The Vocational Programme of Public Relations, Vocational Programmes Universitas Indonesia (UI), held an Content Creation Workshop on Wednesday (13/4). The worskhop, which mainly dealt with branding among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), was held in collaboration with IT’s Buah.
Vocations UI’s Content Creation Workshop was part of the community programme VokHumFest 2022, a community service programme run by Vocations UI dedicated to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) partners. The workshop was meant to introduce and inform SMEs on branding, characteristics of different social media platforms, and the production of appealing visual material. The workshop was also held, according to Mareta Maulidiyanti. S.Sos., M.M., Head of the Programme of Public Relations, “in order to obtain best practice experience from IT’s Buah, an SME that has been successful in constructing its brand through its contents. We hope that the SMEs will be able to keep on carrying out effective promotion after VokHumFest ends.”
The Director of Vocations UI Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D. suggested that the workshop had also served as a “teaching factory for students to hone their capabilities in public relations.” He stated that Vocations UI encourages lecturers and students alike to continuously participate in far-reaching community service programmes.
A lecturer from the Department of Public Relations, Dr. Devie Rahmawati, S.Sos., M.Hum, gave a lecture on brand building. There are four things to consider when building a brand: first, unique features in goods or services provided that can set one’s brand apart from competitors; second, accentuation of personality, advantages, and usefulness for consumers; the third is what she refers to as an ‘adhesive’, that is a force that can make consumers loyal to goods and services provided; and the last is experience — something novel and emotional, capable of fulfilling the needs of the consumers.
An explanation of the proper way to create social media contents by SMEs was delivered by two lecturers of Public Relations, Vocations UI, namely Pijar Suciati, S.Sos., M.Si., CPR., and N. Rangga Wiwesa, Ph.D (Cand.), CICS. SMEs which create social media contents should keep an eye on several parameters, such as the number of followers, level of interaction or engagement towards contents displayed in the account, and their relevance towards target followers. No less important, however, is the selection of social media to obtain feedback and benefits tailored to those running and managing SMEs.
IT’s Buah, an SME which has successfully built its brand through social media, shared its experiences with participants of the workshop. “The content employed by IT’s Buah, [taglined] #SehatBerdampak, consists of a checklist containing information for the audience, memes containing amusing photos or videos, taking into consideration trends going viral in social media, and promotion and education of the benefits the product has to offer,” thus explained Hamzah Parsaoran Sinaga, the CEO of IT’s Buah.
