Building an independent agency is all about building your people: WeBeeSocial's Co-Founders Soumya Sharma and Shubhendu Jha

In today’s world, running and building a business relies on its core foundation - its people. And WeBeeSocial, a digital marketing agency in New Delhi, is the ideal example of this statement. Over the past five years, WeBeeSocial has grown from a rather modest size of two people and expanded to an incredibly talented team of twenty-five people. The organisation has gone through all the highs and lows of agency life - along with a worldwide pandemic, of course - and yet, has still managed to keep their employees at the core of their work culture and practices.

Their journey has been a rather interesting and exciting one - they kicked off operations in 2015 by onboarding their very first clients, an interior designer and a milk brand. Their outstanding work got them glowing reviews and referrals, and eventually, they moved on to work with clients like the Teamwork Art and the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).

“We are forever grateful to our first few clients for taking a chance on us, and giving us the opportunity to exercise complete creative freedom to come up with the campaigns we did”, said Soumya Sharma, Co-Founder, WeBeeSocial. “As we have grown and expanded, we have made the conscious decision to keep our people - our ‘bees’, as we fondly call ourselves here - at the core of our culture and operations. Shubhendu and I hold a strong belief in investing in the right kind of people, and consistently skilling and up-skilling them with the latest tools, industry practices, and ideation methods. If there’s one thing that we are afraid of, it’s stale and stagnant ideas!

“Creativity truly is contagious, and we believe that nurturing a creative mindset will always lead to creative output. To implement this, we have a strict hiring process in place - when looking for talent, we look for someone who is willing to grow and learn, and someone who understands that learning never really stops. This investment leads to some truly fruitful returns - we create productive teams that consistently deliver the best ideas!”, she added.

Working with digital also means staying abreast of the latest innovations and continually adopting and incorporating them into your marketing campaigns. Fresh news can become stale rather quickly in the world of digital, and it is important to keep your audience engaged with new trends and activities. This strategy is precisely how they went further on their growth journey. Dabbling and experimenting in virtual reality, applications, interactive UI-designed websites, filters, and more, presented both opportunities and challenges that elevated their experience, along with opening up more avenues for them.

Turning ideas like these into a reality definitely requires a team that is tight, in sync, and supportive of each other. This is why they have an efficient and systematic operating process set in place to ensure that every single brief that comes their way, comes to life in the best manner possible. Moreover, they recognise that up-skilling is key to building a team that is evolving with the times, along with the new technologies it brings - which is why they have been carrying out regular training sessions that cover emerging technologies to build their team’s skills.

“We work in a digital environment, which is why we’ve always understood the importance of technology and the growing role that it is playing in our developing world. But, I feel that the pandemic has made us all realise how important it really is - even for those who were incredibly averse to its adoption earlier. Technology has taken a front seat, and I feel that the economy as a whole has realised the importance of investing and skilling with regards to new technologies. For me, this is the golden era of marketing - it’s time to scale up the digital ecosystem and address our business goals with a new roadmap and perspective”, noted Shubhendu Jha, Co-Founder, WeBeeSocial.

“The learnings that we have gathered over the past year are truly the ones that we should be carrying on for the next few years. Facing a pandemic head-on and tapping into the opportunities it presented, rather than buckling down to the pressure, is what demonstrates the spirit of our team - and I am proud of each and every one of us, every single day”, he added.

Five years may be a long, long time for many, but for WeBeeSocial, it’s just the beginning. These buzzing bees are ready to take on the world of digital by storm, and these past few years of success have definitely been built on the well-laid foundation of their talented team, their incredible clients, their supportive partners, and the support system of their friends and families, too.