Almost every presentation we’ve heard on India ham-mers home a few clichés — which like the best cli-chés have more than just a kernel of truth. It’s vast, its

diverse, language, diet and pop culture are known to change every 100 odd km or so, and the one-size-fits-all approach, so beloved by brands, only goes so far. But some of them are banking on social media options – Facebook, YouTube,

Twitter, Instagram and even WhatsApp – to help them against these seemingly insurmountable odds.

A for Apple, B for BilliThe big shift has been new internet us-ers in India coming from smaller towns, which may not be primarily English speaking or English-comfortable. Says Vikas Tandon, managing director at Six String Ventures and ex-founder of Indigo Consulting, “Even major apps

and operating systems like Facebook, Chrome, Android, WhatsApp etc now natively support multiple Indian lan-guages.” This provides a new avenue for brands to marry local insights with social media opportunities.

Iconic chocolate brand 5 Star, for in-stance, was facing stiff competition in Tamil Nadu - one of its key markets - from players like Mars, Snickers, KitKat etc.

>Continued on Page2

“‘People were hoping that Snap would be the Facebook of video, but the Facebook of video is Facebook, specifically Instagram Stories. They’ve put Snapchat features on every one of their properties; even where it doesn’t make sense.” said Scott Galloway, professor of mar-keting at the NYU Stern School of Business, speaking earlier this year at the Cannes Lions festi-val. The same week, Instagram claimed the daily views on its new-ly launched Stories feature were 250 million a day.

But more importantly according to Jim Squires, head of Instagram business, the feature is giving peo-ple more reasons to visit and post on the site. Many of Instagrams monthly visitors were not in the habit of posting more than once a day. He says, “People really posted the highlights. If they posted some-thing it was going to be the most important photo.” Perhaps taking a cue from Snapchat , where self-destructing pictures were a part of the draw, Instagram Stories were designed to be ephemeral, disap-pearing in 24 hours. According to Squires, “It’s a completely new way to share, that’s acted like a

pressure release valve. People are sharing all their moments and creat-ing highlights.” Allowing for a bit of self-congratu-lation, he adds “I’ve been doing product develop-ment for 20 years and have not seen any-thing grow this fast. And it’s really due to the need that’s met by this format.”

>Continued on Page2

India’s vast regional diversity has been a perennial headache for brands. Can social media work where so many others have failed? By Amit Bapna

How Instagram is helping businesses big and small make money off the mediumBy Ravi Balakrishnan

GOINGREGIONAL? BE SOCIAL

SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIAL

Here Come The ‘Instrapreneurs’

SITTING PRETTYINSTAGRAM FACTS & STATS

250mn daily users of Instagram Stories

400mn daily users

700mn monthly users

1mn active monthly advertisers

Revenue projection for 2018:

$7.0 billion (

IMA

GIN

G: S

HU

BH

RA

DEY

Instagram’s Jim Squires

(Source: Credit Suisse)

A model from @SkateGuitars on Instagram

THE ECONOMIC TIMES SEPTEMBER 13-19, 2017

I n s t a g r a m ’ s popularity is on an upwards trajec-tory, moving from a narrow-band app for food pics and selfies to what Jim Squires believes is a “visual up-lifting experience that captures the zeitgeist.” A more obvious reason for its draw is pictures transcend language and while some us-ers write essay length posts alongside their photos, that’s by no means, the norm.

Having started Stories in August 2016, ads were offi-cially introduced in March this year. Part of the delay was because the team wanted to observe how people were using the platform, and to determine the needs that were going to be met by the prod-uct. However, even before Instagram was officially com-mercialised it had a cottage industry around people us-ing the platform for shopping. It’s easier now for marketers. In the works is the ability to tag a product like you would a friend on Facebook. Says Squires, “You can get in-spired, learn and see more…these are all behaviours that already exist but we want to make it easy.”

There’s been a good initial reception to brands taking to Instagram. Among thosethat have created interesting con-tent on the platform, Squires namechecks Louis Vuitton; auto maker Buick who went beyond the ‘brochure-ware’ standards of the category, us-ing stickers and tools like boo-merang which creates a video

that rocks back and forth, and SoFi, a company offering stu-dent loans. Squires believes “Instagram can work what-ever the objective: reach or conversion from the top of the sales funnel to the bottom.”

