23-year-old Sejal Kumar shows how to be a YouTube influencer

Sejal comes across as a girl-next-door, who probably went to your commerce college. Before you write her off with that definition, YouTube her. The lifestyle YouTuber has a subscriber base of more than eight lakh, and is a first-generation lifestyle ‘influencer’ in India.

The 23-year-old started off when being an influencer on YouTube wasn’t taken seriously as a profession at home, or in the board rooms of lifestyle companies. Today, she endorses Lifestyle and Samsung India.

From her first ‘style on a budget’ video to a full-fledged business – Sejal shares her secrets.

This is a video interview with Sejal Kumar at her residence.

YourStory: Sejal, tell us - how did you get eight lakh subscribers on YouTube?

Sejal: I think, for me, three things have really worked out - the first one is content, good quality content. I tried to make sure that each video I made was better than the last.

The second thing was being consistent. So, I’ve tried to post twice a week for as long as I can. You will see a consistent theme - colours in my videos, in my setup, the music I use… It gives my videos a certain recall value. My viewers will be like, ‘yeh toh Sejal ka video hai!’

The third, is communicating with my viewers. So, through social media or the community tab on YouTube, I keep updating them… if there’s anything going on in my life, or even asking them for suggestions on what videos they want to see; that also helps a lot.

YS: How was it to record your first YouTube video?

SK: Before I left for an exchange programme to Turkey, I had an urge to do something. I convinced my parents to get me a camera, and made plans to go record a video somehow. I planned to do a basic ‘Summer Style in Turkey’ video. When I look back, it didn’t turn out that bad.

YS: How many views on the first video?

SK: I tracked it... persistently, actually. I got 1,000 views in a week, and was pretty happy about it. And, I had 22 subscribers!

YS: So, how did you turn it from one video to a business?

SK: I think being from a commerce college - I was from SRCC - everyone around me was very business-minded. So, I was conditioned to think business first.

My YouTube business needed to serve me financially. Of course, I do keep content as a priority, but make sure that I’m able to generate enough revenue so I can invest it back into my videos.

YS: Okay. How did you build your community?

SK: I took it slowly. It was difficult to manage with college work. I would post, say, one video in two to three months.

I thought, this is something I really like; maybe, I should prioritise it. I was interning, and after my internship, my seniors told me to work on my YouTube channel. They had seen it, and because someone who I looked up to believed in my channel, I thought I should give it a shot.

YS: Is being a YouTuber your profession?

SK: Oh yeah, of course. Now, this is the only thing I do.

YS: Is it true that YouTube stars are paid well and YouTube is a lucrative business platform?

SK: It completely depends on how a particular creator looks at what they are doing. I think YouTube can be a very lucrative business. It’s a matter of ‘can you look at our videos and content as a product and take it to the next level’ - how you market and sell your channel, how you want to scale up. For example, All India Bakchod (AIB) has taken a small channel to the next level.

YS: Who are your audiences?

Sejal: My audience demographic is 87 percent female. I have a large chunk of my audience from south India. Mostly, women in the ages of 18-24 years, or maybe 15-35 years.

YS: How does your day, week look like?

Sejal: I don’t take any days off. I’ve been trying to take a day off a week since the last one year, but it’s just not happening. It’s actually my goal to take one chutti a week from now on.

I don’t really feel it though, because you’re so involved in what you do and you feel so much... ki pata nahi chalta hai. So, it’s okay. I work really hard and being a little smart about how to generate revenue and having good relations with people helped me figure out how I can monetise my work. 

YS: How do you negotiate your commercial collaborations?

SK: I’ve been learning over the years. When I had a thousand subscribers... I got an email from Lifestyle. It was a pretty big deal actually. I was surprised that they were emailing me.

My parents, my brother, told me to deal with it professionally, and be clear that I bring in some value on the table.

YS: Brands first, or audiences first?

SK: Definitely, audiences first. I make sure that I only work on a brand project that makes sense for the content I’m doing. I know it’s something that my audiences would enjoy too. So, I concentrate on making good content that my audiences will love. If the engagement is good, more people will subscribe.

YS: Do you reply to every YouTube comment?

SK: I can’t, and I don’t want to employ someone to do it for me. But, I do try and use a lot of YouTube tools to highlight a comment that I feel reflects the overall vibe of the brand.

YS: A blogger or an influencer - what do you call yourself?

SK: I call myself a content creator, and I happen to create content on YouTube, and also am an entrepreneur.