[MUSIC] Delvon Irving is apparently located in Chicago, USA, where he lives many lives, both online and off. However, one of his more famous personas is VonMar, star of the online video sharing platform Vine. Here, you will often see him chanting the phrase "Put him in a coffin!" Which is usually followed by launching backwards into a reverse planking pose on objects including shopping displays, trolleys, cars, toys and unsuspecting people. Arguably entertaining, VonMar's presence and popularity through his 12 second prank style videos has increased so exponentially that he has inspired many other social media users to imitate his call to action. Eventually, VonMar took his online Jackass style antics too far and unsuccessfully attempted to put a young 7-Eleven service attendant in one of his videos. As the quite terrified young man threatened to call the police, VonMar and his accomplice stole a coffee maker from the store and finally dumped it in a nearby park. VonMar, of course, filmed the entire event and posted it to YouTube for his prank-thirsty fans, leading to his subsequent arrest for theft and destruction of property. The story doesn't end there. Using his social media skills, VonMar asked his fans to put up the bail money via a GoFundMe campaign, presumably while he was in prison. His attempt was unsuccessful, and the GoFundMe platform pulled his campaign, citing it was against their terms of service. While his escapades with the police were gaining traction with readers beyond his fanbase, positive and negative public discussions emerged on publishing platforms across the Internet. Not only were people talking about him and presumably sharing his content via their social media platforms; they were also viewing his Vine profile and videos, checking out his back catalog of YouTube videos, following him on Twitter and visiting his Facebook page. In August 2015, one journalist reported the 7-Eleven video post had attracted near 500,000 views. Further research reveals that Mr. Irving may have another reason to build his online persona. It could be argued he was leveraging popularity from his pranks to feed directly into his career as a musician. Many of the professional videos that are on his YouTube channel appear to have been posted near or after his interactions with the Chicago Police. This is either a very well-timed coincidence or perhaps a stroke of genius by one very savvy social media user. Successful or not, the VonMar case study is a great example of how we assemble our online personas to social media and become highly specialized social media users. It even demonstrates how social media can be used to inspire others to perform mundane or unusual tasks, for no other reward than being the first to catch on to a potentially huge Internet craze. This module looks at social media users. Who they are, how they present themselves, and what they do in online spaces. We will also explore why users are inclined to participate in collaborative and participatory projects, and how content producers engage them. [MUSIC]