Tourism Minister Integrates Big Data, Latest Social Media Trends in Communicating Policies
Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno at Podkabs episode 10
Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno said he prefers to communicate the Government’s policies by applying social media trends.
With the right gimmick and accurate messages, he expressed belief that the public, especially youngsters, will easily get the message.
The Minister made the statement during the 10th edition of Podkabs, a podcast presented by Cabinet Secretariat recently.
“If we lack creativity and merely communicate policies in a technocratic manner, 55 percent of our population, who are Gen Z and millennials, won’t care. The message will never be delivered as it cannot penetrate into their algorithm. Because they are online for 8 hours a day with 3 hours on social media, our way is to create contents that can attract our audience at the right time with an accurate message,” Sandiaga said.
The Minister added that his Ministry is harnessing information technology to improve effective communication in the dissemination of information.
“We use big data analytics to communicate our recovery policies [in tourism and creative economy sectors],” he added.
Sandiaga underscored that social media phenomenon can be an opportunity to advance tourism and creative economy in Indonesia, adding that creative content production is also a part of the strategies to achieve product digitization for micro, small, and medium enterprises.
“We used a lot of gimmicks at the beginning but at the end of the day, it opened up business opportunities and created opportunities, for example, like Alif [Cepmek] or Bonge at Citayam Fashion Week back then. They could boost hundreds or maybe thousands of other content creators, providing economic benefits that can be directly felt at the grassroots,” he said.
Sandiaga himself has a strong social media presence and is a user of both Instagram and Twitter. Through these two social media platforms, Sandiaga often shares a lot of information on tourism and creative economy as well as his activities as a minister.
“So, I am responsible to share the Government’s policies, communicate the views of the President, especially ones under my duties and functions, by using the unifying and educating words. I am also involved in disseminating some of the policies for the recovery of the tourism sector so it can rise stronger and recover faster, for the creative economy,” he remarked. (FID/MAY/JW/TGH/UN) (AY/LW)
