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Inspiring Women Every Wednesday: Dr. Falguni Vasavada
Professor. TEDx Speaker. Content Creator. She has trained corporate professionals and mentored young entrepreneurs in areas like Advertising, Marketing, Consumer Understanding, Branding, Social Media. She has published in International Journals and presented papers in national and international conferences and is involved in international joint research projects in the area of advertising. She is a visiting faculty at management institutes of repute in India and overseas. Her teaching, research and consultancy interests are in the area of Advertising, Branding, and Social Media. She is a TEDx speaker & is frequently invited to speak at reputed forums/panels/ roundtables. She Speaks on Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Social Media, Personal Branding, Gender Equality, Body Positivity, Women Empowerment, Happiness as a Lifestyle and Motivation Dr. Falguni Vasavada is the Keynote speaker in multiple forums on Marketing, Advertising, PR, Women Communities, Social Media, Facebook, Startups and more. Her motto of life is – make the best of whatever you have. Appreciate the positives and live life to the fullest! Let’s Get Inspired In Conversation with Dr. Falguni Vasavada – Preeti Juneja Q. Through your consistent and authentic posts on Instagram, where you genuinely connect with people and share your thoughts, you’ve successfully strengthened your personal brand. You’re recognized as independent, fashionable, outspoken, and socially connected. With over 243k followers today, what key lessons have you learned from using this platform, and what do you consider the best practices for leveraging Instagram for personal branding? The lessons I have learned on Instagram, through my growth, journey, and organic engagement, are that you need to be very consistent in everything you do. So, whatever content you create, you must be consistent because this is live and social media. This consistency comes in two ways: Content and Conversations. The content that you are creating on a daily basis has to resonate with your audience. To the conversations germinating out of your content, you must continuously be conversing with your followers because it’s a two-way street. Social media is an interactive medium. Over and above consistency, content, and conversations, the golden principle of personal branding is authenticity. So, what kind of authentic content do you bring? How authentic are you as a person, right? What is your genuineness of w atever you speak? All that matters. Q. In the recently released e-book “She Leads with Courage” by Shenomics, you were featured among 23 remarkable women. In India, almost every woman, regardless of her education or cosmopolitan background, often faces challenges related to male dominance or patriarchy on their path to success. How do you support and guide women on campus who might have similar experiences to share but not enough courage to overcome? Yes, in the patriarchal world, all women have to struggle, and it’s challenging to grow. As a working professional also, in my younger years, I had to prove more than my male counterpart that I am a serious career woman; I’m seriously interested in growing in my career. So, I have also faced all those challenges. Since I have grown with these challenges, I feel that every senior woman or woman in a leadership role must have a safe space for younger, vulnerable women just entering the workforce. So, just by being somebody’s safe space, you’re giving a lot of moral support to women to grow. Q. Speaking on advertising, if you were to bring a change in society through this medium, what will it be on? And where would you want these ads to be displayed to have the most impact? The biggest change advertising can bring to society is not just reflecting on what is happening but challenging what is happening and showing the right path. So, not cementing stereotypes but breaking stereotypes, talking about more equal gender roles, giving equal space to all kinds of audiences, and promising inclusivity—all these things can be brought about as a change by advertising. And where would I like it to be published? Both mass media and social media. While social media targets a certain group of consumers, mass media is still relevant in a country like India. So, to penetrate rural markets and smaller towns, mass media like TV, magazines, newspapers, and radio is still a very potent medium. Yes, both digital and social media, as well as mass media. Q. As a teacher, how do you engage with curious minds? Can you recall the most challenging question a student has ever asked you? Over the years, as a teacher, I have felt both are important—content and pedagogy. However, because Gen Z has lower attention spans, engagement has become the key in classes especially. So, your pedagogy, how you teach, how you engage with students, what in-class activities you can do to engage them further, and how you use technology have all become of prime importance. Q. How do you keep up with your relationships with college alumni, and do they play an important role in your life? In today’s age, the best way to keep up with relationships, whether with alumni, my friends, or my batchmates, is to use social media. Thanks to social media, I am in touch with almost everybody because I am a very active content creator on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. These are different ways in which I also connect with my own networks of people. And that is the easiest way to keep in touch. Rapid-Fire: One Indian tradition that makes you proud? One Indian tradition that makes me proud is the family system we have in India and the people power we are always surrounded with as Indians. 2. One skill every marketer must have? One skill every marketer must have is observation because things are rapidly changing in the ecosystem. So, whether it is AI, tech, or consumer insights, observation skills have to be very powerful. 3. Your thoughts on influencer marketing as a career? Influencer marketing will only grow in the country, and that’s why it’s good as a career. Still, I suggest that influencer marketing should be your second career, not
