Couples hire social media executives for their wedding updates

Social media has taken over our lives so much that if it didn’t happen on social media then it never really happened. After all a vacation in Bali or a destination wedding needs to be updated. When one is the bride or the groom then they can’t be taking the Saat Phera or stand on the reception day’s stage with a phone in the hand. But updating on social media is also important so for this the couples are now hiring social media executives for their wedding ceremonies so that nothing goes missing from their feed.

One life and one live say the couples

Doctor Sadiya is a dentist by profession and a social media bug by hobby says that she had seen a friend of hers in Delhi hiring a social media executive for her wedding and getting inspired from her she too hired one when she got married in November last year. “During the time of marriage a bride or a groom doesn’t get much time to scroll through their phones. There are so many people who would write heart-warming lines in their stories and that disappears after a day and I didn’t wanted to leave even a ten second video so I hired a social media executive so that after when my marriage ceremonies end I can happily scroll through my feed and see all those posts again. Marriage in most of the people’s lives is a one time function and posting it later feels like unnecessary to me because the value of the that time is lost and time matters.” To this entrepreneur Sahil Guru says, “My marriage happened in a hurry due to some family issues and due to which my two best friends who live in Scotland and England couldn’t come on such a short notice. So we had arranged a live video setup for my friends where they enjoyed the wedding. In this time of social media and a one chance of marriage to do everything we can think why not do this also? We had got a great response from people too and all thanks to my social media executive who could do all this.”

A lot of planning and plotting goes into it

Lifestyle Blogger Sanjana Pawar didn’t initially plan to live telecast her marriage ceremonies through her social media accounts but then later due to her profession and follower’s request she decided to hire a professional who did all her posting. “I hired a friend of mine who is a social media executive and it took us a lot of planning to come up with a plan. So I didn’t instantly upload them but did after like two to three hours. So after each ceremony the two of us sit together choose pictures and then post them with interesting captions. Initially I had thought that all the stories would go in black and white but then she told me that people might not like it after a point of one. We tried to keep the stories very cinematic so that when we upload posts people can get a look at the full avatar. The planning of number of posts, stories, filters, music and videos was done in advance so that we just have to execute it later.” Shares Sanjana. To this home maker Geeta Sandhu adds, “My social media executive and I planned that we will only ten second post teaser videos of all the ceremonies except the Baarat and the reception day. She sent me a curated list of hastags which we used in advance so that if I felt like posting anything I too could but with the right hashtags so that we can get tractions. As we had in mind that we will only post three teaser videos of all the ceremonies we wrote the captions also beforehand so that no last minute confusion occurs.”

A wedding photo walk to increase more engagement

Businessman T Singh had already in his mind that he would be live telecasting his marriage as right from going live during dance in his own Baarat to putting Sindoor on his wife’s forehead everything was telecasted live but another element was a photo walk in his marriage. “I had hired two professionals who were capturing me apart from the regular wedding photographer and one of them who is a member of a camera club proposed the idea of hosting a photowalk. We did meetings and decided upon a hashtag which was #SAILinLove so all the photographers who attended the ceremony used that hashtag to get more engagement while they posted. We could get a lot of good posts which got good responses from people. This gave an opportunity to the young photographers who don’t get a chance to cover such elaborate affairs as a lot of VIP guests had come in my marriage.”

Showing realism through posts rather than a fairy-tale

Social media executive Anmol Khan who has been taking up projects like these since two years and has covered around 8 weddings till now says that the posts are mostly to capture the mood of the ceremony and the people. “The posts which we try to present are something which try to show the people the reality of the time and not some unrealistic thing. For example when a brother dedicates a dance on the Sangeet night for her sister, the bride stands up and claps is what we try to show rather than posting pictures of a perfectly postured bride on her stage. Rather than showing that a bride or groom is dancing perfectly in their haldi ceremony we show the imperfect moves with their family. In order to gain traction we search all the current hashtags and the hashtags related to bride, grooms, wedding, Indian weddings, rituals, etc.” Adding to this another social media executive Vijay Pawar who has been doing this work for two years now says, “We target two things first are the friends of the couples and second are the leading wedding related websites and their accounts. We don’t just capture the bride and groom but their special moments like mother putting haldi on her son, or the moment when the sehra is put on the groom’s head. We do an extensive social media research of the trending hashtag to get traction.”

Packages goes up to a lakh sometimes

Hiring a social media executive can be an expensive but a worth decision because it is just not clicking and posting but a lot goes in it. Anmol Khan says, “According to the requirement of the people we bring in a team with their equipment like cameras, lights, and laptop. We edit the picture through the best editing apps and software and then upload them by taking over the account of the person. Depending upon the requirement we charge on hourly basis like 25-30K for a day’s ceremony and if the person wants coverage of all the days then it starts from 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh. But it all depends on the requirement.” Vijay Pawar adds, “Even though the charges are high but the usage of equipment and man power is also high. I charge around 10-15 K for a day and it goes up to 45 K and more for the entire wedding. There we have the latest DSLR cameras, hi-end mobile phones, GO Pros and high internet connectivity in case if we are at some place where the signals are weak.”