Hardygurl234 Channel Review
Check out Hardy's links!
Hello and welcome to another Youtuber Shoutout review! This time I’m focusing on a Youtuber by the name of Hardy. She’s a gamer who is a let’s player of horror games and has recently devoted her time and energy to making this channel work as indicated by her trailer. Check it out
Not much is known about Hardy, checking her about page has little to no description and the trailer itself didn’t talk about particular details about her channel. I do know that she is clearly open and friendly as well as being honest from her trailer. I discovered what sort of games she plays solely by checking the particular sections she has below.
Equipment Used
Hardy is a gamer so gamers have a much different set-up than others. Depending on where you are playing (console, handheld or computer) you’ll need a different set up. Hardy is playing from a computer so that actually requires less equipment. Here’s what’s she’s using to both capture the screen and record her face.
XSplit
OBS
Logitech Webcam
The Grading
Channel Look
When I first arrived on Hardy’s channel immediately the trailer started off with a loud boom much like Sam’s. This caught my attention immediately as expected. I think this is an ongoing trend for trailers to start off with a sudden loud noise.
Anyway listening to the channel trailer, you get an idea of Hardy, however it doesn’t explain much in regards to her channel. Nor what her schedule is like or who she is. You can piece together a bit of who she is based on the word choice. Also the fact she announced she was playing Five Nights At Freddy’s near the end is a bit of a tip that she’s into horror games and you can expect it. Still I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
Overall the trailer is nice with the intention, Hardy talks about who inspires her and who helped her directly or indirectly in the creation of this channel. That being said it doesn't talk about what the actual channel is all about. That and the music can make it difficult to hear her throughout the video.
Looking over the channel on the first page the heading doesn’t explain much about her. But at the very least the background and her image work well together.
The sections
Next is the sections and there’s a few more of them, four in fact. She opened up with uploads, followed by playlists, FNAF, and then Previous Live Streams. Though the sections are used, Hardy can optimize them a little bit better. Here's the screen shots.
But it gives me a chance to check the thumbnails and consistency. Hardy was away at PAX at the time I reviewed her channel and didn’t have a chance to schedule anything in advance so I’ll keep this in mind when grading her. Looking at her other content it’s clear she uploads regularly and her thumbnails are unique and generally appealing if you are into horror games.
Playlists
As far as Playlists go Hardy does have a decent amount of them, however some of them are out of place to what her content is all about. They are properly organized though.
Content
Bendy and the Ink Machine Part 1
So one thing I can tell you is I’m not that big into horror games. The reason? They give me nightmares. Not to mention it really doesn’t take much to scare me. So much as making sudden movements makes me flinch. So with that said I picked one video that seemed the least scary and that happened to be Bendy and the Ink Machine. I’ll tell you now, it’s a horror game as well.
Anyway we open up with Hardy talking a little about the game and her initial thoughts. Hardy and I had the same thoughts that this game reminds us of the old school Mickey Mouse cartoons. After the game started, there was minimal commentary and focusing more on the gameplay. This is to be expected especially since this is her first time playing and seeing this game. Hardy is also relatively new so it’s a different experience than watching someone who’s done this for a living for years.
What was a little jarring was the fact that Hardy did a speed montage after a few minutes into the video. On a creative standpoint I felt that was missed potential and Hardy could’ve used jump cuts. Her music choice though was captivating though.
Personality
Hardy has a good personality and I could connect with her on some level. Even though I’m not really big into horror games I do know people tend to go more for the personality of a gamer than the actual game. For me I like a balance of both. A game I can connect with and a gamer to experience it with.
Even though she plays games that I’m not particularly interested in, there are periods where I can connect with her. I believe she can connect with more people over time the more she continues to put herself out there along with challenging herself as a commentator.
Marketing (On Youtube)
Hardy’s efforts on marketing have been very limited to the point of non-existent. For one Hardy doesn’t use tags. Again this is presuming from the one video I did see. Not only that but the description is basic. I can’t critique the description much because there aren’t any tags that Hardy uses.
Even though I said before tags and all this extra marketing stuff isn’t as important as getting views, likes, shares, and comments, the marketing stuff is what sets you apart from the rest of the channels. Not to mention it can speed you up in getting exposure in the long term once you learn more about tags and the specifics of marketing.
That being said Hardy is getting comments, likes, and views which means to me that she has a small fan base who enjoys her content.
Marketing (Outside of Youtube)
Outside of Youtube I took a turn to Twitter and Instagram. Hardy does have Facebook, however it’s her personal profile. Since Hardy doesn’t have a specific Facebook page to look at I won’t be reviewing that account.
First off we learn a bit about Hardy in her bio and the pictures she takes does coincide with the general theme of her bio. Not to mention she has a bit of humour in there which makes it nice as well. The only really glaring issue is again the amount of people she is following is larger than the followers she has. It leads me to think that she followed a bunch of random people in order to gain followers which is good, but again you need to unfollow those who don’t follow back.
On Twitter we run into a similiar thing. Hardy has a lot of people she’s following and less followers. The bio is again basic and explain who she is and the bio does meld with what Hardy’s content is all about. The only thing that was off was her heading didn’t explain much about her, in fact it was just an image.
When I came back a few days later to finish the review she actually changed it to the image below.
