9XM crosses 5 million fans on Facebook

The Facebook page of the music channel has 5,029,919 likes, with 290,750 people talking about it.

9XM, the Hindi music channel from 9X Media, has crossed the 5 million mark on its Facebook fan page. The channel has garnered 5,029,919 likes on its fan page with 290,750 people talking about it.

9XM had joined Facebook in January, 2009 but had little activity or traction till December 2010. In December 2010, the channel shifted its focus to build this community. "We attribute the growth of numbers to the content created for the platform. We kept innovating on the properties and changed strategy from time to time to keep the audience engaged and interested. The audience on FB have little time and multiple choices for entertainment - it's hence extremely important to get their attention to your activities," says Vibha Gosher, senior vice-president, digital, 9X Media.

As per Socialbakers.com, 83.5 per cent (4,194,609 fans) of 9XM's fan base is in India while Bangladesh and Pakistan have 5.9 per cent each (296013 and 294735 fans, respectively). Nepal follows with 1.2 per cent (61487 fans) of the fan base.

While on TV, the channel's characters like Bade Chhote, Bheegi Billi, Badshah Bhai, Falli Balli and The Betel Nuts make each song spicier with their acts, they gain traction on the Facebook page of the channel, too. For instance, Chhote's take on everyday things and Bollywood gossip gets a lot of laughs from the fan base. The channel has trained the team to stay relevant and current. Be it Bollywood, cricket or political antics, 9XM always has something funny to say and generate traction.

Among other Hindi TV channels in the music and youth entertainment genre, as on March 3, Zoom leads on Facebook with 6,338,312 fans; MTV India follows with 6,116,620 fans; Bindass with 4,424,010 fans; Channel V with 3,616,549 fans; VH1 India with 2,690,659 fans; UTV Stars with 1,831,930 fans; Sony Mix with 1,135,449 fans; and MTunes HD with 62,706 fans.

According to Gosher, Facebook is 9XM's single largest community on the digital platform. While the growth on Facebook has been gradual, in the last couple of weeks, the channel has increased its presence on the television screen driving interested audiences to engage on digital destinations.

"Everything we did on TV has had digital amplification and extension. While we created one Alok Nath video for Valentines for TV, we created hundreds of memes and pictorial jokes that we used on the digital platform. Our content gets shared regularly leading to more eyeballs and hence growth in reach," she says.

9XM has created a lot of memes to amplify the video release of "Bakwaaspan" Bade Chhote's Rap with Yo Yo Honey Singh! "We played around with everything, Bollywood dialogues and Honey Singh's lyrics. Our audience loved it all. We get an average of 800 shares per post per day. Approximately 8-9 per cent of our total fan base is talking about brand 9XM on a daily basis," Gosher adds.

9XM engages with the audiences across all relevant social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, Vine, Instagram, Whatsapp and the recently started WeChat. The channel's Twitter handle #9xmHaqSe has around 19100 followers. Meanwhile, on YouTube, the channel has 3,99,923 subscribers and has recorded about 150,85,796 video views.

The channel recently had a huge activation on WeChat where the audiences sent questions for their favourite stars in audio format. These questions were taken to the Bollywood celebs and their responses were aired on TV.

"We have different strategy and attitude on different platforms customising it to what works best on the given platform. While we're casual and friendly on Facebook, we play witty and intelligent on Twitter," she concludes.

All the social media activities of the channel are handled in-house.