In this episode of On the Mic with Ad Results Media, co-host Lindsay Smith sits down with Roblox YouTube creator, MeganPlays to talk through building your audience on YouTube, how to choose the proper advertisers for your audience, as well as to answer the question: What exactly is Roblox?
Podcast Transcript
(30s):
Well, thank you for joining us on On the Mic. If you wouldn't mind introducing yourself for our listeners, that would be awesome.
(36s):
Yeah, totally. My name is Megan letter, but I go by Megan plays online. I am predominantly a Roblox YouTuber, but I also have blogs, podcasts and much more. I've been doing YouTube for seven years. So it's been quite some time as a digital creator.
(52s):
Awesome. Now I know that when I was watching all your videos and everything, I know that there's a lot of Roblox. What made you decide to focus on Roblox specifically?
(1m 2s):
It's kind of a funny story and it's not so much one that I feel like people love the answer to because it's not like I've been playing Roblox since I was a kid. I believe like Roblox kind of came about when I was a little bit older and I know that they have a predominantly younger audience. So I decided to switch to Roblox after I was posting the Sims, which I love the Sims, but I wasn't really having any success. I wasn't really finding my niche there. I was kind of just rolling with the punches with a game I really enjoyed. And I had a friend in the space. His name is George, and he told me like, everyone's playing Roblox now, like check this out. Like you should really look into this. So eventually things stopped working out with the Sims.
(1m 43s):
I was about to have to go get a real job. And I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. I was going to have to like use my degree in graphic design or something. And I did not want to drive into Dallas every single day. So I decided to take the chance to do some research on Roblox. And I fell in love with it and decided to completely pivot my entire plan. And honestly, I've found such an accepting, loving community there through my audience. So it was a really good choice, but yeah, it was just, my friend was like, Hey, look into Roblox. And I was like, all right, I'll check it out.
(2m 13s):
That's awesome. So you mentioned that Roblox came about when you were a little bit older and that that audience tends to skew a little bit younger. How would you describe your community of followers? Like are they also younger or
(2m 28s):
Yeah, that's actually a super easy question to answer because I've taken a lot of polls and I've done a lot of research on my direct audience. Cause you know, you want to know who you're entertaining. You want to know a little bit more about them and know like, you know, maybe appropriate language to use or stuff like that. So my audience is predominantly, I keep on using the word predominantly if any elements, a cinnamon, a synonym or majority or dominant, or as
a whole, whatever, just let me know. I'll be sure to switch it out, but they're 90% identifying and they're aged eight to 14, 90% of them like 90% of them fall into that group right there.
(3m 6s):
Wow. The majority of creators that we talked to their demographics are older, significantly older. So how do you like prepare to, you know, cater and like entertain that, that age group?
(3m 19s):
It's really easy. Cause I'm not like a different version of myself on YouTube. I always am myself. I just, in real life, I would say my humor is really, really dry and that's the only thing I have to watch out for is okay. I found out that sarcasm doesn't register in the brain of children until the age of about, about like 10 or 11. So I try really hard not to make sarcastic jokes. Like I made a joke once when people did not like it, there's a really rare item in adult me, like probably 1% of users have it, if that, and I made a joke, like, you're going to want to grab your tombstone. I know that everybody has one and all the kids are like, I do not have a tombstone. It's like, oh, I was, the tone was even more jokey. But like, it's just kind of about knowing how your audience perceives the world at their age.
(4m 2s):
I just avoid dry humor. That's fair. Yeah. So, and it's something that you kind of grow with and learn. It's like, I have a bunch of little sisters and that's how I look at them. You know, you just, you don't want to curse around children. Of course, I don't really curse in general, but you know, you just want to be sure that, you know, what their parents make them turn this off. If they turned it on type of deal, would my mom would've let me watch this when I was a kid. So I kind of just try to keep that stuff in mind when entertaining my audience and keeping that separation. Because at the end of the day, I am a 26 year old woman who like married and like, you know, more of an adult life than a majority of my audience. Right.
