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@WeAreMumbai: Changing Mumbai's social media landscape with rotational curated accounts

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If you are an avid Twitterati or are glued to different social media platforms, you must be familiar with the concept of curated rotational accounts. Rotational accounts assign the role of curator to social media junkies, influencers or anyone interested to handle account for a span of one week or more. And the first account that comes to mind when rotational accounts are spoken of in India is @WeAreMumbai. Started by social media ninja Karan Joshi, the platform reaches out to more than 26,000 Mumbaikars on topics pertaining to food, travelling, literature etc. And the best part of this handle is the added socially relevant tweets that help spread word about different issues. 

For example, WeAreMumbai curators tweet about blood donation, requirements etc and connect people through a large database of followers. When the recent Kashmir floods ravaged the state and displaced many, people tweeted at the handle to spread the word and seek help. Hence, the future looks like an amalgamation of social media and socially driven causes of impact and handles of RoCur accounts that will come to the forefront. 

Below is a small interview with the man who started @WeAreMumbai — Karan Joshi. 

Please tell us in brief about WeAreMumbai! How did you ideate the entire project?

Its quite a long story. I started WeAreMumbai when I was 20. I had graduated and joined a Digital/Social Media agency. One day, I had a fight with my boss and he said that I wasn't meant for the digital world. "I can't do anything on social," was what he said. Post this, I quit my job and went home. While on my way home in a local train, I thought of registering the account named 'WeAreMumbai' out of mere frustration and anger. I wanted to prove him wrong and do something on social. Twitter was catching up in India at that point of time (2 years ago). Then, after a few days, I gave thought to it — What can I do for my city? How can I be different and build a community where everyone can keep their opinion and share their love for the city. I thought about taking inspiration from @sweden and starting something similar in India wherein each week a new person comes on board and handles the account. For seven days, he or she recommends things to do and places to see thereby sharing diverse opinions, and ideas along the way. After that, someone else does the same—but differently. @WeAreMumbai Twitter account rotates each week with a new voice introduced every Monday morning. So @WeAreMumbai is a mirror of Mumbaikars aspirations and their dreams. 

@WeAreMumbai is based around the idea that each curator will share both his own and relevant third party’s thoughts, stories, information and other content that is somehow linked to Mumbai. The idea is that the curators, through their tweets, create interest and arouse curiosity for Mumbai and the wide range the city has to offer. The expectation is that the curators will paint a picture of Mumbai, different to that usually obtained through traditional media. A single voice cannot represent a city. By sharing people’s experiences and lives with the world, I believe @WeAreMumbai can help to further connect Mumbai to the world and the world to Mumbai through the different voices that curate the account each week. 

What were the hurdles you faced? How has the public response been?

 I have been quite lucky this way. Call it good marketing or a good idea, but people showed interest in the account in its very first week. We had a poll for who would be our first curator and got pretty strong response. Rohan Joshi of All India Bakchod tweeted saying, 'Quite liking the sound of @WeAreMumbai'. I guess people loved the idea/concept of having a platform like this. Rishi Jaitely, MD of Twitter India recognized the account and lended his full support. The official handle of Twitter India gave us a shout out too. 

Hurdles: I would say, there were not many. I knew what I wanted to do. How I wanted to do and when I wanted to do what. Only challenge was to get good curators and luckily we got few. Twitter personalities like Tanmay Bhatt, Anaggh Desai, Kiran Manral, Rohan Joshi, Mahesh Murthy and others curated the account as well. So I think it was luck or maybe hardwork and luck both that worked! Insofar, we have more than 25000 followers on twitter, 3000+ on Facebook, 1500+ on Instagram and 50,000+ views on our website each month. 

You have grown strength to strength and managed to tie-up with Social Media week as well. How was the entire experience?

It has been an amazing journey of two years. When I started, I had no idea if I would do brand promotions or tie up for events. Because, there's always some or the other person saying, why is WeAreMumbai promoting 'xyz' product or an event. But I have gone ahead and done brand promotions for more than 75 brands till date. I think its okay to put 3-5 promoted tweets a day knowing that the other 300 tweets a day are related to the city. There's always a discussion that Rotational Curation accounts should not do promotions on their account. I say why shouldn't we? Who said its a place just for social cause? Its not. I am investing my time, my money everything on it. It's how you place the promotions that matter. I guess, I will keep doing it keeping the authenticity of the account. 

 What is your future plan pertaining to WeAreMumbai?

So, 2 years ago, all I had was @wearemumbai on twitter. In the last 8-9 months, I have also started the Facebook page, the instagram account and also launched the curated content website related to Mumbai called www.wearemumbai.co. So I plan to take this across mediums on digital as of now. My main focus right is on the content of the website. I want to keep it more active and genuine and related to the city. But there are many long term plans. I believe that 'thoughts become things'. Maybe by end of June 2015, WeAreMumbai will be ready with its own clothing line. I plan to launch Mumbai tshirts, shorts, skirts and tops for boys and girls. I hope that happens soon. Other than that, my focus in coming years would be to take WeAreMumbai offline and in print. I want to do events, come up with a curated Mumbai magazine and so much more. I have even thought of opening up a WeAreMumbai twitter cafe.

 Tell me more about yourself. Like WeAreumbai was a culmination of your hobby that became your career or you have an alternate career?

It wasn't a hobby really. As mentioned earlier, it was mere frustration of doing something of my own on digital. Mainly because I am an advertising graduate and had joined a digital agency. I wanted to build a good resume for myself and thought WeAreMumbai was my big project which I can showcase  and build a name in the industry. I work alone on WeAreMumbai. Be it the twitter account, Facebook page, instagram or website management. There is no team to do that. Also most of my time goes in working as a social media manager in a digital agency which I am working for. So after reaching home at 10 pm, I start working on WeAreMumbai every night. Lately, I have been penning down an idea for my new Photogaphy project which is called 'Insta City' and as name suggests, it is something to do with Instagram and the city. I kickstart that project next month and hope that people like it. 

5 social media tips that you'd like to give newbies?

I am not some Social Media guru or anything to give tips but one thing I can definitely say from my experience — go out and talk to people on social media platforms. Tell them your idea, meet them, network with them. Twitter and Facebook had made world such a small place now. You can share your ideas and views with anyone. I say make use of that. That really will help you. 

The whole concept of curators is highly valued on Twitter? Your take on it?

Yeah, it is. I think every city/state in India now has a RoCur account. I am happy that WeAreMumbai is the one to start this trend. But I guess, everything has a saturation point. Right now people are enjoying it, they are connected to city because of these accounts but there will come a time when they won't like this anymore. Some accounts are really good but some are really poor. But nevertheless, I think its a great way of keeping in touch with your city news and make new friends. 

Send in your feedbacks at vishalmanve.dna@gmail.com

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