Post Graduate Program in Management

Academic Year 2010-12

Summer Internship Project Report

Building Fox History & Traveller Community in Social Media

Company: Fox History & Traveller(C/o National Geographic Channel) Project Guide: Neeraj Karambelkar

Submitted by,
Jaswant Jonnada Roll No. 2010PGP143 PGPM Indian Institute of Management Indore

Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 2 About Fox History and Traveler ......................................................................................... 3 About Facebook .................................................................................................................. 4 Why Facebook can be used for marketing? ........................................................................ 6 Fan Page in Facebook ....................................................................................................... 10 What do Facebook users expect from a fan page? ............................................................ 12 Objectives of a Fan page ................................................................................................... 14 Suggestions for Facebook Marketing ............................................................................... 17 Fox Historian Application................................................................................................. 26 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 31

Introduction
As the time changes and the mind set of consumer evolves, the marketing strategies and marketing medium should also evolve simultaneously. In the new century, the marketing tools of earlier years can be considered obsolete. New strategies that are devised to anticipate the changes and adapt to them quickly can provide the companies better chances of survival. Social media marketing is one such great change that many companies have started to accept in a big way. Though, it is still in a nascent stage but many marketing strategists are already onto the next big marketing revolution taking place in form of social media marketing. The programs and strategies devised for Social media marketing usually concentrates or stresses on efforts to create content that often attracts and encourages readers to share it with their friends in their social networks. The message sent across by a user of Social media would have more credibility compared to the same message if sent through advertising, because this message comes from a third party in the former case instead of coming from the company/ brand which is the case in latter situation. The availability and ease of usage of Social media has increased. These days, Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With so many advantages, this type of marketing should not be ignored by any company. Most of the businesses, operating in any segment, such as FMCG, Finance, Electronic items, media, Enterprise solutions etc. are moving towards branding and marketing through social media. The Social Media platforms that are very widely used are Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. This document covers how, Fox History and Traveller can market itself on Facebook, which is one of the popular Social Media platforms. It also involves the details of the application which can improve the number of likes of the page.

About Fox History and Traveler

Fox History & Traveler is an Indian cable and satellite channel launched by Fox Channels (India) Pvt Ltd., a division of Fox International Channels. It is telecasted through the network of National Geographic Channel in India. It is India's only television channel purely dedicated to history, bringing the power and passion of the past to life. It not only satisfies India's ever-growing demand for historical programming but it also stimulates our curiosity to know more about our world. The channel aims to present a perspective of the world through the eyes of Indians with the channel managed and programmed locally in India to ensure a fresh and relevant on-air presentation. This channel is also available in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Some of the ongoing famous programs of the channel are: 1. Creative Vision 2. Trip of a Lifetime 3. Food Safari 4. David Rocco's Dolce Vita 5. Lonely Planet 6. International Terrorism Since 7. Lonely Planet 8. Prehistoric Park 9. Deadliest Warrior 10. Travel Sick 11. Earth Tripping 12. History Rocks 13. It happens only in India 14. Dhani Tackles the Globe 15. Endurance Traveller 16. Paul Merton 17. Market Values

About Facebook
Facebook (stylized facebook) is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. As of January 2011, Facebook has more than 600 million active users. Users may create personal profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information, and other personal information. They can also add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. Users can communicate with friends and other users through private or public messages and a chat feature. They can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" (also called "fan pages"), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. The name Facebook stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone who is at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website. A large number of surveys and studies have been conducted around Facebook some with interesting results. For instance, according to an internal September 2005 survey, approximately 85% of the students in the supported colleges had a Facebook account, with 60% of them logging in daily. A survey conducted by Student Monitor revealed Facebook was the most in thing after the iPod and tying with beer and, comScore Media Metrix discovered users spend approximately 20 minutes everyday on Facebook. Another 2005 survey said 90% of all undergraduates in the U.S. use either Facebook or MySpace regularly, and a detailed questionnaire analysis by Chris Roberts 4

revealed that 76.2% never click on its ads. Perhaps the most amazing statistic of all may be that Facebook is the 7th most trafficked site in the U.S. The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization. Another difference is the requirement of Facebook that gives users their true identity, a demand that MySpace does not and cannot provide. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text. Facebook has a number of features with which users may interact. They include the a. Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see; b. Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification then tells a user that they have been poked); c. d. Photos, where users can upload albums and photos; and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions. Depending on privacy settings, anyone who can see a user's profile can also view that user's Wall. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only. Facebook has struck a chord with millions of people, drawing them in to an online world where they spend countless hours browsing profiles, meeting new people, and exploring relationships. Any technology that is able to captivate so many people for so much time not only carries implications for how those people view the world but also offers an opportunity for educators and marketers to understand the elements of social networking that people find so compelling and to incorporate those elements into marketing and branding.

Why Facebook can be used for marketing?

