To the moon Read online

  P is for Personality

  It has become abundantly clear over the last few years that having a brand personality in virtual reality is particularly key. Humanize yourself! It is so ironic that we created the ‘social network’ to bring the world closer together and stay connected to more people, but somewhere along the way, left our unique identities outside the web.

  I say this a lot, but find the part of your brand that feels the most human. And try to identify the feelings you will in turn evoke from those who engage with it as a result. Are you bold, daring, imaginative, adventurous, healthy, cheerful, lovable, playful? The list goes on.

  Having a brand personality makes you relatable to people. Here are a few great examples of strong and easily identifiable brand personalities (some I came up with and some from careeraddict.com), so you get what I mean:

  Nike’s personality is athletic.

  Harley Davidson is a rebel.

  Victoria’s Secret is seductive and sexy.

  Johnson & Johnson is soft spoken and caring.

  Lego is colourful and creative.

  Apple is curious and imaginative.

  Porsche is a leader and confident.

  The Discovery Channel is adventurous.

  Business Insider is intelligent and informed.

  M&Ms are fun-loving and cute.

  Don’t you like them more already?

  I like to think of MissMalini’s brand personality as friendly and optimistic. Does it show?

  The single most important way to show off your personality is with your voice. The way you communicate with the people who interact with you. All your messaging on and offline, even the look and feel of your logo. Be consistent in that or you’ll feel like a brand with a multiple personality disorder and that’s only fun if you’re Kurkure – Tedha hai, par mera hai!

  Q is for Quality

  Quality should be your number one priority. This is what will eventually cement your relationship with your consumers and make you BFFs for life. Be as diligent as you possibly can about everything you create and put out into the world.

  The only way to maintain quality is to constantly evaluate and improve yourself. The hardest part of quality control comes with expansion. Make sure that the people who join your team are as obsessed with quality and consistency as you are. Only you can set the bar for this and make it a mandate for everyone on team awesome to keep a close and critical eye on this.

  A few key factors that will play an important role in quality control are:

  Benchmarks and Goals – set your priorities and expectations.

  Process and Communication – make sure everyone is completely in sync.

  Consistency – do it and do it well, every time.

  Growth trajectory – be realistic about how you can scale without compromising on quality.

  Feedback and Evaluation – listen and improve.

  And always check your spelling!

  R is for Risky Business

  Let’s be honest. There’s always risk. But it’s worth taking to live your dream, isn’t it? The important thing is to be aware of the risks in your business and try to stay one step ahead of the game.

  Depending on your business and the market, your risks will vary and change over time. If you are aware of both the personal and professional risks, you can evaluate your situation and often mitigate the risk before it hits you like a tornado.

  I found that the best way to handle risk is by being flexible and willing to pivot when you need to. If, for instance, the risk is that you’re going to be made redundant by new technology or the fact that now people are watching more videos then reading text, expand your repertoire to service their needs so you don’t lose your consumers.

  Google throws up a great definition of successful entrepreneurs from monster.com’s career advice and it seems risk is an important part of the mix!

  ‘Nine characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, optimistic and future-oriented. They believe they’ll be successful and are willing to risk their resources in pursuit of profit. They have high energy levels and are sometimes impatient.’

  Sounds about right! And since I’m all about those quotable quotes, here’s another.

  ‘The biggest risk is not taking any risk...in a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.’ – Mark Zuckerberg

  You tell ‘em, Mark.

  S is for Snapchat

  Now here’s a great example of a social media platform that snuck up and took us by surprise. Snapchat was created in 2011 by a bunch of clever students at Stanford University and gave millennials a chance to send each other disappearing image and video messages. And therein lies the key.

  Us older millennials (or gen Y is it?) are so used to the idea that once you post something online it is there for all eternity, that disappearing photos, lost forever, makes some of us sad (#guilty). Why make the effort to post it at all if it’s gone in 10 seconds? But today the concept of disappearing content is much more alluring. I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around it, but I’m guessing the rise of sexting might have had something to do with it. Throw in various bunny filters and free hand- drawing options and you’ve got yourself a winner. The platform received such a roaring reception by millennials that other social media giants were quick to replicate the Snapchat functionality and offer the concept of fleeting ‘stories’ on Facebook and Instagram too.

  Can you believe this was originally part of a class project and initially named ‘Picaboo’? With one sole mission – to create a selfie app for self-deleting, often explicit images with a very short shelf life. Well played Evan Spiegel, that’s how you become CEO of a 30-billion-dollar company and marry a Victoria’s Secret model.

  Oh, Snap.

  T is for Twitter

  I have always amused myself with the thought that if only the creators of the Tweety Bird cartoon back in 1942 had known, the Twitter bird might well be yellow today!

  I joined Twitter in 2008 and didn’t use it much for almost a year when suddenly it became the central hub for virtual conversations with celebrities and as I mentioned, the very beginning of my social media career.

