@raokrishna of @DNA was working on a story called “Tweets, Likes or Dhokha” and I was quoted in the story as a social media influencer. The story was published on 10th February, 2013.
You can click on the image below to view a larger version that is readable or you can Download a PDF of the page from the DNA Edition. Or you can even view the story on the DNA Website.
A nice debate got going on Twitter after the link to the story was posted. Disclosure, paid / unpaid, what good is a social media influencer to a brand anyway, etc.
On this blog, I have a category called “Client Assignments“, which has posts that originated from either one of the following :
1. A photography assignment that I was paid for, which I then blogged about – mainly to promote my portfolio. For example the Royal Salute Maharaja of Jodhpur Diamond Jubilee Cup blog posts.
2. The client gives me a returnable / non-returnable product of value to review, I review it and write a blog post regardless of whether it’s a positive / negative review. For example the Adobe CS 6 blog posts.
I am considering creating a category called “Sponsored Content” as well and I then intend to change the “Client Assignments” category to “Photography Assignments”. If 2013 is any indication, there is going to be a lot of both.
There’s always going to be stories about things I love, rotten fruits and travel and self-portraits and beautiful things. If a brand treats me like an entrepreneur who is bringing more credibility and recall to their products and creates a budget for those activities, it does not mean I will write what they want me to in terms of my opinion – if the product is not built well, social media will only destroy it whether paid or otherwise.
The way I see it, I’m being paid for the following:
1. My time
2. The exposure my social media presence provides : via this blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
3. My skill with the camera and post-production
4. My professionalism
If you are a brand and you have a budget for marketing your products on social media in an intelligent, curated and customized fashion, ask me to send you a campaign pitch / plan by emailing me on [email protected]
