Gobinda Tarafdar WordPress Enthusiast Interview with WPJuicer

Gobinda Tarafdar, a WordPress Enthusiast is with us today for an exclusive interview so without further ado, let’s hear it from the men himself.

WPJuicer: What is your background, & how did you first get involved with WordPress?

Gobinda: Hi, I’m Gobinda Tarafdar(Gtarafdar) from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Before entering the World of WordPress, served for a Telecommunication Company: Grameenphone, a successful business wing of Telenor, Norway. Things were so cool, and I was ok with my job. I worked there for four years in several roles, and my last designation was partnership wrangler. But in my mind, I want to be a Digital Marketer and Finished my MBA program in Marketing from Jagannath University, Bangladesh.

From then I was looking for a perfect match. But the situation was not in my favor. I have some online certificates of Udemy, Hubspot, and Google Fundamentals with no practical experiences in that particular segment. So companies were not interested in giving me a chance. But I didn’t lose my hope. 

I did a little bit of research on our country’s job sector, I noticed that the tech startups were rising. Among all of the tech startups, WordPress based companies were on the top. And I started to learn what WordPress is and how the system works. With the help of my friends, I came to know it’s not so difficult to understand. They helped me to set up my first localhost. I Got the magical keywords to surf on the web. At last, I installed WordPress, started playing with themes and plugins. Installed the Yoast Plugin to learn the SEO mechanism of WordPress.

Soon I became familiar with the World’s Largest and Caring Community, the WordPress Community. In the meanwhile, I found a circular of weDevs, a renowned WordPress based tech company and the most successful tech firm in Bangladesh, known by their magnificent creation, Dokan Multivendor Marketplace Plugin, WP User Fronted, WP ERP, WP Project Manager and more. They were looking for Digital Marketer Interns. I didn’t give any single thought and applied for that position as it could be the kickstart of my new journey as a Digital Marketer. Finally, they onboarded me on 1st June of 2018.

Now I’m a Digital marketing strategist at weDevs and solely co-ordinating a New creation Happy Elementor Addons. For representing weDevs, I got chances to attend three international WordCamps: WordCamp Ahmedabad, WordCamp Kolkata, WordCamp Nagpur. Also contributed as a volunteer at WordCamp Dhaka, and WordCamp Kolkata(2020, postponed due to COVID-19 unrest situation). Day by day, I became WordPress enthusiasts, and I started my blog Gtarafdar.com to share my learnings and experiences. 

WPJuicer: What should readers know about all the stuff you’re doing in WordPress these days?

Gobinda: I’ve already shared what I’m doing in my office. But I’m so much involved in the Community. Recently WordPress Marketing team started their virtual coffee break. I’m participating in them and interacting with the other members. Connect with them socially. You can easily reach me on twitter. 

A few times back, there was a massive campaign for mental peace and stability in the WordPress community, as there were so many incidents. Experts Talks about Mental Health on WordCamps. WP&UP also helped a lot. But I was looking for a solution. For better relaxation, people need a womb to share their inner feelings and thoughts, with no judgment.

And finally, I came up with a solution: a word sharing platform where anyone can share their innermost feelings and scattered thoughts anonymously. I named it Mrconfess. There is no limitation of sharing words. No hassle of unwanted ads, even though you don’t have to share your email ids, and as you will remain disguised so no one can judge you. 

I am now working on another problem-solving project, WPspice, a forum for WordPress. In my local WordPress Community, I found so many of us rely on Facebook groups for asking solutions on different topics. But it’s tough for finding the same kind of solutions from the groups. So people sometimes ask repetitive queries. And it becomes tough for everyone to help and get help. To help others, I’ve started to build that forum platform. Soon it will be completed. And I will share it with all of you.

Last but not least, a few days back, I was in trouble to find out the name of Elementor Widgets which I had used in creating web pages. I want to renovate my Gtarafdar.com and delete the unused plugins. But while I had started to develop my site, I was a newbie in web development. I installed almost all popular Addons for Elementor to build my site with the help Elementor Website Builder. When I wanted to remove the extra addons pack, I became frustrated and failed to sort out the different widgets which I used. I started to find out the names through the Inspect element of the browser.

I feel as if I’m facing the problem so others can face the same type of issues. I shared the problem with one of my best buddies, Obi Plabon. And I’ve shared my idea about if we can create a tool that will help all of us to find the name of the widgets along with the parent addons name. Finally, we have created a tool and named it Which Elementor Addon. It helps to find out the name of the widgets of Addons. 

Sorry, maybe you are feeling bored. But what can I do? Perhaps finding solutions now becomes my passion.

WPJuicer: How do you see the future of WordPress in the next 5 years?