Internet marketing is essential in the current days business world. With it, you will be able to reach out to more folks, implying that you will be able to have a larger share of the market. Today, most of the people now use different internet marketing tools so as to promote their products online. If you need to plug your business or your goods and services effectively, web marketing is the answer. First of all, you do not need to be a Web marketing expert in order to pitch your products efficiently over the web. What you need is to grasp where to market it on the web and how to market on the web. Try to think of an internet site that generates a lot of traffic and one that divides folk according to their interests, hobbies, groups, locations etc. This way, you will be in a position to know where you should advertise your products and services and you also will be able to specifically target the people you want to sell your products to. One site like this is a social networking website. Here, youll see that itll have already got the traffic you want and most will contain the tools you want to efficiently advertise your services. One such website is Facebook. Though plenty of folks primarily use Facebook to socialize with their buddies, you can also use this internet site as a useful online marketing tool. Facebook as we know it now is used by over 500 million people across the globe and is ranked as the worlds 2nd most visited website, losing the top slot to the Google. Branding through facebook is always profitable when compared with, branding through print, when we are targeting the segment which is accessible to both. The following are the reasons for the above statement. 1. Recurring Cost: To reach out to the same readers they reached earlier through print, they will need to pay for every new advertisement. In the case of Facebook, it doesnt cost them any money for a new message. 2. Engagement Level: The quality and quantity of engagement on Facebook far surpasses the potential engagement opportunity in print. Any company can expect proper engagement of their target audience through Facebook when compared 6

with print. The reason is that, there a platform that is provided where people can put forth their views and opinions. This is very difficult in print advertising because, there is no platform that is available for getting the response of the audience. 3. Visibility: In the case of Facebook, they have complete visibility of their audiences profiles while they get negligible visibility through print. 4. Virality: Finally, the opportunity of their existing Facebook fans bringing new fans or influencing other peoples decisions toward their brand is exponential on Facebook, but it is almost negligible or not at all possible in the case of print. Facebook gives a way for people to communicate with a lot of other people dynamically. For this reason it can serve as a great website or a perfect platform to announce about new features, competitions, discounts, changes, improvements, new products, events, group activities etc. Because of the presence of the feature that is specified in the above paragraph, it created a new way for internet marketers to reach out to a lot of people at the same time. In fact, it can be said that the presence of Facebook made marketing through internet much easier. The environment in which facebook operates, i.e the social media is viral in nature. The announcements that we do can spread virally, without any more effort from the source of the information or announcement. Lot of marketers have considered and are still considering Facebook as the best medium or website for advertising within an environment that itself is viral by nature. With the highly interactive features of the website itself, you will see that this particular website will be able to let you maximize your communication needs with other people. All you need to do is create a personal profile and connect to users. After doing this, you will now be able to share the contents of your homepage or your profile page in Facebook. The great thing about Facebook is that it already has the numbers. What this means is that it already has the traffic and also all those people you want to target and need to market on. With millions of people actively using Facebook, and people that are already segregated in to categories or groups that are based on age, interest, hobbies, location, place of work, community etc. you will see that it will make marketing a little 7

easier for you as you can clearly access the segment that you are targeting. This makes marketing lot easier, since you can easily access the segment and put your message across to the segment you want. Facebook is continuing to grow. Everyday, you will see that Facebook will gather more and more new members in different backgrounds. So, whatever you are marketing, you can be sure that you will be able to find your target niche market here on Facebook. By waiting sometime, you are sure to find your target niche market over here, which is not there at present. You need to consider the fact that every type of people in different backgrounds from different parts of the world is now joining this one of a kind social networking website. Another great thing about Facebook is that it already has the tools you need to advertise your products or services as well as your business website effectively. It has blogs, notes, and even news feeds that you can use in order to announce whatever it is you want to announce throughout your friends network. Facebook is a good spot to market services and products because Facebook encourages word of mouth advertising. If somebody is keen on your profiling page or the goods you sold them, they might be able to advise you to their network of chums and also their groups. This implies that the people in Facebook will be the ones that will advertise for you. Facebooks obvious domination resulted in gaining major businesses to use Facebook for marketing and advertising their products. Whether it is Pizza Hut, allowing their fans to order pizza online, or Betty Crocker discussing how you can make yummy cakes and share your pictures. This is the sheer power of Facebook that makes it more popular than Twitter, Digg and many other websites, all over. Lets discuss the Top 10 reasons, why you should use Facebook for business: 1. Owner of the largest network It is amazing to find that Facebook has over 500 Million global users, and growing. It is said that if Facebook had been a country, it would have been the third largest in the world. How can you miss such a magnificent opportunity of using Facebook for your business promotion? If used wisely, it can do wonders for your marketing.