  RISHI JAITLY

  Former Twitter India Head

  When I first arrived in Mumbai, in 2012, to set up and expand Twitter’s presence across India and Asia, job #1 was to immerse myself in people, ideas and culture. And Malini immediately stood out. In fact, she represented what I and many aspired for: entrepreneurial, fast-paced and millennial, to be sure, but also trusted, insightful and availing a natural gravitas across institutions that matter. Malini quickly became a hub for Twitter’s early efforts to immerse in the Zeitgeist of India. From our earliest hotel-lobby rap sessions to her well-deserved recognition as one of India’s most influential leaders, I’m so inspired by her journey.

  By the way, I think it’s funny that Twitter was almost called ‘Friendstalker’ (which, let’s be honest is a pretty accurate way of putting it) but Twitter management decided that might sound a little ‘creepy’. (You think?) They also vetoed the options ‘Twich’, ‘Twicher’ and ‘Jitter’ before we got Twitter, because the happy bird chirping analogy seemed a lot less serial killer-ish. Did you know by the way that the blue Twitter bird also has a name? His name is Larry, named after the NBA player ‘Larry Bird’.

  The very first Tweet was sent on 22 March 2006 by Jack Dorsey.

  And there’s been no looking back since. Twitter has become the 280-character window to an epic world full of news, gossip, jokes, fan clubs, drama, death, outrage, and everything else that plagues or delights the human conscience.

  There came a time in my life where before I checked my messages I would check my Twitter feed. (I just realized that was also when I had a Blackberry. Wow.) And so, for a large part, a lot of the days ‘breaking news’ reached me via short little virtual telegrams. But Twitter causes chaos too, especially in the form of RIP or f
ake death tweets. Come to think of it, ‘RIP’ tweets are so rampant that they cause a trending swarm within seconds of the news breaking that someone has passed away. In some cases, fake deaths have created major chaos, with Tweeters killing off everyone from Shah Rukh Khan to Barack Obama.

  User Experience (UX & UI)

  (If you’ve always wondered by the way, UX stands for User Experience and UI for User Interface.)

  When it comes to any brand – digital or not, user experience is everything. This is also your opportunity to shine. The two most important factors of the user experience on a blog for instance, are content and navigation. How your visitors discover and navigate your world will determine how long they spend in it. If someone is clicking through from social media, ask yourself – are there enough clear and enticing places for them to go further down the rabbit hole? Or are they likely to ‘bounce’ after they watch one video or read one blog?

  Check, are your images the right resolution? (My number one pet peeve is skewed or pixelated images, if you can’t get that right you need to go back to Photoshop 101.) Do your posts have punctuation and language errors? I mean everyone makes a typo now and again (and I BET someone’s going to find one in this book and troll the F out of me for it)! But there is absolutely ZERO explanation for consciously putting extra spaces after commas and before full stops or exclamation marks! This for instance would drive me crazy and rattle my OCD bones, ‘Welcome to my blog, I love fashion, don’t you ?!’ Nada. Nein. Don’t do it.

  The Interaction Design Foundation has broken down the 5 most important elements of the user experience into:

  Usefulness of the Website

  Adherence to Functionality

  Usability

  Influence

  Visual Design

  And while these are all quite self-explanatory, the one I feel makes a world of a difference is visual design. We are intrinsically visual people. If we like what we see, we are drawn to it. Make your packaging pretty and you’ve won half the battle, the rest of your concern is this; how to really test the user experience. I say put yourself in the users’ shoes while you beta test your product. Be objective and be brutal. Essentially ask yourself the question put so well by the Interaction Design Foundation, ‘Does it do what the label says?’

  V is for Value Proposition

  First up, what is a value proposition? Investopedia defines a value proposition as ‘a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement convinces a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.’1

  Basically, why pick me?

  We consider our value proposition high quality entertainment, across platforms, using a unique voice that connects with people in a positive manner. For us that means paying extra attention to visual design, the quality of content and ease of navigation. And since we offer a positive experience, we always run this check before we post anything. Would I say this to someone’s face? If not, it’s not going on the blog.

  I think because of that benchmark our relationships have blossomed into one of trust and good energy, resulting in access to content that nobody else gets. Access inside celebrity homes and hearts in a world where most stars are hyper-wary of the press. (As you will see in blog #37!)

  I know it is easy to accuse someone who is intrinsically positive about most things of being a ‘sell out’ or sucking up to the industry. But I’ll tell you this; I have found it abundantly more satisfying to feature the things we love and give no spotlight to the things we don’t. That way we’re sieving out the subpar content that you shouldn’t be wasting your time on anyway and giving you just what you love about Bollywood and in turn dropping the negativity.

  I have always loved Bollywood. It represents a dream, a hope, an alternate universe if you will. And the reason people love to see what their favourite Bollywood stars wear, what they eat, who they date, where they go is because it is simply an extension of that dream.