(4m 39s):
Have you found over the years? Cause I know that you've been doing this for quite a while. Have you found that you have to evolve with your audience or does your audience kind of age out?
(4m 52s):
Definitely the latter, definitely the latter. It's kind of like, I, I don't want to ruin anything for anyone. So I'm gonna try to use like people believe in a certain figure at some point. And then they grow out of believing in a certain figure at some point, but then there's always kids growing into learning about that figure at some point. So it's kind of like a cycle and a lot of people, whenever Roblox was like going public on the stock market, they were saying like, how is Roblox going to keep the attention of their audience? How are they going to age with their audience? And it's like, well, they have plans for that. But at the end of the day, there's always going to be that audience, as people grow up, people grow up and they grow into it as they grow out of it, they go into it. You know, I hope that makes sense.
(5m 32s):
It's kind of like a circle. So yeah, I do get comments like, oh my gosh, you were my childhood. I used to watch your videos all the time. I just don't play this certain game anymore. So I don't watch your videos anymore. I have attempted to like kind of age up with my audience. That's why I have like a vlog channel. And they're, I would say the audience is definitely more preteen. I can tell that like my super fans, like people who have me as their profile picture and they they're all friends and they're a group of girls, they watch my Roblox videos, they just watched my blogs. So I can definitely tell the difference between the two audiences.
(6m 6s):
You’re on Tik TOK as well. What is the difference between like your YouTube audience and your Tik TOK audience? Do you have kind of that breakdown?
(6m 15s):
Yeah. Well, I don't have like an analytical breakdown of the demographics, but I do have a, I looked at the comments and I can tell a difference type of sense. So of course I have my core audience. Who's really sweet and really nice. But with TikTok, amazing algorithm, you get pushed in front of so many audiences. So I do get some more negativity over there, like, oh, I hate you get off my page. And it's like, oh, I didn't, I didn't put myself on there. I don't know. So you kind of just reach out to more people who may not like your content. And then you're kind of more subjected to that just because their algorithm is really good. And it pushes you out to more people as opposed to YouTube, maybe having a core niche audience of people who just like adopt me or just like a certain Roblox game, because on Tik TOK, you're posting more of not like niche, like Roblox content, maybe you're making Roblox memes, but it reaches all the Roblox there's as opposed to ones and just like role play more of my demographic.
(7m 11s):
So there's multiple demographics and Roblox, you know, like there's games with like guns and murder and stuff like that. And then there's games with like raising pets and taking care of a family. And I'm over here. So
(7m 22s):
Not on the guns and murder side. No...
(7m 25s):
Not, not totally.
(7m 27s):
Do you try to connect your, like your YouTube content and your Tik TOK content? Or do you find that your you're producing differently for the different audiences?
(7m 38s):
I think that in general, what works best on my Tik TOK is connecting the two. Like whenever I make a joke about Roblox, those tend to do better than when I'm like doing a lip sync or a popular tick-tock dance. You know, that just tends to like really merge itself together. If I have 3.3 million followers on Tik TOK, which is, you know, right behind how many I have on YouTube, but it feels like a smaller audience, which is interesting, but they definitely, like I said, you have that core audience and whenever you reach that core audience, as well as that other audience, they just enrolled Oxy talks, screen more interest because I have my core audience that's on YouTube watching and then they hit the algorithm of the other role boxers.
(8m 19s):
So they just tend to do better as opposed to people who are interested in my lip syncs because they like me. So they're the same, but different.
(8m 26s):
I get that. We've talked to some other tick tock creators, and we've gotten on this subject of how interesting TikTok is compared to other platforms. Just because you do get pushed out to so many different people. And like, I just think it's really interesting that you can find any niche that you want on Tik TOK. Like the pug with the no bones right now is like, I don't know if you've seen him. He's got bones, but see, and
(8m 51s):
I have it.
(8m 53s):
Yeah. It's, it's all it's like, and it's all over my, for you page as well as like I'd been, I then see it on like Instagram people reposting. I dunno. It's really interesting.
