PR INDONESIA Survey Review: Zoom, Favorite Meeting Application
PRINDONESIA.CO | Wednesday, July 01, 2020
PR INDONESIA Survey Review: Zoom, Favorite Meeting Application
As many as 53.5 percent of ministry respondents chose to use Eric Yuan's application, Zoom.

JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – The portrait can also be seen from the results of the PR INDONESIA survey, at the end of April 2020, on 103 PR practitioners throughout Indonesia. As many as 53.5 percent of ministry respondents chose to use the application created by Eric Yuan, followed by SOEs subsidiaries (42.8%), PR agencies (41.7%), SOEs (41%), ROEs (40%), local governments and institutions (37.5%), private companies (33.4%), and universities (30.4%). Their reasons are generally the same: Zoom is easy and the most widely used.

"Zoom is the most mainstream application used during the pandemic. Especially for those who work from home,” said Agustini Rahayu, the Head of Communications Bureau of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf). She also uses the application to conduct weekly meetings with both the entire team and the special public relations team.

Meanwhile, PR agency respondents generally use Zoom to coordinate with clients and hold virtual conferences/discussions involving large-scale audiences. And for internal coordination, they generally use Google Meet (23.6%) and Google Hangouts (12.6%). "Besides familiar, Zoom is also more user friendly," said Jojo S. Nugroho, the Chairman of APPRI. 

A similar reason was also conveyed by Buceu Gartina, the Head of Public Relations and Protocol of the Tangerang City Government. “For virtual press conferences, we use Zoom. But, for internal discussions, we usually use WhatsApp's video call/conference," she said.

Zoom is also popular among private corporations. Anita Bernardus, Deputy Director of Corporate Communications of APRIL Group said that they often do weekly, monthly progress and deliverables reports, monthly progress Zoom meetings with the APRIL Corporate Communications team, and RGE in Singapore. Meanwhile, to maximize coordination, they use e-mail, WhatsApp groups, phone check-in, and sometimes Google Meet.

Bio Farma's Corporate Communication Team also feels comfortable in using Zoom. Yuni Miyansari, the Corporate Communication of Bio Farma, admitted that it is more effective to coordinate through applications such as Zoom. Speakers are encouraged to be able to package clear, concise, but easy-to-understand messages. Because, if they are wordy, participants become unfocused and bored. "The key lies in the core message we want to convey, and as much as possible simplify the content so that it is easy to understand," she said.

Meanwhile, among university respondents, the teleconference applications used were more diverse. After Zoom, the second place is occupied by other options (21.7%), followed by Go to Webinar (17.4%). This was confirmed by Ade Kadarisman, the lecturer of the Public Relations Study Program of FIKOM UNPAD who is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Association of Communication Scholars (ISKI). Several adaptations of teaching and learning activities used in addition to Zoom include Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Spoon which is an audio-based application. For quizzes and multiple choice-based evaluations, they use Quizizz. "Whatever the application, what is certain is that the material must be presented in a visually attractive manner so that participants do not get bored quickly," he said.

New experience

The use of Zoom among PR agencies is also high. The only difference only lies in fulfilling client demands. During the pandemic, all PR practitioners take advantage of online teleconferencing applications to hold discussions, training, to virtual events with the same appearance, there are other expectations from clients.

They want to present virtual events with a different and memorable look even though it’s conducted through the same platform. "It's not an easy matter because the only medium to create them is through the application," said Jojo S. Nugroho, the Managing Director of IMOGEN PR.

Jojo shared his experiences. At that time, his client showed him a virtual event that had been conducted by a state-owned company as a benchmark. "The first time we watched it, to be honest, we were surprised," he admitted. This is because, although they both hold webinars through online teleconferencing applications and broadcasted live, the display made it felt like you’re watching the news on television. "There was a transition, bumper-in, bumper-out, each speaker was accompanied by their name and title, and there were even running texts," said Jojo. The problem is, they do not have the competence in that field. The solution, collaboration.

Another request surprising request was that the Ramadan event which was held through Zoom lasted for 8 hours. Even though webinars are usually held for a maximum of two hours. The audience was also huge, there were up to 1,000 participants. "One of our KPIs is to keep the thousands of participants from leaving a meeting," he said.

All elements, from packaging, arrangement, and performers, to an interesting plot, must be fulfilled. They also have to minimize the obstacles that may occur during the event. Ten co-hosts were involved. All co-hosts coordinated via WhatsApp Group.

This is where the most fundamental difference is felt by the team behind the scenes. Coordination and command, which is usually done in one place using HT, now has to be done in each house via WAG. "Even though the event is held on-line, the implementation is like preparing for a concert. And the preparation was only three days," he said.

In the end, the experience was an extraordinary lesson. "An experience that we would never have had if there was no pandemic. It turns out that when we are forced, we can overcome it," he concluded. (rvh/rtn)

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