The commoditization of social media in India

Published by Karthik S on February 23, 2011 | 8 Responses

Yes. It has happened. Need proof? Here’s one.

The channels (Star World and Star Movies) have an online community of over 3.35 lakh fans on Facebook on the last count, leaving behind their competition and some of the news and broadcast portals by a superlative margin. The leading Movie channel & English GEC, now emerge as clear favorites on Facebook…

And there’s more.

The channels have not only witnessed an increase in fan base over the last few months but the total number of monthly active users have also gone up to 1,82,114. Every month an average of 12,000 and 30,000 new fans get added to the STAR World and Movies fan pages respectively.

Mind you, it is One lakh, eighty two thousand, one hundred and fourteen. Should we add a ‘only’, like we do in a cheque? All this is a piece titled, ‘Star Movies and Star World become social choice‘!

Isn’t it a bit like saying, ‘I have more beans than you!’

Quick question – when was the last time you heard any brand talk about the number of people they have in their direct mailer database? Or the number of page views their websites get? Yes, channels regularly talk about viewership numbers, but that is for the purpose of selling ad space. We all see through those ‘viewership’ numbers too…all that TAM numbers, I mean, but advertisers need ‘some’ metric to spend money, I suppose.

Back to Facebook. Another example.

After about 8 months of launch NyooTV is getting about 3K visitors daily and although the Facebook fan page is abuzz with 750K+ fans…

That is about a ‘Online TV’ startup (or just website?) that has about 3,000 visitors everyday, but has amassed 750,000 fans on Facebook. What do those 750,000 fans do for the website? How are they helping their business? By clicking on the ‘like’ buttons? By commenting? Yeah, keep dreaming that those 750,000 people are all glued to the brand, thanks to Facebook.

At least NyooTV is a newbie, but why would well known players like Star TV group share such cringe-inducing numbers about…of all things…Facebook fan count?

Now, let me clear one fact – I’m not faulting their engagement tactics and strategy. Both Star World and Star Movies are doing perfectly functional stuff on Facebook – interesting content for the TG, high engagement/conversatons and interesting enough promos/contests. But that’s precisely the point.

Most (almost) brands are doing admirably well on the content front – they may lack a larger goal on what that content should achieve, but the way the content reads on an everyday basis, it is largely faultless.

So, earlier these brands advertised. Because they needed visibility and everybody else was advertising.

Then, some brands started having a website. There were people looking up for things online and competing brands had websites too. Soon, a website became a commodity that every brand must have.

Now, it’s the social networking presence that has become a commodity. Every brand worth its name is present in all/most of the social networking platforms and do a middling-to-decent job, on an average. It’d have been perfect if it stayed at that point, but the fact that some brands do ‘press releases’ and talk about the numbers is…if I may use the word…a tragicomedy.

Imagine…I haven’t even started to talk about Facebook advertising and how it can boost fan count – that’s the NyooTV model, in any case.

The question to remember and keep asking oneself is, ‘What do these fans mean to my business?’. They could mean something if only brands cared to find out ways to connect the dots from a ‘fan’ page to real business objectives…all the while making sure that they continue to remain useful and interesting to those fans. You could very well ask if brands aren’t doing that already. They may be, but when big brands like Star embarrasingly focus on the numbers and not talk about what those numbers mean to them beyond a kumbaya-singing group, I doubt if they have thought through it.

From an agency’s perspective, it is equally important that a client listens when the agency recommends ways to connect the dots. We have had trouble on that front, but some clients are enthusiastically ready. There are so many ways to connect; tracking the views from a Facebook post to the corporate/ecommerce website…the number of people who used a offer from Facebook/Twitter to enable a transaction…the number of people who started in the Facebook page to reacha  download destination enabled by the brand…the number who did download the material on offer, subsequently…there are many, many metrics that could help business. An agency needs to be think beyond social media commoditization and help the client look in that direction too.

And no, I’m not going to claim that we’re the only agency doing this – of course not. I know a few agencies that are doing it already and doing it well too, incidentally. It’s just that they don’t make as much noise as the ones that don’t do it.

Pic courtesy EssG via Flickr.

Article written by Karthik S

  • http://twitter.com/11karthik Karthikeyan

    Hi Karthik,

    The most annoying thing is the press release sent by the agency marking the numbers they achieved in 3 or 6 months. Not a great achievement at all! And, they justify it for the sake of attaining google rank, so funny.

