Will Smith is a movie star, musician and well-known face around the world. He was involved in TV series like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, had record-setting music albums and as a actor was involved in box office hit movies like Independence Day Bad Boys Men In Black and I Am Legend. Whatever you may think of him personally, there's no denying that we can learn some lessons from his experiences. Lessons that you and I can apply to YouTube, Twitch and other content creation.
Thinking back to just before the release of his movie Men in Black, Will Smith shared an important lesson that he learned on the movie’s promotional tours... Men in Black was slated for release on July 2nd, 1997. This was the same weekend that Independence Day had hit cinemas (previous year). In Hollywood, all weekends are not equal. The 4th of July was the most coveted slot of the year. When the studios put your movie on that date, they are betting the farm on you.
I decided I wanted to publicly lean into the pressure. In all of my press interviews, I began referring to the 4th of July as “Big Willy Weekend”. They ate it up. It made headlines everywhere! In the UK, it had an added (though unintended) media benefit, because "Willie" is slang for the male reproductive organ, and big means BIG. On YouTube & Twitch, your audience is global. You aren't just reaching out to people in your local town.
They're not even restricted just to those who speak the same language because Google's translation services are able to create subtitles for your videos automatically. Sometimes in real time, those subtitles are being translated and generated as the viewers are watching! Because of this, there are two very important things to keep in mind for all content that you create.
The first and most obvious lesson we can learn from Will's experience is that words don't mean the same thing in all parts of the world. FIRST LESSON: Choose the words that you use carefully. "Willie" was a nickname that Will Smith was referred to by some of his friends and peers. He didn't know until he went on that tour that it was slang for something else in the UK. Similarly, there are words like "thong" that mean a different thing, depending on where you live.
In Australia, where I am, it's a type of sandal that you can wear on your feet. In other parts of the world, well... let's just say you don't wear it on your feet! Your commentary on a stream, the jokes that you make in videos, and other references you make, they may have unintended results. Best case scenario, people laugh because it's funny. Another scenario is that you might say something and it means absolutely nothing to the viewer. The viewer might not get the reference.
They may lose interest and they may click away or disconnect from what you're saying because they have no idea what you're talking about. As someone living in South Australia, I might refer to a "stobie pole". Not only would you not know what it is internationally, even in other Australian states, including neighboring states, you wouldn't know what a "stobie pole" is. It's local to my specific area. So using that in an illustration, you as the viewer won't have a clue what I'm referring to.
You won't get the point And the worst case scenario, is that what you say may be offensive to people in certain parts of the world. You can't go around walking on eggshells constantly questioning everything you say. But it is worth at least thinking about this and keeping it in mind.
And it's worth showing respect and understanding when a viewer comes to you and starts complaining... but you don't understand what they're complaining about or why they're concerned because of a cultural difference. What's the second lesson that we can learn? Well, the second lesson is to speak clearly with simple language so that you can be understood. Those are understand your language may not be native speakers.
By using simple words, speaking clearly into microphone, and removing background noise and distractions, you are setting up your viewer to get as much value out of your content as possible. Speaking clearly also has a few other added benefits that you probably haven't considered. One of those is that it makes it easier for Google's auto translation software to detect what you're saying, and then convert that into other languages. Translation is difficult as it is.
Let's not make it harder by giving YouTube dodgy audio. Another benefit is that if Google knows what you said, it's able to accurately index your content and know what you're talking about at each moment. That means better recommendations to viewers, and the people that are recommended to watch your video will watch, and are more interested and stick around, which in turn gives you more views, gives you more subscribers and potentially, if you monetize, gives you more money.
gives you more money. So the lessons are... As a content creator, you should be aware of cultural differences. And simple, clear commentary has many benefits. What else do you think we can learn from movie stars, Will Smith or otherwise? You can comment on the YouTube version of this episode with your thoughts.