Digital creators Simran Jain and Sonika Sethi share insights on connecting with people and monetising content

Be your authentic self online, and add a personal story to connect with people. Reach out to brands, but know where to do draw the line.

These are some of the key insights that digital creators Simran Balar Jain and Sonika Sethi shared at SheSparks 2025 in Bengaluru.

At the event, the creators also discussed the responsibility of internet influencers, who have the power of educating their community of followers with the right information.

For influencer Simran Balar Jain, responsibility lies in empowering her community about women's hygiene and sex education.

"After starting off with fashion and beauty for two years, I realised there was a gap in the woman’s hygiene and sex education space… It started with one girl’s night out where I realised that my own friends had so many myths about sex and hygiene-related things,” Jain told a packed room with women from all fields.

Similarly, self-taught designer and 'accidental' influencer Sonika Khurana Sethi uses her power to create design awareness and literacy.

Her journey is a story of resilience and consistency. “I was not allowed to go out of Delhi for a degree, I didn’t have an option and sort of taught myself design… I started (content creation) after becoming a mom. I was 31 years old and unable to go out for 12 to 15 hours a day (to work). I started sharing pictures on Instagram for validation, and accidentally I went viral,” Sethi narrated her story.

Community building

Jain’s followers’ count increased during COVID-19, when she started simplifying complex terms used to describe basic problems related to women hygiene and sex.

“I had a lot of female followers who would Google their issues instead of going to a gynaecologist, in the fear of judgement… A lot of women DM-ed (direct message) me saying that my video had helped them solve their ‘bedroom problem’, something that they probably were not comfortable discussing openly,” said Jain.

On what people connect with, she said, “Add a personal story and emotional touch when storytelling. You never know what’s going to work out and go viral!”

For Sethi too, community building happened organically as the designer started offering workshops and courses on interior designing.

“The best part of social media is that you don’t need to become anybody,” said Sethi, emphasising the importance of being one’s authentic self online.

“People want to see real people. They don’t want to see fake, filtered versions of people,” she said, adding that community building comes naturally when one focuses on their true self and their niche.

Monetising one’s voice online

According to influencer marketing intelligence firm Qoruz, social media had empowered close to 40.6 lakh influencers in India as of 2024. And monetisation is a key part of this journey of empowerment.

On monetising content online, Sethi said, “Once I became a mom, I thought my career had ended. But thanks to Instagram, the money I have made in the last three years has helped me fulfill some of my biggest dreams."

For Sethi, brand collaborations started a little late. It was only recently that brands started realising the need for influencer marketing in the field of interior design. So, Sethi taught online and initiated mentorship programmes to generate passive income, before diving into brand partnerships.

“I did not want to become an influencer; so I started putting up pictures of my projects. I am not a full-time influencer, I still have an interior designing firm that I run, and this is a by-product of that,” she said.

Sethi advises budding influencers and entrepreneurs not to make content their whole world but make it a by-product of their niche.

The designer and influencer screens brands and partners with only those whose products she has personally tried.

Similarly, Jain partners only with brands that align with her values and are potentially useful for her audience. “I follow a simple rule—70% of organic content and 30% of monetisation.”

Emphasising that one must know where to draw the line, she said, ”You have to reject brands too, you cannot focus just on money."

During brand partnerships and collaborations, Jain subtly integrates brand promotions with storytelling.

Jain says she recently discovered other income streams such as affiliate marketing where one has to tag products on marketplaces and earn commissions from those. She also conducts workshops for an alternative revenue stream.

“Apart from partnering with brands, you can also reach out to brands, pitch to them, instead of them reaching out to you. Most of my collaborations happen when I reach out to brands,” Jain revealed.