‘When it comes to social media, you need to keep evolving’

At the recently held e4m-INCA Influencer Marketing Conference, a panel of industry experts got together to share insights on the topic, ‘Building organic reach - The holy-grail, what's the magic formula to get it right?

The panel comprised Saibal Biswas, Senior Vice President and Head of Marketing Partnership at Medibuddy; Ritu Mittal, Head - Marketing and Digital at Bayer; Sahil Gilaani, Director, Sales and Marketing at Gits; Jayesh Sali, Head of Marketing, Fashion & Lifestyle at Reliance Digital; Amrita Gaddam, Founder & CEO at The Tribe Concepts; Shifali Gajjar Khalsa, Head - Brand & Marketing and Corporate Communication at SBI General Insurance; and finance influencer Sharan Hegde. The session was moderated by Ashwin Padmanabhan, President - Trading & Partnership, GroupM.

The discussion started with Padmanabhan asking Hegde about his journey as a finance influencer which is a niche category. "It's still a learning experience,” Hegde answered.

“When I started three years back, Instagram was trying to get into the short-form game, after TikTok. People were creating the same kind of content which was already there on TikTok. So it was about creating educational content which was something that was unheard of. You need to realise that Instagram is not like YouTube. In Instagram, the algorithm is trying to think whether this content will blow up or not," Hegde shared.

"My first learning was that I'm not competing with other educational content. I'm competing with everyone. I combined comedy and acting into finance, and that was the game changer," he added.

Speaking about his experience, Gilani said, "We started social media very early, in 2009. In my journey, I learnt that you need to start adapting. We started collaborating with other platforms. We realised that we should look at UGC. So when it comes to social media, you need to keep evolving because someone is doing better than you."

Gaddam, who has built her hair care company using the digital platform, shared how she used influencer marketing as a crucial tool to build the brand. "Tribe Concepts was built in a short period. We are a 100% digital brand. Over the last three years, everything we did was online and only with influencers. The scenario three years back was different from now. Three years back, it was the first time that influencers were talking about brands. But now even the biggest MNCs are going for influencer marketing. And today if a brand has to win, it has to win through organic content," she said.

"One thing I truly believe in is the relevancy of the platform. What has worked for us is understanding our as well as the influencer's audience, discussing what our audience wants and creating content on that. Our influencer marketing strategies change every month," she added.

Talking further about the complexities involved in being a finance influencer, Khalsa said, "BFSI is a different category. In BFSI, insurance is a complex subject. But I'm glad to say that insurance has been doing very well in the last 5-6 years on the digital platform. We are always at par with what any other category brand does.” 

Stressing the need to choose the right influencer and the right platform, Mittal shared, "Nobody wants to watch the advertisement; they skip the advertisement. When we go about it, we keep in mind facts like who is the influencer and who is the consumer. I think data can help you shape that. It will help you determine who is the right influencer and audience. And audience on digital is a big chunk of democratic audience."

"Then comes the platform. Not every platform can play out to advantage of the category. You need to identify the platform and then use the platform to the advantage of the category or the product,” she added 

Biswas raised some points about consumers and their liking. He said, "I think we look at it from an ROI perspective. The fundamental starts from knowing your consumer. What is that consumer really seeks? Is he/she seeking information, entertainment?"

As the audience is evolving with time, people are keener on using brands that stand for a purpose. Speaking on the same, Sali, said, "Earlier brands were all about status, logo and exclusivity. But in today's time, brands are active actors in social conversations and are driven by renewed sense of purpose and responsibility. You need to pivot your communication to a strong purpose that becomes a key differentiating factor for you. Because there is very less margins of functional differences in today's time, the only way is to find a strong purpose associated to your brand and then driving the content through the communication that you have crafted."

While concluding the panel discussion, Hegde talked about how it is important for brands to be associated to a person. "This is very underpenetrated in India. One needs to give a face to your brand. This should the person who has stake in your company."

"If you build that personal branding and attach it with your company, there is nothing like it. Building that will be the best thing and if you do it right, you might not need an influencer 10 years later," he added.