Raconteur

1. Adele: The Hoax by Yuma Maharani

The ever-popular Adele is coming to hold a concert in Jakarta? This week, the timeline was full of onliners seeking the truth about the rumor. It all started when a Twitter account, JonJony Entertainment  (@Jojo_Live_asia) broke the news about Adele’s concert in Jakarta and even posted the ticket prices.

However, suspicions arose since the name of the music-promoter was unknown to Indonesian concert lovers. Onliners started to assume that this account wasn’t legit, especially due to the lousy grammar the account was using.

 

 

Only a few hours later, JonJony Entertainment admitted that they had made a mistake, and apologized to their followers. “You can unfollow or block this account if you like,” they said on their Twitter account—that now had been deleted.

Despite the argument on whether JonJony Entertainment did exist or just a made-up account, the lesson here is to take into serious considerations how fast rumors can spread through social media (even when people had have had suspicions about the veracity). Monitoring social media on a daily basis is important to keep you alert on the latest rumors that might hit your brand when you least expect it. The faster you catch this rumor and clarify it, there’s a bigger possibility for you to stop the rumor from spreading even wider.

 

 

2. Fire in Senayan City by Daniel Nugroho

When it comes to monitor social media and respond to rumors, Senayan City—a premiere shopping mall in Jakarta, had put it into practice. On Wednesday night, the news about a fire in Senayan City spread widely via Twitter—a perfect combination of citizen journalism and the viral effect of social media. There’s a certain satisfaction in becoming the first to break the news to others.

 

@SherlySly first tweeted this issue and provided a picture—that got more than 11,000 views. This was an impressive number considering that @SherlySly only has 76 followers.

Kudos to @SenayanCity who caught this issue, and provided quick response on their Twitter account. Turned out the fire came from a façade lamp of their tenant.  None was injured, and the incident didn’t disrupt the operation of the mall. The mall’s Twitter account, with 9,800 followers, had managed to spread this clarification to the Twitter timeline and had succeeded in muffling the negative impact of the incident.

 

3. #KONY2012 Campaign by Astari Laksmiwati

Early March, all eyes were set on Uganda as the hashtag #KONY2012 and #stopKony flooded the Twitter timeline. “Kony” refers to Joseph Kony, Ugandan rebellious leader accused for war crimes; child abduction; and murder. It all began with a video made by Jason Russell, as a part of Invisible Children organization’ awareness campaign, to let people know about Kony and his violence. When the video got tweeted by Hollywood celebrities such as @JustinBieber and @OprahWinfrey, the news spread in a blink of an eye, and soon enough, it reached Indonesian onliners. Mashable wrote that #KONY2012 is the most viral video in history, with 100 million views in only a week.

 

As Kony came into the spotlight, responses and criticism towards the campaign surfaced. From Clicktivism critics to Invisible Children’s lack of accountability to the debate on how the fund raised from this campaign would be allocated and the conspiracy theories involving oil and politics, now the campaign’s credibility was challenged. You can read the full criticism on the campaign here , here and here.

 

Despite the criticisms, if the sole objective of the Kony campaign is to reach awareness, the campaign was a major success. When a video (or a story) was told in such a way that moved people and touched them emotionally, you’d find them not being able to resist themselves from sharing it. Surely, Kony video had managed to hit the right spot: the ‘share’ button. However, when we’re talking about the sustainability of a campaign as a long-term effort, the next thing to consider is: what to do after the ‘awareness’ stage? How to address the criticism and negative comments that hit you from various directions? For a long-term commitment, multidimensional aspect should come into the picture. It wasn’t only about ‘word of mouth’, full stop. As Jeremy Heimans once said, ‘You can’t (only) hashtag your way through social change’. What about your brands? Once you’ve passed the awareness stage, what’s next?

4. Jakarta 7 – 4 London by Muhammad Daud

Last Thursday (15/3), the England soccer team, Chelsea won 4 – 1 over the Italian team, Napoli. Held in Chelsea’s stadium, Stamford Bridge, it was interesting not only to keep your eye on the match, but also to the list of Twitter trending topics.

 

Jakarta won 7 – 4 over London. The conversation about the match was generating 7 related trending topics from Jakarta and only 4 from London.

 

The love of soccer among Indonesians is not something new. It can always be predicted that when a soccer match is happening, it will ride its way to the trending topics. Some of Indonesian media realized this “opportunity” and created their special account for soccer lovers. Kompas has @kompasbola, Detik.com has @detikfootball, and other publications are also taking care of their own soccer-related Twitter account. Are there any brands out there that would like to tap into this segment and starting a campaign directed toward soccer fans?

5. Holycow’s Holy Ways by Hanny Kusumawati

For those of you who reside in Jakarta, you might have heard or dined at Holycow Steak (@holycowsteak). Last Thursday (15/3), Twitter timeline was flooded with birthday wishes for the steak restaurant, that was celebrating its 2^nd birthday. Wishes also came from some celebrities and influencers, making the conversation “louder”. Holycow Steak is a great example on how a small business can work its way through social media. Founded by presenter Lucy Wiryono (@lucywiryono) and her husband Afit (@aafit), the steak restaurant is now having more than 28,000 followers on Twitter with only 3 outlets: in Radio Dalam, Senopati and one in Singapore. An impressive number if you compared it to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s. With more than 350 outlets all across Indonesia, they only have 27,000 followers—even lower from Holycow Steak.

 

This is a perfect example on how a brand’s spirit is more valuable than the number of outlets when it comes to social media. Holycow Steak started small, with only one outlet in Radio Dalam, but the interaction and engagement they made through social media made onliners feel close to them.  From the language used (they call their followers ‘Carnivores’), to the fast and friendly response to questions and complaints, cross-platform promo (free tiramisu if you dine at our place and tweet about it) to free steak for ‘the birthday carnivores’, Holycow Steak shows us the holy ways in using social media. It’s something that a lot of small businesses and brands can also learn from.