India is a “Bollywood crazy” country. In my opinion, it is difficult for broadcast channels airing Hollywood content to get the right momentum going on social media. But looking at what Star is doing with Star World and Star Movies, there is certainly an evolving school of thought.
Both Star Movies and Star World have a combined number of 340,000 fans on Facebook. That is a result of an aggressive Facebook strategy to engage and converse on a regular basis.
What did they do?
They follow a simple strategy of targeting users based on their Facebook’s consumption habits. So, if their viewers are available on Facebook during post midnight, they reach out to them accordingly. Besides updating the users on the screening schedule, Star has also invited Facebook fans to their office on a regular basis to improve its TV airing content through suggestions and recommendations.
Star has consistently invested in contests and applications to increase engagement. This has also helped to keep interaction rate high. Contests like ‘Be Like Betty’ encouraged fans to create their own magazine cover to compete a 3-month internship with Elle magazine. Last week, fans were also given the freedom to vote via Facebook for their favorite shows that they would like to watch. Both actions dramatically increased participation on their Facebook page.
There have been a number of interesting applications on Star’s Facebook properties, including ‘The Opening Night’ which gives away latest movie tickets and merchandise as well as video previews of the latest theatrical releases. Showcasing the Oscars also brought fans alive through trivia applications and contests where users stand a chance to win a trip to the 2012 Oscars in Los Angeles.
Commenting on Star’s next Facebook strategy, Star India, Senior VP, Saurabh Yagnik said, “Changes in our programming and content selection strategy seem to have paid great dividends. We will soon be launching a special Viewer Partner Program to engage our Facebook fans as our council of advisors on a month on month basis. We are hopeful that it will further yield results on our viewership as well. Our next step would be to grow this community further by devising more innovative engagement tools.”
Yagnik said both the Star channels listen, respond and interact with their fans on Facebook, increasing participation and dominating both the digital space as well as the English entertainment space in India.
An average of 12,000 and 30,000 new fans joined the Star World and Movies Facebook fan pages each month, respectively.
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