(9m 3s):
Yeah. It's like, there's so many facets of tick-tock I'm on like more alternative meme. Tik Tok more like stuff like that. Like I'm, for some reason I don't make my way over to animal tok. Talk that much as much as I would love animal to talk. Like I love dogs and cats and animals. So I'd like to see more of those, but yeah, like me and my husband, we have completely different for you pages. They overlap just a little bit, but I'm like, have you seen this meme? And he's like, no, I've never even heard that audio. And I'm like, how can that possibly be?
(9m 31s):
Yeah. When you're hearing it, like back to back, like every other one you're like this, the same audio. Yeah. I I'm on animal TechTalk and recently it was squid game tick talk because that's what I was watching on Netflix. Yes, everybody is right now, since we were on the subject of like tick talk at different creators, who were some of your favorite creators?
(9m 53s):
I don't really watch a ton of YouTube. That's fair. If I went back past my recently watched, I can't remember the last, like you video. I watched like, I don't watch a ton of YouTube, but I do tend to like more real life creators. Like I like Laura DIY wise content, Leanne says she's a blogger. She just had a baby, just more blogging people from life. Like that whole click over there. I like their content. I've seen some of the Emma Chamberlain stuff, which I, I enjoy. But yeah, I just, I don't watch other like gaming YouTubers or anything like that. Like I just, I don't
(10m 27s):
Know. I mean, when that's what you do.
(10m 30s):
Yeah. There's like one YouTuber whose videos. I probably look forward to the most and it's like, me and my husband will sit down and we'll eat at our dining table. He's like, oh, Cody co uploaded a video. And I'm like, okay, cool. Let's watch that. So I think probably like, he's one of my favorite creators, cause I like watch all of his videos and there's just not a lot of people that I do all of that with, you know? Yeah.
(10m 48s):
I tend to watch whatever it is that my husband's watching at the time. And he's, he's a big video game guy. So he watches a lot of like let's plays. And his recent one was a guy who was playing through 1000 expert levels of Mario maker, whoa. With no skips. So that's what we've been watching. Most of your videos are usually shorter than 20 minutes. One thing that I'm always interested in is how long does it actually take to make those videos?
(11m 22s):
I had this conversation with somebody the other day and surprisingly does not take long. I feel like some people think it takes a long time and there's definitely some videos that take longer than others. It's kind of hard to say. So whenever, when I very first started posting YouTube videos, it took me like four hours of video because it would take me a long time to think of like what to say and like, oh, is this funny enough? Or I was kind of quiet here. I have to cut this part out. So it would mean to record like an hour of footage and then it would take me a couple of hours to edit it. And then I would put it up. Like it would take a long time, but now I can like crank out a video in like 20 to 25 minutes, which is really fast. So basically it's like a 25 minute recording.
(12m 5s):
If it's scripted content there a little bit longer, like scripted role-plays or improv story modes where I'm like playing with other characters and we're telling a story, but like, if it's an update video, it's like, that takes me 15 minutes to like crank out. Then I send it over to an editor and he edited for me would that being said, like, it's like, I don't want people to think like, oh, it only takes her 25 minutes a day. Why doesn't she get more up? Cause at this point it just becomes very mentally draining. Like I've been doing this for so long that it just takes a lot of more mental power to be like, okay, now put your makeup on again today. Now I'll turn the camera on again today. Like it just, at some point you get so fast to making the content, but it becomes really hard, like to press that record button because you're just like, hi, hope this idea has got, I feel like I've done this idea 500 times.
(12m 50s):
I'm not really looking forward to doing this idea because I don't even know if my audience is looking forward to it, but there's not an expectation where I have to post daily, which is why I haven't been really posting daily because I just haven't had a lot of ideas and I'd been like focusing more on like my mental health. So I just don't want you to think, like, it only takes her 25 minutes. I could be YouTube. It, that sounds so easy. Cause it comes with a lot of mental burden. I'm really excited for the psychological studies of like influencers and YouTubers after their time in the sun, just to see how that like trickles out.
