The Creator Economy features small businesses centered around independent content creators such as video bloggers, writers, comedians, musicians, etc., who monetize themselves, their skills, and their creations. But these small businesses differ from traditional small businesses such as salons or grocery stores. These new-age small businesses are powered by numerous digital technologies, which give them a global reach from day one. They go where the internet goes. To expand the customer base, a salon manager needs greater input of time and effort. Hence s/he can only serve a limited number of customers a day, resulting in limited earnings. However, digital assets once created, can be sold infinite times, allowing creators to expand earnings without extending time and effort. In the last few years, India has seen the rise of an entirely new breed of first-generation content creators whose social media following is bigger than many politicians, cinema, and sports stars. This book covers 11 inspiring journeys of India’s renowned creators. In Marketing, the last several decades has been about building sustainable corporate brands. The next decade will be about building personal brands. This book covers great insights on how to build strong personal brands in the digital world. There have been many books written about becoming the CEO of a large corporation or creating a fast-growing start-up, but it is hard to find a book on creating and managing a single-person brand in an emerging Creator Economy. Hence this book. Brief on the authors Harsh Pamnani is a storyteller by passion and a brand expert by profession. He earned his B.E. in Computer Engineering from IET-DAVV, Indore, and his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. His bestselling book series Booming Brands, was widely acclaimed by eminent academicians, Indian government leaders, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. Harsh also writes for various business publications, including Forbes. He has worked variously with think-tanks like the World Bank, corporates like Deloitte, and start-ups like FirstCry. He also teaches Branding at MBA colleges like MICA, Ahmedabad, and is a popular speaker at fora such as TEDx, Google Business Group, Josh Talks, IIT, and IIM. Manish Pandey is a much sought-after brand consultant, social media evangelist, and mentor to new-age digital brands and Influencers. He is currently part of the leadership team at Josh Talks, one of India’s largest and fastest-growing impact platforms. The idea behind the book We are all born with our own innate passions, strengths and talents, such as singing, dancing, acting, cooking, telling stories, making others laugh… But only a few of us are encouraged, either by our parents, or the social system we live in, to turn our passions into professions. Why is this? Perhaps because our elders know of the struggles creative people inevitably face. Every year, many talented people come from India’s small towns to the large cities like Mumbai, only to face rejection at auditions and interviews. The few who do get a chance to showcase their talent, struggle to make a living. Even fewer ever aspire to a comfortable life. However, if you have spent some time on the Internet in the last 10 years, you will have noticed something different happening in India. You will have noticed content creators like Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani, Ranveer Allahbadia, and Prajakta Koli, interviewing filmstars and endorsing brands. Who are they? How did they get here? They are regular people who have forged unique paths to success by turning their passions into their professions. Through these stories, the readers will gain insights on: Indian Creator Ecosystem How these creators started from scratch How they achieved popularity in a highly crowded and competitive market How they identify new ideas for content creation and brand collaboration Creators Covered: Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani, Kabita Singh, Nikunj Lotia, Prajakta Koli, Ranveer Allahbadia, Madan Gowri, Team Naach, Yashraj Mukhate, Abhi and Niyu, Ujjwal Chaurasia The inspiration Though the size of the Creator economy is humongous and the available opportunities immense, the chances of creators getting lost in the crowd are higher than the chances of getting noticed. Though the market is crowded, India has seen the rise of an entirely new breed of first-generation creators who have established powerful personal brands through their content, entrepreneurial mindset, and social media. Due to their increasing popularity and credibility, they are often perceived as role models, not just by their followers, but businesses, mainstream media, and Bollywood (in itself a great Influencer). These creators have begun replacing traditional celebrities such as film stars and athletes in brand endorsements and promotions. They are even seen in web series and movies. The lessons captured in these stories will help aspiring and emerging creators build their brand in their chosen niche. The reviews The book became the Number 1 bestseller in the Entrepreneurship category on Amazon, within 24 hours of the pre-booking announcement on social media. Since then, the book has remained the Number 1 bestseller in multiple categories.
