Life's OK digitally

Life's OK digitally

When Harvard wizkid Mark Zuckerberg launched facebook in 2004, he never imagined it would ignite a revolution in terms of the way people communicate and share information.

Indeed, social networks have emerged as the next big thing after email and the Internet, and not just individuals and communities but even our television channels are happily jumping onto them for bettering their ‘connect‘ with the audience.

After demystifying the digital strategies of Sony Entertainment TelevisionStar PlusColorsand Zee TVindiantelevision.com trains its lens on the endeavours of Life OK - Star India‘s sister channel - in this space.

For starters, Life OK‘s Facebook page boasts 1,293,603 likes and more than 63,600 people talking about it simultaneously.

We also have efficient partners that understand the nuances of social media engagement and help spread marketing ideas across digital and social platforms, says Ajit Thakur

The page is kept up-to-speed with pictures, videos, polls and all the hot gossip, and shares links with the official pages of various shows aired on the channel.

In a day and age when 140-character tweets more than news make headlines, the plots of Life OK‘s many soaps are also tweaked through fan tweets. The official twitter handle of the channel @LifeOKTV is abuzz with nearly 20,840 tweets from over 16,555 followers at the time of writing. With instant reactions and feedback the staple of twitter, Life OK makes the most of this platform with timely tweets and re-tweets.

To cite an example, the channel created, #ThePerfectBachelor, for its upcoming reality show The Bachelorette India - Mere Khayalon Ki Mallika and garnered more than seven million impressions. So much so, the hash tag found its way to the numero uno spot on India trends, that too within half an hour of the beginning of the contest. It was only the second Indian show to trend for 21 hours.

#ThePerfectBachelor hash tag garnered more than seven million impressions

Life OK is aware that for a general entertainment channel, video uploads draw the most traffic. And so, it launched its official YouTube channel in December 2011, and has since uploaded 5,000-odd videos. Viewers can watch the latest episodes of top-rated properties like Mahadev, Shapath andSavdhaan among others.

To top it all is Life OK‘s official website http://www.lifeok.com/. As the channel‘s mainstay, the website aims to use all its other platforms to draw more and more traffic.

It is easily the hub of Life OK‘s online activities with web exclusive content including live streaming, picture gallery, video uploads, show trivia and a concert section. There‘s also the shows schedule for those who want to know what time their favourite show will be telecast during the day.

Says Life OK general manager Ajit Thakur: "Social media platforms are a great place to directly engage and interact with consumers. The idea is to leverage the various platforms to drive engagement and increase affinity towards our content. We also provide additional content specific to digital platforms for users who have supported us, or in facebook terms, ‘liked‘ us."

The official Facebook page keeps its page up-to-date with pictures, videos, latest buzz and polls

This is not to say Life OK‘s engagement with its audience stops at social platforms. "We are constantly trying to connect with our audiences, be it through dialogue on social media platforms or sneak previews of our content. With every show and channel marketing campaign, our digital spends supplement the print and TV mentions, thus creating a 360 degree surround across media," provides Thakur.

A shining example of the channel‘s 360-degree approach is the way it created the Laajo Ki Diary blog on four platforms including wordpress, blogspot, tumblr and Rediff before the launch of its show Gustakh Dil. The blog gets updated with new posts on a day-to-day basis, keeping viewers abreast of what‘s happening on it.

The website is decked up with web exclusive content including live streaming, picture gallery, video uploads, show trivia and a concert section

But how does the channel promote its online presence? "We have a dedicated digital content and marketing team, who focus their energies on creating interesting content for the digital audience. We also have efficient partners that understand the nuances of social media engagement and help spread marketing ideas across digital and social platforms," replies Thakur.

Just in case you‘re wondering which platform gets the most traction, Thakur isn‘t very helpful. "Each platform delivers a specific objective while facebook is a great place for fans to engage with us, consume rich media content and share with friends; twitter being much more time-sensitive, helps create buzz about relevant topics and shows at the right time. YouTube on the other hand is a great platform for users to sample our content (mostly short form content) and also drives digital monetisation," he says.

Well, talk about the channel being omnipresent in the digital space...