(13m 19s):
That would be, that would be really interesting. Yeah. I don't think that a lot of people understand the lead up to it. And it's not just about like being on camera. Like there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes as well. Even, even just so much, it's like putting on your makeup and making sure that you're, you know, you are like camera ready and yeah.
(13m 38s):
Yeah. Like I spend a lot of my time, like not recording, but I actually spent a lot of my time organizing and emailing and plotting out my days. And also being a 26 year old woman. I have responsibilities. I have like four animals and they're always all sick. So I always have to take them all to the vet. You know, you got to do your runs to FedEx. You got to do like, you gotta pay your tax. You just got to do adult things. So it's like really hard to make time for it. All. I do not know how parents are parents. Like I don't, I, that is all of my goodness. I could not imagine. I told my hairstyle and I was like, I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you raise a son. She's a single mom. I don't know. You raise a son and then come do hair.
(14m 18s):
Like I would just be so tired. Oh yeah.
(14m 21s):
Yeah. Like
(14m 22s):
Just exhausted. I don't know.
(14m 24s):
I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you kinda to piggyback off of the YouTube question. How long does it take to create Tik TOK videos
(14m 32s):
That it doesn't take long at all? For me, because I only create tick talks when I have an idea, like if I'm watching a trend and it's like, oh, I could adapt this to Roblox or, oh, I want to, I want to do this transition. It just takes like, not anytime at all, but I am like picky about it a little bit. Like sometimes I throw up anything. Like my last Tik TOK is me being like, Hey guys, I have a live stream archive channel. You can go to that tic talk and see live stream highlights. But then I, you know, I'm, self-conscious like anyone else's so, and you take time, it can be like just such a harsh audience. Yeah. It's like, do I want to put this? Maybe not. So those take very little time, but I do know, like I watched a podcast with like Bella Porche and she said that her first Ted talk like the M to the B tech talk, that language is again the B under the BN.
(15m 21s):
She just like made those spaces. She said that took her two hours because she kept redoing it over and over and over and over again until she was finally happy with it. I was just gonna say.
(15m 29s):
I have heard from others that they they'll spend 2, 3, 4 hours putting this together and, and you get, you know, a minute out of it.
(15m 37s):
Yes. And those are, I think people who do that, those are like tick talkers. Like I don't really consider myself a tech talker. I consider myself a YouTuber. And then like, sometimes I post on Tik TOK for fun when I feel like it. So, and it's probably the same for tick talkers in YouTube. Like, you know, it's like they can't imagine spending time on a YouTube video because their main focus is tech talks. Whereas, you know, it's a little bit the opposite for me. So I definitely don't mean to degrade. Anybody's like career when being like, it takes me like a couple of seconds. I'm just not a tech talker. Like I just kind of throw things up and I get so jealous. Like I really like Abby Robert stick talks. She's the girl with the makeup. I just, so anyway, I love her to talk. I love her transitions and I'm like, dang, it's probably took forever. Like, I don't know how she got us so perfect.
(16m 17s):
And then I just remind myself, like, this is her job. She probably spent a long time on this. I need to not be so hard on myself about my transitions, not looking like this because she probably just spend so much time on it. It's her job. So.
(16m 29s):
Yeah. That's what she does. Yeah. Have you worked with any advertisers?
(16m 34s):
Yes. Yeah. I worked with a ton of avatar advertisers. The one that I've worked with the most recently that I really liked was LOL surprise.
(16m 41s):
Oh yes. Okay. Yeah. I'm familiar with that. And is that on, is that on your YouTube?
(16m 46s):
I've worked with LOL surprise pretty closely. We did three live streams, which cultivated three videos and they're were really great to work with. I worked with another brand called super awesome and they facilitated that deal for me. And they're really lovely people and we're
working with them on some wonder work studio stuff, my gaming development company, me and my husband's gaming development company. That's, it's funny because right before this, I was organizing all of my brand sheets and stuff like that. Like making sure I was hitting deadlines. Right. And making sure I knew when things were supposed to go up, I've done stuff with Disney, discord, Tampax. That one was one of my favorites. And then I've also worked with like celebrity integrations.
