What do Psy, Varun Agarwal and Dhanush have in common?
Psy’s Gangnam Style
and Dhanush’s Kolaveri Di
went viral on the social media and set the world tapping its foot to its rhythm.
Varun Agarwal’s blog and Facebook posts
were compiled to make the book, How I Braved Anu Aunty and
Co-founded a Million Dollar Company. These entertainers owe their
success in the entertainment industry entirely to social media. It brought them
unprecedented fame and success.
Social media in itself is considered as the biggest entertainer. But
social media’s power to influence and drive the entertainment industry is even
bigger. The relationship between entertainment and social media and also with individuals
consuming the two is quite strong. In fact, statistics reveal that while watching TV, 83% of people surf the
web, 79% visit Facebook and 41% tweet about the show that they are watching.
People go to watch movies based on the reviews in the social media,
reality shows are the topic of discussion on Facebook, photos from a rock
concert are shared and liked all over the social media and sporting events are
the hottest topics on Twitter.
Social Media and Entertainment
in India:
Today, more and more individuals rely on social media for deciding
whether or not to watch movies. Knowing this well, directors and production
houses are now using social media to promote their movies and generate a
positive buzz around it through exceptional engagement ideas and other
marketing strategies.
In India, Bollywood and Cricket are two of the biggest entertainment
forces. For a nation that simply swoons over its celebrities and yearns to get
every little detail of their personal and professional life, the social media
was a custom made solution. The celebrities too have made the best use of
social media. Most of the leading actors and cricketers are active on Twitter
and Facebook and they are among the most highly followed people on social
media. It has brought the celebrities and fans closer to each other like never
before. What is even more interesting is the active and engaging presence of
distributing companies, directors, scriptwriters, lyricists etc on social
media. Even TV stars are not far behind in sharing news and photos from their
shows.
So, at a time when movie-goers are turning real-time critics by
tweeting reviews, wannabe authors are writing their manuscripts as status
updates and musicians and theater artists using Pinterest and YouTube to
promote their works, we know for sure that social media and entertainment are
truly made for each other.
