The Olympic silver medallist’s post got 2K retweets and 14.9K likes in two hours of it going live; on Insta it garnered 92K likes in the same span Netizens gasped as P V Sindhu tweeted on Monday - ‘I Retire’ in bold capital letters. It took some time for her followers to realise that the 25-year-old badminton champion’s three-page post was actually an appeal for taking Coronavirus seriously. She has spoken of being exhausted about people not paying attention to basic hygiene standards and having a lackadaisical attitude towards COVID-19. The Olympic silver medallist has about 2.9 million followers on her Twitter page which made the scale of the post even more amplified with 2K retweets and 14.9K likes in just two hours after the post was live. Her same Instagram post for her 1.7 million followers also received 92K likes in just 2 hours. The numbers are a testament to the reach and following she has and goes on to show the opportunity brands have in partnering with her.

e4m asked brand experts to share how social media is also a powerful tool in spreading a widespread message. Sharing his views, Sameer Makani, Managing Director, and Co-Founder, Makani Creatives said, "Sindhu’s recent announcement saying: 'I Retire' clearly demonstrates the true potential of clickbait. As we move towards a more digitally evolved environment, the attention span of the people has been reduced significantly. This has largely resulted in people just scrolling through without giving more than 5 seconds of attention to a post. Clickbait helps in grabbing eyeballs and attract more attention to read through the content instead of just the regular scrolling.” According to Makani, this post from Sindhu shows how her fans themselves assumed that she was announcing her retirement from professional badminton “whereas Sindhu was choosing to 'retire' from the current sense of unrest, negativity, constant fear, and uncertainty”. “This controversy on Twitter proved how effectively ‘clickbaits’ can be used in both a negative as well as a positive manner as it holds the power to catch the attention of the audience at once and manipulate the way people think and perceives certain things.” For Raghu Bhat, Founder Director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, “Clickbait is an attention magnet. It will create instant buzz especially when coupled with the power of celebrities. But it can’t be overused. It will cease to have any effect if people can see through the intent. It’s also important to close the loop in the communication. Creating intrigue to hijack attention is fine but the reveal shouldn’t make the reader feel cheated.” Meanwhile Ranjeeta Joshi, VP - Business and Client Relationship, 121XP explained the need for such posts in a the content marketing world. "Competition continues to increase in this cluttered world of content marketing, which means it’s harder to break through the noise and get yourself read. Clickbait is kind of a hack that could help you cut through the clutter. When done correctly, it’s one of the best ways to get people to take notice and give you their most precious asset: attention. Humans are curious in nature, especially for topics we already are interested in. As stated correctly by AnnGyn, No matter where we fall in the clickbait debate, we all likely can agree on the resulting principle: If one Creates the bait – great, accurate headlines that entice people to click – and, when they click, it does not disappoint them – have your content deliver on the promise."