Meet Anish Parmar – The 18-year-old “Social Media Plug”

From investing into cryptocurrencies to make a profit for himself in the historic bull run of 2017 to being featured on the BBC, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed and starting his own personal brand at the start of 2020, Anish Parmar has done the extraordinary. The best part? He’s only 18 year’s old – and is only getting started.

We recently sat down with him for an interview for Disrupt Magazine – here’s what he had to say.

How does it feel to be known as the go to “Social Media Plug?” when people mention Digital Marketing or Social Media Growth in your vicinity?

To be honest but not cliché, it feels surreal. – I’ve only been offering my digital marketing services publicly for such a short amount of time. However, even though I haven’t been “in the game” for as long as other digital marketers or entrepreneurs, my services have already been in extremely hot demand. I’ve even had people randomly add me on social media straight up wanting to purchase my services without needing any testimonials or case studies or even a budget. It really is crazy for me to be known as an “expert” in my field and industry at such a young age. Always believe in yourself people. If I can do it – so can you.

Where do you see Social Media Marketing and Influencer Marketing heading in 2020?

I see Social Media Marketing in 2020 thriving and expanding. Adspend has never been cheaper due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Furthermore, due to the lockdown restrictions placed across the world, I’m certain that online businesses and eCommerce giants and powerhouses such as FashionNova, Amazon and also Shopify are experiencing a high increase in sales of their products on their platforms due to everyone being kept indoors. I feel like right now is when brick and mortar businesses are going to transition from being an offline business to going online. I think this pandemic has opened the eyes of various business owners and has made them realise the power of marketing and starting your own eCommerce store in 2020.

How did you first start helping influencers & businesses break into their industry via your marketing and networking strategies?

I first started helping influencers & businesses break into their industry by actually allowing myself to become a social media influencer by growing my own Instagram account to over 17,000 followers. Once I allowed myself to be a part of the Influencer space, I started to network and build my business from there. Allowing me to build connections with some of the most influential influencers on Instagram and on social media in general at the time. From this point on, I just scaled up with my networking and made sure that I tried to speak to at least 100 people a day. This when I started to meet graphic designers, videographers and also social media marketers on Instagram. This is how my social media marketing personal brand was born. I then replicated what I did for myself for other social media Influencers and businesses in various different niches and social media platforms, allowing me to build my own platform from scratch and allowing me to help other business and influencers in the process with their own personal marketing brand journey.

How does it feel to know that younger entrepreneurs look up to you on social media and get inspired by what you post?

I find it a blessing. When I was younger, I found it extremely hard to connect with other young entrepreneurs when I was starting out. You honestly just couldn’t find them online – well, not anyone who was just “starting out” in entrepreneurship anyway. I could only find online gurus who were making “£35,000 a month and just dropped out of college.” So, I had to make it work myself. This is where I first learned how to network online and make, what I call “valuelationships” which is a business-based relationship based on giving value to each other or to other people. However, the biggest thing I love about my Instagram or Twitter page is that my social media pages are used as an community for young entrepreneurs where we can all discuss our upcoming ideas, start-ups and most importantly – we can network and learn from each other.

Finally, where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time in your entrepreneurship journey?

My next step for me currently would be to re-invest into my business during this pandemic and also work on and then release my exclusive course AnstaSocial that will turn normal brick and mortar business owners into personal branding experts and social media marketers for their business. I also have something else big planned for the hometown that I grew up in, which is Birmingham, but I’m currently sadly not allowed to speak about this upcoming project at this specific moment in time.

Do you need help with your current marketing strategy or want Anish to help your business with digital marketing and social media growth? Contact him on Instagram or visit his website for marketing advice and help.