The power of responsible influencing

You may think that being a social media influencer is all about exotic vacays, a larger-than-life living standard and fancy brand collaborations, but for Sone Kanwar content is king, and it’s of utmost importance to be real and impactful and not just impressive.

“People watch us on a daily basis and get influenced by our choices, therefore, I feel the content needs to be genuine. I always think what would I want my younger sibling to take away from this (a social media post) or what would I want my 15-year old self to learn. This helps me keep the content authentic,” says lifestyle blogger, who feels that the content must also resonate with the creator’s choices and target audience.

After getting an MBA degree in Finance, Kanwar landed a corporate job, but soon shifted to full-time blogging as she felt she was ready to take the leap. She says, “Though the competition is high, blogging has a low entry barrier in terms of investment; it only requires intellectual capital. Moreover, I have always been camera shy and preferred to stay behind the scenes, so the idea of blogging struck a cord with me.”

However, the switch from blogging to Instagram space — where she has 191k followers+ — took place as “audience’s transition happened”. “As the attention span dropped, the audience and followers moved from spending hours online, reading blogs, to visual content,” says Kanwar.

But does the pressure of gaining followers and likes and bagging big brand collaborations play a key role in a blogger or influencer’s life? She states, “There is sometimes a pressure, but brands respect when you have a loyal following and see that audience engages with your content.”

Sharing some tips for budding bloggers, she concludes by saying, “It’s a welcoming space. You need to believe in yourself. It’s not like you’re one of many thousands. Believe that you have unique content to offer. And most importantly, remember that things don’t happen overnight, you need to be patient.”