During this quarantine, my best
friend and I shared local celebrity Instagram posts with each other for the
kicks of it. Some are real horrors but some actually put a lot of effort to
produce interesting content to their audience, mostly because of their massive
following. Two people that often popped
up on our Instagram explorer are Shanudrie & Dinakshie. I haven’t watched any tele drama or movie of
either of them, neither has my friend but the level of engagement they have on
their pages are impressive. Shanudrie sings, posts recipes, which look quite
good whereas Dinakshie posts dance videos, updates on gardening etc. Now what
interesting here is the level of hatred they get. So many comments on posts,
some are ridiculous to the extent that you wonder how can anyone be so jobless.
But most of these comments are from fake accounts, so clearly none of these
people have balls to say it with identity or authority. I watched a live video to
realize that they actually get filth posted, utter Sinhala filth. No one
obviously apart from their family and friends know them personally, so how can
anyone insult someone on such a personal level?
Apart from our monitoring, judging
and sharing opinions, we also realized how they keep their social media game on
point.
Being candid and giving unexpected
responses
Dinakshie gives it back, kudos to
her. Very rarely, you find anyone who posts a sassy reply to burn them off, but
she does it, speaks her mind. I haven’t seen many local artists being realistic
or genuine much. Mahela trolls fans on Twitter too in a funny way (I don’t like
him because for a whole bunch of reasons). Its mostly edited pictures, wanna be
influencers or ‘its all about themselves’ posts. Lack of authenticity is a big
NO NO today, whether you are popular or not, no one wants to read fake posts or
promoted content anymore. It is all about storytelling and giving something to
takeaway. One might argue, what can you take away watching a video of Dinakshie
dancing to a song of Kalank? Inspiration for starters. I know nothing about
dancing but I shared it with my friend who is also a dancer and told her that
she should dance it out at home too.
Being honest and intimate.
People decided that Dinakshie
posts too many pictures with Saranga. They get very vocal about it too, posting
comments on their pictures. I think everyone in life goes through a phase when
they in their relationship, newly dating or newly married, and the need to post
on social media, many newly wedded wives do, I did too. It is not to show off
your relationship nor to show the world that you are happy, just because… you
feel like it. I don’t see anything wrong. I remember the same happening to
Priyanka Chopra with her husband, India hated their desi girl marrying a
pardesi but hey it’s her life, right? Then there was this local actress who posted
pictures in her night clothes early morning with her husband, with a caption : ‘Good
Morning World’ (me and my friend thought that she looked very satisfied in the
picture, husband not so much :P) This is a different level of intimacy
altogether which any audience would not want to know.
Catering to their audience – fan engagement
!
Few things on social media, which
I noticed that these two girls keep it flowing with engagement: TikTok videos,
YouTube channel, Facebook & Instagram stories. Going live on Instagram,
posting engaging content on and off. I think despite all these haters, these girls
are on point with their social media branding, many things we all can learn
from. TikTok is not for every audience though, if you are a lawyer or a
cricketer or a lecturer : no one, NO ONE wants to watch you dancing on TikTok.
One for the road maybe, but not every week.
Not endorsing everything !
You come across influencers today
who endorse every bloody thing, and some wear free clothes everywhere and
shamelessly post it by tagging the sponsors too. Two things gone wrong here,
while you disrespect the brand, which you promote, you bring your self esteem down
too by posting about every freebee that comes your way. I think it is
important for any brand to identify an influencer who would complement their
brand and likewise. I saw an advertisement of a cricketer sleeping with a bat
on a mattress, I couldn’t stop ta-alking about itself for a long long time to
my husband who didn’t like it at all (for obvious reasons)
P.S. I remember Sanga posting
pictures of a renown designer of a female clothing brand – who we all know is his friend, so didn’t
make much sense.
Bottom line, there are many
people like me, my friend and many Sri Lankan aunties and uncles in who judge,
then bitch, then form assumptions about it. No matter how much time someone
invests on a fake post trying to be miss goody two shoes, people are going to
dis (ce ammata) you. So be authentic, be yourself (not too much if you are
weird), be spontaneous, share your mistakes, your learning curve, your journey with
you fans. Be the star you want to be, whether you are famous or not. Your honesty can create wonders and many genuine followers who
actually admire you for who you are!
Picture Credits : https://brolly.com.au/gov-news/social-media-influences-are-everywhere-these-days-including-government/
Who is this best friend?? 🤔 she can dance 💃?
ReplyDeleteP.S - nice post 👍🏼