Buzzing about Bieber

Justin Bieber’s visit to India as a part of his Purpose World Tour was long overdue. And, when the pop star announced that he would finally be making it to Mumbai, fans all over the country couldn’t contain their excitement. Now that the concert date is here, it isn’t just Justin’s stardust that is enveloping the city, keeping the fans excited. A part of this excitement surrounding the concert is generated by social media influencers around the city.

Running the fashion blog The Dapper Label, Usaamah Siddique, started generating posts around the concert over three weeks before the concert date. “To get the pre-concert buzz going on,” he says. The young blogger, who posts fashion content for men, says he has always been a fan of the pop star. “He is so young and has achieved so much more than an average guy his age — it is inspiring.” So how exactly did Usaamah help promote the concert?

With close to 36,000 followers on Instagram, the blogger didn’t directly post content on his website marketing the show. Instead, he partnered with the clothing partners of the concert. “I didn’t directly ask my followers to go for the concert. I did something for the clothing partners of the concert — Only & Sons,” he recalls. And in return, Usaamah received the concert kit.

Usaamah isn’t the only one to have uploaded promotional content. Santoshi Shetty, who runs the extremely popular fashion blog, The Style Edge, was approached by a brand to promote the show on her blog. “I didn’t buy the tickets myself. I was approached by the brand I was working with on other projects for my blog,” she says. The fashion blogger-turned-model points out that one of the reasons influencers end up promoting the cause is because of the shared target audiences. “My followers are of the same age group as Justin Beiber’s — in fact, his audience might also be younger than the one I cater to,” she explains.

Another Instagram blogger, Larissa D’Sa, admits that the mutual target audience makes it easier for brands to promote their products via influencers. “Justin connects to the young audience by writing songs on things such as heartbreaks, rejection, love, and so on. The audience that listens to these songs is the audience that visits my blog,” she says.

Santoshi elaborates on the social media strategy behind her promotions, “I promoted the event on social media through Benetton, their social partner, and Whitefox. I also wrote a blog post on what one could wear for the concert. For Benetton, I am doing some event coverage through my Snapchat and Instagram profile. For Whitefox and OnlyIndia, their clothing partners, I was part of organising an online competition, where participants were given a chance to win free tickets.”

Shereen Sikka Bharwani of Love and Other Bugs, isn’t going for the concert because of how far the venue is. But, has promoted the show purely for the love of music. “I received the Justin Bieber kit a while ago, but didn’t post anything as brand deliverables — I did so solely for my love of his music,” she concludes.

— Inputs from Meenketan Jha