Shreya Gautam - Relate to your audience and make the content engaging.

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it. The benefit of living today is we have an abundance of access to this wisdom, more than ever before. We can learn from geniuses in dozens of different fields, and they can help us become more grounded.

But this is also the downfall, we can come to undervalue important life lessons, and find it hard to sift through the mountains of information we have to work with. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. And that’s exactly what our next series interviewee, social media superstar Shreya Gautam went through an emerged as a winner. Not just did Shreya learn from the hardships that came her way but also managed to carve a niche for herself in blogging. Her immaculate approach to influencing and engaging her followers has been commendable, Shreya hasn’t been just pro-active but also displays sheer splendour in every collaboration she has taken part in.

Browse through Shreya’s journey in this interview, the second part series which follows holds some more punch and panache to this WOW Woman.

The interview:

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started and attained the position of an influencer?

When I became a mother the first time in 2012, there were a lot of hardships I went through, like postpartum depression, breastfeeding woes and some more. I was 23 and couldn’t understand what the hell was going on. I tried to take one step at a time. 5 years later, when I gave birth the second time, I was somewhat prepared for what’s to come but then don’t we all know that life always throws curveballs at us. The second time I was faced with new challenges of a preemie baby, NICU visits, intense physiotherapy and what not. I knew it would have helped immensely if I had someone to talk to who had experienced the same.

With that thought, FOUR TINY FEET came into being in 2017, so I could share (more like vent) about my journey, my feelings. Along the way, I met some beautiful souls who I could relate to. 3 years later, today, I feel I have had a little, if not big, influence on people following me, in terms of breaking the taboos, mindful parenting, being vocal about mental health, etc. I wasn’t an influencer when I started, I was just a mom on a rant. The people who made me grow on the gram made me an influencer.

How important is authenticity to your review when it comes to influencer marketing? How do you maintain your authentic voice, viewpoints and recommendations on your social media while still partnering with brands?

It sounds cliché, but authenticity does play a very important role in gaining your audience’s trust. Those who know me well, know that I don’t jump on the campaign bandwagon to promote anything and everything. I have always believed that I am not in a race and I have no one to beat.

I value number of relationships over number of campaigns. If a brand sends me something and it's exceptional, I will go out of my way to make sure they get the attention they deserve. On the other hand, if it is something I won’t use, I might just do a story to let my followers know that this was sent to me.

In that scenario, it is my duty to let my audience know about the presence of the brand but you will never hear me recommend or vouch for it. For example, I have a very sensitive skin, so I avoid associating with any skin care brands. At the same time, it's important to let the audience know about a new option in the market. Just because it doesn’t suit me, doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone. I like to think that my followers are adults who can make their own decisions.

Read more Social Media Influencing interviews:

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Have there been any brands or promotions you have refused since you didn’t believe in them?

There have been several. I am not very popular in the market because of the same reason. I believe in quality over quantity. 70% of my feed is about me, my kids, my lifestyle, which is what people relate to. A couple of brands went berserk with influencer collaborations and everyone in the market was on board. I had offered to do stories for them as I don’t use those products for myself or my kids. They were adamant on a post and hence I had to refuse.

How do you plan the brand promotion in case of collaborations? What is the modus operandi you follow?

A lot of thought process goes into making sure I do justice to my work and the brand. I don’t rush into it. The idea is to make sure you can relate to your audience and make the content engaging. If I have to simply copy and paste the facts from a web-link, why my followers would read on my grid instead of googling it themselves. I aim to make the content personal and make sure that the image gels well with what I have to say.

Do you take advance part-payments before you start creating content for a brand? How do you safeguard your payments? Any cases where you haven’t been paid your dues?

I would say I have been lucky when it comes to being paid for my work. I have built a rapport with the brands and agencies over the years and I never had to ask for advance payment. In order to safeguard my payments, I make sure that the entire communication regarding the collaboration is done over the mail and not calls or WhatsApp. If it’s a new brand, we discuss over a call and then I ask them to mail me all the terms.

There haven’t been any non-payments but yes, I have faced delayed payments which were troublesome but having the payment timeline on the mail helped me expedite it.

Do you have any big goals as an influencer for 2021?

My goal this year is the same as last year. Churn out content that makes me happy because then it is sure to make my audience happy. There are a couple of brands that I have been eyeing to work with and I am hoping it materialises this year. Along with all of that, I aim to grow my bloggers community, Bloggers Meet Info, too and reach out to and on-board more content creators across the country.