Riya Bhansali is a fashion stylist by profession but her heart lies in content creation. The Indian fashion influencer even goes so far as to confess that she enjoys content creation more than she enjoys her job as a stylist. Riya started her journey as a social media influencer when the first lockdown happened and since then, it has only been an upward journey.
Riya, aka @riyabhansalii who has almost 40K followers on Instagram, makes fashion and make up videos regularly and her goal is to reach a point where her page becomes a one stop solution for anyone who has any queries or doubts related to the world of fashion and makeup.
Long term plans
Riya only recently started her career as an influencer but she wants to be one of the top influencers of India. “I know one day my page will blow up. But until then I am just being consistent and creating content regularly. I want to build up my numbers and once I am done, I for sure would love to be a full time content creator. It takes a little time to reach a point where you have that many followers so that the brands can trust you with a product,” she says.
Riya adds that she wants to gain more followers so that she can earn her audience’s trust and also be the first choice for a brand when they think about promoting their products. The fashion influencer says, ” If anyone has any question regarding fashion or makeup, I want them to come to my page and find all the answers there. I want to be able to help people get comfortable with fashion. I don’t want to do anything extraordinary. I just want to do something that people can relate to. People should come to my page and feel like they can also pull off the styles that I am wearing. I would want to help people to try experimenting a little bit around fashion.”
No boundaries or limitations
The social media influencer is very clear about what she loves most about being a content creator and she says that the freedom she gets to creatively express herself is the best part. “There are no boundaries for me when it comes to content creation. I don’t have anyone that I have to be answerable to except for myself. As a stylist, you get a brief and you have to work according to that particular style. But when I am creating content, I can just create whatever I want to. There are no limitations for me and I love that the most,” she says.
Beyond engagement rate and follower count
The Mumbai-based Indian influencer is happy with the changes that she is seeing in the influencer industry. She says, “Brands are now noticing and paying more attention to one’s content instead of just focusing on the follower count or engagement rate. Things are changing slowly and I am very happy about that,” she says.
However, Riya admits that the industry largely functions around the number of followers one has and that bothers her. “Brands only give you a chance to work with them if you have a certain number of followers and Instagram’s algorithm is very unpredictable so it gets a little worrisome at times. One day you will get a 1,000 likes and the next day you may get only about 200 likes. And it’s the same thing with views. Some reels work and some don’t and it’s a little stressful because you wonder why is it not working. Even though the content is good, sometimes, it doesn’t reach as many people and that’s a little upsetting of course but the only thing is to keep doing it.”
Keep at it
The Instagram influencer strongly believes in the power of consistency. “I just keep posting even if I don’t get the desired results. Consistency is key in this field. The pressure some times does get to me but I just try and keep up with all the trends that are going on and make something unique within those trends by giving my own twist to it,” says Riya.
The stylist cum fashion and beauty blogger also tries her best to maintain a balance between both her passion and job. “Because I do both, it becomes a little time consuming for me. But since I love doing it, I don’t mind doing it. I have always wanted to do something in the world of fashion. And of course, I love clicking pictures of myself. Since I am always behind the camera in my work place, I had a curiosity to be in front of it at least for my personal Instagram. And I have been seeing a lot of content creators and influencers on social media, so I had the thought of trying it out myself. I started really focusing on it during the lockdown because we didn’t have much else to do. I started clicking pictures of myself. And that’s how it started. I try and create content as much as I can. When I don’t have shoots, I make as many videos as I can and click as many pictures as possible,” she signs off.
Riya is managed by Chtrbox Represent which also manages 50 other influencers from across genres like food, beauty, fitness, travel and everything social media.