According to a 2019 Nielsen report, The Man in the Mirror, the size of the male grooming market in urban India is almost INR 5000 crores. The report states that there has been a steady growth in the male grooming segment over the years, with the current year delivering a double-digit value growth of 12.3% vs. last year.

But how does one go about become a legit brand or an influencer? There’s no easy way out. Looking for a quick fix, many budding influencers turn to websites that offer you followers that you can buy. Do they help?

“Not at all. I made the mistake of giving myself a boost two years ago and I’ve been very vocal about it because I want people to know that it’s one of the biggest mistakes they can make. Immediately after the period of the boost is over, you see a drastic drop in all numbers – followers, engagement, reach. And now that I’ve finally managed to reach equilibrium, I have seen my numbers become 3x or even 5x on days,” says Tejeshwar Sandhoo whose Instagram page (@blueberryblackout) has over 90,000 followers.

Influencer Sayan Bakshi who has over 2,94,000 followers on the app agrees with Sandhoo. “It might be a sudden gust of happiness and feeling all famous when you see a sudden rise of followers on your profile. But one thing to be understood is, those numbers won’t last. You are bound to see a drop. So, I would rather suggest to organically grow. Its been over four years since I’ve been working on my brand and I’m still at a number which I had expected to be more. But the idea is always to reach the correct people, and correct people to follow you; because at the end of the day, we need to sustain them as our followers, so we have to work constantly on the content to keep them entertained and motivated enough to continue following you,” he says.

So, what are budding influencers to do? Bakshi has a formula that he has used to grow his follower base.

“I have always believed in the CCC formula since the beginning of my blogging career. To be precise, its Confidence, Content, and Contacts. Firstly, know your genre, and what kind of content is you are best at creating.  The content is the king, as they always say! And it’s true. Plan your content first, and work towards it to make it the best and unique and with a personal touch. Hashtags play a vital role when it comes to social media. Get to know which hashtags work the best for that particular post, have your personalised hashtags and use them along with the generic ones. Hashtags help you reach newer people and make them follow you,” he says.

Viraj Sheth is a young entrepreneur who is also the co-founder of Monk Entertainment or Monk-E which is a creative digital media organization that works with influencers like Ranveer Allahbadia and Nick aka BeYouNick.

“My suggestion to all budding influencers would be to first understand and focus on their genre of content. Starting your content journey with a core genre/niche is very important. Audiences are attracted to two things: new, interesting content, and the personality of the content creator. If they feel you are creating something they haven’t already seen before or you’re presenting something in your own unique way, they will stick through with you and come back for more videos,” he says.

According to Sheth, two kinds of posts get the most shares: you either make something extremely relatable which is also usually funny or you make something very motivational that lifts up spirits. As far as interaction goes, the best way to get your followers to interact or comment on your posts is to always ask them an open-ended question.

Here are the tips that Yashwardhan Bhatter who has worked with over 50 brands and has a following of over 61,000 followers would give all budding influencers:

 

• Try different formats of content.
  

   

  It’s a fact that people tend to share relatable content.
  

   

  Instead of sharing a picture of you flexing your biceps, share a relatable gym moment, or workout quotes.

 

• Keep your captions short and use a call-to-action.
  

   

  At the beginning of your journey, keep your captions short because followers tend to not click on “more”. A call-to-action could be a simple question like “Have you ever tried this?” or “Tag your friends who need to see this” or “Drop a 💯 if you agree”