iWorld
Guest Column: How to prepare for influencer marketing in 2021
If you think it’s too early to plan influencer marketing strategies for 2021, then you’re wrong. The marketing and PR industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few months and influencers have played a huge role in it for businesses. With powerful tools like Instagram Reels, Shop, IGTV, Facebook pay and Instagram Live badges, social media has become a rich and engaging alternative tool to counter the traditional form of media; to target consumers in a new manner.
Influencer marketing has helped brands map out their strategies and get ahead of the curve. Since companies plan marketing campaigns months in advance, now is the right time to prepare a strategic and advanced influencer marketing approach for 2021.
How does influencer marketing work?
In the past, brands would approach an influencer and pay them to create content promoting their products – new launches or talk about the service. The fees would vary as per the following range and engagement rate of the influencer. The influencer would then post the content and share it with their social media following – usually on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. The best part about influencer marketing is that it can work for businesses of all shapes and sizes, whether you’re a start-up looking to grow your awareness and following, or a big brand wanting to launch a new range or drive sales of a specific product.
Considering the above, here’s how one can prepare for influencer marketing in 2021.
Know your ultimate goal
Well, how will you aim if you have no goal to achieve? Your goal will be the driving force of your influencer marketing strategy. You need to know the five Whys behind your actions to begin with. There are certain crucial points one needs to keep in mind before setting your goals:
● Be specific
● Set attainable goals
● Make sure that your goals are measurable
Create a breakthrough influencer marketing plan
The success of an Influencer Marketing plan relies on how well strategies are planned and executed. The strategies can rapidly build brand awareness by generating premium content to the customers it’s designed to engage. Executing a complete influencer marketing strategy that boosts your brand exposure and connects with your target audience sets the base of a successful plan.
Choose the right influencers
When there are too many creative influencers out there, it becomes difficult to choose the best one for your campaign. There could be various ways to choose influencers on the basis of their genre, engagement, content and lots more. The ideal way is to determine which influencer is the best in their own niche and whether or not that fits well with your brand.
Select the right social media platform
Being on every social media platform is not necessary. What matters is to create an impact on the ones you are present on. Putting out substandard content will only make things worse for you. Instead, research and plan your social media presence that aligns with your goals and appeals to your target audience. Focus on the platforms that are preferred by your targeted demographic.
Use the art of storytelling
It is the story that sells, not the product! Consumers are always driven by good and impactful stories. It is the emotional attachment that the brand builds with its audience that counts. They inspire ideas and create attachments.
Influencer/ celebrity gifting is the new thing
Influencer/ celebrity gifting can be one of the most effective ways to gain exposure for a client, particularly when they need to make an immediate impact. Although it’s not an easy service that can be accomplished effortlessly. Researching the right bloggers can take hours, and often your top choices don’t respond right away. You can go back-and-forth a dozen times just to finalise delivery details, and follow up for weeks after to ensure the post is published. Despite this, the good part is that influencer/ celebrity gifting is a super cool and effective way to reach out to your audience through top-notch celebrities and influencers.
Engagement, reach, word of mouth and analytics
Analytics help you understand your audience and learn what generates more traffic. Without them, you can’t make accurate sales forecasts and perfect your products. You can effectively use social media data to drive performance and analytics must be focused on. Review the analytics, give attention to the stats like follower growth, page views, number of posts, likes, shares, impressions, clicks, etc.
(The author is the founder of Glad U Came influencer marketing agency. Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to his views.)
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
