In the last few weeks there was quite heated election in Jakarta, Indonesia and i came across to an interesting articles about how both candidates (Jokowi vs Foke) tried to attract locals' attention to win the vote. Realizing the power of social media among locals, both campaign team have gone beyond Twitter and Facebook. Both team tried to create virtual games to get into the heart of voters.
In August, Jokowi's camp launched an online game entitled Selamatkan Jakarta (Save Jakarta) with Jokowi as the hero. It depicts the Surakarta mayor as a hero who throws bombs and rockets at corrupt officials and gang members. Interestingly, the game was adopted from the famous Angry Birds with several modifications. According to the creator, the idea of the game crossed his mind when he and hour colleagues got stuck in Jakarta's traffic. Since it launch, the game has attracted more than 500,000 users.
Not wanting to be left behind, Foke's team launched an online game shortly. It was a website dedicated to Foke which features the governor's programs like the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, education and health subsidies and the city's East Flood Canal.
According to politicawave.com, a site monitoring political conversation in the social media, ahead of the runoff on Sept. 20 the trend of people's awareness of the two candidates on social media has been increasing. A social media practitioner, Arif Zulkifli, previously said that the use of social media would be beneficial for candidates because social media users were proactive people who usually actively sought information and recommendations from people they trusted in the virtual world.
Jakarta's politicians should stop in exploiting SocMed through silly votes, instead they should create systematic approach on policy making through disccusion in SocMed. Perhaps they can learn from obama campaign.
ReplyDeleteIts very interesting, considering government sector in Indonesia is still not very keen on using social media, however I think its changing now.
ReplyDeleteI think nowadays government official must take social media into their consideration. Considering the fact that younger population is quite huge in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. Therefore, using Social media is a very good way to attract them.
ReplyDeleteGame based on angry birds? that's quite silly, but definitely build the awareness. But really they need to learn how to use it better, build up good images, engage with the followers more to get more people to like them, increasing the chance they get elected
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