How Learning From PewDiePie Can Help Grow Your Business

During the 2013-2020 era, as I went to middle and high school, the internet slowly began to morph from a Wild West of information and personalities into a professional landscape for business promotion and targeted advertising. However, one quality the internet has always shared is its ability to forge communities. When communities became large enough, content creators could, for the first time, earn a stable income rather than rely on “viral” content. While we are in a completely different internet era today, there is one creator we can look to who can guide small business owners on how to create content that is easy to produce, generates engagement, and grows their online presence. That creator is the famous, or infamous, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie.

In 2012, YouTube and other media platforms began prioritizing watch time over views. Specifically, watch time counted the actual minutes of a video a viewer consumed. This shift fueled the explosion of “let’s play” and gameplay commentary channels. Their popularity and rapid growth stemmed from their consistency and low production costs. Now, “how low is low?” you may be asking. PewDiePie’s first series was on the horror game Amnesia, which cost $20. Combine that with a cheap webcam and free screen-recording software, for less than $100, and PewDiePie created content that could be posted daily, leading to millions of views and thousands of dollars per video.

Now, it’s important to recognize that part of PewDiePie’s success on this front came from his reactions to being scared by the game. Felix was loud and immature, but also charismatic and funny. His horror gameplay highlighted entertaining aspects of his personality. This aligned with comedic games like Happy Wheels and even with calm yet, at times, mechanically frustrating games like Minecraft. Another important aspect was that these videos could be made every day with minimal editing and post-production. He could literally make a single video in less than an hour.

However, there is one aspect of internet growth that “Let’s Play” videos can’t provide: interaction. From 2016 to 2020, PewDiePie became more experimental, given his success with the “Let’s Play” genre. He experimented with this by making videos that asked viewers to like, dislike, and comment, all to set a record in whatever category he was targeting. While interaction does give your content a literal numbers boost, what is even better is creating content that engages with your community. This led to PewDiePie’s next successful online series, Last Week I Asked You (LWAIY) and Meme Review.

While the concept for LWIAY was certainly not original, it literally started as a Parody of Jackfilms’s YIAY. Felix was able to hone his immature humor and charisma and have his audience create memes he would react to. Felix would not actually ask his fans to create specific content; rather, he would scroll through his subreddit and record his reactions to his fans’ creations. Along with that was his series Meme Review. Once again this was reaction content; however, rather than being restricted to his own subreddit, PewDiePie reacted to trending memes. This expanded his reach while allowing his base fans to comment and providing additional interaction.

The Climax of PewDiePie as a creator is, without a doubt, his battle with T-Series, an Indian music label similar to Vevo. For months, T-Series and PewDiePie had an online battle over which channel would have the most subscribers. While most individuals can’t compete with large corporations, PewDiePie’s fans, through constant liking, posting, and commenting, caused PewDiePie to regularly retake the top spot over 8 months after T-Series took the lead. To put this in more technical terms, while T-Series grew by hosting famous artist on their channel, PewDiePie’s fans actively boosted his SEO. In fact, this battle would lead to the next content creator to take YouTube’s throne, Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast bought a Super Bowl ticket just to fly a “Subscribe to PewDiePie ” banner. This gave Mr. Beast a subscriber boost, helping him reach 500 million subscribers.

So how does one apply PewDiePie’s legacy to their business? There are four avenues: consistency, watch time, interaction, and riding trends.

It takes an average video twenty 24 hours before platforms no longer begin recommending it. So to reach new viewers, the more you post, the better. Felix posted once per day, but you can see online growth by posting at least once per week. He was able to do this thanks to his low production cost. So get your iPhone and start recording. But if you want to look more professional, many local businesses, such as your very own Curration Marketing, have studios available for rent.

As for watch time, it is no longer measured in minutes but as a percentage. So create short, snappy reels that grab viewers’ attention and hold it. That being said, watch time in minutes still matters. One of the reasons weekly long-form talk shows and podcasts do so well is that hosts can record up to hour-long segments and then extract short clips that can be posted daily. This is what led to the success of Joe Rogan, Cable Hammer, and also channels like Critical Role, which simply play Dungeons & Dragons live.

Interactions are not just likes and shares, but replies and comments to your replies. Encourage engagement in your videos by asking viewers to share their thoughts. Not only that, but many platforms allow you to reply to comments with a video. This further drives engagement and is an easy way to farm content.

Much like how PewDiePie had a Meme Review, you should also be willing to ride trends. While some trends may not fit your business most, they are cute and fun games you can quickly play with your team, simple dances, or just reactions to recent events. For instance, having a shot of your team posing to the Avengers theme song at the release of Avengers: Doomsday will help you benefit from a blockbuster movie’s success.

Building your online community is not about a single viral hit or the click rate of a paid ad. Rather, it is the consistency of posting, interaction, and adaptability of your social platform. PewDiePie was not the best gamer, video creator, or even personality on YouTube. But he was the most consistent, most interactive, and most adaptable to trends. Following the steps of this legendary influencer will not just help you see real internet growth, but also help you host a loyal community that supports your goals.