A review of the social media presence of the Bollywood movie, Table no. 21.
Table No. 21 is a Bollywood thriller from Eros International released on January 4, 2013. Apart from the veteran actor Paresh Rawal the movie doesn’t have any other big names but if the critics and users’ reviews on social media sites are to be believed it seems to be a promising one. It is not a typical high budget Bollywood movie and it doesn’t seem to have invested heavily on promotional activities, both offline and online. Yet, it has done a more-than-reasonable job when it comes to its promotions on social media.
Table No. 21 On Social Media
The movie has an all-round presence on social media viz. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and even Google Plus.
The Facebook page started posting content from November 8, the day when the promotional poster was released and has been making efforts to build up the suspense. The page is more than 54k strong and going by the data available on the page the week prior to the release of the movie was the most ‘talked about’ and had a sharp growth in the number of fans. The timeline is dominated by pictorial and audio-visual content with a certain call-to-action in almost all of the posts. The cover image at present includes movie reviews by critics and media houses along with the images of the protagonists at the two ends. In addition, there are a number of tabs on the page which serve a variety of purposes.
Book Tickets – has a button which contains the link to the online ticketing partner’s website.
If you lie… you die – unveils the title track provided that you to take the oath beforehand that you won’t lie.
Unveil the mystery – unlocks the movie trailer only after you click and drag the knob to the required number.
Mann Mera – actually contains one of the songs’ video but its USP is its design. It contains Polaroid images of the actors on whom the song is based along with the lyrics
Which Table No. 21 Character are you? – contains a personality-based quiz on the theme of the movie.
Reviews – has reviews by celebrities and critics along with a ‘Review Contest’ for fans. The reviews need to be submitted in the comments section underneath powered by Facebook comments plugin.
The Twitter account has close to 400 followers. The cover and background images are done up well and the bio has basic information about the movie. Some of the Twitter content overlaps with the Facebook page content but apart from that the tweets include retweets of positive reviews from critics, replying pertinently to people who talk about going to the movie and other promotional stuff.
Table No. 21 is also present on Google Plus. The content is the same as on its Facebook page. Only 10 people had them in their Circles at the time of writing. There is no kind of engagement either.
The YouTube and Pinterest presence is on the Eros Now accounts of the respective sites. There are more than 30 videos uploaded on the channel which include trailers, songs and other kinds of promos. The Pinterest board, on the other hand, has got 13 followers and 2 pins only. In short, there is nothing much to talk about there.
Ending Thoughts
There was a definite overall social media strategy right from the start. If you discount Google Plus which has a far lesser number of active Indian users compared to Facebook, and Pinterest which has a small number of Indian users, the efforts and the results achieved on remaining platforms are commendable. All the Facebook tabs have relevant and well-designed background images. The ‘Reviews Contest’ which has a Facebook comments plugin is a good way to spread the word. Videos and other notable content are highlighted. The Twitter presence serves its purpose very well and the YouTube channel of the production house, Eros International, is right up there with its Indian counterparts.
However, there is one thing that leaves the Facebook page incomplete. There is no option for fans to post their comments on the timeline. This feature should have been there as that would have given fans a platform to express themselves and the page owners to know what people think about the movie.
There were a couple of things that caught my attention. Firstly, the winners of the Review Contest were declared in the ‘Notes’ section. According to Facebook Promotional Guidelines, “You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles (timelines) or Pages.” Though the general practice is to announce the winners within the same contest app this is a smart move by Table No. 21. Secondly, the cover image guidelines state “Covers may not include images with more than 20% text”. The cover image of Table No. 21, on the face value, contains more than 20% text. But in my opinion, this is a very vague guideline. Is there a tool to measure the percentage of text in an image?
Incidentally, there has been reckless disregard to Facebook Promotional Guidelines by page owners in the recent times but Facebook doesn’t seem to have taken up the issue seriously. So there’s nothing to worry about on that front at the moment.
So how did you like the social media endeavours of Table No. 21? Did you find anything else that you wished should have been there? Let me know in the comments below.