That is something that I’ve been trying to build on. I am always engaging with them – I like all their comments, I reply to pretty much every DM. It’s crazy but it’s something that I really do enjoy, because as a marketer, I think about how nice it is to have reciprocation from a brand that you use and interact with. I just try to give back because it’s fun and it’s something that I genuinely enjoy. A lot of people say it’s easy with 1 million followers, but that’s not where I started. I started with half of that. Also, it’s never about the number of people. Even if it’s 10 people, are you connecting with those 10 people? It always comes down to that.
Haley Fraser: I’m glad there’s people out there like you making the internet a better place for women! I don’t know if you’re familiar with this, but the Havas Meaningful Brand Survey tries to figure out what brands are meaningful to customers and why. One thing that they said is that people don’t trust brands. But one thing that apparently makes people trust brands and different entities online is having them actually stand for something and backing it up.
Chi Thukral: Similarly, for BLM, when the whole incident happened – none of us are part of that community, but our hearts really broke when we saw that. As a social media manager, I do want our brand to be more global and more inclusive. So even though this was not directly related to design, and we’re not a big brand in the USA, it was an opportunity for me to show that, because we have designers from all over the world, we do support the cause. I wrote a statement, and I’m no PR expert so it came straight from the heart. I asked the CEO if he could donate to a cause and he said ‘Of course.’ And we posted a receipt of the donation because this is something we believe in and we always want to back it up. This is not something we’re doing because we want to look good online. That is never the case. So that is something that I learned – whatever you believe in, you always have to back it up, otherwise it doesn’t make a difference in anyone’s lives.
Haley Fraser: Definitely. , what would that mean for you?
Chi Thukral: Great question, because I wasn’t even on Twitter seven months ago. I’ve actually lived without Twitter all my life so if Twitter disappeared, I would just go back to living like I was seven months ago. I did connect with everyone that I care about from my Twitter on my Instagram so if it disappeared, it’s fine because I will continue to love them on other platforms!
Haley Fraser: I love that the community is multi threaded. To that homeowner database point, it sounds like not only are you building relationships but you’ve really grown this community from the ground up. What’s the best advice you’d give to somebody trying to do the same thing?
Chi Thukral: I would just say keep at it! You are not supposed to look at the numbers every day. I didn’t. When I was growing Yanko Design’s Instagram, I was never looking at the numbers. So when it actually hit 1 million, it took me a whole day to digest that. I was not tracking the follower number, I was just down doing my work and it came on its own. I started Twitter because there were so many memes on Instagram that come from Twitter. I thought that if I stayed on Twitter, I would see them first. And I always tell anybody who comes in my DMs and ask how I grew my following so quickly. I’m like, ‘You tell me. I’m tweeting the same way that I tweeted when I had zero followers.’ What I’ve always done and still do is engage with every single person. It’s getting a lot harder as more people start to follow, but I set aside time to go on my computer and open every tweet I’ve ever done and go down all of them. It’s not convenient or efficient, but I do see people like David Griner and Christina Garnett who have much larger followings than I do still go down and like everyone’s tweets and reply to people, even though it takes time.