(17m 27s):
Like I've worked with Paris Hilton, Lil NAS X, this band called, why don't we? And that was all Roblox related. They helped set that up. So there's just a cool, there's a few out there.
(17m 38s):
Yeah. I was going to ask if you had any dream brands that you want to work with, but you start throwing out Disney and discord and I'm like...
(17m 45s):
Well, I'd really like to work with Mattel and Barbie. I was at VidCon in 2019 and they said that I looked like Daisy because they have a Barbie named Daisy and she just been care. And I was like, oh, I would love to be a Barbie. So more brands like that, more brands that really just make sense. I'm working with pop jam right now, which is a exclusive social media site for kids under 13. So it's very safe for children. And I really like working with them too. And that's also facilitated by.
(18m 12s):
That's really cool. I love that. You know, a lot of the other folks that we have spoken with just because their audiences are older, you know, a lot of their, their brand deals are, are older. So I love that. You're really working with these, these great brands who are, you know, geared more towards the younger audiences.
(18m 30s):
And if they aren't, I don't accept the deal. Like I've had like some adult companies at me out be like, do you want to promote this? And I'm like, no, I have 11 year old. I'm looking after I'm not going to promote your product. Like I had a smoking company, hit me up, said no to that. Of course I had some that are just more like they're tame, but they're not my demographic, like teeth whitening. Why would I push teeth whitening to children that seems obscene and rude. And like, you know what I mean? Like it's not a fit. So that's another thing about knowing your demographic and what's important and what's going to work for them or what's going to make sense.
(19m 2s):
Exactly. I personally, haven't played Roblox. I've watched some of your videos though. Can you kind of break down just for our listeners? How Roblox work?
(19m 10s):
Yes. Yes, definitely. So a lot of people think that Roblox is a game, but it is not a game. It is a hub of games. So it's similar to like, whenever you're on Minecraft, of course Minecraft is a game, but then you can go on different servers in Minecraft. So it's kind of like a hub of a lot of games created by the people, the people being, people like me, people like 15 year olds who are still in school literal eight year olds are able to create games on Roblox. Roblox has not created any games themselves. They're all just fan mate, essentially. Yeah. So it's really cool because robots has a lot of programs to help teach kids how to code in Lua.
(19m 51s):
It's the primary code in robots. It's only way can code a robots. And there's not a lot of things that code with Lua. I think like the Kohl's registers are coded in Lua, like the shopping store and that's about it for a specific, it's a very specific language, but they do offer free programs and educational tools to help you learn how to make those gains. And then when people put their games up, they are put in front of massive, massive audiences that they would have not ever had before.
(20m 22s):
That's so cool. It sounds to me just kind of like the coding aspect, that it kind of opens a door to younger girls who maybe don't have that available to them. Like that's awesome. Like that's a really cool avenue.
(20m 38s):
Yeah. It is. It's like a lot more than that. Like I just touched on the coding, but like Roblox has so many facets that get young kids really involved in game making. Like you can learn how to model with Roblox studio. You can learn to code and then make your own game. You can become an artist and create clothing designs. Like they're, they're 2d. So clothing designs for Roblox avatars, I think it opens up a lot of skillsets for a lot of people in a creative way that they may not have explored before. And it just, everybody can do it. Like anyone can upload clothing to the Roblox catalog. Anybody can pick up models or upload a game to the Roblox, a game catalog.
(21m 21s):
Wow.
(21m 21s):
No, I didn't. I didn't realize that there were so many like opportunities for creation there.
(21m 25s):
Oh yeah. It's a very tight-knit community driven sort of platform, which I really like.
(21m 32s):
I love that. Well, thank you for joining. This has been really great. I've been really excited to talk to you and I'm glad that we finally made it happen.
(21m 41s):
Yes. It's been so fun. I love conversations like this because I'm really passionate about stuff it's really fun to talk about for me. This is the best part of my day today. Like, and this has been so great. Thank you.
(21m 53s):
Oh, it's been the best part of my day. I'm not going to,
(21m 57s):
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