Social Media Week Jakarta: Your Online Stories Should Create Good Impact
Jakarta. Social Media Week was launched in Jakarta on Monday as a reminder that even though social media can have many positive effects on people's lives, it can also easily overwhelm them. Cracking jokes with friends, expressing your political opinion in public, running a business – often you suddenly find yourself with little time left to do anything else.
The official theme of this fourth iteration of Social Media Week (SMW) is "Stories: With Great Influence Comes Great Responsibility." It calls on content creators, developers, marketers, influencers and other users to spend their time on social media for a positive cause.
"In the past two or three years, there has been an alarming increase of negative stories, think of hoaxes, on social media. SMW aims to inspire every social media user to bring a positive impact to society, even when you don't have a million followers," SMW chairman and Merah Cipta Media chief executive Anthony Liem told a press conference on Tuesday.
The event will bring in social media experts, communities and keynote speakers such as TV talk show host Najwa Shihab.
Anthony said he hoped the event would not only provide opportunities for participants to expand their social network, but also inspire them to be a positive social media user.
Bank Central Asia senior vice president Norisa Saifuddin said social media could be a great help for businesses, particularly in reaching out to consumers.
"At BCA, social media is a platform we use to gain feedback on our services. We attempt to give real-time responses to ensure customer satisfaction," she said.
BCA has been a partner of SMW since its first event in Jakarta, with the bank sharing the event's goal to encourage people to bring good impact to the public with their social media activities.
As a well-established payment solution, Norisa said BCA had helped to create good impact by encouraging positive trends, for example supporting the eSports trend among millennials by allowing them to buy game vouchers using the bank's payment service.
Model Nadya Hutagalung, a social media influencer with more than 800,000 followers on Instagram, a UN Environment Ambassador and the founder of anti-ivory trading project Let Elephants Be Elephants, said she uses social media to raise public awareness of environmental problems.
Nadya said she was concerned by the tendency of many social media users to fake happiness to get likes. She considers this an unhealthy obsession.
"Everyone can be an influencer. But we should not post fake happiness. We should post positive content, but with honesty," she said.
Meanwhile, Senayan City Mall's marketing and leasing general manager Jaclyn Halim said SMW is a place to exchange ideas on digital, brand and consumer behavior which businesses need to develop their business.
This year is the third time the shopping center has hosted SMW Jakarta.
"Customers are moving from brick-and-mortar stores to online shops. But at the same time, the trend now is for online businesses to open a pop-up store, or even a permanent one," Jaclyn said.
Offering a host of workshops and conferences, SMW Jakarta is held at The Hall in Senayan City Mall from Nov. 11 to 15. For more information, visit the official site. Tickets are available on Tiket.com or at the venue.