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Food Influencer Ritika Betala talks about food, creating a successful niche for herself and more

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Priyanka Parmar
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Founder and Chief Eating Officer of Foodies of India, Ritika Betala, talks about all things food and more with us!

Ritika Betala, Founder of Foodies of India, started her food journey back in 2014 after having a lunch date with Rashmi Uday Singh. Ritika wanted to take her love for food to the next level and that is exactly what she has managed to do. Her social properties are known by the name od Foodies of India and the community that she built is truly incredible and she's been felicitated for her accomplishments by several brands and content portals too.

Ritika Betala has proven that it is possible to live your passion while also having a full-time career. She has a successful career as a Marketing Manager as well making her a true inspiration for aspiring food bloggers and content creators.

We recently had the chance to pick Ritika Betala's brain on several things and here's what she had to say:

  1. What made you start creating content and when did you begin?

    "I started off as someone who wanted to share my love for food and eventually became what we call us today “influencers!” But I started blogging on my website about 5.5 years ago, when I had the opportunity of getting a blind lunch date with Rashmi Uday Singh, and I wanted to share the experience with friends and family and thus began the journey of Foodies of India!"

2. What makes your content stand out?

"From the feedback I have received so far from friends, family and food enthusiasts, it has got to be the home-cooked food that I capture on stories and posts. My mother does go the extra mile when preparing food for the ‘gram, and it is visible in the content we end up creating."

3. How do you choose what to promote on your feed and what not to?

"This took me a VERY long time to figure out, I did a lot of R&D and understood

what the FoodiesofIndia audience likes, dislikes, the type of content that works,

the timing I should be posting, etc., Basis those observations, I can now gauge on

how a picture/video is going to perform before I post it. However, there are some

posts that do over or underperform very different from expectations – Afterall it

all depends on the Instagram algorithms!"

4. One instance/experience that made it all worthwhile?

"It’s got to be my recent appearance on TravelXp’s Podcast – The chatroom with some powerful and badass ladies killing it in the Indian food space. It aired on the channel and on leading podcast stations."

5. What does a regular day look like?

"I have a full-time job as a Marketing Manager at Vogue Magazine, so you will find me busy throughout the day. On my way to work and back home I am on my phone uploading content and catching up with what others are creating. During coffee and lunch breaks at work, you will find me uploading stories or shooting content from what I see around me. Post-work, I am out for reviews or to catch up with friends over some delicious food.

The one thing I do every evening without fail is go for a 6-8 km walk with my mother where we catch up with what happened throughout the day, and we also use this time to brainstorm for upcoming posts and ideas for my feed on FoodiesofIndia. That said, no day is similar, but weekends are most interesting where I am out for back to back reviews of new places or street food hopping with fellow bloggers or I am cooking a spread at home with my mother in the kitchen!"

Also Read: The best summer desserts you can try at home!

6. How do you make moolahs?

"Well, it been a little slow for me, but, I am happy to take it one post at a time. I am usually approached by brands or PR agencies who want to collaborate but most of the time either they have put the activity on hold or find the budget a little too high. My thought is: if you want your money’s worth + exposure + “good content” + relevant content – invest toh karna padega, na? Every project I get – I approach it with the utmost care and is dealt in such a way that is relevant to the audience of #FoodiesofIndia, keeping in mind what they might like and react positively to."

7. Where do you get ideas for your videos from?

"My mother! Most of them are my mother, Ratna’s brainchild, right from where I need to zoom into, to what the filming approach of the video should be, she helps me with the crazy ideas she gets. I have like this never-ending cycle of thoughts running in my brain even when I don’t have a camera in my hand on how I should shoot something that happens in front of my eyes. I am also constantly learning from fellow bloggers on how they approach and record daily activities happening around them."

8. Weirdest brief ever received?

"Well, there’s a few too many! But I’ll go with the latest instance that happened where they wanted me to diss a competitor brand straight up. I was not okay with that, as I didn’t want to spark any controversy or hate comments, so I spoke to them and figured out a solution for it, we ended up collaborating anyways. Which was reassuring for me, as, I realized that they were working with me for a reason."

9. If not an influencer, what would you be?

"I would be eating my way through every day – just not blogging about it. And probably exercising a little bit more than I do now, so I can eat just a little bit more! "

10. Message/tips for upcoming bloggers

"Try to understand your niche, what you really like and are passionate about and let that reflect through the work you do. Don’t thrive to work just for “collabs/reviews/invites” when you are beginning, if you are good at what you do. Try to be original and connect with the audience, take the time to understand and analyze what your followers like – the time to post, the type of image, the colors you use, the food/subject of the image – you are blessed to have such a great feedback mechanism provided by Instagram for you guys. Make use of the resources to understand where you are, what your audience wants and how you want to get there!"

Here's how she fared in our Quick 5 section of the interview:

One celebrity you want to collaborate with?

"Robert Downy Jr, Internationally and Hrithik Roshan, if Indian!"

Your favorite Influencer?

"Oohh! The list if very very long but I love Akshar Pathak’s work! He nails it with the content, creativity, puns and keeping it relevant. We think it, he says it out loud!"

Weirdest or funniest comment you have received?

"I had someone walk up to me and ask if I was behind Foodies of India and said that his entire family follows my account and they happened to be in the same place, so they all walked up to me and took a picture together. It wasn’t funny or weird but it was rather sweet!"

Favourite face filter?

"Snapchat’s puppy face filter"

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