Instagram is shepherding some of its partners via a web-site where it posts tips, exam-ples and inspiration. While reluctant to reveal the num-bers by country, Instagram is seeing good growth in Asia

Pacific, Europe and South America — 80% of its users are not from America. All Instagram will say about its fi-nancials is that its represented in and making a contribu-

tion to Facebook’s revenue: Squires however points to the 8 million businesses on the platform and million plus ac-tive advertisers, as an indica-tor of its magnitude But what he finds really inspiring is seeing how ‘Instrapreneurs’, a term he assures us the com-pany did not come up with, are developing their business-es: ranging from converting old skateboards into guitars to mailing tiny cacti in a cus-tomised pot. He says, “When you put the tools in people’s hands and democratise how they can use them, you can build very good businesses.”

ravi.balakrishnan@timesgroup.com

Here’s what’s become a norm on social media these days. Brands have a foot in mouth moment during calamities:

natural or manmade; in a desper-ate attempt to sell their products and services. What follows is user outrage, ban threats, and the obvi-ous: “Fire your social media agen-cy!” suggestion. Thankfully, there still are exceptions to the norm. During the recent monsoon may-hem in Mumbai, one such Twitter account that sought to ‘help’ rather than add to the ‘havoc’ was that of the Mumbai Police.

Now, Mumbai Police is no brand you’d say, but there’s much to learn from the way it handles its social media. It doesn’t seem opportunis-tic, operator-run, or just plain bor-ing. And there’s a reason why its tone of voice is so well appreciated.

Jab Mumbai Police Met TrivoneMumbai Police joined Twitter in December 2015. The two people who played a key role in making this hap-pen were Ahmad Javed, Mumbai’s then Commissioner of Police (now India’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), and Deven Bharti, the city’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order). They were clear that there will be nothing nas-

ty about their language of commu-nication, nothing preachy either. By using popular memes and catchy one-liners, Mumbai Police was able to escape the “Thou Shan’t” route and still tell potential miscreants: “We are watching you.”

Javed a nd Bha r ti hired a lesser-known content ma rketi ng agency: Trivone. Seven years in the business now, Trivone (Tamil for Sravana Birth Star) comprises of several former journalists who facilitated a dialogue with seniors in the police department. “We were hired for a three-month campaign and were able to attract 24,000 followers in the first 20 days itself,” recalls L Subramanyan (Subu), founder and CEO of the agency. “Everything had to go through approvals but the process was fast-er, more constructive.”

More Caring Than CleverTrivone has 47 people on its payroll at this point, but initially, the Mumbai Police handle was run by all of five people:

three social media managers and one designer who were all super-vised by a project manager. When the Commissioner of Police changed (to DD Padsalgikar), so did the people that managed its Twitter handle. But one look at the account’s timeline and you’d know the tone of voice is intact. A recent post reads: “The things we love destroy us

every time! Hope you #GOT this #DontDrinkAndDrive”. It is ac-companied by a Game of Thrones

gif of Olenna Tyrell. A small example of to ex-plain Mumbai Police

knows how to talk to its citizens online.

It isn’t just these clever posts; the content that came out of the handle when rains brought the

city to a halt, was genuine and helped individuals instead of di-recting them to a not very helpful helpline.

It felt like a person going out of their way to get others out of trou-ble, rather than an institution taking charge of a critical situa-tion. As Subu points out: “People follow people and not necessarily concepts.”

Beyond Mumbai PoliceTrivone has worked on 250 projects in the last seven years and Mumbai Police still tops the list of its favou-rites. The agency also handled so-cial media for Star’s Aamir Khan driven talk show: Satyamev Jayate.“We started the trend of using mul-tiple hashtags for one episode and got 25 of its 26 episodes to trend glob-ally,” he says. All organic trending,

he clarifies. Trivone also made a vox pop video on Commonwealth Gold-winning wrestler Geeta Phogat, two years before Dangal. But Subu is most proud of the work for IT clients, largely a B2B mandate. “Many agencies believe B2C is where you can pour out a lot of creativity. We be-lieve B2B has a lot more scope,” he says.

T h e a g e n c y t h a t started with two peo-ple - Subu and his peon - has two co-founders now (Amit Rastogi, ex GE, and Chittesh Maheshwari, ex Wipro) and a network of 200 people available on de-mand. “Most of these are women working from home. They are outstanding in their ability to create content but have made a choice to stay home. That’s a huge talent pool waiting to be tapped,” he says.