This is a lot better as it explains at least that she’s a gamer and she has a few social media accounts. However it can be built upon still. Nevertheless I’ll give Hardy props for changing the heading to something more relevant.
As for the content itself it provides more of a personal touch to Hardy. Much like her Instagram, page it’s a way for people to know what’s going on behind the scenes. That’s why when Hardy hasn’t uploaded anything in a while I didn’t worry about it. Because she was tweeting about her experiences at PAX throughout the day.
As far as content goes Hardy is very personal and does post on the regular which is good, however there are some things that she could use to her advantage.
Which brings me to my grading.
Grading, Reasons, and Tips
Channel Look - 3/5
The music was loud and distracting in the trailer and again didn’t explain much in regards to what Hardy’s channel is about. I’m going easy on her since she is new to creating content and also this is her first channel trailer. I remember my first trailer kind of and I know it wasn’t really good.
I’m also deducting a point from the arrangement of sections. Yes Hardy is pretty new to creating content on Youtube, but I’m not going to go that easy on her.
The thumbnails are well done. They include a picture of her and the titles are fitting.
What I suggest to Hardy is have a fitting heading all across the board on social media. Consider using the brand that’s in the intro of the videos as a header. Again I suggest using Canva to create headings for social media. It’s also free.
Second I’d suggest working on the trailer. Now that the channel has some variety of content, consider taking footage from that and putting clips into a trailer. Pick out scary or funny clips to give viewers an idea of content, personality, but also keep their attention. It also wouldn’t hurt to push the brand in peoples faces at the beginning and end of the trailer.
Thirdly is sections. It’s good Hardy is using them, however they can be optimized. Consider this rough draft as a template and suggestion.
Section 1 - Latest Project videos (i.e. FNAF videos)
Section 2 - Uploads
Section 3 - Suggested Playlists for newcomers. This will increase in size the more games you cover. This section will eventually be used for the more popular videos on the channel.
Section 4 - Catch-all playlists. If Hardy does more miniseries type videos this section could be for those if they don’t belong in section 3. If that’s the case section 5 will be made and should be the catch-all section.
Content - 3/5
The one video I saw was a little jarring from the speed montage. It was unexpected and again I feel like it was missed potential as Hardy could’ve used jump cuts.
I would suggest using those more often as they can be quick montages for a variety of things. One example is say you’re trying to make a jump and you fail a few times. Jump cutting from jump to jump and reacting in a variety of ways can make it more entertaining rather than speeding things up until you get it or hit a certain point.
What I’m getting at is telling a sort of story with the gamer and the game. Speed montages I feel are only appropriate if it’s a sort of grind fest and you’re playing an RPG or something and it only happens to be 10-30 minutes long. You can speed that up to compress that into 2 or 3 minutes which isn’t bad.
The reactions are good but Hardy can also again work on the engagement as well, talk about her thoughts while she’s playing. This will grow over time as she continues to play games and provide commentary. There is also no shame in over dramatizing a reaction at times, if it makes for more entertaining content then it’s good.
Personality - 4/5
Hardy is very engaging with her audience and is nice to talk to as well. Though there is a disconnection with me and horror games, Hardy has a great personality. You see it also on her social media that she talks with her audience and tweets and posts content behind the scenes as well.
Her content does need to be worked on though. Again being more conversational is good and there’s a difference between embracing the silence and atmosphere and not knowing what to talk about next. I feel Hardy is in between that and needs a little nudge in the direction of talking a bit more.
Marketing (On Youtube) - 2/5
Hardy is new to Youtube, however I was expecting at least some level of tags. Even with Sam who is still quite fresh to Youtube used short tail keywords. I’d say Sam is a more extreme case since he used so many. Anyway Hardy should be using some level of tags in her videos and this can help her channel.
What I may be thinking is Hardy has yet to explore much of the Youtube dashboard. A lot of newcomers are guilty of that and I know I haven’t explored the extents of it but my advice is take some time to look through it. There’s also a lot of marketing advice and tips that are scattered throughout that can help with giving creators an edge.
Marketing (Outside of Youtube) 3/5
Hardy is personal and is posting regularly. This is good as she’s created a habit out of being personal and posting her own content she created. However Hardy is missing out on some potential and that’s where scheduling posts can come in handy. Again I’ve shared some tools that help with that on my Quick Twitter Marketing Guide post that can help.
As for the scheduled content it would be about some of her videos. Since Hardy is already routinely creating posts herself the scheduled posts can be a nice balance of personal but also pushing her brand.
The other thing is aside from the heading that could be adjusted, clean up the followers/following a bit. Again I’ve suggested some tools to help with unfollowing people. Again unfollow those who don’t follow back. Also don’t be afraid to use lists on twitter.
Overall
Total - 15/25Grade - C
Hardy is again new to Youtube, but so far she is doing alright for a first timer. What’s important moving forward is Hardy focuses on a brand but also figures out what her channel is all about. Again she has a good idea of where things are going but there are some random videos sprinkled about that don’t fit with the channel.
As long as Hardy continues to experiment, explore, and push herself, she will make progress and grow her channel even more.
Wrapping Up
So that’s Hardy! If you want to check out her stuff here are the links to her social media below!
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