If you’re doing something which 1000’s have already been doing, there are high chances of failure.
1. Tell us about your background and journey
Telugu dude is a team of three. Naveen, The DUDE is from Karmimnagar , settled in Hyderabad, a political science student preparing for
civils. He wants to be a political science professor in the future. Nani is
from Machilipatnam settled in Hyderabad and Praneeth is born and brought up in
Hyderabad. Both are into filmmaking.
2. What led you to start your page on Instagram and what is it about?
We are good friends
since a long time. Though we are poles apart, Creativity and the aspiration to
do something big tied us together. We always wanted to do something together and
luckily corona gave us that opportunity after Naveen grew his beard and posted
a picture on our WhatsApp group saying “CAST ME IN YOUR FILMS” .
Nani
immediately came up with this idea of holding placards in the public and
expressing our thoughts. The instagram page DUDEWITHSIGN was our reference
point, we wanted to localize it in Telugu with content which is relatable and
trending.
We were excited with the idea but Naveen and Praneeth were skeptical
about how people would receive it. We were fully convinced and got excited
after Naveen did a test shoot at his place and posted in the group. His hair,
the sunglasses and the placard. It was PERFECT. We knew this would fly.
3. How
would you distinguish the term blogger from an influencer?
A blogger is someone who
produces content through the blog in form of articles or images. Their emphasis
is mostly on creating quality content where as an Influencer is someone who
focuses on building their reach and audience base and the influence is normally
measured by their followers.
4. Is
it financially sustainable to be an influencer today?
Definitely, But it depends a lot on the content you
produce. Lets take the example of Telugu dude. We have a lot of limitations to
promote as we can only promote brands through the placards and it should be fit
in our funny/quirky space.
We also made a conscious decision that we would not
post anything on our feed which isn’t of the placard so its a bit difficult for
us to accept a lot of promotions though we have a lot of followers. But, there
are a lot influencers who are doing financially well only from being an
influencer.
5.
What do you think influences consumer behavior?
There are various Social and economic factors which
influence consumer behaviour. But, Since we are talking about social media
influencers, the key point is trust. The consumer completely trusts a celebrity
or someone who is popular.
The consumers gets a kind of validation if their
favourite celebrity is endorsing or promoting something and it completely
influences their behaviours. So, Its also the influencer’s responsibility to
keep up that trust and not let down the consumer.
6. How can
someone become a successful social media influencer?
In order to become a successful influencer, first
thing one needs to do is to select the right content. If you’re doing something
which 1000’s have already been doing, there are high chances of failure. Then,
you need to choose a right platform.
Not all content becomes successful on all the social media platforms. Also, things don’t work out overnight. One needs to be patient and consistent. If your content is worthy enough, you will eventually become successful one day.
- Interviewed by - N. Murali krishna
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