The King Khan: Pied Piper of Twitter (Bollywood)

IntelliAssist, 9 months ago, Tagged
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Many studies have revealed that Facebook is ahead of Twitter in India (in terms of usage and engagement). As per Ernst & Young's recent report titled 'Social Media Marketing - India Trends Study 2013', Facebook is the favourite playground for social marketers in India, both for everyday conversations and organisation of engaging promotions and contests for fans. My closer look at Twitter has been in line with the research finding. Additionally I have observed that clearly a few themes work well on Twitter; they include – Spiritualism/ religion, Celebrity news & whereabouts, Politics & Current Affairs and Contests. Another observation is that people like following people (rather than companies or brands).

As on Nov 05, 2013, PinSTORM ranks @DalaiLama as the top influential resident-India; second is @SrBachchan followerd by @iamsrk; 4th rank is enjoyed by the Gujarat CM, @narendramodi and then there is a list of Bollywood celebrities with an exception of a popular sportsman (read: cricketer) @sachin_rt on number 11. Entry of a prominent author/ speaker/ management guru, @chetan_bhagat is at rank 24, followed by a prominent movie critique, @taran_adarsh. Now I would like to pick up one of the influential celebrities, the influential politician & the influential management guru and review how they have been successful in turning themselves in to the Pied Pipers of Twitter. For my definition on ‘Pied Piper of Twitter’, please read our earlier blog by clicking here.

@iamsrk: Although Amitabh Bachchan is the most influential Bollywood celebrity and also a Blogger, I would review Shah Rukh Khan’s (SRK) handle. The reason is that in the recent times he has been in trend (positive light & negative light) many more times than Sr. Bachchan did! From the news archives, I figured that the King Khan joined Twitter in January 10, 2010 and crossed 5 million fans on Sep 22, 2013. His first tweet read

 

“Being extremely shy, I never thought I would be here (on Twitter). But my friend Karan Johar insisted that I should learn to share my life.”

 

The first tweet led to a swarm of fan following and when the count of followers was a little over 11,000, SRK tweeted,

 

“Thanks everyone, this is really sweet...didn't expect such a warm welcome. Love to you al.”

 

My Name is Khan was slated to release in February 2010 and since then the superstar has been highly active on Twittter! However in the early 2013, SRKwrote a piece for US-based magazine Outlook Turning Points. The Bollywood actor wrote about being a Muslim and on having a surname i.e. 'Khan'. But above all, SRK wrote about being an Indian and how his last name has created controversies over the years. The article sparked controversy with Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik saying that India should provide security to Shah Rukh Khan, leading to another one triggered by Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed stating that the star could move to Pakistan if he was not feeling safe in his own country. After this episode he went silent for a few days and that created news and his come-back was celebrated by millions! Before taking a break from the Social Media he had tweeted (on January 09, 2013),

 

"Sad,i read so much judgements, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net & i use to think,this platform wl change narrowmindedness,but no!(sic)".

 

Being on social media can be extremely tricky. While celebrities do get to connect to their fans in a more personal way than before, it also entails to facing wrath from those who dislike your work. And SRK has tasted both the flavors. While he is the Pier Piper of Twitter (Bollywood) his PIPE are his fan clubs (yeah, not one, he has many) and individual fans. A few active fan clubs that I spotted (in no particular order) are:

 

@SRKFC1, @TheSRKFC, @SRKsFairies_FC, @ShahRukhKhanFC, @iamsrkfansclub, @drshahrukh, @SRKOnline, @PlanetSRK, @ShahrukhKhan_FC, @iamsrkclub, @iamsomaSRK, @FadmaSRK, @iammirokhan and there could be many more! 

 

Be it his movies or daily whereabouts; SRK fans clubs have been very loyal & honest in terms of their support!  They not only shower love, but they also stand by him at times when other celebrity fan clubs spread a negative word. I had observed the war on Twitter at time of #ChennaiExpress release; many negative topics on SRK were trending for a while and his fan clubs did their best to stand by his side and finally #SRKPrideofIndia was trending to declare peace! Also, #ChennaiExpress, made Twitter history in India as the first film to be listed in the top trends for more than 10 consecutive days; it also become the first Indian film in twitter history to trend at worldwide no 1 with two separate hashtags #ChennaiExpress and #ChennaiExpressWeekend. And whoever may claim whatever, from my perspective entire credit goes to his fan clubs and individual fans.

Content of SRK tweets revolve around his movies, daily schedule, professional and personal pictures; occasionally he does RT and replies. This comes as a lifetime event for any fan; and very few have been lucky so far! Latest development out here is fans who do not own a data-enabled phone can now receive SRK’s tweets on SMS; to enable this service, they just need to give a missed call, at +919015500555. The vision is to cross 50 million fans in a period of 12 months!


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