Social Media Growth

In the summer of 2022, I started an entrepreneurial project to build a social media platform and gain 100,000 followers. I applied concepts primarily for business growth to deeply understand the field (in this case, trends, algorithms, and my audience), by identifying pain points, creating personas and audience journey maps, and testing and implementing different content strategies. By collecting data from ethnographic interviews, SEO data, and my platforms’ analytics and strategizing content plans, I was able to overshoot my goal and reach 300,000 followers on TikTok and 60,000 on Instagram. By treating my brand as a company, I built an entrepreneurial, cross-platform persona.

Areas applied: Brand Strategy, User-centric Research and Strategy, Market Analysis

Growth Framework

Research and Strategy Process

01

Identify Audience

To build a persona from scratch, I first understood who was watching my videos. By utilizing analytical methods such as creating audience personae, stakeholder matrices, and consumer (audience) journey maps using platform data and interviews, I was able to identify my core audience to be primarily second generation Desi dancers and less obviously, non-Desi millennials with a passion for culture.

02

Identifying “Why”

The next question I asked was why these were my primary audiences. By reading comments, analyzing engagement rates, and most importantly, testing my own content and seeing what types of videos attracted these segments, I inferred that audiences consume my content to

1) inspire them to rediscover dance

2) explore a new culture

and started creating videos with more depth.

03

Expanding Niche

By considering my audience segments’ needs and the existing “gap” (or lack of content) in the market, I solidified my video format while keeping room for expansion. In addition to constantly iterating my content, I noted other creators in my field, i.e. desi dancers, and those adjacent to my field, i.e. actors, POV creators, culture ambassadors, and reiterated a range of video formats into my expertise, Indian dance.

Result

As a result, I have successfully created a profile the represents my character, expertise, and creativity, and I have created a brand promise/statement, or in this case, a personal statement, on my content and presence online. By applying business and strategy concepts in a creative setting, I have been able to use a similar framework successfully in other roles.

Brand Campaigns

Having created cross platform campaigns for products in various industries including beauty, technology, books, and food items, I have solidified my approach in working with brands to increase conversion rates and outreach efforts. I analyze SEO data, trends, and platform data to curate videos for my audience and weave a narrative that is both compelling and educational in accordance to the product. I complete all aspects of campaign creation including pitching, copy writing, research, shooting, and editing.

Areas applied: Campaign Strategy, Copywriting, Content Creation

@naomi.nambo

This song hits too hard… esp filming alone 🥸 but tbh the OBSBOT Me tripod saved me lolol Tripod: @obsbot Song: @we_fiftyfiifty #OBSBOT #obsbot_me #tripod #dance #indian #choreography #indiandance #expression #cupid #fusion #culture

♬ cupid twin version – ⟡ TRACYTRACKS ⟡

OBSPOT Tripod

At the time of the video, the Fifty Fifty song, “Cupid” had become immensely popular. Naomi leveraged this trend and choreographed a semi classical dance to showcase the tracking abilities of the tripod.

Wear Felicity

The brand wanted Naomi to emphasize the photo in the bracelet. Naomi realized many videos on nostalgia were particularly reaching high engagement levels and she wrote a script that followed the idea of childhood memories, but with a twist that relates to artists and individuals in general.

@naomi.nambo

Ik the tshirt is backwards but I’m still bilingual 🥸 (Amazing Spice t-shirt: @tuindian) #malayalam #hindi #southindian #indian #desi #southasian #language #culture

♬ original sound – hxncho.laflame

TUI Spice Shirt

Language plays a large part in many people’s lives, and Naomi centered a comedy video on miscommunication in cultures surrounding language to promote the language-based shirt.