The ‘Small Agency’ paradoxTrivone is not immune to churn. “People come across cooler agen-cies and move out which is under-standable . They have to look out for themselves,” says Subu.

His core team is still together though. “I’m sure they’re getting offers. I don’t know why they’re still with me,” he quips. Being a smaller player doesn’t help. But for all you know, small can be a strength. As Ashutosh Joshi, AVP at Quikr (who has worked with the agency in the past) points out: “Relatively smaller players like Trivone are able to cater to spe-cific requirements as opposed to well known digital agencies that come with their own baggage and constraints.” Most large agencies struggle to create content which has longer shelf life, adds Subu. Which is why you will find some of the popular ones hiring agencies like Trivone to do a part of their job. But in India, unlike markets like the US, clients still feel social me-dia or content is just an extension of a creative agency’s ambit. Things are changing but not as fast as one would wish them to, Subu feels.

But the likes of Trivone are find-ing resonance in some consumer-facing brands. Joshi says, “I’ll call Trivone a proper digital media agency because social media re-stricts the number of domains they operate in. You’ll be surprised to know the problems they can tackle. If they had a review platform, I’d be happy to write one for them.”

shephali.bhatt@timesgroup.com

“As the world’s largest democracy and a secular, multi-lingual country with over 29 states, people need local language content that is relevant across

demographics.” — Umang Bedi, MD (India and South Asia), Facebook

Here Come...Continued from Page 1 >>

80% OF IN-STAGRAM USERS ARE NOT FROM AMERICA

The aim for 5 Star: to reclaim its posi-tion and become part of popular conversa-tion, shares Anirban Roy, SVP and head of planning, OgilvyOne Mumbai. The release of Rajinikanth starrer Kabali last year provid-ed one such opportuni-ty. The brand launched the #SuperOda5Star (The Superstar’s 5 star) initiative with strong legs on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,

wherein 5 Star superstars Ramesh and Suresh were made to pay a fan-tribute on the eve of the film release, by emulating the superstar’s iconic moves through digital videos, gif, and static posts on Facebook.

Customising The MenuLivon, a hair serum brand from Marico, has actor Kangana Ranaut as brand ambassador. All her charm and curly hair could not cut much ice in the North East, a high style, high glam market. Straight hair had a much higher appeal in a market where trends, preferences and content consump-tion habits are starkly different to the rest of the country, shares Anuradha Aggarwal, CMO, Marico. The brand used Facebook’s extensive reach to target young girls in the re-gion. But the creatives were tailormade: hair, inspired by K Pop, and film stars from the Philippines and Korea, on trend when it came to girls from the region. The nuanced approach seems to be working. Says Harshil Karia, MD at Schbang, “The geographical advertising layered with messaging in localised languages lets the consumer feel a greater connect with the brand.” It’s almost like putting the neighbourhood hero on a billboard.

The ‘Social’ Engagement FormulaBYJU’S, a leading online learning platform, claims to have run multiple regional outreach social media campaigns across key markets like Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, with good response. As per Mrinal Mohit, COO,

Continued from Page 1 >>

GOING REGIONAL?...

BYJU’S, “Providing content in local language drastically in-creases engagement with parents.” Increasingly, content is being consumed and responded to in Indian languages across digital mediums. According to Zafar Rais, CEO, MindShift Interactive, “The highest use of content in regional lan-guages currently is through chat apps, entertain-ment portals and social networks, and what drives the maximum consumption in these markets are images, video and audio content.”

When in Rome, Talk Social also in RomanA word of caution! The consumer, particularly on digital, which is a lean-forward medium, doesn’t care much about ads. Says OgilvyOne’s Roy, “digital behaviour is usually search based, and when consumers search for what they need, they want con-tent they can understand in a language that they can relate to.” Brands deploying demographic, location-based, interest-based targeting, can ill-afford to ignore linguistics – both verbal and visual. The OTT platform Viu is offering content in multiple languages and is promoting the same in relevant markets, by segregating its social media platforms based on language and regions. “We have different pages for each mar-ket on Facebook, such as Viu Telugu and Viu Hindi, making it easier for the audience to navigate and consume content”, shares Shantanu Gangane, marketing head, Viu India.