Gobinda: Ummm, I’m not the right person to foresee the future of the mighty WordPress. But I can share my words based on my little experience. WordPress is an Open Source Platform. And we can see that most of the open-source platforms perform longer than others. Because the open-source systems bring like-minded people at one surface and itself creates a community. And the Community keeps it alive. The WordPress Community is out of the state. 

Day by day, you can see the WordPress become more robust with the guidance of Matt Mullenweg. Recently, the acquisition of Tumblr by the Automattic brings lots of hope to that ecosystem. 

WordPress always remains the user-centric platform, which is the main reason for becoming famous. Anyone can build their site with the help of WordPress, but there is a missing piece of full-page editing capability in the core. Now it’s covered by the Gutenberg Block Editor. Block editor is the future of WordPress. The people behind the project are working hard to make a handy tool for everyone. 

What you can imagine you can create with WordPress within a minimum budget, such as eCommerce sites, online marketplaces like Amazon, booking, and rental sites, e-learning sites, and much more. Experts are coming out with unique daily needed tools like ERP system, Project Management Tool, Social Networking System, and so on. So, in my opinion, there is lots of scope in doing business with WordPress. And if you are planning to start your business, then you can have a look at it.

You may find possible ways to earn from here. And don’t waste your time thinking about what will happen in the next five years with WordPress. WordPress will rule the web industry in the upcoming days; there is no doubt.

WPJuicer: Digital and social media marketing are already doing wonders. How do you see social media marketing in the future? In your opinion, what would be the trends in social media next year?

Gobinda: Before starting the main part, let me share some recent stats of popular social media platforms,

300 million users use Facebook Stories daily compared to 500 million who use Instagram Stories every day with over 2 million advertisers on stories as of January 2019 (read more from Facebook)

1.73 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users (Facebook DAU) for March 2020.  This represents an 11 percent increase in year-over-year. This compares to 1.66 billion DAU for December 2019. (Source: Facebook 04/29/2020)

There are nearly 3 billion people actively using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger each month. That includes 2.6 billion people using Facebook alone, and more than 2.3 billion people using at least one of their services every day.

(You can find more stats from here.)

So you can imagine there are how many potential customers are waiting on those platforms. These are oven-baked leads; you just have to push them a little bit to become your customer. People won’t stop using social media. Recently, TikTok has become another potential social medium to reach the masses. So many marketers already started using this platform to reach their prospective buyers. WordPress core now supports embedding TikTok videos. 

In my opinion, these would be the next year’s trends of social media platforms,

Rise of the micro-influencers

> About 22% of young adults from 18–34 years old have made purchases after seeing recommendations from influencers online.

And anyone can become a celebrity with one of their viral content. People are learning the way of the money-making process by affiliated with a successful business. 

Increase of the Social Media Videos

> People are now spending time on watching Facebook, Insta, twitter videos, rather than watching youtube content. 

56% of users use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat to watch and engage with brands’ videos each month.

So the video ads will be on the top pick of social media marketing.

More visuals engagements

> Andrew Ng, the chief scientist at Baidu predicted, 50% of searches by 2020 will be done through voice recognition systems or graphics. And it almost becomes true. According to Search Engine Land, in 2019, 48% of consumers use voice assistants for general web searches. I’m still looking for 2020’s stat. But I can assure you that the

rise of visual content is becoming familiar with social media users. 

With the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, visual-based content has massively increased in usage since smartphones now have access to cameras, photos, and videos.

These will be the top three social media trends of the next year. 

WPJuicer: With extensive experience and skills in social media marketing, how do you see their importance for startups especially e-commerce startups? 

Gobinda: Social media platforms are working as trust bearers for every organization. In my cases, when I come to know a new site or company, my first attempt is always to find their social existence. How people react on their posts, any reviews where they form, how long they are active in social media, and many generic types of queries instantly found through social media channels. 

The social medium can be the primary traffic source for startups. Their social posts quickly reach their followers. People pay visits to their official sites to learn more about their collection and upcoming things. 

Especially for e-commerce platforms that must maintain their social media channels. Even they can easily create their fanbase by creating official groups on social platforms. Offers, discounts spread on those mediums at lightning speed. Retargeting ads on social media converts the ads better than other ad platforms. So every company needs to maintain its social platform for branding purposes as wells as increase the chances to maximize their profits. 

WPJuicer: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are undoubtedly the most popular social media platforms. As an experienced marketer, how do you identify which platform to use to market a certain type of business? Can you give us some examples?

Gobinda: Facebook and Twitter are the best fit for communicating and connecting with people. These two channels are full of potential buyers. Only you have to find the best fit segmented group for your business. 

