New Delhi: Tech creator and influencer Naman Deshmukh found his interest in technology and gadgets at quite a young age. From dismantling devices in order to know more about them to searching on the internet about the product, Naman made a humble start on his journey of content creation. Circumstances were such that while he was trying to balance both work and passion, the pandemic hit which made him sit back at home. Fortunately, the situation gave Naman all the more time to explore his passion.
With growing popularity, Naman decided to quit his job and pursue content creation as a full time work. Today, with a base of 2.7M followers on his Instagram handle 'TechplusGadgets', Naman is not just one of the most popular tech content creators, but as also been awrded by meta as the content cretor of the month.
In a chat with ABP Live over a video call, Naman shared his journey, discussed his secret of reaching mass audience and also spoke about how meta reached him.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
What made you begin posting videos on reearch and technology?
When I was in college, I was into technology a lot. Whenever, there was a new product in the market I had the curiosity to know about it. I didn't have much money at that time, so it was not possible to buy all the products. Hence, I used to do my research on the internet itself and tried to make videos. But, there were foreign YouTubers who used to make videos related to new smartphones and tell audience about them. That made my interest regarding technology grow more.
Which was your most famous reel that created a huge jump on your follower base?
Initially, I was focussed on YouTube along with my job and then from 1000 subscribers , we reached upto 10,000 sunscribers in four months and again within four to five months, we got 50,000 subscribers. And, after 1,00,000 subscribers I switched jobs and moved to Bangalore after which Covid hit and as a result of which I got the space and time to do what I wanted. Then, a question hit me that why am I doing my job as the payment that we were receiving from YouTube was good enough. When Instagram reels started trending, I started doing that as well. People used to comment and share, which made me realise that there are much more people here who want to see videos. This way, as the number of followers increased, I also got a few updates from Instagram as well.
Quitting your job and taking a leap in tech content creation is a huge leap. What motivated you to take such a risk?
After a certain follower-growth, it got stuck as there was not much growth. So, I decided to quit my job and take up content creation as a full time job. At that time, I decided to create content for those people also who are not so interested in tech in order to give them information about technology. As a result, that made me create videos in simple language so that everyone can understand, after which we got a huge jump in the number of followers and within 6-7 months we had a base of 1M followers on Instagram.
Nowadays, people are into phone-photography. So, according to you, out of DSLRs and mobile camera, which one is better for people who are not professional photographers?
To be honest, the two cannot be compared, as DSLR is a dedicated camera for photography but at the same time, the phone cameras have also reached a different level. People are even making films with the help of phone cameras. In fact, we are also using iphone only to make our reels. so, what I think is that if you are a short content creator, you don't require a DSLR. If you have the budget, then its fine to purchase a DSLR, but if you are a beginner, I feel that you can buy a smartphone worth maybe 50,000-60,000, which will help you both shooting as well as editing your videos.
On the other hand, if you are a professional photographer or videographer, I would suggest to go for a camera.
Did Google/Meta reach out to you for a better visibility?
Not for visibility. But, what happens is meta keeps a track of the profiles that are growing and provides managers to them in order to solve the problems. In case, you need to ask something, or facing a problem, they conduct special classes which one can attend. At that time, my videos were getting a reach of around 30-40M and so, I made a separate account on facebook and started sharing my content. What happened with facebook was that I had uploaded 30-40 videos only and we reached 1M followers, which was quite a big deal. It was then that they noticed me as whatever we did was organic, there was no ad or anything running. This made meta recognised us and they gave us a manager who told us that they have nominated us for 'Creator of the Month'. We didn't have any hopes, because there are so many creators in India itself. After a few days, we received a mail which said that I have become the creator of the month for November, 2022.
What's the craziest/weirdest enquiry you receivd from your followers?
Initially, people used to ask a lot of questions about smartphones, regarding what to buy and what not to. After that they started asking me about laptops- that around 30-40K which laptops can be bought. Recently, I have observed that questions are mostly related to AI. People ask me if there is any trick so that all my work is done automatically, or my homework gets completed on its own. This is because, I make a lot of videos regarding AI and a few of them are popular as well. There are new tools related to which I have made videos, relating to which I receive a lot of weird questions as people want that they get all their work done with the help of AI.
In terms of tech content, what is it that works the most for indian audience?
What I have realised is that you need to be extremely simple and not be in-depth in terms of technology. If you really want your content to be viewed, you have to be very simple with your words and explain people in lay man terms. You won't believe, when we write the scripts, we spend hours behind each and every word, to look for easy words which people will understand. But, if you have a dedicated niche related to maybe, hardcore gaming content- then your audience is the people who understand gaming and all, you can use technical terms. So, it depends who your target audience is.
How did you reach out to brands and get them to share their devices with you?
The first brand that came, had sent me an email first. They said that there is an earphone worth 1200, which they will be sharing with me and I had to review it. Initially, In thought it was a scam thinking why would someone send a product to me for review. When they asked for my address and phone number, I gave them for there was no harm and within 1 week I received a parcel containing the product. At that time, it was a big deal for me that a brand had sent me a product fro free.
Gradually, brands continued to approach me for collaborations and product reviews. After a point of time, I realised that even we can reach out to brands for product reviews. So, I used to arrange the PR contacts of the brands, tell them about me and ask that if they are interested, they can send me products. Some would agree, while others would not. Now, once we got connected to a brand, then you come to their list and thus the cycle goes.