Reaching Niches Not just geographical targeting, social and digital platforms are also good at targeting behavioural and special interest groups, feels Neil George, MD, Nivea India. Along with ob-

vious choices, like middle-aged bike enthusiasts or teens interested in sports-related travel, social media is

particularly adept at reaching time constrained audiences (like new moms, and shift workers - airline crew, for instance) who cannot be reached by traditional media.

Interestingly, while making the media-plan for his own book Building the Perfect Beast – What Really Happens in Brand Managementpitched as the world’s first brand-management

comic, George used specific social me-dia platforms to drive the campaign

(LinkedIn to primarily target FMCG professionals as also MBA students, Facebook/YouTube/Instagram to target comic and anime enthusiasts.). Limited budgets in this case made him look for even more sharp and cost-

effective ways of reaching out to the TG. Brands have an avenue for focused reach

like never before. Are they ready to work hard enough?

amit.bapna@timesgroup.com

KNOW ABOUT, BUT SHOULDL Subramanyan (Subu)Founder & CEO

Amit RastogiExecutive Director

Surabhi ShrivastavaHead, Service Delivery

Raj NarayanChief Content Officer

Deepti MehtaManager, Content

Chittesh MaheshwariCOO

Besides geo-targeting, social

and digital platforms are also good at target-ing behavioural and spe-cial interest groups.

Neil GeorgeNivea India

LOCAL LANGUAGE CONTENT USERS HAVE GROWN FROM 45 MN IN 2012 TO 220 MN IN 2016. TAMIL ACCOUNTS FOR THE HIGHEST ADOPTION FOLLOWED BY HINDI

The story of Trivone, the agency that successfully launched Mumbai Police on Twitter. By Shephali Bhatt

THE AGENCY YOU DON’T

DARK SOCIALThe next holy grail of marketers

Even though puritans admonish that social media wasn’t quite designed for

brands, and rightly so, the sheer reach has made them hijack the agenda. Holds forth Pranay Swarup, CEO & Co-Founder, Chtrbox, a social media influencer agency: “The next leap of faith may well be the Dark Social where brands need to find themselves.” Just the way WeChat in China has disrupted social engagement with transactions happening on the chat platform. Dark Social is a term coined for people sharing content through private channels such as instant messaging programs, mes-saging apps, and email; basically closed groups of communities like bikers, travellers, moms, students etc. that brands cannot interfere with directly and for which micro-influencers are de-ployed by brands.

indievibe

2THE ECONOMIC TIMES SEPTEMBER 13-19, 2017

3SEPTEMBER 13-19, 2017THE ECONOMIC TIMES

Just three years after Iran’s crackdown on the Internet, in 2012, the country’s supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined

Instagram, a service technically banned by the state. @khame-nei_ir has 4643 posts, 1.6 mil-lion followers and follows just 12 accounts on the popular photo sharing site owned by Facebook. Ayatollah Khamenei’s account is a far cry from typical Instagram fare. Here you won’t find artistic portraits of a plate of chelo kebabor candid shots of the Ayatollah cuddling kittens. Instead the page is filled with propaganda includ-ing videos of his speeches, some over a minute long. A feat that left many users wondering how the Supreme Leader managed to beat Instagram’s non-negotiable 15-second cut-off. It was a techni-cal glitch, said Instagram.

Khamenei is far from the most popular world leader on social media platforms. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump, former US President Barack Obama, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Pope Francis, Queen Raina of Jordan, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia’s PM Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all have a lot more social media currency ie followers, likes, engagement scores. But what the Ayatollah’s as of now unverified presence on these platforms shows is just how indispensable social media has become as a communi-cation tool in governments’ arsenal. Even governments which have of-ficially banned social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

No getting away from politicsAs more people come online and political discourse devours our timelines and newsfeeds, social

media has become a potent force in international poli-tics. These platforms are used for governance, dis-seminating information, raising funds for cam-paigns, influencing and shaping public opinion, waging information wars and building the personal brands of politicians.

Social networks have been instrumental in bringing closer to the masses an elite, previ-ously inaccessible politi-cal ruling class and effec-tively “humanising” politicians. It’s sort of the digital equivalent of comedian Jimmy Fallon ruffling Donald Trump’s blonde hair on national television.