On Facebook, you can target your audiences based on so many effective categories such as demographic, age, occupation, interests, and much more. Any business can use it as their marketing medium. If you look, Automattic, weDevs, AirBnB, and other famous companies are active on social media. Hosting companies like Kinsta, Cloudways, and more are in the race. Ecommerce giant Aliexpress is also active in Facebook marketing. 

As with Facebook, marketers are using Twitter for their brand representation and connecting with other like-minded people. Anyone can use it for their business promotion, which means service providers, product sellers, etc. I often get ads from Kinsta, Hostgator, and other digital marketing agencies. 

Instagram and Snapchat are popular for media sharing purposes. I found Elementor Website Builder also active on Instagram. Design and crafts selling firms are also using those platforms. Recently, I found tour agencies creating Tour videos to provoke people to go on vacations through their tour packages. Also, few e-commerce stores directly promote their goods and brands through Instagram and Snapchat.

Popular brands like Olay, Lakme, and others interact with Influencers to grow their brand authority and make some profits through them. Instagram is now the best fit for cosmetic goods because so many makeup artists are becoming familiar. If anyone has cosmetic products on their stock, they can use Instagram and Snapchat to promote their brands or stores. 

WPJuicer: Social media is all about hitting it right when needed. Can you mention five essential elements that are bound to be included in every social media marketing strategy?

Gobinda: I follow the basic 5C marketing strategy in my cases. 

You can easily apply these in social media marketing strategies. 

5C’s are-

1. Company: You need to know your company’s
   1. Strength and weakness of your company
   2. Goal, objectives, and target
2. Customer: Identify your ideal customer group. When you know your target customers’ age, occupation, income, interests, pains, problems, obstacles, habits, likes, dislikes, motivations, and objections, it’s easier and cheaper to target them on social or any other media.
3. Competitors: You have to know the strong points and weaknesses of your competitors. Find out what they are regularly posting on social platforms, how they are interacting with their customers, and more. You can easily know the negative reviews from their social mediums, and then you can set your strategy to convert as your customer. 
4. Collaborators: In this case, you need to find out the social media influencers and try to discover how you can make them your loyal advocate. Also, create a post mentioning your partnering brands to form an alliance and give your targeted audiences a positive vibe on your brand.
5. Climate(Environment): This term works in a slightly different way in social media. I prefer here to create a content strategy for social sites, allocating budget, and resources for the plan to maximize the ROI from it.
   
   

From here, you will get a detailed outline of the social media marketing strategy.

WPJuicer: What do you look for in a managed WordPress host?

Gobinda: When I was planning to buy a hosting service for my websites, I came to know a little bit of Managed WordPress Hosting providers. I found lots of benefits with fewer demerits. 

Here are some extensive benefits which you can expect from managed WordPress hostings,

• Automatic Backups
• One-Click Staging Environments
• Developer-Friendly (SSH, Git, WP-CLI)
• Extensive Security
• Premium DNS
• Global Data Centers

WPJuicer: Who should we interview next, and why?

Gobinda: If you are interested in interacting with a WordPress Scholar, then my suggestion will go for Mr. Tareq Hasan, founder, and CTO of weDevs. He is the mastermind behind the success of weDevs. Famous in the WordPress community because of his awesome creations. I believe the dev community will be benefited from that session. 

After that, you can contact  Brian Jackson. He is the former CMO of Kinsta. He single-handed uplifts the glory of Kinsta. Currently, he is giving time to his own business. He also invented Perfmatters, WP Coupons, Novashare WordPress Plugins. People can learn a lot from Brian’s work-life’s journey. 

WPJuicer: We have talked too much about your professional life. Let’s tell our readers about your hobbies and interests. What does Gobinda do other than work? (Can we have a pics)

Gobinda: Ahhh.. finally, In my leisure time, I try to spend my quality time with my family members and friends. I create memes and share it with Facebook friends. Most of the time, those are in my local language, Bangla, so I can’t share it here. But if you want to have a look, then you can visit my Facebook wall. 

I often go out with my friends to do street photography. 

Here are some of my fav clicks, 

Now on my weekend, I tried to learn new skills. Spend time on checking new plugins and themes in the market. Trying to solve people’s queries on several WordPress Facebook Groups. Moreover, I’m trying to use Block plugins. And planning for sharing my learnings with the community through my WP Blocks Tuts channel. I’m also working on the Elementor templates, I have a plan to create an Elementor WebSite builder centric web platform. Where anyone can find all the resources related to Elementor. I’ve already started to work on it. I named it, Elementorians. Soon all these new projects will be live. In this way, my weekends and leisure time flies away. 

WPJuicer: Any other thoughts or things you wish to mention?

Gobinda: Best wishes to you guys. One day WP Juicer will be one of the renowned WP Blogging sites. Keep doing the best work.

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