2. Customized News Feed This new default news feed started by Facebook actually comprises of content that is based on users personal information and interactions, which indicates what they may like. This puts an incredible premium on posting and engaging content that will get comments, likes and shares. If you are not giving complete attention to your content, start doing it now, so that your brand or service gets the maximum exposure. 3. Average Facebook user has 130 friends On average, a Facebook user is considered to have about 130 friends in their contact list. This means that at an average, if 10 people become a fan of your Facebook Page, then they will at least invite 10 more people to join or like your profile page, thus, increasing your numbers. It seems small at first, but when users actually start leaping in, you will witness that the traffic on your page is increasing dramatically. 4. Brand Recognition Customers start to recognize you more, as they see or hear about you. Using Facebook means that you stand on a huge public platform, where every eye can be focused on you, if you want. Plan creative ideas, maneuver an effective advertising plan and initiate debates or ways that will enforce people to visit your page repeatedly, resulting in image building of your brand or service. 5. Almost 80,000 Sites Using Facebook Connect It is a smart and strong initiative taken by Facebook. By integrating the network closely, sites are making community graphs actually transportable. Now instead of going to Facebook every time in order to visit friends, one can access them through mobile devices or by following simple links. You can definitely grow your business and customer network. 6. Facebook Fan Box is persuasive The most prevalent and simple tool of Facebook Connect is a Facebook Fan Box. It is an easy tool through which email recipients or your website visitors can easily become your fan, and can follow your business page.. 7. Strong Niche Marketing On an average, a Facebook user gives 55 minutes a day to the website. If you want to be their favorite brand, be on their favorite site. This gives you a great chance to connect with potential users, and convert 9

them as your customers. By their daily visits, you can strategize new marketing techniques and plans in accordance to what your customers like, prefer and enjoy. 8. Effective Brand Monitoring Facebook is a communicative place to see your business grow, and generate results on how you want it to. It is a great way to keep a sharp eye on how your business or brand is growing. Interacting with customers is extremely easy. In fact, it allows you to counter misconceptions or negative comments or opinions about your company by directly addressing them. 9. Increased search engines rankings Facebook allows you to get high search engine rankings because it keeps all data public, unless you set privacy settings. This optimizes the search engine look out and reputation building. Using major brand key words, your company page can come up on top on Google or Yahoo search engines. 10. Bookmarking Though many social media websites allow bookmarking, they do it with NO FOLLOW link that limit their posts. However, Facebook allows bookmarking with DO FOLLOW option, so that your valued customers can read your posts, events and updates, and directly link back to your website.

Fan Page in Facebook

One of the features of Facebook which is used by many companies and brands to do their marketing or branding through social media is the Fan Page. Facebook provides the option of creation of a Fan page and also provides the tools that are required for developing the Fan Page. The best thing about a Fan Page is that it can be customized by the company or the brand, the way they like. They can showcase their products or services, through various creative ways, which could pull the customers to the fan page and would be influential in creating a positive impression about the brand in the minds of the customer. This positive impression can help the customers to make an informed decision, since now

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they know more than what they used to know. This decision can lead them to prefer the companys brand to some other brand. A Fan page has all features that a user profile has like a wall, info tab, photos and videos sharing capability, profile picture, events, option of comment and like a post on the wall etc. It also has some extra features like discussion forums, tabs or individual pages within the profile etc. To become a member of the page, the visitor has to just like the page. This would make them a member of the page and would be allowed to take part in the discussions and like the posts, photos and videos which are shared on the wall or in the Albums. By becoming the member of the page, they are now eligible to post their comments about the discussions, posts, photos and videos which are shared on the wall or in the Albums. The Fan page has a wall and many more tabs or individual pages that can be included within the Fan page. It is up to the brand to design the fan page creatively, and to decide how many tabs they include in the fan page. The best means for a marketer to market his product through Facebook is by creating a fan page and inviting the users, customers and all the people who either like the product or interested to know more about the products, to visit the page and like the page. This would provide the marketer and the users a common platform to share their ideas, thoughts, views and opinions regarding the product. The marketer, then can gain insights regarding the views of the people and then can tweak or change their product accordingly. This change done would then help the people get the product that they desire, rather than getting some random product. This would increase the positive attitude that they have towards the brand and can also make them associate themselves with the brand. The Fan page can also be used by the brand, to put forth their ideas regarding the changes in the product or service and gather the response of the users. They can also talk about the positioning of the product, latest trends in the market etc. to change the mindset of people. The Fan page can also be considered as a community where the members of it, who share a common interest, come to a common platform to share their views about the product or service in which they are interested in. 11

For a media company like Fox History and Entertainment, the facebook Fan page would be very helpful in interacting with the viewers of the channel.

What do Facebook users expect from a fan page?

