The look on Carlos’s face could only be described as dubious. “Right. Of course, you do.”
“Okay, hate might not be the right word. It’s definitely complicated. Way too complicated for right now. Plus, you have a diabolical plan for making all my dreams come true.”
I don’t hold out much hope that one of Carlos’s plans might actually come to fruition, but if it will get him off the topic of Callaghan Entay, then I’ll welcome the reprieve.
“Right, so you need to start a ClikClak series. About your sports stuff or whatever. Really drill down on your niche. And take off, getting a huge following. Apparently, that’s how the media hires now. They go for people who have their own platform. It’s your in to ESPN. All you have to do is go viral.”
“With my eighty followers, I’m sure it’ll be a cinch. I’ll probably be hired in time to report from the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.”
“Start a new account. The algorithm will push you out right when you start. Put out tons of content, all with your sports reporting. Like you’re auditioning with each video.”
It’s my turn to raise my eyebrow. Except I can’t do it, and I’m sure I just look constipated. I’ll have to work on that. “This is your most harebrained scheme yet.”
Carlos raises his eyebrow, trumping my own’s failure, and then winks. “That doesn’t mean it won’t work.”
Chapter 4: Hannah
C
arlos’s plan is actually sort of genius, really. If I can get my face out there, then I’ll have something to bring to the networks. Something other than a terminated internship, gaps in my college career, and a decade of jobs that have nothing to do with sportscasting.
Luckily, I do have degrees in not only journalism but sports management. It took me a long time to get them, and even longer to use them, but now it looks as if they might pay off.
I take a day and explore SEO strategies, which is the big way that ClikClak is predicted to shift in the new year. They want to become a search engine to rival Google.
I do a quick scrub of my social media, removing anything that might give too much away or add negatively to my image. Not that I expect this to go anywhere, but one can never be too careful in this day and age.
I brainstorm content ideas. I even buy a new notebook, writing down topics and subjects. Then, it’s time for the real research to begin.
I have to watch ClikClak for hours on end.
With paper and pen in hand, I make notes while scrolling through videos. I’m still doing this on my old profile, so as not to mess up the algorithm for my new account, which is a hack I learned while spending hours scrolling the infernal app. Before I would have felt guilty for wasting so many hours of my life, but Carlos promises me this is the key to bigger and better things. I watch as often as I can. On the T, going to and from work. Lying in bed at night. While I’m making my breakfast.
I consume and study and process. What’s popular? What makes a video go viral? What are the features that viral videos have in common? Sometimes, it’s easy to see, like that girl who flew out to surprise her boyfriend, only to find he was cheating on her.
Wait—that’s the girl from The Tower. The one in the bathroom who had just gotten married. I look at the [email protected] doesn’t sound familiar, but I swear it’s her.
