What can the world’s biggest YouTuber teach you?

As a theology graduate, former pastor and now on the staff at Moorlands College in the communications department, I am learning all I can from everywhere I can about how we can get our message across in the contemporary world. Where to turn?

Well, I have just watched a video of a car with a jet engine strapped to it. The goal is to see how many buses it will jump over. If you were one of the 47 million people who have so far watched the video you will know that this was just one of eight other equally audacious ‘experiments’ put together by YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, AKA ‘Mr Beast’ (see photo). If you haven’t seen any of Jimmy’s videos before, they involve everything from subscribers competing for private islands, to creating a replica of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. As the most subscribed-to individual on YouTube, Mr Beast is redefining what the modern-day entertainer looks like.

If you were to watch one of Jimmy’s videos and not be familiar with the nuances of YouTube culture, you would be forgiven for believing that he and his friends have simply been lucky. Maybe they are, and riding a wave of momentary, viral internet hype. You would, however, be wrong. In an interview, Jimmy goes into profound depth as to how every second of his videos is carefully crafted to maximise engagement from his rapidly growing audience. Jimmy describes a day from ten years before, when he and his friends first started out: ‘We had an 18-hour Skype call. We were just tearing apart YouTube videos, studying trends.’ Can we learn from Mr Beast?