2 weeks Ago
YesMadam? What's that now? Well, if you have clicked on this article then you already identified it from the recent ‘LinkedIn stunt'. The company was founded in December 2016. We first heard about YesMadam in February 2024 after appearing on Shark Tank Season 3.
The founders revealed to Inc42 in May 2024 that after the Shark Tank episode, “YesMadam website traffic grew to almost 10X,...
user base by 3X”. And this is still the last found news article on Google search about YesMadam before the LinkedIn stunt. In fact, even if you search “YesMadam + Wiki” on Google, you will be directed to the movie from 1985.
There's no social presence, in fact people in metro cities may not even know that there's something called YesMadam. So, did they have any brand power to lose in the first place? After the LinkedIn stunt, at least people will search for YesMadam on Google and many may opt for their services. News media has written countless free articles on YesMadam.
Social media is full of opinions on YesMadam. And the more LinkedIn gurus talk about marketing ethics, the better the reach of YesMadam. LinkedIn, among the last remaining sane social media platforms in India, has rediscovered itself as a place for aspiring career gurus.
Originally created to help people find jobs, Indian users have realised that it's far easier to get popular by talking about jobs than actually getting a new job on LinkedIn. 'Narayana Murthy 70 hours work week' keyword With Narayana Murthy talking about no weekends and 70 hours work week, these LinkedIn gurus started talking about mental health, work stress and work-life balance. If you come to think of it, YesMadam could have easily jumped on the “Narayana Murthy 70 hours work week” keyword.
But they cleverly did not. Instead they chose to do something wicked, as per the opinions of LinkedIn gurus. Many founders and influencers jumped on the “Narayana Murthy 70 hours work week” keyword to get instant reach.
But soon many realised that social media and news media are no longer interested in the same banter. In fact, the news media only restricted their coverage of the ‘ 70 hours work week ' keyword to only Narayana Murthy and simply ignored what other founders had to say about it. Realising this, YesMadam simply gave a new life to the social media conversation.
They “leaked” a screenshot of an email that the company had done a voluntary “stress survey” to find out the employees who are stressed and later they fired those employees. The entire conversation was around one leaked screenshot with names blurred. No one cared to verify the facts from YesMadam employees as no one wanted to come in between a viral story.
Come on! In India, controversies are made to make brands go viral. Can you remember how many times Zomato has been boycotted on social media? Or best, the entire bollywood mostly gets boycotted whenever a new film is released. So, you get the point.
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