I am Essentials!
In an effort to give back to the community, digital marketing agency “Essentials!” held two online seminars for university students who study in Tangerang.
Hosted by Essentials, the online events offered the latest insights in the digital marketing industry, which will prove to be quite valuable to the students. The industry often requires consistent updates on multiple disciplines, such as social media management, search engine optimization, and website development. Creativity intermingles with technical know-how in the digital marketing industry.
So far, Essentials has approached students of various majors from two universities, including business management, communications, IT, informatics, and public relations. From Universitas Pembangunan Jaya, 250 students participated in the online event on 24th September. Some 150 students from Universitas Pradita were present at the 1st October event.
The knowledge-sharing events were presented by Tommy Fabianus (Managing Partner ) and Sri Wulan “Jay” Purwati (Head of Digital Strategy). The events proved to be very successful, and the marketing agency has plans to approach a dozen more universities in the near future.
Students showed high level of participation and industry awareness
Some students appeared to have had prior experience with online businesses or content creation, and have demonstrated strategic thinking in digital marketing. The students’ enthusiasm was also clearly seen in the many good questions that were being put forth. Here are a couple of interesting questions about content creation and promoting a restaurant online.
An informatics student asked about the best strategy to choose topics for content. The young man asked if it is better to create content around viral topics or stay consistent with the theme of the channel or social media account.
“You also have to really understand what your audiences like and dislike,” answered Jay, “If they like topics that are playful and not too serious, then you should consider avoiding serious topics, even if it’s viral right now.”
Jay also gave some cautions about chasing viral topics, because viral topics can also quickly become forgotten. She mentioned Clubhouse, a viral topic about the exclusive social media platform, which had quickly gone cold just as fast as it had appeared.
Tommy Fabianus also explained the importance of staying true to one’s personal brand, regardless of the choice of topics. “We shouldn’t change our personal brand too much to fit the topic, but instead develop the personal brand with the right topics. If you suddenly discuss topics that are out of touch with your brand, your brand will be distracted and your audience confused.”
Another student asked about which marketing tactics to prioritize in order to promote her restaurant. “What I can recommend is Google My Business,” responded Jay. Google My Business is a platform from Google, which displays local businesses in a given area. This information is often connected with Google Maps to let the user know about nearby places of interest.
“Once you’ve set up Google My Business correctly, you can move on to social media. For restaurants, I recommend Instagram because typically when customers want to hang out, they’d check Instagram to see if the food looks appetizing and if the place fits their taste”.
“Instagram is very image-friendly,” said Tommy Fabianus. “We can display photos of our dish really well. So, it’s very important to pay attention to the production quality of the photos. You want to make sure that people can imagine how the food would taste just from looking at it.”
He then also recommended the student to collaborate with influencers. Influencers are not strictly individuals with a high number of following. Local news accounts on social media are also technically influencers. People follow them to get updates on the latest happenings in their local area, so a local business such as a restaurant could benefit from the exposure.
Achieving a common good through knowledge sharing
Although the knowledge sharing event appears quite simple, the team behind Essentials believe that this event will produce a positive impact to the university students. Facing reality, the digital marketing industry has grown rapidly, even too quickly for students to learn solely through their textbooks.
Every year, the digital marketing landscape experiences drastic changes. The marketing strategy of last year may no longer work as effectively today. In the online world, people’s tastes in content are fleeting. Who knew that this year, short video content (or “reels”) like on TikTok has so much more attention-grabbing power than longer videos on Youtube.
From this, Essentials has long concluded that in order to continue to produce excellent quality work in the digital age, they have to dare to explore and experiment. Young people and undergraduates are expected to be even more so, to dare to make mistakes and learn. Additionally, if they sharpen their analytical skills and data-driven decision-making skills, they could really start their careers on an excellent trajectory.
About “Essentials!”
Essentials make it easy for businesses and organizations, small or large, to use Internet technology and mobile devices as powerful marketing tools, in a way that is modern, personal, and efficient.
The team behind Essentials rely on data to build unique strategies for various challenges. For all occasions, data-driven digital strategies are encased with the human touch to give brands a real soul that customers can relate to.
Since 2013, Essentials have developed hundreds of websites, mobile applications, and social media content, among many other digital products. They have supported dozens of national, international, private, and state-owned entities to improve their presence on the Web.
Essentials is proud to have worked for household names, including Arnott’s, Nissin, Adira Finance, Jasa Raharja, and Senayan City.
We are Essentials!