  The value we bring is a whole new perspective of the industry. A chance to get a fly-on-the-wall perspective and watch Shah Rukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan play charades at the press junket of Happy New Year (there’s a video on my blog!), or take a vlogging tour of Kangana Ranaut’s house, which she has proudly decorated and curated with her favourite furniture and art. Or catch Ranbir Kapoor feeding Karan Johar chips off his plate between interviews in Goa, or playing ‘what’s on your phone’ with Deepika Padukone and one day (hopefully) going bowling with Ranveer Singh.

  And the best part? You’re only ever one tweet away from your favourite celebrities because your digital BFF reads your messages and relays them too! Every time we do a #CelebrityLoveFest blog we print out as many of your messages as we can and hand them to the stars. The smiles on their faces say it all, they love your love as much as YOU love loving them! Now isn’t that heaps better than criticizing someone ad nauseam? Besides I like the fact that we choose to spotlight the voices that spread love and positivity and drown the ones that troll and hate. #goodbyeinternetbully

  On MissMalini.com, and all our extension properties, like TV and digital radio you will see and hear celebrities like you’ve never witnessed them before and you’ll do it from a happy place. I can promise you that! #likeyouveneverseenthembefore

  W is for WordPress

  For bloggers, the most important ‘step one’ is finding a blogging platform you are comfortable with and that suits your needs. We to this day use WordPress because it offers all the tools and ease of use for a multi-blogger outfit and is highly customizable – perfect for a professional blog. I also find the interface highly intuitive and bug free. It is in fact the most popular blogging platform out there and powers more than 25 per cent of the entire web, that means one in four websites is built on WordPress! In fact, their homepage claims they’re powering 28 per cent of the internet and that’s a pretty astounding figure; they’re clearly doing something right!

  Having said that there are several other blogging platforms out there you can use if you’re looking to start a blog of your own. The top eight are WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Medium, Ghost, Squarespace and Wix. I’ve heard good things about Druple too.

  X Is for X-Factor

  I keep coming back to this because it plays such a critical role in your brand identity. Let’s assume your business or content isn’t something exactly path-breaking. Chances are there are other kids in your class and on the playground. So, what gives you that je ne sais quoi? What sets you apart from the pack?

  Very often it’s something as simple as visual identity, other times it’s your process or the kind of people you hire. Maybe it’s your values and how you have enabled everyone in the company to adhere to them. It could be a number of things…

  I believe that for MissMalini our X-Factor is that we built a brand from one voice that has now evolved and expanded into many voices and channels creating content for the millennial by the millennial. But that first voice that could reach out and connect to people is forever ingrained into the DNA of the company. MissMalini is a name I call myself. And the running joke is that, ‘Oh MissMalini, you’re married now so shouldn’t you rename your blog MrsMalini?’ Haha, very original and for the hundreds of times I’ve heard it and attempted to laugh as if it was the first time anybody cracked that joke, I have finally developed a personal understanding of our evolution, that I can use as a response.

  Yes, my name is Malini and I will probably always be referred to as ‘MissMalini’ for the rest of my life. I’m quite okay with that, to be honest I love it. It means my brand has stuck. But to be honest MissMalini is all grown up now (or at least she likes to think so) and become Malini Agarwal. A #bosslady that built a brand from a blog and is sitting here writing this book.

  Who is MissMalini now? I believe MissMalini represents the Pied Piper of the droves of young Indian bloggers, influencers and YouTubers th
at are growing in numbers at an exponential rate. I am proud to say that MissMalini paved the way in an industry that didn’t exist in India back in 2008 and stands for young digital creators who have found a way to express themselves and flourish in a way they probably never thought was possible when they were in school or college; wondering where their degrees in science, engineering or the arts would take them.

  In fact, we recently on-boarded a young law student to write for our nightlife partner King of Clubs. Ameya Chaudhari is in his final year of law school, but his affinity for men’s fashion and lifestyle has brought him here. Ask him why he made the leap and he says, ‘I realized it’s very important to do what you love and not what you’re supposed to do, or asked to do, or expected to do! Do what makes you happy, do something you don’t mind waiting back in Office for, do something that doesn’t make working on weekends feel like a punishment, do something that you look forward to when you wake up every morning. I think this is the key to being successful in life and more importantly to be able to live happy and satisfied life. Fashion is that “something” for me, and I realized this when I was scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram instead of drafting an affidavit for a client.’

  And it’s not just the millennial that’s making this leap. Rij Eappen, who runs King of Clubs jumped ship to become a nightlife and fashion influencer at the age of forty-one.

  RIJ EAPPEN

  King of Clubs – Fashion & Lifestyle Influencer

  I’ve known Malini from when she was still in her RJ avatar, before she added the ‘Miss’ to her name and created a digital marketing revolution in India. She and her merry band of friends, from her offline social network, Friday Club (which was brilliant) used to be regulars at my bar, and her enthusiasm would fill the room. The brilliance about the MissMalini brand is the way in which it was created, as a reflection of herself, an extension of a person who lives her online life exactly the way she lives it offline, with genuine interest in people, their stories and bringing a little sunshine to everybody’s life.