Is India’s PR industry missing the earned-social media advantage of Nano, Micro and Rural Influencers?

There are 451 million social media user identities in India, spending a whopping 2 hours 28 minutes on social media every day. 

  With cheap data and inexpensive smartphones in their hand, influencers from B, C and D towns in India are offering content in different Indian languages across channels like YouTube and Instagram.

With the spotlight back on the connections good public relations can offer through earned media, are PR and comms professionals in India also tapping into the earned social media route to reach out to their audience? 

As per Atom Communications marketing insights for India analysis, there is over-reliance on paid social ads—without organic engagement, community building, or influencer partnerships. This can lead to diminished ROI for brands and campaigns.

PR firms that do not prioritise organic strategies, content optimisation, and influencer collaboration could be missing opportunities for greater reach and impact that are now central to earned social media success.

Earned Social Media: Product Collabs 

A director-level communications professional who has worked for the two largest global network agencies says that the earned social media works for sectors such as travel and hospitality.  One of the leading Indian airline carriers, for example, does not engage in paid social media activities, although the airline may provide complimentary tickets to an influencer.

Another household appliances global firm does not do paid posts either. Instead, consumer household products are shared with consumer tech influencers for several months. This allows them to conduct a thorough examination of the product and offer thoughtful recommendations.

Shashank Bharadwaj, managing partner at BrandArc Reputation Advisors, says that the earned social media route is not being widely leveraged, "What you do see is paid social media that can be picked up organically by mainstream newspapers. Recently, we have all seen the trend of high-profile founders like Nikhil Kamath and his WTF podcasts making mainstream news."

Paid social media posts that do not gain organic pickup also end up as paid news in certain digital news aggregator sites, and they are sometimes not flagged as a paid post.

Krity Gosain, group business director- social media marketing and lead- event communications, Avian WE, agrees that earned social media is on a case-by-case basis. The successful use of earned social media depends a lot on the target sector and audience. 

Nano, Micro and Regional Influencers to the rescue?

Catching them early 

How does PR leverage the earned media opportunity then? The answer comes back to nano, micro and regional influencers.  HypeAuditor's "State of Influencer Marketing"  reports show that influencer engagement rates are inversely proportional to follower size. Their data for the APAC region, including India, confirms that nano-influencers (1K-10K followers) and micro-influencers (10K-100K followers) have significantly higher engagement rates than macro-influencers and celebrities. This is hard data proving that paid focus on big names misses the more engaged communities.

As per Sociopuff, regional creators deliver up to 40% higher engagement and conversion compared to metro peers, and 70% of India’s digital consumers trust regional influencers over English-speaking ones. This trust turns regional influencers into highly effective vehicles for earned media.

A senior communicator with one of the top business conglomerates in India says that their firm started working with regional and micro influencers for earned social media at least a decade ago. The work put into building relationships focused on earned social media with regional influencers, specifically, has paid off.

Moving away from the 'media hits' focus 

Leveraging the earned social media opportunity also means moving away from the media relations (namely, print and digital magazines) approach to coverage.  Clients still demand 'media hits' in mainstream newspapers and their digital avatars. But with shrinking space for editorial in mainstream media means PR has to pivot faster to expertise in social listening, community management, and creating customised social media content. 

The true earned social media opportunity lies in identifying trending conversations, spotting potential brand advocates, and leveraging UGC.