From the users or viewers point of view there can be many reasons why they want to be a member of a fan page or be a part of community that share a common interest. In the context of Fox History and Traveler channel, let us explore why a person wants to be a member of FHTs fan page in facebook. There might be many motives for a person for him/her to be a part of the fan page. The viewer might have some expectations from the fan page, before liking the page. The content which a viewer is expecting needs to be provided by the fan page. If the content that viewer expects is not provided, there is a chance that a new user may not like the page, or there is also chance that an already existing user, might dislike the page. Any viewer, after becoming a member want to make use of his membership and want to know more and more about the channel, than what is shown on the Television. Many would be curious to know, what is happening behind the scenes. They also like to know some trivia or some sensational events that had happened during the process of making of their favorite shows. The general and regular information could be seen in the television, during telecasting the shows. They desire to know the information that is different and that is exciting, which is not telecasted in the shows. They want the facebook Fan page to be a source of receiving latest updates, which they could miss normally by not watching Television. For eg. There is an advertisement or announcement about a contest or a new show being telecasted in the Television, which the viewer had missed by not watching the program for his personal reasons. If this announcement is simultaneously made in facebook, he might know the information which he has missed. This would ensure him to have latest updated information. There might be an argument here that, the person could check the website of the channel for the latest information. But, there are many people who do not like to waste their time. They would be logging into their facebook account daily, so if there is a facebook fan page, they like to know more information from that, rather than wasting more time for logging on to the website. 12

The viewers might like the channel a lot. For this reason, they like to be a part of the community of the channel, so that they can feel themselves as a part of the channel. They want to associate themselves with the channel and what better way is present, than being a member of a fan page of the channel in their favorite social media website Facebook. They would feel some amount of pride by being a part of the community by liking the fan page. Every viewer wants to associate himself/herself with the channel and he/she want to feel himself/herself as a part of the channel. For this reason, they like to give their views, opinions and feedback about various shows that are telecasted on the channel and want to see their feedback implemented. To do this they need some common platform, and what better platform is there when compared to the facebook fan page. Sometimes there might be a situation where, they do not understand a part in the show that was being telecasted. They might have some questions regarding the show or else some questions regarding an aftermath of the event that is shown in the shows. They need some place to post these questions and get them answered. The facebook fan page can serve as a platform where these questions can be posted and they can get the answers of these questions. The viewers also might like to participate in the discussions that are there on the page, so that they can increase their knowledge and know about things that are not shown in the telecast of the show. They also like to showcase their knowledge about the topic, while participating in such discussions. The viewers might like some shows and want to see many other shows which are similar to the shows they liked. Sometimes, they also might like to watch new shows on different concepts which are not being telecasted in the channel at present. Such requests about new shows can be posted in the facebook fan page. They like to use the facebook fan page as a medium to request for new shows. Sometimes the viewers might have missed a telecast of a show due to their personal reasons. The also might have liked the show very much, that they might want to watch that show again. They can use the facebook fan page to fulfill these types of desires. They can post their request for a re-telecast of the show on the facebook fan page. 13

One more reason why a person likes a page is because his/her friends like the page and they might have requested them to like the page. They might like the page only because their friends have requested them. They can also like the page because, they want to increase the total number of likes they have. This only shows that they do not have much interest on the contents of the page.

Objectives of a Fan page

Ever hear the phrase Plan your work and work your plan? This couldnt be truer than it is on Facebook. Without a clearly defined objective, it is not possible to have a measurable outcome. These are a few of the most popular objectives of why we should have a facebook fan page. 1. There is another presence of the brand on the Web Creating a Fan Page provides the brand with another branding outpost on the Web where prospects, future employees, vendors, and the viewers can find information about your channel and the information about the shows that the channel offer. Unlike Facebook's personal Profiles, which are member-only accessible, Facebook Fan Pages are public-facing by default; that is, people need not be logged into Facebook to view the channels Fan Page, so even more people have access to the information you post. 2. To keep the viewers interested about the programs Fan Pages can serve as excellent medium to engage the audiences and keep them interested in the shows that your channel telecasts. Some discussions and competitions would help in engaging the audience and also raise their interest levels for the shows that are telecasted in the channel. The interest can also be build up for new, upcoming shows. 3. Increase Traffic to Your Website Fan Pages have no restrictions on driving Facebook traffic to websites. In fact, Facebook encourages you to link to your website of the channel from the channels Fan Page. Redirecting even a small portion of Facebooks huge amount of daily traffic to the channels website could significantly improve the amount of qualified traffic on the site. This can help in frequent viewership of 14

the website, which could be a source of advertisements and branding about the sponsors or any new or upcoming shows. Various methods and strategies should be devised to turn facebook members into fans, fans into customers, and customers into fans by crosspromoting the fan Page and the website. 4. Search Engine Optimization capability is improved Google, through its new Social Search feature, and other search and decision engines are now indexing content created on sites like Facebook, so your Fan Page content has the potential to generate favorable search engine results for the channel. By linking the fan page to your website, you can leverage Social Search to drive even more facebook traffic back to your site. 5. Addressing viewers concerns There is a high possibility that the viewers have lots of opinions, requests, questions and doubts regarding the website, shows and the channel. The Facebook Fan Page can be used as a platform, where these concerns can be addressed. If these concerns are addressed individually, then there is a high possibility that the viewers like your channel. 6. Engagement with the community is easy and free A Facebook Fan Page provides an inexpensive (free) alternative to implementing customer engagement on your own site. In minutes, you can have a branded Fan Page where customers and other brand advocates can post to your Facebook Wall, share photos and video, ask and answer questions, and interact with you and one another. Creating and managing a Fan Page, complete with a Discussions tab, is easier than launching and monitoring discussion forums or message boards on your own domain. 7. Promote Social Causes As a responsible corporate organization, the channel should have a sense of commitment for the society and should do something that would welfare the society or at least support or promote some social causes. The Facebook Fan page of the channel can help in any such endeavors. It can strengthen the relationship between the channel and society. The social causes those are 15

