Social Media Strategy Review: Star Plus

This review is a part of our ‘Social Media Strategy Review’ series where we do a 360 degree analysis of a brand’s entire social media activity. You can read the reviews of more brands here.

Introduction

Star Plus is one of India's most viewed General Entertainment Channels amongst the likes of Sony, Colors and Zee TV. Once India's topmost GEC channel, it is facing stiff competition from others today.

It is a part of the STAR network which is a leading media and entertainment company in Asia.

Overall Strategy

Star Plus has built a sizeable community on all the major social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I did come across a link to the brand's Google+ page from its official website but it turned out to be a dead link.

Sizewise, the communities are great. And the content is primarily based on the shows it telecasts. But it is getting a decent engagement from its community, and we know how difficult it is to maintain a good engagement rate once the community grows to huge numbers.

Facebook

Boasting of a +2.6 million community, it has a fairly good number of people engaging with its content. As I said, the content revolves around the shows it telecasts. They are interactive in nature as the brand tries to ask questions and seeks answers from the community.

Source: Simplify360 - A Social Media Analytics Tool

It is a good, though nothing path-breaking, way to keep the community engaged with you. As you can see, they see a lot of comments on their updates.

Source: Simplify360 - A Social Media Analytics Tool

There are several custom tabs deployed by Star Plus which I feel is overdoing things. But the Dabbe Mein Dum app (now removed) which is meant for the Masterchef India show could have been a nice trick if it was packaged and marketed properly. Currently it is just a photo upload app but it has so much potential.

Twitter

I am a little disappointed when it comes to Twitter. I wanted the brand to make more efforts on Twitter considering how vocal the crowd is on Twitter.

But the same content that is published on Facebook is being replicated here. I don't see any special efforts from Star Plus to tap into the buzzing nature of Twitter.

Also, I am disappointed to see no active engagement from the channel with its followers. There are hardly any @mentions or retweets.

However, to Star Plus' credit, it is using the star power of its actors very effectively. They all have a good reach and are doing a decent job at marketing the channel and its programs.

Notable mention: They did run a hashtag campaign late last month to market the grand finale of Nach Baliye. I found that a spammy way to market on Twitter and you can read more about it here.

YouTube

One of the biggest YouTube channels for an Indian brand. I like the content that they share here. Not full episodes but they are good enough to give a decent teaser.

I would love to see them using more of custom landing pages and web-only episodes. As an entertainment brand, Star Plus needs to come out of the 'TV Channel' mindset and embrace the digital video revolution.

Comparison with Competitor

I am taking Colors as the competitor here because it has been giving serious challenge to the rest of the TV channels with some really good programs.

The content strategy for Colors is similar to that of Star Plus but the quality is much better. The interactive updates are more interesting and lively. Unlike Star Plus, the Facebook page updates are less about the shows and more about the lead characters which are, in turn, tied nicely to the show.

Source: Simplify360 - A Social Media Analytics Tool

Source: Simplify360 - A Social Media Analytics Tool

Otherwise, there is not much difference between these two brands on social media.

Comments on Strategy

I am liking the way the in-house team is handling the channel's social media activities. Though they could do more in terms of content quality and creativity.

Source: Simplify360 - A Social Media Analytics Tool

Otherwise the content will become stale very soon.

Feedback on Strategy

The brand's presence and sentiments of its community is primarily dependent on the show it produces. And people seem to be liking the brand (and it shows) on social media.

Expert View

This is a classic case of brand’s presence just being ‘managed’ and not ‘grown’. Looking at Star plus social presence one can guess that process of social media management has taken precedence over trying to engage and building an exciting community. Its almost as if the brand is bored with its own social presence and has resigned to doing the same things over and over again without being too innovative. Its convenient but not a healthy sign for the long run.

The mode of engagement seems more like a ‘monologue’ when it comes to Star plus without much effort being put to involve the audience. 2.6 million fans are of no use if there is no passion behind the page to engage and involve them. Clearly Star Plus needs to reinvent its strategy and take towards social and not be complacent looking at top level numbers of just fans.

Expert View by Rajiv Dingra Founder & CEO of WATConsult – An Award Winning Social Media Agency.