[Dailyssimo] Election on Social Media

For citizen of Jakarta, last July 11, 2012 is a day that attracts quite large attention because it was the day of the election for the new governor and vice-governor for Jakarta. The win of Jokowi-Ahok in the first round is quite surprising for many parties, but truthfully, said pairing is quite prominent after Foke-Nara pair. Then what about the cyber space? What happened? I will try to analyze the monitoring result by our friends on Saling-Silang which infographic can be seen here.

Based on the monitoring result of SX Index team, it is recorded that No. 5 pair (Faisal Basri and Biem Benyamin) manage to collect the highest positive sentiment of 92.43% while the next in line is Alex Noerdin and Nono Sampono pair with 84.49%. Hidayat Nur Wahid–Didik J. Rachbini 79.91%, Hendardji Supandji–Achmad Riza Patria 78.59%, Joko Widodo–Basuki Tjahja Purnama (Ahok) 78.27% and lastly, Fauzi Bowo–Nachrowi Ramli pair with 70.98%.

This result is very different with the reality. Yes, because many forget that the percentage of internet user in Indonesia is only 23% of Indonesian population and mainly focused in the big cities, and only 4.1% is in the rural area (data can be seen here). This means the success in social media is not valid to be an accurate prediction of the total result. But if we rule out the sentiment happened in the conversation, the buzz is quite representative. In the infographic, highest buzz is for Jokowi-Ahok pair and Foke-Nara. This means, both pair candidates manage to flood Twitter timeline with whatever sentiment and succeed in making a lot of people talk about it on Twitter.

Many factors that eventually can shape the result of the first round of election, including the disappointment for Foke and Jokowi’s charisma that already built since he is invited to PDIP to go for Jakarta’s governor candidacy. This already echoes everywhere and swallows every other candidates, so eventually we can see in a wider perspective who really stands out, regardless of any sentiments.

The experience of monitoring conversation on social media is very interesting. When I was with Thoughtbuzz, I once monitored the conversations on social media about the six candidates and what I got is not only such data as the above but also other things. For example, the communication pattern of each candidate’s social media team, their buzzers and many others. Said data can be an interesting analysis material.

Abang Edwin is a practitioner of online community management since 1998 long before the term social media/social networks become popular. He began his journey by experimenting with several online communities which eventually successful at that, to this day he still gives consultations about knowing character and foster online communities for brands / agencies and individuals.

He was at Yahoo! for over 4 years as a community manager and also formerly Country Manager – Indonesia for Thoughtbuzz.net, a social media monitoring company.

Keep up with him on Twitter @bangwinissimo or his blog on bangwinissimo.com.

[Image: Tebarpesonasenirupa]