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  • http://twitter.com/Vikram_Deo Viky

    Very nicely written. Good insights and a reality check for all of us including the brands who flaunt their social media followers.

  • Aadab Mustafa

    this article is really good!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aadab-Mustafa/100002085674999 Aadab Mustafa

    keep them coming man!

  • http://twitter.com/sm63 Sanjay Mehta

    Not clear on this one, Karthik.
    I believe Saurabh has not just shared numbers (whatever be the relevance of the actual figures), but he has also mentioned the various pieces of connect between engagement on Facebook and the hook backs to the shows on the channel.

    There are enough and more things that he mentions that the channels are doing, and are in the pipeline to be doing.

    Unlike soaps and shampoos, a TV channel is first a content distributor if anything. And in a scenario where media consumption patterns are dramatically changing, new media is not just a place to go and drive users back to the TV, but to engage with, and allow them to consume media there itself! This is where the numbers are relevant for a TV channel, and may perhaps be just hype for a soap or a deo..

    • http://itwofs.com/beastoftraal/ Karthik Srinivasan

      I still don’t get the logic. The title screams that these 2 channels have become ‘social choice’. What does that even mean? Agree that it could be written/framed by the website and not the channel spokesperson, but here’s the larger question: what do all these numbers on Facebook mean to Star World/Movies?

      The word ‘engagement’ is peppered all over the spokesperson’s quote. And I have mentioned in my post that eventually, most brands on Facebook are doing the default job well – of creating interesting enough content and bringing them back to read/consume more content. But that benefits Facebook more than Star Wold/Movies.

      Some years back: ‘We have great programs and we get X number of mail every week from people about how much they like our programs’.

      More recently: ‘Our website is visited by X number of people and we have innovative things like audience polls where people vote for their favorite programs and time slots. We use them back in our content’.

      Now: ‘We have 1,82,114 fans on Facebook and we engage them with interesting content. We even have them participating in deciding our content mix’

      Tomorrow, Zee English and Zee Movies could say the exact same thing with, say 2,24,923 fans on Facebook, for instance.

      So, here are some random ideas for the spokesperson to make better sense of Facebook engagement:

      1. What is correlation between the number of fans – active or otherwise – on Facebook and the 2 channels’ viewer-base?

      2. Considering how myopic/controversial TAM ratings/numbers are, is there a way to find the real, ground-level viewer base of these channels since they cater to a segment that is most likely to have consistent internet connection?

      3. How many of these fans on Facebook tune into the 2 channels’ programs while being online? Is there a link between the two – or can such a link be actively encouraged? Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/business/media/21watercooler.html?_r=1

      4. What keeps the fans on Facebook glued to the community? Is it the programs on the channel or the commentary that is offered on Facebook? This is perhaps the first question a channel’s spokesperson should be answering and exploring, IMO.

      5. How have campaigns on the Facebook page, conducted by the 2 channels fared?

      6. What have the campaigns done to the channel? Have they helped the channel’s advertisers or the channels’ viewership numbers in any way?

      7. What is the percentage of fans that subscribed to/downloaded the applications put forth by the channels?

      These are just top-of-mind thoughts. And these can be derived quite easily if there was (a) a process in place and (b) if the channel is willing to think on these lines and (c) the channel’s agency eggs them to think on these lines.

      • http://twitter.com/sm63 Sanjay Mehta

        Karthik,
        Let me see how best I can address the questions that you have raised:
        1. What do these numbers on Facebook mean to Star World / Star Movies?
        Well, the numbers have come on account of content that is related and relevant to the shows and programming on air. So the presence of the numbers has a direct connection and relevance. That the programs being aired, and which then, form part of the conversation here, are creating the involvement of fans, now in an interactive medium.

        2. Co-relation between fans and viewer base?
        a. A lot of the discussion has direct connection to the shows being aired. “In tonight’s episode..”, for example. Participation in such posts necessitate a familiarity with the on air event. And the participation – not just in fan numbers, but in number of comments and responses – shows the clear connect.
        b. My point in the previous comment was, what if there is NOT such a big connect between fans here and tune-ins on air. The whole point is that the channel is a content producer. If it can engage x number of people on air, y number on a phone, z number on a website, and then some more on Facebook, around the content that it produces, what is wrong with it? The other choice for a channel is to get stuck to the TV screen alone, and risk losing those who don’t see that much TV anymore!
        c. This is precisely where TV is different from soaps and shampoos. You cannot experience the soap or shampoo on Facebook alone. And any FB number or website traffic means nothing there, unless it has a connect back to the store and product sampling. Here the sampling and actual consumption itself, can happen right here!

