Tag Archives: opinion

[Dailyssimo] Internet, A World Without Border

Analysis, Opinion, , , ,

Several days ago, I had a nice chat with a friend via Facebook, this friend happened to be a photographer who live in Bandung. My friend Fred is expecting his first child and he told me about his dream to move to Jakarta because he thinks that his career as a photographer has a more better future in Jakarta rather than in Bandung.

My conversation with Fred reminds me of another conversation months ago. There’s a friend – let’s say his name is Bram, who lives in Bali and has been wanting to move to Jakarta. He told me that the business climate in Bali was not that supportive. Bram wanted to build an apparel business in Bali.

Fred and Bram have similarity of pattern of view which geographically trapped them inside the location where they live. I don’t know about you but for me who have been practically breathing in the online world, it feels a bit weird if we are still trapped like my friends. Current condition of the internet is far better than when the first time I decided to jump into the online world (around early 2000), connection fee becomes more affordable, which means easiness to be globally connected is determined simply by will and a little effort.

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How to Approach Social Media… Like a Boss

Opinion, , , , ,

There is no shortage of social media “experts” in Indonesia ready to take your money with a one-page plan with a bunch of ideas that focus on “buzzers” and “community-building” with not much else.

Social media as a marketing channel at its apex is probably about buzz. However, buzz itself can be elusive and something that can’t be guaranteed. Focusing on it will distract you from the main reason you’re considering social media as a marketing channel in the first place – Return on Investment.

Whether you’re building an internal team or outsourcing to an agency you need to think through your options and know enough to intelligibly tell between contenders and pretenders. Below are some of my thoughts.

(Take it, it’s FREE!)

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[Simply Business] Startups That I Would Love to See More in Indonesia

Opinion, , , ,

Indonesia is unique, we are a nation comprised of thousands of islands, 70% of us still use feature phones and only about 9% percent of us have credit cards. More than 50% of Indonesians don’t live in cities so it makes sense that smartphone users are only 8.7% among 200 million mobile phone users.

Based on those facts alone, it should be obvious that Indonesia is different. We can’t just blatantly apply the same rules of startups like the Silicon Valley players or carbon copy the successful startups out there. Indonesia needs different or more customized startups, better suited for our unique environment.

Everybody will have their own opinion on this but here’s my version of what startups I would love to see more in Indonesia:

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Reputation and Assets On A Buzzer

Opinion, , , , ,

On the last day of Java Jazz Festival, I met an old friend who is now an Indonesian Android users community activist, Agus Hamonangan. During our conversation, he asked a question that has been under my observation for quite some time, about an activity that emerged as an effect from the rising social media trend: buzzer and also paid tweet phenomenon in Indonesia that leads to the trend of buying and selling followers especially on Twitter.

Agus, as he’s usually called, asked my opinion about whether the buzzer phenomenon will be able to continue along with the development of social media world. My answer was brief: as long as there is need then everything that can meet that need will certainly continue. It’s a simple economic principle.

I’ve seen that almost every Twitter account that I follow that became buzzer does not have the ability to maintain their reputation as a brand. Let me give you an illustration. Say, what do you expect by following a Twitter account under the name Raditya Dika? I’m sure you’d want to get funny and witty tweets that are uniquely Radit (Raditya’s nickname). So what do you feel when suddenly the tweets from Raditya Dika’s account start to packed with ads, with certain hashtags? Yes, probably you wouldn’t find this as a problem but many are disappointed.

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