Have you ever thought so? People who use social media and engage in it are people who waste time. If you ever think like that, then you miss something.
Based on Hootsuite Wearesocial research released in January 2019 social media users in Indonesia reach 150 million or 56% of the total population. The amount is up 20% from the previous survey. While users of mobile social media (gadgets) reached 130 million or around 48% of the population.
databoks.katadata.co.id
Social media players are often seen as people who do not have real life, measure fame through numbers, engagement rates and insight. However, have you ever imagined that there are jobs which only need to use social media to be able to pay monthly bills?
I am one of those types of people. I have been playing social media since 2008. When Google was booming, it was widely used in Indonesia. Gate of information widely opened. The first social media that I used was MSN, through e-Buddy (wow, you can guess how old I am). Then follow with Friendster, Blogspot, Snapchat, Plurk, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever account I have made in cyberspace to now survive on Instagram and personal website.
Initially, I was still using social media as a container for expressing and storing other digital waste. But I, who really enjoyed writing and reading since time immemorial, often used social media features to be more serious in writing. Whether it’s the form of personal experience, trivial writing, opinion, poetry, material of theater script, short stories, whatever. Until 2010, I used social media as a free time filler. My Twitter reached the number of 2500 followers at that time, then someone began to take a glance at my ability to write tweets. For the first time, I was paid to write sad tweets for teens. I am very happy, even though the pay is not much. I forgot what the username is, because it is often replaced and when I check back, the account is no longer there. In high school, I rarely play with friends in the real world, busy meeting my cyber friends and playing with them. In 2011 I decided to take a break from Twitter, because I was a little disturbed by my privacy which began to be difficult to close because people tried to find out about me; and I lost lot of followers then.
My ability in managing social media does not just appear. The habit of playing social media a long time ago has made me more or less trained in managing it. Learning by doing. My personal social media always has followers that are pretty decent for people who feel they have no selling points at that time. Then in college, I began to know photography professionally and was ‘forced’ to use Instagram to display my photos. In the end, whatever I disliked about the social media trends that existed, I always tried to follow them and managed to survive there.
My Instagram has not reached a high level, I have never received an endorse or anything. But the number of interactions on my Instagram is quite high. I always try to bring newness to my content, and that begin to show results. A number of friends and new people I didn’t know before are now loyal viewers of my content. This also led me to be able to act more in the real world, by making photo gatherings, the arts community, and personal zine publications that had participated in Bandung Zine Fest in 2018.
I have had very good opportunities since I was active in photography and maximized my Instagram. I can get to know great people and take classes from mentors who are quite capable, only armed with intellect and cyberspace portfolio. Speaking outside of me, there are very many examples of people who use social media and succeed in making money. There are very many Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) who only want to be paid millions of rupiah for a single Instagram story post. Now there are also emerging job positions related to the digital world, such as social media officers, content writers, video talents, and so on. I am currently working for a digital agency as a copywriter. If there is no social media, I doubt the profession above will ever exist on earth.
But can we suddenly have quality and famous content? Certainly not. Understanding of trends and what people like and need is a note. Strong personal branding will make you have a certain strength, which can affect anyone of your audience. So, if you think playing social media today is still a waste, wake up. Make useful content, influence people. Make yourself deserve to be heard. Be honest in creating content. Every now and then you may click on the bait, but you must be able to be responsible for your content.
Don’t forget to play in the right ‘pond’.
Puti Cinintya Arie Safitri 