The most startling change has occurred in the fairly unique ways politicians have embraced

social media and built their indi-vidual profiles. Donald Trump uses Twitter rather liberally and in an unfiltered way. Meanwhile Narendra Modi, a serial sharer who doesn’t shy away from pos-ing on a pastel green Dutch-made bicycle or while at the beach with

pal ‘Bibi’ (Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu), has been criticised for being too selective in the issues he chooses to address. Justin Trudeau and his team often share personal, casual and candid photos and videos of the young politician. His rolled-up shirt sleeves and photobombing of people’s Instagram shots while out for a morning run in shorts tinier than Trump’s hands, has spawned a new breed of social

media sycophancy.

You are what you retweet and who you followBut that’s fine, Mister Prime Minister, because there is an in-herent demand for “authenticity” on social platforms. This need for authenticity, even if it’s simulat-ed, makes it difficult to translate the typical buttoned-up, top-down political messaging, says Caleb Gardner co-founder of Chicago-

based 18 Coffees. Gardner, who handled Barack Obama’s social media strategy during the 2012 US-presidential elections, tells us; “Each politician has to de-cide what that means for them for what they’re trying to accom-plish within a larger communica-tions program. President Trump has taken the extreme and that’s often come back to haunt him. I’d argue that that’s at least partly due to how insular his Twitter account is compared to the rest of the messaging coming out of the White House.”

Trump’s Twitter is a terrifying minefield of 140-character catas-trophes: “covfefe”, glaring spell-ing errors, unchecked comments on issues of national security and foreign relations, inflammatory speech, conspiracy theories and undignified digs at the compe-tition (see ‘What Happened’). America’s Commander-in-chief

spares nobody, not even powerful allies. Like the time @realDon-aldTrump insulted Germany: “Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancel lor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” But hey, at least he’s being authentic, ja?

One of social media’s most pro-lific users and the man many believe responsible for making selfies India’s national pastime, leading by example, Narendra Modi, reflects the dignity of his office in the way posts are craft-ed. However, the Indian prime minister has lately received a lot of flak for not addressing burning issues that are of national import and dominate public discourse. Digital agency Flarepath’s co-founder Saurabh Kanwar advises extending the PM’s popular ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ campaign, which translates to “chat over tea”, to social media platforms. “Is there some equivalent of chai pe char-cha for social media which is all warm and fuzzy but also address-es these issues?” he wonders. If Twitter would be so kind as to pro-vide an appropriate custom-made emoji for the occasion then we’re all set. Kanwar’s other piece of ad-vice for heads of states: Unfollow everybody. It’s not personal, it’s politics.

While you wait to be Unfollowed by the President or PM, enjoy this picture of Trudeau hugging panda cubs.

delshad.irani@timesgroup.com

“99% [of my Twitter feed] is links, but 1% is me responding and 1% of a big number is a big number.”

- Guy Kawasaki, Author, speaker, entrepreneur

In today’s hyperconnected world, cri-sis is inevitable. Consumers are con-stantly sharing good and bad experi-ences about your brand or service. All it takes is a single tweet, post or mobile video to send a brand hurtling towards crisis. In a best case scenario, your so-cial media listening picks up the problem early, you have a crisis playbook that’s up to date, a squad that’s trained and knows what to do, and a network of partners and influencers primed and ready to help. All that is left to do is execute.

Unfortunately, this level of pre-paredness is rare. Brands are focused on reach and awareness: busy talking to customers, often forgetting to listen. When cri-sis hits, they are unable to think clearly, and tend to panic. The most typical response is to freeze and do nothing. This is almost never a good idea because consumers perceive it as arrogance or inaction.

Uber had a pretty rough year so far, with a series of revelations about uneth-ical business practices, poor treatment of driver-partners, intrusions into cus-tomer’s privacy and sexual harassment of female employees. While the underly-ing issues date as far back as 2014, the company (and board) chose to do noth-ing until Susan Fowler’s blog blew the lid off the situation. Uber’s inability to put customers (external and internal) first, and its focus on “performance” rather than long term goodwill led to the eventual dismissal of founder-CEO Travis Kalanick, and a 7% decline in its US market share.

