Jake & Logan Paul, David Dobrik, Ekipa – The Blueprint for successful YouTube channels – Logan Paul social media strategy (9 min read)

Paul brothers, David Dobrik, and Ekipa History Timeline

• 2013 - Friz starts recording Minecraft videos and vlogs. It got him the first 50k subscribers. April 2013 - David Dobrik uploads his first Vines.

• September 2013 - Jake Paul starts his Vine

• October 2013 - Logan Paul starts his Vine

•  Feb 2014 - Logan Paul has over 3.1M followers across social media

• April 2014 - Logan Paul reached 105,000 Twitter followers, 361,000 Instagram followers, 31,000 likes on his Facebook page, and 150,000 YT subscribers.

• 2013 - August, 2015 - Logan Paul moves to YouTube. By that time he had 9.4 million fans on Vine and Jake Paul had 5.3 million

• October 2015 - Logan Paul has over 300M views on Facebook videos.

• 2015 - David Dobrik starts his YouTube channel. He was stuck for a while at 40k subscribers, even though his Vine account had over 1 million followers.

• 2016 - Logan and Jake Paul, as well as David Dobrik finally move out of Vine and focus on their YouTube channels.

• 2017 - Jake Paul has 8.7 million subscribers, Logan Paul 8.3 million

• Aug 3, 2020 - Logan Paul gets 10M subscribers. That’s only 340 days after moving to YT.

• Late 2017 - forming of Ekipa

• 2018 - Friz got 500,000 subscribers. It took only four months to get the next half a million.

• March 2019 – Ekipa moves into a villa worth 5M PLN (around $1.25M) and starts 365 videos a day challenge. That compounds their reach.

• May 2021 - Ekipa reached 1.5 million subs. Jake Paul has 20 million subs. Logan Paul has 23 million views. David Dobrik has 18 million subs.

How did Logan Paul start?

Logan Paul started on the Vine platform in October 2013, when he uploaded his first video. He had some athletic background, so some stunts were quite easy for him to perform on his viral videos. Once he got traction, he moved to YouTube and created his channel there.

How did David Dobrik start?

David Dobrik was introduced to the world of social media by Natalie Mariduena, his assistant and best friend, when he was 16 years old. Similarly to the Paul brothers, Dobrik stared on Vine by uploading his short videos. Vine was thriving when Dobrik joined  it, so he was at a good point for a decent take-off.

Jake & Logan Paul social media strategy – riding the trends

The Paul brothers and David Dobrik spotted the trend in Vine, a social video platform for 6-second clips. Once they’ve found what goes viral (pranks and challenges, apparently) and managed to publish viral videos repeatedly, they saw a constant growth of their channels.

Friz had an eye for spotting trends and riding them. His first videos were about Minecraft, then PokemonGo and that made him one of the biggest gaming YouTubers in Poland. Then, following Logan Paul’s example, he started recording prank videos with his friends who later formed into a squad.

How did Logan Paul go viral?

Jak & Paul Logan went viral in social media thanks to a Vine platform. Going viral repeatedly is a huge growth driver for social media. When Jake and Logan Paul found Vine, they’ve had a bet on whose vine will get more views. The first success led to thousands of views and brought over 5,000 new followers.

After they learned what video went viral, they repeated it in new creative ways and kept growing their audience on that.

How did David Dobrik become rich?

David Dobrik made money from short-form videos, and his content was primarily based on touring and podcasts, although his best known for his vlogs. There go various advertisements that pop up on his episodes on YouTube.

Jake & Logan Paul social media strategy – entertaining and shocking content

Jake & Logan Paul as well as the other mentioned YouTubers follow the same approach to the content they produce. They do various stunts that make viewers laugh, leave them shocked, or anything in between. It’s Jackass mixed with Big Brother.

First, the viewers are reeled in by a viral stunt, such as the one with going to car wash in a convertible or by using caps headlines like „SHE’S NAKED” (yup, that’s a real one). Then, they stay around by watching daily vlogs which may or may not contain some stunts. It makes the viewer relate to the content creator. From time to time, a new viral is made to serve the existing audience and grow it with new subscribers.

How did Logan Paul go viral – cross-channel posting

The Paul brothers have made their careers on Vine, but they published to other platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram, or YouTube in a form contextual to the platform.

For example, Jake Paul’s YouTube was mainly vlogging, portraying his life and giving a sneak peek to how he recorded the vines. It’s similar with David Dobrik and Ekipa – they all present anywhere their audience is.

