Answering the question 'How many followers do you have on Instagram?' is a matter of prestige and only a few — unless you are a celebrity, influencer or run one of those cat video pages — can boast of followers in thousands. Enter Avinash Mada and his start-up IG Empires. And he knows how to get those elusive likes and followers and yet, knows how to keep it all organic. His clients, from e-commerce gurus to UK-based skincare brands like Sönd Skin, have reached up to 65,000 followers in four months — all thanks to his killer Instagram skills, which he has been putting to good use for six years now. "We first add value to the brand and then, when the brand comes to a stage of being an influencer, then we give followers an option to buy," says the youngster from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh. Not just this, replying to DMs and responding to those who comment promptly and a ton of market research are a part of the process as well. All this helps Avinash earn up to $20,000 a month!
So now that it has been established that the 19-year-old is a social media branding genius, let us tell you about one of the purposes behind IG Empires — to fund his first love and second start-up Dear Art. "This will be akin to a social networking platform but for artists and art lovers. We help artists get hired by other people and get the pay they deserve," explains Avinash who is currently pursuing his BTech from Lovely Professional University. Speaking of which, this is what Pratham Mittal, Head of New Initiatives, LPU had to say about nurturing start-ups, "Start-ups are known for innovation and we at LPU strongly welcome ideas from the young visionaries to start early. To establish a business, you need nurturing and industry exposure with the right connections. At our incubation centre, we mentor and provide funding assistance, connect them to angel investors, VCs and so on. We also link them to Silicon Valley, universities abroad and other institutions for them to adopt industry and global practices."
Unlike most youngsters with multiple start-ups, Avinash doesn't want to give up IG Empires and has big plans for Dear Art as well. In fact, "our co-founder is interacting with artists every day," says the entrepreneur.
Follow for sure
This is how IG Empires bags followers for their clients:
- Lots of market research
- Increasing brand awareness by posting informative posts and spreading it across their 20 million followers network
- Ensure captions and hashtags are engaging
- Then slowly start pitching products
