Aaj Tak invites people to see their pictures on air

The initiative launched by the Hindi news channel of the India Today Group attempts to lure people to its Facebook page.

In a first of its kind initiative, Hindi news channel Aaj Tak is inviting people to 'like' its Facebook page, and in return get a chance to see their picture on the channel. The campaign aims to create a buzz on the social networking platform and continue the dialogue.

The initiative began on July 11 and will run for four weeks. Since its inception, the channel has added more than 4,38,698 fans to its already million plus fan network on Facebook.

As people like the page, the pictures of the fans are chosen directly by the system and run throughout the day on the ticker.

The question is, why does a television channel need to engage people on Facebook?

Speaking on the subject, Ashish Bagga, group CEO, India Today Group, says, "This initiative solves two purposes for us. We are not only bringing the social media audiences to TV but we are also connecting the TV audience with our Facebook Fan Page. This is a perfect marriage between TV and digital. As India's No. 1 Hindi news channel, we would like to reach out to our audiences across all the new platforms they are on."

Aaj Tak is also the only Hindi news channel to have more than one million fans on its Facebook page. The initiative, says the channel, also aims to celebrate the success with its fans.

The channel is promoting the campaign through its websites, social media updates on Facebook and Twitter and will soon come up with a promo. The initiative will also be carried on the ticker of the channel across the day.

Bagga adds that the biggest engagement is to directly approach the fan and thank him/her for the faith and following. However, while both, the existing fans and new fans are entitled to some exclusive goodies, they also stand a chance to visit the Aaj Tak office and meet one of their favourite Aaj Tak anchors over a cup of coffee.

The channel is also offering the participants a free digital magazine subscription and discount coupons for its online TV anchoring courses.

Aaj Tak was launched in 2000 as a 24-hour news channel from the bouquet of TV Today Network. Some of the other channels from the group are Headlines Today, Tez and Dilli Aaj Tak.