“Skip posting a Reel for three days, and you are forgotten. Channels have reduced my fear of losing followers,” she adds. Sangtani, 24, runs three channels catering to women with 5,000-15,000 members, each focused on different topics: motivation, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) support and finding love.
In February 2023, Instagram introduced broadcast channels to let creators send audio-visual content and textual updates as messages to followers who choose to join those channels. Instead of battling the algorithm or getting lost in the feed simply due to the surfeit of content, channels make sure a creator’s core audience sees their posts directly in their messages tab.
“These channels foster deeper connections with a smaller but loyal audience and let creators tackle niche topics without losing broader appeal,” says Sangtani, who also runs a travel company. “When I talked about PCOS on my main account, I would lose followers who couldn’t relate. However, on the PCOS channel, members and I have unfiltered interactions.”
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Creators have always focused on spreading their content far and wide. Now they are realising small is beautiful, and perhaps more beneficial, too. “Communities help you become a character in your audience’s life,” says Sangtani. “Also, platforms are extremely unreliable, but the community you build will follow you anywhere. That’s why it’s crucial to create these smaller circles now.”Is community at the heart of the new creator economy then? “It was always going to be,” says Shaikh Fardeen, co-admin of the meme page, Andheriwestsh*tposting. “You post a video, people start commenting. Soon, a group chat begins within comments section. That’s enough to tell you community is the gradual progression of all things creator economy,” he adds.Lot of celebs launch products in their community channels to avoid a rival’s fan army from trolling in mentions or mass-reporting their posts, says Fardeen, citing examples of international celebrities like Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber. “It’s a safe space to target audience in these volatile times.”
Andheriwestsh*tposting has 156,000 followers while its broadcast channel has 6,500-odd people. Its three admins claim to talk to 300-400 people weekly about everyday things.
They try to give a glimpse into the personalities of the admins, often letting the members in on inside jokes they crack among themselves. “It’s a highly active channel and yet no member has left. For brand deals, we use the strength of the channel as one of the negotiating factors, claiming that the first 100 buyers are likely to come from this super-loyal and engaged cohort,” says Fardeen.
Online communities have been around since the days of Reddit, followed by Facebook groups, Discord for gamers, YouTube’s paid members hips, and Telegram and WhatsApp channels.
According to YouTube, in December 2023, YouTube channels in India earned 45% more revenue from channel memberships, year on year. Fardeen says Instagram understands the growing importance of community, which is why it is rolling out features to improve the channel experience. “For example, they have introduced post replies that create separate threads, making conversations easier to follow rather than getting lost in inbox clutter.”
Unlike previous iterations of community features, Instagram’s broadcast channels offer a more streamlined way for creators to provide exclusive content or updates, which feels more intimate and boosts loyalty, says Anushree Jain, cofounder of SocialTAG, an influencer-marketing firm. “They allow creators to build anticipation around product launches or brand collaborations. The exclusivity of the content in broadcast channels also enables deeper connections, translating into higher engagement and more opportunities,” she adds.
Instagram did not reply to emailed questions from ET. Slowly, brands are taking note, too. Animesh Mishra always checks a creator’s broadcast channel activity before partnering with them for his sneaker brand, Gully Labs. “It shows how engaged their core followers are, and I also look at the content they share to see how they use the platform,” he says. He points to an artist and fashion designer who opened up about his insecurities with balding on his broadcast channel, revealing a personal side. “It resonated with his audience and made them connect with the person behind the brand.”
Mishra believes that just as online brands eventually expand into physical stores, some of the biggest creators are hosting offline events and meeting their audiences to strengthen their community. “This will be the second growth trajectory for them,” he adds.
With everyone now creating broadcast channels, and notifications landing directly in your DMs, Instagram needs to be more selective about eligibility to create channels to avoid clutter and spam, says Mishra. Beauty creator Aanam C, who has over 333,000 Instagram followers, prefers WhatsApp’s broadcast channels to Instag ram’s.
“Everyone uses WhatsApp more, and people rarely mute it, unlike Instagram where many don’t even have notifications on,” she explains. As a creator with over 13 years of experience across platforms, Aanam says she has always focused on building community, from Facebook groups to YouTube’s community section. “I’ve never liked the idea of being a digital celebrity who has to be ‘followed’. I prefer the ‘friendship with the audience’ approach, rather than a ‘let me show you how to live’ style,” she adds.
Recently, Aanam shared a video of moving out of her house on her WhatsApp channel before posting it on her Instagram feed. “It’s nice seeing comments like ‘coming here from WhatsApp broadcast community’. It makes me feel closer to them in a way.”
Moving forward, she thinks she might post more often on the channel since it is quick and spontaneous, unlike the main feed, which requires editing and production. Although Sangtani from Mumbai hasn’t been able to regularly update her broadcast channels in recent weeks, her superfans are still intact—a testament to the power of the community she predicted. Her travel company sold out a premium Delhi-Himachal tour in less than 24 hours, promoted exclusively to the 500-member broadcast channel of her travel page @PinkExperiences.
“There’s more supply of content than demand on these platforms now,” she says. “Soon, people will cut down on screen time and stick to only a few creators they really care about. That’s when community will be your lifeline,” she says.
