You guys are so sweet me. I'm literally just beyond blessed to have every single one of you in my life
and that's literally like I'm not even sugarcoating it
So thank you for being part of the swamp family and thank you for being here for me
in his three-part series
Shane Dawson would explore the life of bunny Meyer also known as graveyard girl
and help her revive her channel
hey, everybody it's Bunny
The videos amassed millions of views as the audience sat captivated
This dying Channel had hit the jackpot. One of the most relevant channels right now wanted to collaborate
Bunny, I'm coming for you
he was so interested in really getting to know me
and to not just collab, but to
forge a friendship
Her channel skyrocketed as new viewers heard her story
That is crazy. Like what???
but one year later, was it enough?
Welcome to psych IRL. My name is Donna. Alright, so I was asked to talk about survivorship bias
Now if you are very familiar with my content, you know
I talked about the successful journeys of a number of youtubers
and someone pointed out that maybe it's the result of survivorship bias
What survivorship bias is, is basically this logical error
where we look at the most successful people in their niche
and we follow the advice of those successful people
now, there's nothing wrong with that, but we have to take into consideration failures as well
For example in world war ii the designers of planes were trying to find out ways to strengthen their bomber planes
Planes that were just in combat flew back with bullet holes
and the designers would figure out how to strengthen this plane
They would look at where the bullet holes were located and strengthen those areas.
Now those are surviving planes though, so even though the bullet holes pierced those areas
the planes did not go down
So strengthening those areas wouldn't really have an effect
It may be a better idea to strengthen the parts that didn't get shot down
We could also apply a survivorship bias to youtubers
And it's a little weird examining someone's "failure"
After all, we don't know if they "failed" on purpose
like they're not uploading consistently or they're not getting
They're not following trending topics on purpose so we don't really know so it's a little weird
So we're gonna examine
graveyard girl aka Bunny Meyer, and I've chosen to examine her and
choose her as an example of survivorship bias because I feel like
everyone expected her to go on this upward trend
Hey everybody. It's Bunny. And it's time for another thrilling, riveting,
exciting, possibly disturbing venture in
Does this thing really work?
Bunny Meyer created her channel in 2010, but didn't officially start till 2011 of February
where she uploaded a variety of content from tutorials to talking about paranormal experiences
someone was pushing the horse with the kid on it and there was nobody in the room and they were like
oh, like what's going on and the kid would always be like
Oh, bobby was playing with me and I saw Bobby and this not in the other
What really popularized her channel though was trying as seen on TV products
and testing if the items actually worked
Does this thing really work?
She was one of the first people to bring personality into product reviews
Reviews on YouTube were purely informational in the early days
A user may be doing a research on whether or not they should buy an item, find a video review,
take that information from that video, and then leave
Early reviews brought in a lot of views because potential customers were always in need of an opinion
to whether or not they should make a purchase
Meyer took that concept and added personality
Not only were her videos informational but she added things like humor and life stories
I used to sit there and like paddle brush my hair
Every day and it pulled my hair out and it caused my hair to have a lot of breakage and I had like the worst
frizzy hair until like I was a sophomore in high school
because I had ripped all of my hair out and created all this frizz like literally my frizz like
Oh, the year book photos
So after that, I just vowed to quit brushing my hair, combing my hair altogether
this built audience dedication and recurring viewers no matter what she was reviewing
Conair Infinity Pro Curl Secret, Upside Down Mascara,
The Soda Stream, Lash Things, The Dunking Buddy, Squeezy Freezy
Hot Buns, Ear Floss, Ravair, The Wow Cup. Wow!
So, Meyer actively gained viewership through searched and kept them through personality
Some have said that her channel is only popular because of a successful ad campaign
But she still had a recurring audience. The ad just quickened the process perhaps
In other words, your videos can be shown to many people,
but they still have to be adequate in order for the audience to like them
I feel like they're like...What's those things? You know what I'm talking about
Other creators took note and followed suit. A number of similar videos popped up all over the internet.
The formula was exactly the same. The Creator would try a product
The Sock Slider
I can't believe this is a real thing
But when I saw it, I was like I have to buy it
something would go wrong or they'd be surprised at how well it works
This is not as cool as I thought it'd be everyone
And it make one hilarious video
Instead of most search results heading in Myers direction,
it was now being distributed among several creators
Eventually, the trend died and many moved on
Review videos have now evolved into very niche topics
where youtubers review a certain type of product
likewise the novelty of infomercials and As Seen On TV products have worn off
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Introducing Grab It, the ingenious new tool that grabs where you can't reach
diminishing viewer interests with Meyers content
because she had chosen not to evolve her channel her numbers began to sink
Even though she's done all the things that big youtubers have advised: do what you like, be yourself
Her numbers don't really reflect that
and as that trend died, she continued to be herself
This is what she actually liked but the numbers just weren't there
Shane Dawson felt like it would be a good series to help revive her channel.
