India’s influencers confront a harsh reality: more views don’t mean more subscribers

As attention span shrinks rapidly, influencers have just a few seconds to hook viewers. And they are doing just that - splitting the content into 60-90 second clipping, each with a “What Next“ at the end of the video to pique viewer interest. This comes at a time when influencers are facing the challenge of viewers doomscrolling for hours, but not following their accounts, prompting them to experiment with a number of strategies to boost their follower count.

Take Raunaq Sahni, alias Monkey Magic, a travel influencer whose subscriber base grew about 82 times from 12.2 thousand to 10 lakh in two months and he topped global charts as the world’s fastest-growing YouTuber for a couple of days in July 2022. The secret sauce to this success? A series of short videos he created through 100 days of his solo backpacking trip across India.

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“I started my channel in 2015 and was casually posting content while working. However, in 2022, I decided to quit my job and pursue content creation full time. But I knew that I had to scale to depend on this occupation financially, and that is when I decided to use all my savings to make a travel series that instantly became a hit," Sahni told Mint. “Making content into serialised shorter clips with a 'what next' ending, rather than a long-form video works very well. People don’t just casually watch it once and move on, they get invested in your journey and follow through," he added.

Standing out in a crowded space

In a content space where creators get an opportunity to exposure through doomscrolling, the struggle to convert those views into subscribers is real.

“It is very difficult to get people to follow you because the content space is very crowded. With over 4.5 million influencers in India alone, creators compete with each other to get the viewer’s attention and following," said Piyush Agrawal, co-founder at CREATE, an influencer management agency. “As the value of the social media users’ follow rises, an influencer has to impress them at five to ten times with their content or incentivise them by schemes like giveaways, contests, etc. to follow," Agrawal added.

This means that the first few seconds of the reel are crucial for grabbing the viewers' attention, otherwise, they may lose interest and move to the next video.

“The first 3-5 seconds make or break your video. If you have a strong hook that manages to capture the viewers attention, it is likely that they will watch the video till the end and follow you if they like your content," said Ayyaz Ahmed, a lifestyle influencer with over 1.5 lakh followers on Instagram.

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In September 2024, Ahmed posted a video starting with “5:30 baje uthke aisa kya ukhad loge?" (Translation: what will you gain out of waking up at 5:30) a hook that made his video go viral and gained him close to 25,000 followers in about a week’s time.

Playing the algorithm

Another strategy working well in favour of creators is working in collaboration with each other to share the access to each other’s follower base to get a chance to gain more subscribers.

"Collaborating with other creators helps unlock different narratives, as each one’s style is unique," said Ishpreet Balbir, a storytelling creator with over 2.25 lakh instagram followers. He added that it allows creators to showcase their work to an audience that may not know you or typically engage with your style of content on the platform.

However, Balbir stressed that the growth in followers tends to be gradual, as it requires multiple forms of exposure before someone decides to check out your work and hit the follow button. "The challenge lies in seamlessly integrating the other creator's voice while maintaining your own," he said.

Balbir posted a series - 'Ishi ki Khushi' - with creator Khushbu Chandarana who primarily has a Gujarati audience, which also featured actor Imran Khan. The videos posted between May and September 2024 reached over 5.6 million viewers, and he gained about 6,000 new followers in that duration.

Creating videos on hot topics and trends also helps get more views than usual. “Creating topical videos really helps in getting more views. If you make videos on a trending topic, it often gives you 2-3 times more reach than a normal video," said Kunal Chhabhria, co-founder of talent management agency CollabX Entertainment.

Creators have to use it to their advantage and give it a unique touch so the audience sticks around for more of their content.

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“When something is trending, people keep seeing the same kind of content again and again, so they start skipping it. But when they see something different and more fun, they enjoy it more and engage with it. This helps the video get more views and reach compared to a regular reel," Chhabhria said, giving examples of creators such as Ashish Chanchlani and Orange Juice Gang who have mastered this trick. “They bring innovation to trending topics, which works well," he concluded.

Apart from this, creators do look at shortcuts to boost followers such as giveaways and contests. However, that may not be the most authentic and sustainable ways to grow.

“Creators often incentivise viewers to subscribe by contests and giveaways to gain quick followers. However, such shortcuts aren't the most viable ways for long-term growth. The creator has to focus on building a loyal audience who follows them for their content. This they can do by engaging with them regularly, through live sessions, question and answer sessions and community channels," Sahni added.