the start, and enjoyed hanging out with old-school YouTube friends. — 00:00:00 · VidCon, YouTube

00:00:38 — Online video is a craft, not a business: against the word 'influencer', creators as musicians

  • ★★★ Asked by a press outlet for the biggest misconception about online video, Hank said everyone thinks it is a business but it is a craft; what he does as a YouTuber, not as a company head, is a craft. — 00:00:38 · Complexly, DFTBA Records, Good Store, YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says he hates the word 'influencer': the advertising industry created it for creators, naming them by the job they do for advertisers, which is not the job. — 00:01:07
  • ★★ Hank says language matters a lot: many people with this job think it is to do work for advertisers, which it is not. — 00:01:07
  • ★★★ Hank says for some creators the job is working for advertisers, and that is fine, but mostly the job is to make things for people. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ As an analogy, Hank says musicians are often good at selling headphones or Pepsi, but no one thinks they are marketers: they are people who make music. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ Hank thinks the forms and genres of online media arose so quickly that new words for them could not be found fast enough. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ Hank says many YouTubers, including his favorites, are basically documentary filmmakers, though no one would call them that. — 00:02:02 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says 'content creator' is as nonspecific as it gets, since every artist, poet or novelist creates content; a more specific word was needed, and then came 'influencer'. — 00:02:02 · content creator
  • ★ Hank jokes that the first person who called him an influencer he had to kill, and then had to get rid of the body. (joke) — 00:02:32
  • ★★ Hank admits he has no good word for creators and does not know what to call them; he has started saying 'maker of things', which sounds ridiculous. (unsure) — 00:02:32
  • ★★★ Hank says people talk as if every YouTuber is a startup, but most creators he knows are exactly analogous to musicians, building an audience by making things it loves. — 00:02:32 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says creators also do things to make a living, but a musician who tours, sells merch or does a brand deal is not a tourer, merch seller or influencer. — 00:03:01
  • ★★ Hank says most people who learn to make videos, like most who learn guitar, do not go professional, but learning still feels good and much is earned along the way. — 00:03:01

00:03:30 — The new part of the craft: being the distribution, empathy and building an audience

  • ★★★ Hank says online video draws on writing, editing, performing and filming, but one big part is new: the creator is the distribution, responsible for getting eyes on the content. — 00:03:30
  • ★★★ Hank says distribution is often seen as algorithm hacking and metrics, which matter, but it is also empathy and the craft of building an audience, which fits no existing craft. — 00:03:59 · recommender system, empathy
  • ★★ Hank says the many combined skills build not just a YouTube video but a whole channel or a whole person, and understanding that is super important. — 00:04:28 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says it was always going to take a long time for online video to be seen as an actual craft, but people are getting there. — 00:04:28
  • ★★★ Hank feels lucky to have had years of apprenticeship in which he did not have to be good at anything, so that he eventually gained the skills to do it well. — 00:04:28

00:04:58 — Hank's lucky apprenticeship in early YouTube and his brother's help; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says in early YouTube you did not have to be good to get attention, so many people could build the skill and create the craft from scratch. — 00:04:58 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says he is lucky to have a brother who has always helped him turn his skills toward leaving the world better, and feels very happy to have done the work. — 00:04:58 · John Green

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked in the comments why the VidCon co-creator is only now inducted, Hank replies that the Hall of Fame was just created. — creator comment · VidCon
  • ★★ In a comment Hank predicts creators will probably end up with a variety of mostly existing words, such as comedian, filmmaker and science communicator, applied online. (hedged) — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: influencer · online video

Also: Projects: Complexly · DFTBA Records · Good Store · VidCon

Organizations: YouTube

Rituals: Good morning greeting

Concepts: advertising · documentary film · empathy · recommender system

Products: Pepsi

Also centred on influencer: An Open Letter to Professional YouTubers · Influencers and Insurrectionists

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