Tamil content creators and social media marketers decode the power of vernacular content

Simple, educational videos in vernacular languages can help aspiring entrepreneurs scale their business, according to successful entrepreneurs and social media marketers from Tamil Nadu.

At the third edition of Tamil Nadu Story, YourStory's flagship event in the state, Sakthivel Pannerselvam, guerrilla marketer and author; Suresh Radhakrishnan, Founder & CEO of edtech startup Mypreneur; and Dharaneetharan GD, Founder & CEO of digital marketing agency Social Eagle and Founder of training and coaching firm 21DC Community, decoded the groundbreaking power of online content for aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Sharing valuable wisdom on how to make a breakthrough in the content creation space, the trio said small issues such as how to file GST' or how to gain following often hinder small businesses from taking off. They reiterated that simple, educational videos in vernacular languages can help aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those from small towns, who struggle to scale their businesses.

“Our journey started with a meeting we had after the first lockdown in 2020. We were all running offline businesses until then and were brainstorming on ways to survive the pandemic,” said Pannerselvam, who is also the 'Chief Surprise Ninja' of surprise planning firm the6.in.

“I had already executed 25 guerilla marketing campaigns and another 100 were lined up. I knew nothing but marketing, which was the first thing  companies cut out after the pandemic," he said, at a panel discussion titled 'Beyond the 'Kolly': Building thriving vernacular content businesses',

But Sakthivel did what he knew best by announcing a '365 days of marketing challenge', a knowledge sharing video series, which worked out for him and kickstarted his journey into the content generation space. This new style of online engagement has earned him 260k followers on Instagram and impacted over 7,000 entrepreneurs.

Radhakrishnan, who has over 18 years of experience in IT, hospitality and training, and the food industry, launched Chai Kanth, a tea outlet chain in 2016, and later went on to train close to 40,000 people. Till date, he has aided the launch of more than 500 tea outlets.

“The failures I went through, from location selection to designing the menu and finding a business model, pushed me to share my knowledge with others who would be in similar positions,” said Radhakrishnan. He said that, at the time he was dabbling with the idea of business coaching on Instagram, the platform was mostly dominated by lifestyle content.

“With Sakthi’s help, we started creating simple, easily understandable content to help foodpreneurs, and they eventually became a trusted client base for us,” he added. 

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Talking about the importance of identifying a market closer to home, Dharaneetharan, who hails from the town of Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, said he found a “raw and untapped” market in the state for social media marketing and training.   

Dharaneetharan started 21DC Community during the first pandemic as a platform that coaches people to forge the mindset and discipline required for entrepreneurship.

“It was a result of my own painful process of learning the ropes of business without English fluency or exposure,” he said.

“The marketing opportunities that Meta once gave us have now become available and a lot more promising on Instagram and YouTube. My aim has been to tap into the potential of these platforms to take my learnings to people,” said Dharaneetharan.

“I have seen that when you put out concise, authentic content, you become credible and followers find you organically,” he said.

(The copy was updated to correct a number.)