After just seven months of creating hundreds of videos and gaining more than 900,000 followers, Logan Paul managed to make more than just a name for himself in the social media world.
Within the past year, Vine has risen to be one of the most popular social media sites. Users have only six seconds to get their message across, be it funny, educational or politically informative.
Ranked No. 43 in a pool of 50 million users, Paul, a freshman studying industrial and systems engineering from Westlake, Ohio, prevails in the humor aspect of Vine. It took two months for his videos to transform from playful fun for friends to something a large amount of viewers could enjoy.
“I realized that when the videos were both funny and relatable, the viewers enjoyed them more,” Paul said.
In June, with 40,000 followers, Paul’s brother pointed out that he might in fact be “Vine famous.” From there, his viewers continued to escalate to the hundred thousands.
“I think Logan Paul is a comical genius,” says Natalie Abraham, a freshman studying media arts and studies and one of his many followers.
Paul said 30 percent of his videos are spur of the moment, while the other 70 percent are premeditated. To achieve those 70 percent, it could take 25 to 50 takes to get it perfect.
“I’ve had Vines that take between two and five hours to film,” Paul explained.
Paul’s newfound status has given him the opportunity to network, he said, gaining the chance to collaborate with other bigwig “Viners” like Even Eckenrode, who has more than 900,000 Vine followers, and Jerome Jarre, who has 2.4 million Vine followers. Over the summer he spent some time with Jarre in New York City.
“We would spend all day making videos, it was a lot of fun and a great way to attract new viewers,” Paul said.
At Ohio University, Paul said he has noticed mixed responses from his followers. His fan base continues to grow, and nearly everywhere he goes on campus students recognize him. However, Paul said he worries that his six-second clips are beginning to look too similar with the limited space.
“I need to find a way to manipulate my style so that it can fit at OU,” Paul said.
But, plenty of his new Bobcat followers have expressed that they like to see their school represented in this unique way, he said.
“I use Vine a lot, so it’s really cool to see our school in his ‘Vine famous’ videos,” said Katie Casella, a freshman studying health science and one of his followers on Vine.
Though he hasn’t found his new Bobcat Vine style yet, he isn’t staying stagnant; Paul just finished his first advertisement Vine — a video where he showed off a product. Some fans of his might see this as a disappointment, but Paul is aware and said he expected it.
“If they don’t really like me that much, then they shouldn’t follow me in the first place,” Paul said.
He also said he is aware that avoiding advertisements in the social media world is very difficult, and Vine is no different.
These days, a personal goal of Paul’s is fast-approaching; he will soon reach one million followers. To celebrate, Paul intends to film a “supervine” — a clip featuring thousands of people — on Sept. 29 and encourages everyone on campus to come and be involved.
hd550512@ohiou.edu
@han_nahdebs