So he flew to Texas and he hates flying
Update: I'm still having a panic attack
but because of the medicine I took,
Now, I can't feel it.
but I know it's happening
It's almost like being in a mental prison
Oh my god. We're really close to her house. I'm nervous
In his 3 part series, Shane took the viewer to see a very personal side to Bunny Meyer,
she was afraid to show to her followers
We saw a number of her quirks and things she loved collecting
most importantly, she opened up about her channel
I don't even want to care about the numbers, and the views, and the subscribers
I just want to have fun
But it's like, I feel like I can't have fun because I feel like the whole world is watching me fail
Meyer also unveiled the insecurity she felt for the past few years
Shane then analyzed her channel and addressed the problem of evolution
We've seen this from you before for a long time and I think you know,
I use to have the same feelings. Why isn't this video doing well. It's bright yellow
I'm eating a piece of pizza. I'm making a funny face
It says Taco Bell like yeah, those are all the things that whatever. The reason it wasn't doing well was because
people are like, "I don't need to click". We get it
Both creator and viewer were moved by her story, causing a second rise in viewership
And then I started tearing up when a bunny teared up because I deal with a lot of anxiety
and stress over YouTube and a lot of the things that Bunny talked about, I deal with
When we look at her channel today though, we see that the effects of that collaboration has worn off
She's still doing fairly well and better than most creators
But her numbers aren't up to the standard of when she was popular. Did something go wrong?
the most common advice big youtubers give aspiring creators is be yourself and make stuff that you like
so my tip for anyone that wants to start making YouTube videos
is the same boring reply that I have always gave which isk
Do it because you enjoy making it
because if you enjoy making them, people will enjoy watching them and if people don't watch them
then you at least have fun making them
I feel like a hostage on my own channel now
Because I feel like even if I wanted to sit down and have fun
and I keep referring to that like lipstick swatching video
because you guys like honestly the feedback on that video like kinda killed me
because I had o much genuine fun that day, and I don't know if that read through or not
But I was so happy to just be there
I think we'll assume that if you are yourself or you enjoy the content you're making
the views will come. That isn't always the case.
I'm also beating myself up all the time telling myself that everything I do is bad and not good enough
and it's not graveyard girl 2.0 enough and people are gonna hate it and you know,
like I could never make a video like I did like for all eight years that I've been on YouTube and it's just like
sometimes I struggle with
even feeling like I can keep up or that that's really me
always wanting to do bigger things and better things and more edited things sometimes
but my favorite thing is literally to just flop down and talk to you guys
although she was thankful for the collaboration it also put a lot of pressure on her
to publish higher quality videos. The attention that the collaboration put on her,
made her feel like she had to live up to this graveyard girl 2.0 people were expecting
For a while, renewed interest was there because of the shout out
and even though opening up and showing vulnerability on camera was something the viewers wanted,
you could tell how uneasy it made her feel.
I want to share these things with you
I want to be honest and open with you
and I wanna tell you guys what's going on and I want to kind of like unpack all this with you and tell you this story
but it's hard
And it sometimes makes me feel sick afterward
I feel like to share this bonds me closer with you guys
but also, I don't want to do too much too fast
Some of her most viewed videos are videos of her opening up
But that's not easy for a lot of people to do
She does still attempt to open up to her viewers, but it is very hard and it's not that she's not being herself
She's just choosing not to share that side of her with the public
Rightfully so. We all have our personal boundaries of what we want to share.
Some are more willing to showcase their family online, while others want privacy
In the case of Bunny Meyer, there's a clear discrepancy in what the audience wants
and what graveyard girl wants
when we look at her content today, we see that a lot of it is similar to what she had made
pre Shane Dawson collaboration
She had previously shared her fear of change.
I just don't want you guys to think that because everything is not completely different
1 month later, 2 months later, even 3 months later
that I'm at any time not keeping Shane's advice close to my heart
and very much in my mind, but I feel like I am by nature slower to change
if I try and just jump in and turn my entire house upside down overnight, I do get extreme anxiety
and panic attacks
but it's been over a year now and the content is still similar.
for a channel of her size, she also has a low view count
but does that really matter?
Post Shane Dawson collaboration, she created videos that were highly produced.
some did very well, but as she stated before she doesn't like doing that type of video
maybe the numbers don't matter to her
Maybe she's happy with the dedicated audience she has right now
No matter how many people are watching or not watching her how like relevant or irrelevant I am.
and I just hate that whole thing
I don't prescribe to that. I don't care any more like call me irrelevant
Like I just want to own my channel again
I want to be able to come here and not have every video. I don't know
It's just not natural for me. Like I'm not
trying to fit in with Hollywood
I'm not trying to compete with television. I'm not trying to compete with Netflix. That's never been my goal.
I'm just part of the original string of youtubers where it's broadcast yourself
For this video. I did rewatch the series again, and I think it's a little difficult to see someone with such a
Cool personality and unique personality
to have a I don't want to say dying because I think she's doing a lot better than most youtbers
I'm in Gucci and I found a lot of cute stuff.
I mean if that's irrelevant, I want to be irrelevant, right?
Like I think it's difficult to see someone that's not very controversial
with low numbers than
You know other people
and I kind of have the feeling that Shane Dawson felt the same way. He liked her personality
He pretty much related to her story. She's very normal and she's very human and like it kind of sucks
But is that entertaining to watch?
I'm gonna say that I kind of relate to this
I always feel like do we have to scream and yell and cause controversy in order to get viewers?
It seems like everyone at the top has been controversial
and it's like the same story. They go through this whole hero's journey thing
They mess up. They repent. Everyone likes them again, you know?
I think it's the human side of us that wants to see her win. She's so relatable
She's so normal. But again, is that entertaining?
I don't know. Only Ryan Higa and Jenna Marbles can save us now
That's the end of the video. I will see you guys next time stay psyched