Another case is moving the audience from Vine to YouTube. Both Jake and Logan Paul did well with that by simply uploading Vine compilations to the platform – they got millions of views in a matter of few weeks.

Logan Paul social media strategy – consistency of daily vlogging

Dobrik, the Paul brothers and Ekipa boomed in popularity after they began to post daily. All the famous YouTubers kept posting when they started. Overnight success is possible with viral videos but if you keep repeating that every day or week, you’re shooting for the moon.

Knowing the audience

All three cases know their audiences well. They have grown them on a content that mainly attracted teenagers and served teenage-oriented content, with an edge specific to each of the creators. They all realized that their content has to stay relatable, so as their audiences grow, they grow with them.

For example, this made Jake and Logan Paul start their pro boxing careers. Dobrik and Ekipa are still looking for a more relatable content to their audiences – but it doesn’t have to be on YouTube. It can be products such as Dispo app or clothing brands.

How did Paul Logan go viral – controversies

Some controversies have surely added some spice to Jake & Paul Logans popularity. Making edgy content with all these pranks and challenges makes it easy to cross the line. Logan and Jake Paul as well as David Dobrik have crossed it several times during their YouTube careers.

On the other hand, Friz and his Ekipa might have learned from other YouTubers and keep their content family-friendly, trying to stay away from troubles. This also allows them to maximize their revenues.

Why was Dobrik cancelled?

It happened to him because of that controversy which rose around him. It eventually led to Dobrik losing all his sponsors after several serious accusations around sexual harassment and bullying in The Vlog Squad and backlashed many times to Paul brothers.

Online dramas and Jake & Paul Logan social media strategy

This edgy approach to content has led to numerous dramas which, no matter why they started, brought spotlight to these YouTube celebrities as they were widely commented across other popular channels.

For Ekipa, it’s slightly different as the „controversies” around them refer to their earnings. They are the first YouTubers who succeeded on this level and are famous beyond YT, making boomers ask questions like „How can they earn so much on such stupid stuff?!” This also brings them more views.

Why did people like David Dobrik?

There are a number of things that attract audience to Dobrik’s social media channels:

• his movies are funny and rather short - people don’t like watching long materials on the Internet (especially on social media),
• he was likeable by his looks,
• he knew his target audience (he predicted what they would like and what not),
• although he filmed some crazy stuff, he tried to remain authentic as a creator.

Logan Paul follower count

Around April 2014, so less than one year since his beginnings on social media, Logan Paul reached 105,000 Twitter followers, 361,000 Instagram followers, 31,000 likes on his Facebook page, and 150,000 YT subscribers.

As of January 2022, those numbers are as follows:

• 23,4 million YouTube,
• 22 million on Instagram (perhaps because of his athletic nature and simply good photos),
• 16 million on Facebook,
• 6,3 million on Twitter.

Jake & Logan Paul success story

The story behind the success of the Paul brothers is just how the whole Internet works. If you are smart, have an eye for what’s trending at the moment, and you know how to be funny and attract your audience, then you might have a chance to repeat Logan Paul success story.

David Dobrik follower count

As of 2021, David Dobrik’s YT channel had around 19 million subscribers and a total of more than 8 million views. As of January 2022, his numbers are as follows:

• 26 million on TikTok,
• 18.3 million on YouTube,
• more than 12.5 million on Instagram,
• 1.7 million on Facebook.

It seems that he focuses mostly on his TikTok, where a major part of his community is gathered.

Social proof

A wide portion of how the audiences around YouTubers grew were through social proof. Going viral often means having a shareable content. When something is shared by the people you know, you’re more likely to perceive it as a direct recommendation and watch it.

That also works for the teams built around these YouTubers – their influence on regular people grows audiences of their YT-friends.

Storytelling

All these successful YouTubers know the power of storytelling. People remember stories well and focus their attention on them. Dobrik, Paul brothers, and Friz and Ekipa produce their videos to tell stories as well as all the videos combined tell a story about the creators themselves.

This makes for a TV series-like impression that keeps the audience waiting for the next episode.

Authenticity

We believe brands that feel authentic. This is why people like watching vlogs – because they are rawer and give the audience a reality tv-like glimpse into the lives of the online celebrities they like.

Entertainment

Watching something that involves emotions–a comedy or a horror–lead to dopamine or adrenaline shots (depending on the stimulus). That makes the brands better remembered and if practiced often enough–can even lead to sort of addiction.