Another common panic response is to rapidly “close” an issue, without truly understanding what it is. Throwing goodies at a consumer may help resolve their angst, but does nothing to identify or resolve the root cause. The issue will inevitably recur, often at a larger scale, with financial and reputational impact. When hit by a crisis, brands should be able to quickly ascertain the nature and scale of the problem. A set of pre-defined benchmarks for customer complaints/negative mentions will help them identi-fy a routine consumer complaint versus a crisis. These benchmarks will vary by industry and nature of the issue. For example, one negative mention about a product hygiene issue is enough to go into a crisis mode but it may take a cer-

tain volume of mentions of a known and expected, common negative like flight delays for an airline, to get into a crisis mode. Whichever be the case, always place consumer interest ahead of finan-cial or operational constraints.

In the recent United Airlines incident where a passenger was forcibly evicted by airline staff, the United CEO re-sponded quickly explaining that they were re-accommodating passengers as per the “airline policy”. While the re-sponse was quick and technically vetted by a legal team, the company wasn’t pre-pared to be judged in the court of public opinion. In a single day United became one of the most hated brands, causing its shares to tumble by almost 4%.

In a crisis situation, the first thing ev-ery consumer expects is information: go out there and tell them what you know about the situation, and what you’re do-

ing to fix it. Follow that with regular, public status updates, supported with photo or video evidence and third party audits, where possible. If there are prod-

ucts out there that have a shred of a chance of harming a consumer,

recall them. It’s always better to react disproportionately in fa-vour of the consumer, rather than face a series of embar-rassing revelations while losing trust along the way. This way, you can show your customers that you

place their well-being ahead of lost revenue or profits, and earn long-term goodwill.

However, the consumer is not always right. There are instanc-es of misinformed or malicious campaigns. Take the case of the Lipton “worms in a tea bag” case

from the Middle East. When a consumer posted a video claiming

worms in Lipton Tea bags, Lipton was quick to investigate and respond

on social media with video evidence clarifying that the particles being shown by the consumer were in fact green tea lemon flavor particles and should not be mistaken for foreign mat-ter. They followed up with certification from the local authorities, and speedily put the matter to rest.

To summarise, the key to crisis man-agement is preparedness and not panic. Setting up a real time social media lis-tening cell, creating a cross-functional crisis squad with key members of marketing, PR, HR, CRM, finance, operations etc, and putting together a playbook that covers every foreseeable crisis, are a few ways to prepare. When the crisis eventually arrives, execute the appropriate steps focusing on con-sumer narrative. Think customer first, communicate quickly, frequently, and openly, supported by visual evidence. Prioritise long term goodwill and brand health over short term financial impact. Solve for the root cause of the problem, and tell customers what it was, once you find it. Take public, material steps to ensure it does not recur. Brands are built over years of consumer goodwill, and it is this goodwill that makes them ‘indestructible’.

The authors Venke Sharma and Hushidar Kharas have written

‘The Indestructible Brand: Crisis Management in the Age of

Social Media’. Views expressed are personal.

BY INVITATIONVenke Sharma and Hushidar Kharas on how to handle a quickly escalating brand crisis on social media

Don’t Panic: Why cool heads win the day for people and brands

Hushidar Kharas

Venke Sharma

THE CONSUMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. THERE ARE INSTANCES OF MISINFORMED OR MALICIOUS CAMPAIGNS

HOW TO INFLUENCE PEOPLEA guide on how brands should and should not use influencers — right from the horse’s mouth.

Trolls mean nothing to them, brands mean a lot and authenticity perhaps the most of all. Brand Equity’s Priyanka Nair presents points of view from some leading influencers

(With inputs from Toyoja Upadhyay)

Alicia Souza @aliciasouzaSouza started posting her illustra-tions on social media in 2011. Today, she has her own design studio, and her pet dog Charlie has become more popular than her because of her Instagram updates. Souza also works on the doodles on the masthead of The Times Of India, apart from associ-ating with camera and women-centric brands on a regular basis.

#FirstBrandAssociationEver It was for Tanishq.

Challenges that made you sweatFirstly, it was getting used to the idea that I’m posting my work for the world to see, with my name attached. Secondly, it was mak-ing posting a routine.

How do you deal with trolls? I don’t. Nobody has the time for that!

Social media detox. Yay or nay?I don’t overwhelm myself with social media. I post at certain times but I’m more of a creator than a viewer. I don’t spend timebrowsing.

Things brands should stop demanding NOWIt’s fair to question everything. I guess it boils down to the influencer, the brand, and the association between the two itself. I personally have a lot of ‘rules’ before I can take on an influencer post.