worth promoting are save electricity, earth hour, fight against corruption, compulsory education etc. 8. Connects you and your staff directly to your viewers and fans A Facebook Fan Page gives you a direct pipeline to your Fans. You can send messages to Fans all at once or target individuals or groups by country, state, city, gender, and even age range. Using the Events App, you can even schedule special events or promotions and then send invitations to only those Fans who live in or near the town where the event is scheduled to take place. By doing this you will be able to do free advertising of the events and promotions that you plan to do, instead of doing advertisements like putting ads in newspapers, hoardings etc. which are costly. 9. Strengthening customer relations It is possible to improve the relationship with customers by connecting with them on a social media platform rather than a business setting. This can be done by taking feedback from them and implementing the feedback, conducting competitions and giving the goodies of FHE etc. 10. Getting information to improve the channel In a social setting like Facebook, customers and prospects are likely to let down their guard and share information with you and others about channels and programs they like, good and bad experiences they have had with your channel, and their unfulfilled needs. Each time a Fan interacts with your Page, they share a wealth of information which could be used and analyzed to make the channel better. With the information we got, we can gauge the interest levels of the audience and with this analysis, we can try changing the programs to make it more interesting.

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Suggestions for Facebook Marketing

These suggestions cab be used for increasing the number of likes of the facebook page of Fox History and Entertainment and to keep the current members engaged, 1. A facebook app like Which freedom fighter do you resemble This kind of application is similar to the regular applications like which lord of the rings character are you, Which Star Wars character are you, Which movie star are you etc. This application would have some questions and the users have to answer those questions. Based on the responses that we get from those questions, we could find out some personality traits of the user. Then we could match the personality traits to the personality traits of an eminent freedom fighter. We could then post this result on the wall of the user who took the quiz. Looking at his result there could be some more people who would choose to take the same quiz, and find out the historian, whom they resemble. This would help in increasing the number of likes of the facebook page of the channel. 2. Update the latest information By updating about all the new events, programs and all other changes that take place within the channel, it is possible to engage the audience or users. This is a very good and efficient to keep the audience engaged. Make them know about the latest changes that are going to take place in the channel. 3. Regular Research on the Facebook who that like your page It is advised to take researches regularly, to find out the interest of the audience. These interests may pertain to the program that they like, the topic that they like to discuss, the segments that they like, the changes they might want to propose, whether they like the design or not etc. By the response of these researches, the channel can be modified to meet the needs of the viewers. Taking researches should not be very frequent; this would ensure low responses and cause irritation to the audience. The best possible duration to take the research is to take it in once in 2 or 3 weeks. This duration might be neither too long nor too short. By putting 17

researches for once in 2 or 3 weeks, we can get information about the views, interests of the audience. 4. Discussion about the programs After a program is aired in the channel, try starting a discussion about the program the very next day. This discussion can be started either as a main user (i.e the Fox History and Entertainment) or as an anonymous user who is the fan of the page. I suggest starting the discussion as an anonymous user, so that it would be like a third person talking about your brand. Start by asking some questions, and tell them that you had not understood, some part of the program, or a particular program was very interesting or something like that. Just start a discussion with a topic, which is very interesting and would enable the audience to bring out their views and opinions about the topic, program and the channel. This can help getting feedback about the program and might help in doing some changes and modifications that could be very appealing to the audience to for the sequel or for the next season. This information that we get can help us in not repeating the same mistakes that we did for the episodes of the program in the first season. This can help in improving the visibility of the channel and also to increase the number of likes of the channel. This can also provide as a type of engagement of the fans. The longer the discussion the more engaged the fans will be. 5. Provide Tabs for special users One of the ways to improve the visibility of the channel is to provide Tabs to the special members of the Facebook community. There could be a special Tab that is dedicated to the most special users. The information about the special users can be provided at this place. This would be similar to the Hall of Fame. These users can be winners of competitions, most active participants in discussions, can be one among the people who were in the first 100 likes etc. By providing them with a special space, they can feel they are honored. These activities would increase the trust and their friendly attitude towards the channel. 18