Facebook F8 (2017): Know the new #F82017
Updates from Day 1 It is all about Camera Effects, Augmented Reality and Bots Mark Zuckerberg opened with an announcement of Facebook’s Camera Effects Platform, which allows developers to build augmented reality tools for the camera to bring people together: AR is going to help us mix the digital and the physical in new ways, and make our physical lives better. They launched Facebook Spaces, social virtual reality platform. With Spaces, one can hang out with friends, teleport anywhere and do anything. Facebook is opening up ‘Messenger’ as a platform for developers. That means developers will be able to add in new functionality to Messenger — things like Giphy for on-the-fly GIF searching, goofy voice changers for voice messages, a drawing pad for doodling things up for your friends, etc. Adding more fun and Gamification and ownership. VR in the newsfeed! – Now FB will support 3D, spherical video in the newsfeed. One can pan around the video with the mouse cursor. While spherical video looks a bit strange on a flat screen, the key here is Facebook’s purchase of the Oculus Rift. Strap on a VR headset and open up a 360° spherical video, and it’s almost like one is there. They launched ‘Parse’ for ‘Internet Of Things’ — a set of SDKs (software development kit) that act as the backend brains for IoT projects. It’s compatible with Arduino first, with other platforms on the way. Updates from Day 2 Day 2 of F8 conference was all about setting the vision for the future.Facebook also stated a new goal to “create and ship new, category-defining consumer products that are social first, at scale.” New world to the way we capture images and videos will be there and it is called ‘New Surround 360 cameras’ – two new 360-degree developer cameras, the x24 and the x6, to join FB’s Surround 360 line that the company Terragraph, Aquila and Tether-tenna – Facebook is trying to connect the world to a whole new level with cutting edge developments of tools and technologies. The innovations and experiments are in the beta phase, however the company is excited about it and has kept the newness alive giving yet one more reason to be curious on what next (Tether-tenna, a small helicopter attached to a fiber line that can be flown to create a virtual tower a few hundred feet above the ground) Building 8 – Building a few awe-inspiring, if terrifying, technologies. – a “brain mouse for AR” (a silent speech interface with the speed and flexibility of voice and privacy of text) Facebook has a goal of creating a system capable of typing 100 words per minute, straight from the speech center of your brain — 5x faster than you can type on your smart phone today. Content Credits – Live Tweets from F8, techcrunch and futurefive, mashable
Digital & Social Media in India – Statistics
In this raging age of digital media, India has seen a rise in digital marketing activities and new trends in adoption of the internet for Branding & Marketing. Businesses are now increasingly spending money in online marketing services. Below are some of important statistics on digital marketing in India, which shed light on current trends. · 1 out of every 5 Indians are on the Internet – 243 Million use the Internet in India today – 64% of uses are daily users – 500 Million Indians will be on the internet by 2018 – Soon, trend analysis suggests that India might overtake the USA in total number of internet users. · 1 out of every 6 Indians is accesses the internet through mobile phones. – 220 Million Individuals use smartphone to access Internet today. Websites websites & portals have to be responsive in nature and optimised for mobiles – 92+ Million (41% of total internet users) users actively access social pages on their mobile. Digital Media marketing in India Digital Marketing is a medium that’s forcing both brands and agency to play catch up. Even before a particular aspecthas been ‘mastered’, there’s something new waiting to be explored in this field. Online buying behaviour and digital influence is increasing everyday – The online advertising market in India is about to touch Rs 2,938 Crore. – e-Commerce in India is expected to reach $24 billion (Rs 1,07,800 crores) by the year 2015 Social Media in India Facebook and WhatsApp the most widely used platforms. Daily internet users struggle to foresee their lives without these platforms. More than 88% of users share and spread content -text, picture, audio and video – on their social media platforms. Here’s how various social media platforms fare in India today – Facebook, 100 Million active users, around 80% of those access the portal via smartphones – WhatsApp, 70 million active users, it is the most actively used mobile messenger today – Twitter, 33 Million users, around 76% of which access the network through their smartphones – LinkedIn, 26 Million users, I now call it the Facebook of working professionals – Instagram, 10 Million active users, accessed by mobile, loved by youngsters who post selfies – Pinterest, 5.5 Million active, you can find an ocean of info-graphics and ideas being shared in pictorial format Which social media platform are you active on? Share your thoughts in the comment box below If you are a business, which platforms are you using to target your Indian audiences? Share your insights below. Credit for the stats – various websites, most helpful – Digital Insights Credit for the Cover Image – Digital India Pavilion