Blue collar workers emerge as influencers but their brands are yet to catch on

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Blue collar workers like electricians, welders, masons, and plumbers, are becoming influencers by sharing their daily work on social media and attracting millions of views. However, they are struggling to monetise their reach as the brands they want to collaborate with don’t see them as an attractive marketing avenue.

Pawan Bisnoi, a 32-year-old electrician-cum-mason based out of Fatehabad, Haryana, has been in the trade since 2007. Last year, a 20-year-old boy who had joined as an apprentice ended up teaching him content creation on social media. Bisnoi started shooting his everyday electric and masonry work on his iPhone 11 and uploading it on his Instagram handle @bijliwala_mistry from October.

Read this | Kidfluencers on a timeout as proposed data protection rules force an industry rethink "Initially, when I uploaded videos, it didn't get a lot of views, so I had given up uploading after posting a few reels. Then suddenly some of them picked up, and started getting responses in the form of views, likes and positive comments which motivated me to start uploading again," Bisnoi said (translated from Hindi). Bisnoi’s account in four months has gained over 10,800 followers.

His 15-60 second reels get over 100,000 views each. Most of his viewers, he believes, are electricians and masons like him, who comment that they like his work and get to learn from him. Some suggest improvements, too.

Bisnoi represents one of the fast-growing community of influencers. Since January 2024, there have been over 100,000 Instagram posts on topics like electrical work, masonry, plumbing, welding, etc., as per data from influencer marketing platform Qoruz. The average reach of these posts was 85,000