FIVE THINGS I’VE LEARNT IN FIVE YEARS OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

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When I had started, the influencer marketing industry was still in its infancy. It may sound like a big word but at the end of the day it is about creating content as an individual entity for the audiences and building human connections on a level that brands can’t achieve through conventional forms of advertising.

Every influencer starts with some raw and rough edged content and very few followers but eventually it becomes reality when you continue to do it because you enjoy it and are passionate about it. Of course, the industry has been changing but the core fundamentals have remained the same and from the many things that I have learned through my journey here are some constants that I still follow.

AUDIENCE IS KING
One needs to understand their audience to connect with them. If the audience demands raw and unfiltered content, using high tech equipment and filtering your content just because everyone is doing so, won’t help you connect to your viewers. Your content needs to align with the audience.

Only then will you be able to create value. It is important to know where the audience is going and how the audience is thinking, simply by building a two-way communication.

HUMANISE THE BRAND
Collaborating with a brand, for me, is not about money, contracts or how much are you making per click. The main goal is to create value for my audience as well as the brand’s audience. So it’s more of a three-way circle where everybody is trying to provide value to each other. I believe in having lesser collaborations so as to provide value to each brand as opposed to having a clutter and making a noise. Whenever we are taking a decision, we keep in mind the audience and not just the brand.

CREATING POSITIVE CONTENT FOR THE AUDIENCE
The concepts of metrics, number of views, subscribers and likes have always been confusing for me. There might be an infamous video getting millions of views but is not necessarily one that is creating a positive impact for the audience.

People get so caught up with likes and followers that they lose the true essence of creating content that is valuable and impactful. The audiences trust the influencers and believe that they can rely on whatever has been suggested, reviewed or shared by them.

I take it as my duty towards them to not break their trust and make their days a little positive because at the end of the day all they want is a story to catch on. Hence it is necessary to create content and a narrative for the whole brand which will impact the audience.

ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY
Nothing is an instant success. It’s not like you just produce content and it works right away. Initially there is like a curve that you go through and eventually you just catch on or maybe your video works.

Initially it is just like the small incremental line but once you hit like the 1000 or 2000 mark, it just keeps on flowing. Sometimes you reach to a spot where you see no growth. At that time, you have to realise and re-think about what gets going. If you’re on the right path, if you’re creating content that creates value, it may be wise to just rethink and try to change the direction a little bit.

BUILD A STRONG TEAM
I believe doing smart work is equally important as doing hard work. And for the same reason I believe that a team is equally necessary. When you have many creative minds working in different directions to achieve the same goal, it helps in lending diverse perspectives for the content. We can learn from each other and create pieces of content for our audience.