6. Provide Badges to users One of the ways to improve the visibility of the channel is to provide Badges to the special members of the Facebook community. It would also be good, if we choose to conduct a simple competition and provide user with a badge, if they win that competition. If the user sports a badge on his profile picture, there would be high visibility of the fan page of the channel. Looking at the badge on the profile picture, would increase the curiosity of those users. This curiosity can lead them to the fan page and consequently increase the number of likes of the fan page. Make sure that this badge is given, only after something is done i.e. answering a quiz, or something like that. 7. Use RSS News Feed To save time updating your fan page, you can create a RSS News Feed on Pages note tab to pull entries from your existing business blog. As long as, the blog posts are not overtly sales related, the additional content should be well received. Doing this would save the time in updating the information about channel on the fan page regularly. 8. Use the ROI related metrics that are readily available Facebook's Page Insights tools and dashboard facilitate the analysis of marketing and communication by revealing data related to interactions (Comments, Wall posts, and "Likes"); discussed posts, reviews, and mentions; Fan demographics (gender, ages, geographic location/distribution); and so on. These tools improve your ability to identify and target specific demographics and gauge ROI. Use Facebook's powerful metrics, along with information you gather from your Fan Page, to develop custom messages and talking points that speak directly to your Fans' needs, are suited for your community's style of engagement, and support your business's word-of-mouth goals and objectives.

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9. Different Pages for different programs One of the objectives that should be served by the facebook fan page is to provide information about all the famous programs. It would be much more rewarding, if the information about all the programs is kept in separate pages or tabs. This would reduce the clutter on the wall and would serve as a proper segregation for the programs. For eg. A separate page of History Rocks, separate tab for Dhani, separate tab for whats with Indian men 10. Make a group for ardent fans Engagement of the members of the facebook community is very important. There should be some differentiation done for the ardent fans and normal fans. Try making a separate Face book group for ardent fans. This might help them feel that they are a very valuable part of the facebook community. This can also help in increase the activeness levels in people. If there is such a group, many want to join the group and try to prove themselves as an active member to join this group. This can help in increasing the interest about the channel. 11. Make a group for people participating in certain competition or contest There are many competitions and contests that are hosted on the facebook fan page of the channel. There would be many users who would be participating in the competitions. These users might have many questions regarding the competitions and also about the prizes that they should be receiving. To post their queries, they generally use the wall of the fan page. This is an acceptable medium, but such kind of posts would demean the purpose of the fan page wall, which is to engage people in relevant and useful discussion about programs and topics. Another alternative is, to create a facebook group of the people who participate in the contest and ask them to post their queries only on the wall of the group. This could help in answering the queries of the fans participating in the competitions and also remove unwanted posts on the wall. 20

12. Use the events feature judiciously One important feature of the fan page is the events feature, where we get to create an event and invite people to attend the event. Users would be giving their response on whether they would be coming for that event or not. This feature can be used by the channel in its fan page. This can be used in situations such as during telecast of a popular program, during an interview with an anchor etc. This can help in knowing the responses of the audience and also their views which can be posted on the wall of the event. The use of this event feature should be very judicious. You cant just go on creating events for every program, this would irritate the audience. It is better if the events are created only for very new programs and popular programs or events, not for regular programs and events. 13. Provide Farmville points for the fans To get more number of fans, bait is necessary. If there is bait like Farmville points, many would come for the bait and would end up liking the page only for the Farmville points that are being provided. The feasibility of this idea is not yet explored. To do this, the third party vendor who hosts Farmville should be contacted and this idea needs to be discussed with them. 14. Share blogs related to History or traveling Since the channel is about history and traveling, one of its objectives would be to maintain the interest of the viewers on these topics. One of the ways in maintaining interest about these topics is to share blogs and articles about these topics on the wall of the fan page in facebook. The people who are genuinely interested in these topics would be happy, since they get to see lot of new information on these topics which are not provided by the channel. If the channel is not providing all the information, it would be good, if it shares the link of the articles or blogs related to these topics. The articles and blogs can be taken from websites like http://www.thehistoryblog.com etc. All copyright issues should be

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sorted out before doing this kind of activity, so there would not be any legal problems if such activity is done. 15. Send messages for important events There is a feature by using which, messages can be sent to the users of the fan page. The content of theses messages might be related to telecast of important programs or starting of an important event etc. One thing to that needs to be considered is that the message inbox of the members of the fan page in facebook should not spammed. 16. Use another fan page for branding Usage of the fan page of any other brand to improve the branding of FHT`s fan page would increase the likes on the fan page. Some other brands like National geographic channel, Hard Rock Caf have their own fan pages in facebook. They could be asked to send messages to their fans to like the fan page of FHT. This can help in bringing new fans, which are a part of the other brands fan page and not a part of FHT fan page. Liking these fan pages might also provide the required visibility as the users might come across your fan page in the likes section of the fan pages of the other brands. 17. Post exciting trailers Sometimes it is required to post some information about the programs or episodes which would be telecasted shortly. Right now, such type of information is wordy i.e what ever exciting is going to happen in the episode is described through words. Instead of that, it would be more interesting, if a trailer of very small length i.e 20 to 30 seconds is shared, it would help in arousing more interest in the viewers and users of the fan page on facebook. This might be bit costly, but it would definitely arouse interest which is more than the interest that is aroused in the previous case.

