Sharan Hegde shares nuances of being a “finfluencer” in the crowded content world
In a recent conversation with YourStory’s Infuencers Inc, Sharan Hegde, who runs Finance with Sharan, talks about his journey in the content world and the process of creation in the “Finfluencer” space.
There’s a whole new genre of influencers in the ever-evolving content creation world — “Finfluencers”, the finance influencers who educate their audience about various topics such as — investment, mutual funds, NFTs, etc.
Sharan Hegde, whose Instagram handle — Finance with Sharan — has 1.5 million followers, is one of the most popular finfluencers on the internet today. Besides making short-form content on social media regarding basic finance topics, Sharan is a former management consultant and an angel investor.
While speaking about his journey, Sharan says that he started creating content on the internet at the peak of the global pandemic.
“Once the lockdown happened, I had a lot of free time in my hands and my consumption of content significantly increased so I was inspired by a lot of content creators to start my own content in the personal finance space,” he says. His idea was to put out the “right kind of content” which would benefit people.
Sharan Hegde
Sharan shares that as a finance influencer, he has an important responsibility — to put the correct information out there. In order to achieve the highest accuracy, Sharan cross verifies his content across multiple sources along with doing his own research. Additionally, he has a team of content researchers to check the content in order to put out high-quality content.
He also responds to queries in his comments section as he believes interacting with the audience is a very important part of the process. “I spend at least 2-3 hours every day responding to everybody’s queries,” he says.
He adds that, in accordance with the guidelines posted by SEBI, he does not provide financial advice to his audience as he is not licensed for that.
Recently, Sharan launched his own NFT, which was sold at Rs 65,000. Speaking about the story, he says that his primary motive was to educate his audience about NFTs and their application. His NFT, which was his signature outro in an animated form, had the added incentive of collaborating with Sharan on his Instagram platform.
In terms of future roadmaps, Sharan says his current focus is on creating short-form content and eventually, he plans to go into long-form content. He is also planning to launch his course on personal finance to give additional benefits to his audience.
“I have recently ventured into TV advertisements,” he signs off.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta