Raksha Bandhan: Is your sister a social media star? These gifts are just for her

By Anusha Sinha Does your sister spend hours thinking of a witty thing to say on Twitter? Does she fritter away her evenings flitting across various social media sites? (I know I do) If your sister wants to be in the spotlight online, there are many gifts you can give to her to help her achieve that this Raksha Bandhan. And yes, you will have to swallow your derision when she proceeds to take a selfie with you, and try to resemble a human-being, for once (shout-out to my own brother who insists on squirming away from the camera whenever I attempt to capture his likeness). Social Media Marketing Course: Udemy [caption id=“attachment_330198” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Udemy[/caption] Being popular on social media is about showcasing your particular skills or bits of your personality in the most attractive way possible. It is an art and like any other art, you can learn how to become better at it. If your sister loves MOOCs and learning, here’s a course you can gift to her. This course will not only help her become more popular online, it will help her learn how to leverage the power of social media in order to engage with the right audience. These skills can even help her bag a job or an internship or gain traction for her own startup or blog. Price: 18$ (around Rs 1,200) on Udemy Selfie Stick [caption id=“attachment_330200” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Amazon[/caption] For the times tall people (brothers) are not around, selfies are best taken with a selfie stick. If your sister still does not own one but is committed to perfecting her duckface selfie, it is high time you buy her one. These devices are useful but also a clear signal of how much selfies mean to the person holding one. If your sister is too cool for this, move on to the next item on this list and prepare to have your mind blown. Price: Rs 295 on Amazon Selfie Robot [caption id=“attachment_330201” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: AliExpress[/caption] For the evolved social butterfly who does not want to lift a finger but still wants the perfect selfie, we have the selfie robot. An astonishing invention, this robot rotates to find the best angle to take your picture and even comes with a companion app in which you can edit the photo and make everyone look beautiful. Think of this as a stripped down R2D2 adapted to just taking selfies. Nope, no secrets of the Empire in this one. Price: $66 (around Rs 4,410) on Aliexpress.com BeautyPlus [caption id=“attachment_330202” align=“aligncenter” width=“619”]  Image: iTunes[/caption] This app is dedicated to making you look your best because the developers knew the painful difference between how you look in the mirror and how your face looks in a selfie, and probably even experienced it first-hand. This app is completely free but in case your sister does not have this on her phone, get it for her. Even the little things count. Price: Free on App Store Educate your sister on the nuances of social media Now that we have some equipment to ensure your sister can get the perfect selfie come rain or hail, or even unsolicited pimple, let us move on to a few books which will make her even more skilled at her craft. Social Media: The Ultimate Guide to Transforming Your Brand with Social Media (Marketing Strategies, Sales & Selling, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) by Brad Jones  This book contains enough tricks to make your sister the queen of the Holy Trinity of social media; Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It features a step-by-step action plan to really take social media strategy for the reader’s personal or assigned brand to the next level. Price: Rs 493 on Amazon Likeable Social Media by Dave Krepen  Dave aims to explain the complicated tools you can use to engage with your social media audience and his advice is concise and practical. This is one of the best books on leveraging social media out there and is a definite must read for your sister.| Price: $19 (around Rs 1,300) on Amazon Jab Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuck  Vaynerchuck elucidates on a strategy that will make your sister’s brand stand out in a busy social world. With the multitudes of businesses out there which are trying to reach out to their customers and create engaging interaction, it is important for any individual to know exactly how to differentiate one’s social media. Price: $5 (around Rs 330) on Amazon How to nurture the YouTuber in your sister Suppose your sister wants to set the YouTube sphere on fire and become the next biggest video star. Before she can start churning out videos, however, she needs the equipment to make sure her voice is clear and the video is of a good quality. She will also need access to good video editing software in order to polish hours of raw, goofy footage into something more presentable. Besteker Portable Camcorder [caption id=“attachment_330207” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Amazon[/caption] Every aspiring YouTuber needs a good device to record the video that also does justice to the creator. This basic handycam from Besteker features a 24 MP sensor, a 3-inch LCD panel and HDMI, among many other cool features. However, a separate memory card will have to be purchased. The device can support a maximum of 32GB on such a memory card. Price: Starts from $120 (around Rs 8,000) on Amazon Logitech ClearChat Comfort Headphones [caption id=“attachment_330208” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Amazon[/caption] These headphones are perfect for recording voice for videos and the sound quality is always crisp and clear. It includes three USB extenders that are a foot long each and can be used to extend the cord so it never runs out when your sister is trying to move around and show her subscribers how to imitate Taher Shah (or whoever else she fancies). Price: $24.99 (around Rs 1,670) on Amazon Subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud [caption id=“attachment_330209” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Adobe[/caption] Buy your sister access to all the high-powered apps of Adobe at prices ranging from $9.99 to $49.99 per month, depending on your budget. These tools will help her control every aspect of the video and make sure her effort leads to a presentable final product. Price: Starts from $9.99 (around Rs 700) on the Adobe site With these gifts, we hope you are able to add a bit of joy to your sister’s life and truly celebrate the beautiful bond between you!