Can influencers be brand loyalists?I truly feel like I have to use/like the brand or service to be as-sociated. Not all influencers feel that way, and to each his/her own, I feel.

Mallika Dua @mallikaduaDua is considered the Snapchat queen of India. A comedian and darling of brands, she had a stint in advertising before taking social media seriously. She’s worked with brands like DNA, KFC, OnePlus, Maybelline, PVR Cinemas, and Honda among others

#FirstBrandAssociationEver On Instagram, it was for KOOVS.

Challenges that made you sweatDealing with the addiction and the constant need to compare and compete with others.

Things brands should stop demanding NOWStop blind and blatant product placement without context. Stop spoon feeding the audience. They are smarter than we think. Stop asking for unrealistic timelines, and social media posts in ex-change for freebies. Also, stop self censoring and moral policing. So prudish.

Social media detox. Yay or nay?Not really. It’s a job plus a lifestyle. Even when I’m not posting, I’m constantly checking. I do however use this app called “self control” (it’s an actual app) when I’m writ-ing. It blocks certain websites for the duration you want. I do take a phone call detox quite often because in my line of work, phone calls take triple the time to do the same work that WhatsApp does in seconds. Impatient generation!

Thoughts on the authenticity of influencersThey are definitely more authen-tic than inanimate billboards and laboured television commercials simply because it’s a brand meets brand marriage, where both par-ties enter as equals and try to ar-rive at a symbiotic solution.

Can influencers be brand loyalists?They don’t have to be. The truth is we use multiple brands in real life too. Brand loyalty is a two-way street that requires a hefty investment (monetary and oth-erwise) on the brand’s part and unfortunately, besides Bollywood and cricket, I haven’t seen that sort of endorsement in any other category yet.

Mark Wiens @MigrationologyWiens has been on Facebook since the time it was only available to univer-sity students. His YouTube channel Migrationology, has over a million subscribers. He focuses on global hos-pitality and airlines brands; the Star Alliance collaborated on his travel for a food project.

#FirstBrandAssociationEver My first big campaign was for Booking.com

Challenges that made you sweatWhen on social media, it takes dedication, consistency, and even creativity to grow. Sometimes growth may be very slow and frustrating which can be chal-lenging.

Social media detox. Yay or nay?Yes definitely, and I think it’s a good idea. However, I also try to limit my use every day: I never sit doing social media while I’m eating or hanging out with family.

Things brands should stop demanding NOWBrands should not ask influencers to do something that’s too fabri-cated or organised by the brand. No one knows their audience bet-ter than the influencer, and I think more creative freedom leads to better and more natural content.

Thoughts on the authenticity of influencersUnfortunately, many influencers take any offer that they get to work, even if it’s not a good fit or they have no previous experi-ence. And, from a brand’s point of view it is concerning.

Can influencers be brand loyalists?I think it just depends on the influencer and the direction they choose to go.

Siddhartha Joshi @TheWandererJoshi created his social media pres-ence as an extension to his travel blog, The Wanderer. Joshi works with smartphone brands, hotels, and camera and accessories companies. He was recently hosted by Neemrana Hotels, in Gwalior.

#FirstBrandAssociationEver Nokia’s Lumia phones for pho-tography

Challenges that made you sweatThe initial challenge is reaching out to your audience, people who would care to know about your work, and this has to be beyond your family and friends. Another challenge (ongoing) is to find time to do it all.

Social media detox. Yay or nay?My social media channels are pretty much an extension of my life and travels, and I keep it very real about day to day stories. I haven’t felt the need for a detox, yet.

Things brands should stop demanding NOWSometimes brands want you to endorse the product without us-ing it for long enough, or regularly enough.

Thoughts on the authenticity of influencersI guess it’s fair on the part of experts to question things which they don’t find genuine. In fact, so should your followers. It’s impor-tant to be open about your rela-tionship with the brand - people do appreciate that.

Can influencers be brand loyalists?Each association is like an as-signment and should be seen as such. In the present world, when better things are coming all around you, all the time, it would be unfair to be loyal simply to a brand. In real life, I am loyal to technology and the constantly evolving ecosystem of products and services, and that’s how I am on social media too. This often also means saying ‘No.’

What does it mean for social media when world leaders share your timeline or feed with friends, colleagues and family? By Delshad Irani

Hit ‘Like’ For Propaganda

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