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18. Keep the fans engaged through discussions Starting a discussion would not only help us in getting the feedback from the fans, but it also helps in keeping the fans engaged. Here a thumb rule can be followed. It is, longer the discussion, the more engaged the fans will be. Try making any worthy discussion longer and longer. 19. Proper Moderation One of the most important part of maintaining a fan page is to moderate it properly. This is very important and utmost necessary, if you want the fan page look decent. Every post and comment made by the members must be read properly by the moderators of the page. Any comment or post that would demean the page, which could probably cause a controversy, which is intended to hurt some other person, or the channel, which uses abusive language must be deleted. Proper moderation is necessary to reduce the unwanted litter on the page. 20. Encourage the fans to post reviews Keep an exclusive page on the fan page in facebook which would be related to write reviews. Encourage the users to write reviews about different programs. Give incentives to the best review. Doing this would help to gather information about the views of the viewers on the shows of the channel. 21. Online chat with anchors There is a feature of arranging an online chat in any website. Try arranging a chat with the anchors of famous shows. Keep a rule that all those who wants to attend these chat has to login with their facebook account. Once they are logged in, with their facebook account, they also need to like the fan page to participate in the chat. This would definitely increase the number of likes on the page, as there would be many people who would want to chat with these anchors, and they only want an opportunity to do the chat. When this chance is provided, people would like to take maximum advantages of this opportunity. There is o hard and fast rule that, this chat has to be arranged only with anchors of some 23

shows. Some famous historians or directors can also be called to participate in these chats. 22. Request users to like a post Whenever you post or share something on the wall on the fan page on facebook make sure that you also add a comment of requesting people to like the post. Some people might like the post, but might forget to hit the like button. Requesting users would not demean the image of the channel. It is just like asking for their help in increasing the visibility of the channel. 23. Request fans for help Send messages to the members of the facebook fan page, requesting them to suggest their friends to like the fan page of the channel. This type of messages might be sent as messages to the message inbox. But, it should not be sent frequently. Such type of messages should be sent once in 2 or 3 months. By following this idea, there is a good possibility to increase the number of likes of the fan page. 24. Exclusive Landing Page for Users Use different pages to target different sets of people. Take new users to a page that encourages them to Like you or to a page they would find interesting enough to keep coming back. Members/fans can be directed to the wall or a game page that might interest them. Red Bulls profile page is designed in a way that users are given a hint to Like the page, while fans are taken directly to the Wall. You can get innovative in designing landing pages and targeting different people.

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25. Tag Fans in Photos To make the users feel as a part of the page or community, the most important feature that can be used is sharing the photos and tagging the users. You can tag your fans in pictures of new collections, or even ask them to tag themselves as a part of a game or contest. This can give a good publicity to the channel as these photos that are tagged would be a seen in the profile of the user. This can arouse interest in the users friends who visit his profile to view their photos. The same thing happened when Musician Lenny Kravitz uploaded pictures of his concert in Italy in 2009. He has uploaded the photos of his concert and asked everyone to tag themselves. This gave him good publicity as the update on being tagged appeared on the fans walls.

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Fox Historian Application

Objective
The main topic that the channel concentrates is History and Traveling. The fan page should also do something to promote or increase the interests in these topics, apart from promoting the shows that are going to be telecasted in the channel. The objectives that this application should accomplish are as follows, 1. To increase the number of likes of the fan page 2. To keep the members of the community engaged 3. To increase the interest of people in history or traveling One the main reasons for going with this application are for doing something that is different and which is not done by any other brand on their facebook fan page i.e conducting a weekly quiz to engage the audience. The audience would come to the page, only if they find it different and engaging.

Main Idea
The idea is to conduct a weekly quiz, which is based on history or traveler. The user will be asked to submit his information and answer the questions. If the user answers all the five questions correct, he would be declared as a FOX Historian or a FOX Traveler. This information will be posted on the wall of the user. This can be liked and also commented by his friends. If the budget is sufficient, there could be a badge on the profile picture of the user who gets the title of FOX Historian or FOX Traveler. This could be provide much more visibility when compared to the just posting the information on the wall. There should definitely be a trade off done somewhere, if the brand wants to get visible, then it is better to go for the means which could provide maximum visibility. If the company wants to save money and get moderate visibility, they can go for the means which accomplishes the above result. The posting the information on the wall can provide less visibility when compared to the visibility provided by the badge, but it is not costly. It would help a lot, if there is a provision to give different titles for every quiz i.e different titles every week. For eg. The person who answered all the questions correct for 26

the first week would get a tile saying that, FOX Historian of week -1 , second week as FOX Historian of week -2 etc. This can provide interest for already existing users to take the quiz once again and gain as many titles as possible.

How does this application help?

