Are we influenced enough?

Idea of influencer marketing must have sprung up and flourished in the last one decade. By instagram becoming popular and then twitter became more of medium for socio political where thought leaders flourished. The influeners out and right are modified salespeople majorly and then mentors, entertainers, or as they started of content creators. They are 80s time bill board advertisement or 90s TV advertising equivalents to 20s.

It brought in a fresh set of category of celebrities in each niche sector, from stand-up comedy to skin consultation to chic clothing to wine tasting to erotic poetry. From the comfort of home and a skill on offer, now you can be an influencer and garner quite a number of followers. The best part of these is that you don’t need to among people to be “with”them. You need to engage with them online. Most people find it easy to do this as when content is getting created, you are just musing the camera in the comfort of your confines or setup environment. You, in parallel, should be in an ad shoot or a public event jostled in the crowd otherwise. Thus, it makes it a bit easier for introverts to talk/emote about your passion and being an influencer.

Most of these influencers start solo with themselves as the input to this business with a decent phone camera, and may be additional ring lights or so. Now, the big timers have a team working with them, which comprises content writers, fashion stylists, makeup artists, and drapers.

Have observed there are different kinds of influencers, some out right sponsored content creators, which means all their content are professionally shot and presented with a CTA ( call to action) on your face.

Then there are some who interperse self created personal content with professionally shot content for promotion, a deadly combination at that, a good dose of intimate details with what they want to sell, and thus effective, as baits are set in a comfortable cushiony setting. All the more chances of selling it, too.

There’s are influencers who just wanna entertain/amuse/startle/educate you, and there are product plugins at all in their content. Niche content come from this creed as they know what they are here for, so may be he is taking you to a tunnel and end of tunnels too is product promotions as well. Here, you can choose to enjoy the journey and choose to exit the tunnel, too. The classic case of just enjoying the journey without end game worries.

Listing here some of the influencers who have “influenced” me different areas.

Starting with the first and foremost Shameem Akhtar, she was then a middle-aged yoga enthusiast who used to post content on blog posts, now grown to be a yoga and Movement enthusiast sexagenenarian will the same zest. For me she used to be my first influencer, discovered her blog on a Sunday newspaper and then it never used to be pushed to you, you need to go to the blog and read it on the drop day. She, with her genuine and detail oriented yoga updates, did a lot of moulding of my yoga journey.

Now, her daughter Jhanvi, too, is an influencer in yoga and dance field and eclectic at that, too. So here, too, legacy works.

Continuing on the same genre, yoga and fitness, here are others.

Radhi, a beautiful NRI who puts out vegetarian cooking recipes interpersed with her ayurveda style of living in her LA home. If she can live like that in LA, why not me is the vibe. She does interesting balancing acts of personal posts with her famous healer husband Jay Shetty, fun posts, and cooking and fitness videos, and there are, of course, sponsored content. Her most unique thing is the promotion of local small businesses, peer promotions, and relatability to the emotions depicted, although the products are in the exorbitant luxury range.

Lesson: take inspiration on almost things fitness and clean but buy locally. Similar brands are available in India at almost the same quality and better price point. The phitkari is available in much lesser fancy packing from amazon India or zepto than the LA brand.

Yoga tips from this couple are both entertaining and very doable.

Swarali, a young indian dancer based out of newyork, enticed me with her moves and encaved me to be her ardent followers by her inspiring instructions on ‘being in body to find your emotions”.

Adhipa from Dubai is yet another one who endorces movements together with her very entertaining travel and dubai eat-out sessions with all the famous friends.

Apurva, by her flexibility movements arrests your attention, so is her detailed instruction style.

Rujutha became famous for her diet plan as Kareena Kapoor was her client. But she proved she can be everyone’s reference by her posts on protein and perimenopause series.

Princy from Goa, this is someone who was followed for her flows on the beaches and one day got opportunity to do the same with her and then on never have left her training schedules. She influences both online and offline in strong wild happy ways.

Now moving to much exciting food section.

There are many bloggers who are followed over the years in this section. Some are mentioned here as they are top on my mind this season.

The kitchen apothecary, for her recreation of indian dishes.

If you want a foodgasm go to her page — the macaroon girl from UK, who aesthetically recreates drool worthy kerala food there. Exceptional presentation skills and narration.

Gossip, humans involved only because of this, so here are my dose of it.

Bollywood, everything is from this page, Varzilla. Very unapologetic comments, often skewed views on certain subjects, makes it entertaining, and one stop shop for everything bollywood as of now. So here comes everyday small doses of Urfi, Orry and much more.

Urfi with her ghastly creativity does need a mention on fashion front separately.

On the travel front here are my listing

Karan, a friend and a entrepreneur who has influenced a lot of my travels with his tips and his very own way of life.

The travel couple — Sereats — varied experiences and worth emulating.

Sampoorna is great for offbeat experiences and work-from-anywhere spots with her travel companion and drone specialist Faizaan.

Literary front

My very old reference is Upasana. She brings in varied book suggestions and streaming recommendations, which makes it all worth it.

Sonali Bendre is another literary reference for reading recommendations.

Twinkle Khanna too is in the same category with her unique woman initiative of all things pertaining to us with TweakIndia.

Now, coming to digital marketing, Sangram Vajre makes his content personal and thus relatable.

So does Karthik Srinivasan with his analysis of all things pertaining to content advertising on LinkedIn.

Another star on LinkedIn is Bhavna with her intent driven leadership tips. Constant and varied content with her initiative with Shenomics for woman leaders is truly inspirational and thus “influencer “ worthy

Now coming to life style bloggers

Reshma tops my list because of her content rich posts of her slightly pinterestry living, baby daughter posts and aiesthically shot product posts.

Then Aishwarya aka Thanimalayali, shows life, struggles, and aspirations of a young professional in a very new world away from her kerala home. Entertaining, educating( a lot of smoothie recipes are stored) and aspirational us her content.

Anupriya, an old acquaintance who I saw, grew from running blogger to a famous YouTuber with lifestyle posts. Her growth videos are relatable, and so is her struggle being a single mother.

Mimi, a famous Internet entrepreneur, was roaring on Instagram with her husband, Alex. They were the go-to for all things inspirational for good living, remote working, couple goals, and parenting until she announced her separation. Content does have taken a hit, as the husband and daughter do not feature now, and business initiatives aren’t talked about, too. But making such things normal on the Internet is also inspiring.

Mathi, the US settled malayali, who promotes self-love from her comfortable florida home, is both hypocritical but entertaining.

My meme heaven is photographer friends stories — Sreejith, so catch it in loads everyday. Entertaining thought provoking and great malayali content. BTW he is a great photographer too, see his posts, stories can be misleading.

Now, coming to erotic writing and poems — Lagna and incontrollibido takes my listing.

A special mention Seema the storyteller. Her exceptional oratory style, together with her aura, makes eroticism palatable without shyness.

From the bollywood mention to Vidya for her entertaining videos and Malaika for her butt strutting yoga posts, which is truly an inspiration for middle aged woman like me.

To close the list with “badshah of current Indian content” Nikhil Kamath, his long form contents can contain things covering intimate details of himself or his guests to business related. The winning factor of his content is intiquisitive deep dive into his guests' lives, mostly an eminent person in a particular field, which brings out how-tos of his/her/their life, so that a young indian can emulate and recreate similar one.

That was an exhausting list, so you know how much scrolling is needed to cover all of them in a day and that’s how we find more of them too. Happy getting influenced before we get bombarded by user content in bizzards.