Media changing is something that will always happen along with development in technology. Some of you may remember how we followed the way the Compact Disc replaced cassette tapes in the audio world, Laser Disc technology replaced the VHS and soon after replaced by DVD in the video world. Arguably, CD and DVD (and its derivatives) are the pillars of the revolution in their own industries, just like with radio and television in the broadcast world. The question is what would happen if those pillars merge, in a new media.

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Bullying tendency occurs when there is something that’s considered out of line with the widely accepted perception. The effect of this tendency is greatly amplified in social media. Whether you agree or not, the article written by Cathryn Sloane, a student at University of Iowa, at NextGen Journal sparked a controversy. The article, titled Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25 lit the emotion of many people because Sloane stated that nobody over 25 is qualified to handle social media jobs. More than 600 comments were posted on that article, most of which were full of anger.

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Several days ago, I had a nice chat with a friend via Facebook, this friend happened to be a photographer who live in Bandung. My friend Fred is expecting his first child and he told me about his dream to move to Jakarta because he thinks that his career as a photographer has a more better future in Jakarta rather than in Bandung.

My conversation with Fred reminds me of another conversation months ago. There’s a friend – let’s say his name is Bram, who lives in Bali and has been wanting to move to Jakarta. He told me that the business climate in Bali was not that supportive. Bram wanted to build an apparel business in Bali.

Fred and Bram have similarity of pattern of view which geographically trapped them inside the location where they live. I don’t know about you but for me who have been practically breathing in the online world, it feels a bit weird if we are still trapped like my friends. Current condition of the internet is far better than when the first time I decided to jump into the online world (around early 2000), connection fee becomes more affordable, which means easiness to be globally connected is determined simply by will and a little effort.

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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.

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If you read my article about the KPI of social media it is closely related to what we know as ROI (Return Of Investment). There has to be a clear benchmark to count ROI, so KPI is the benchmark for ROI.

Many say that ROI in social media is unmeasureable but can be tracked, others say that social media’s ROI is noticeable when the level of customer’s satisfaction moves up due to the activity of online community. And there are many more explanations about ROI in social media.

While those answers come up, the thing that can be confusing and convincing at the same time is you will still find it difficult to answer the questions from your business partner or client who demands answers in a reasonable business perspective.

Those are the things that sometimes make us sceptical about social media, things that seem to have no clarity in structure and flow. Why you should look for something that was not even measureable? And how do you track and collect the data with the right tool? How can you control the mistakes that often happen? How to articulate the business cases for social media?

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The conversation in virtual world usually happens in places that allowd people to post something. We see what is happening in Twitter, Facebook timeline and on the comment box of a blog. Principally, the Web 2.0 introduced by Tim O’Reilly focuses on two way communication, which means every media is designed for conversations.

What do I want to discuss with the title above? It’s related to the power of conversation happening in the process of socializing in the online world which will directly affect the owner of the identity. I once wrote about how a buzzer keeps their ‘asset’, and then I also wrote about how someone can stand out among other personas. The bottom line of those discussions is about the fundamental of a conversation with limitations in the virtual world, which could lead you to a way you’d never imagine if you can’t control it.

Many believe that the appearance of oneself in the virtual world is one’s individual right…. nothing can argue with that. So, when brought to that personal aisle, the responsibility seems insignificant. But the thing with social media or the internet is the world with “open” standard. With that awareness, the option for those who are sensitive to such wide openness is not to use it, so it seems to end in self alienating behavior. Imagine, you’d be surprised if you see someone not using a cell phone nowadays. The world has changed, the behavior changed, standard is shifting. So like it or not, we are suddenly in the pit of social media and internet, together with almost everybody we know.

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