Making Bill Gates famous for Dollyites
influencers are folks who are seen to be adept at doing one thing: influencing. To try and sway opinion — something writers on this page covertly and overtly try, most of the times with little effect — is their USP, the SP in USP being the whole point.
But Sunil Patil a.k.a. Dolly Chaiwala underlines the fact that old-style influencers are still alive and kicking — influencers who become influential after becoming famous for doing something else than influencing — in Dolly's case, being a good and savvy tea-concocter.
Which is why he's been so successful in making a customer — in last week's case, a random White senior citizen — famous for his legions of followers. Sure, for you, a Microsoft co-founder may be the bigger influencer.
But for a different demographic, it's not Dolly who gains popularity when Bill Gates shares a video of his visit to Dolly Ki Tapri on Ravindra Nath Tagore Marg in Nagpur for a cuppa, but Gates, who till then was unfamiliar to most of Dolly's burgeoning fan base.
Will the million-plus followers of Dolly's @dolly_ki_tapri_nagpur on Insta now prefer Microsoft products and services over its competitors? We don't know. Will Bill Gates' admirers flock to Dolly's mobile chai cart? We don't know.