The level of difficulty of the questions that are asked in this quiz would be moderate. I would neither be very simple nor very complex. The answers for the questions that are asked in this quiz can be found out by searching in Wikipedia. This can provide engagement to the people who like to know lot about History or Traveling. Every week these users can log on to the quiz for a test of their knowledge and also to get the title. This application can also enable users to increase or test their knowledge about history. By participating in such competitions, it is possible that new users can gain interest in history or traveling and start watching the programs related to theses topics that are telecasted in the channel. This can also induce the category need i.e need of watching the shows related to History, within the users of the facebook fan page. After a user takes the quiz and gets the title, the information about this title would be posted on the wall of the user. This wall post can be liked by somebody or somebody might comment on this one. This feature can provide the virality for this application. The users, who visits the wall of the person who gets the title would be interested in the application, and would land on the fan page and take the quiz and to get the title. Once they land on the fan page, they could like it and become a member of the FHT community. So, by this way, this application can increase the number of likes of the FHT fan page on facebook.

Ways to improve this application

There is a possibility of improving the application, which would provide much greater visibility to the audience and greater engagement of the members of the community. The ways by which this can be improved is 1. Instead of just posting on the wall which provides limited visibility, badges can be provided to get more visibility. But this definitely involves, some spending to be 27

done. There should definitely be a trade off done somewhere, if the brand wants to get more visible, then it is better to go for the means which could provide maximum visibility. If the company wants to save money and get moderate visibility, they can go for the means which accomplishes the required result. 2. It would help a lot, if there is a provision to give different titles for every quiz i.e different titles every week. For eg. The person who answered all the questions correct for the first week would get a tile saying that, FOX Historian of week -1 , second week as FOX Historian of week -2 etc. This can provide interest for already existing users to take the quiz once again and gain as many titles as possible. 3. Whenever the user gets a title, there could be a provision where a photo could be updated in an Album by the name FOX Historian or FOX traveler, in the photos shared by users. This can also act as a medium of visibility. The users who view the photos of the user who got the title might have a look at the FOX historian photos, might get interested in this and might visit the fan page out of enthusiasm. 4. The updating of photos in the Album of the users who get the title can also have one more use. This can also serve as a collection of titles for the users who take more than one quizzes. Later, the channel can reward the person with maximum titles with some FHT goodies.

Promotion of the Application

The promotion can be done by posting on the wall of the fan page. Since this application has the element of virality in it, this kind of promotion would be enough. If felt required, the channel go for promotion through the shows that are telecasted in the channel. The advertising can be done through Astons or bugs that come during the shows.

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Look of the application

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Future of the Application

This application is planned to be a weekly quiz, which would be beneficial in engaging the audience and also to increase the number of likes of the fan page. Observe the responses for this quiz for some duration. Ask the users for feedback about this application. If the users feel that the number of questions is very high, the channel needs to use their discretion and reduce the number of the questions to either 3 or 4. But this should be done, only after getting the required feedback from the users. Based on the responses and feedback of the users, the channel can use their discretion and change the design, layout, level of the questions etc. But make sure that, you make a good and proper analysis of the feedback that the users give regarding the application. In the future, the channel also can follow the ways to improve the application that are mentioned in one of the sections above which is titled Ways to improve the application. Once again, the decision about this should be taken after thorough analysis of the feedback that is received from the users. The channel is planning to concentrate more on travel shows than History. For this, it makes sense to use their discretion and change this quiz to Travel quiz. After changing, the user who takes the traveling quiz would get the title FOX Traveler. The decision when to change the quiz to a Travel quiz depends on the strategies that are made by channel. This is a decision that should be taken by the channel by taking into account all the factors that influence this decision. These factors are corporate strategies, popularity of the application, rate at which likes are increasing due to this application, number of likes on the page, budget required for implementing the new ideas, presence of any other shows that are going on at that point of time etc.

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Conclusion
There is much more to marketing on Facebook than just creating a profile. Keeping your fans engaged is the key. Dont be a brand, but be a community the users love being a part of. A Fan page in a large social network like Facebook can give the brand a perfect platform to communicate and engage with the users of the brand, but this should not be used just for promoting the products or shows that are made by the brand or telecasted by the channel. There is much more to it. Creating interest about the topic, talking about latest trends, promoting for social causes etc. can be done through this medium. The platform should not be misused or over used. Increasing the likes of the fan page would be the main intention of a Facebook marketer, but apart from that, they should also do something to take care of the existing members of the page, by keeping them engaged. Do not wait for the fans to cross a fixed threshold to start engaging them. Start the implementation of the ideas, which were planned to engage the audience ASAP. This can also be instrumental in increasing the number of likes of the page. In this vast social networking platform, where there are over 3 million fan pages and, where a user can like up to 500 pages, there should be something different and engaging in the page for a user to like it and follow it. Hence it makes sense to make something different than other brands to get the interest of the user. Be different to be special, and always remember The audience doesnt come looking for us. We need to go looking for the audience.

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