        3. To go beyond the TAMs, and use this base to get a better idea of the consumer base:
        Absolutely. It is happening. The press release is not the exhaustive summary of everything that is being done on the two channels, I am sure. Still reading from the website article itself, these are interesting statements:
        “Channel fans from Facebook are invited to their office on a regular basis for interactions and debates to better their bouquet of offerings on television and online.”
        “We will soon be launching a special Viewer Partner Programme to engage our Facebook fans as our council of advisors on a month on month basis.”

        Of course, more can be done. And will be done. After all, this is not a “campaign” that starts and ends. It is an interaction with the community that is ongoing, and more insights, more learnings will keep happening, I am sure.

        4. Tune-ins from fans:
        See 2 above.

        5. What keeps fans glued to the community? Programs on air or activities on the page itself..
        I am sure it is a combination of the two. Having said that, is it easy to answer this question in perpetuity? It is like asking a brand, ‘what brings you new customers each day – your product, your price, the service or what?’. The fact that there are many customers in that case (and many viewers / fans here), there are different things that appeal to different people. And if a brand or a channel does not constantly keep checking, keep staying abreast on what drives the consumer’s choice, they stand the risk of losing out. It is the same in the marketplace of products, as it is about tune-ins on air, and fans on a facebook page. Basically a moving target.

        6. How have campaigns on Facebook fared?
        I happen to know that most have done well. But again, Yashraj produces many films, with all their learnings of the business and understanding of the viewers, and yet, some films don’t work out. Not for want of trying. But somewhere the viewer did not find it interesting. Like there are no guarantees that all films will be BO hits, all FB campaigns may also not be hits. But as long as you have more hits than flops, you are on the right track, to your understanding of what works for your fans / viewers!

        7. What have campaigns done to the channel? Or to its advertisers?
        a. IMO, if one did not worry about these, at this early stage, there is nothing wrong with it. It is early days in the larger scheme of things, to necessarily talk ‘monetization’ if that is being hinted. If I am asked by the channel, I would say that it is a small investment (relative to larger marketing budgets) which are being spent to create the community, and for creating and listening in to the conversations, understanding feedback for the very first time, directly from the viewer! That itself would be a good enough first target, I’d believe.
        b. Having said that, again, I am aware that in the specific case of these two channels, there have been immense connections between “fans and footfalls”. Would like to share my thoughts on the subject, that I had presented to a SMC gathering long back: http://www.slideshare.net/socialwavelength/turning-footfalls-into-fansand-fans-to-footfalls-social-media-lessons-for-brands-with-large-consumer-touch-points
        This is happening with these two channels regularly. I think it will be on display again on Monday morning, when the Oscars are shown live and also followed on Social Media simultaneously..

        8. Percentage of fans that downloaded apps, etc.:
        I am sure there is data on this, but which the channel may choose to share if it wants to, at some stage. There are global norms on these too, especially for high fan count pages. The point again, is that one does not invest into apps to see that all or most of our fans should engage there. Clearly, if the channel shows How I Met Your Mother, Koffee with Karan, and Ugly Betty, it is catering to distinct audiences, with different types of preferences. Likewise, an interesting app will appeal to some part of the fanbase (and perhaps contribute to growing it, by getting new fans due to its viral reach to those who would be interested in the app), and which is fine. For others, there may be a poll, or a quiz, or some discussion, etc.

        Overall, the point I make is that the press release was not necessarily out of place at all. Also if numbers was all that the channel was doing, it was another thing. But serious interactive engagement is clearly seen, and it makes for an overall, interesting presence. And obviously, the matter in the press release is only a small part of what all is happening, and it may not be correct to draw the various conclusions, based on just that.

        Disclaimer: At this stage, it may be appropriate to share that our company, Social Wavelength, works closely with Star India Pvt Ltd, including Star World and Star Movies. Having said that, like the many other posts of yours where I comment, most of the above comments are part of academic discussion as professionals in the space, and if at all, I may have slightly stronger convictions on few aspects due to my understanding of the account. But the above points that I make would have been valid, even if we were discussing another TV channel, which was not our client!