Community Perception of Social Media Marketing Activity on Instagram

The use of social media has become a popular online activity. One of the most popular social media platforms is Instagram. Therefore, companies, institutions, and other tourism stakeholders mostly choose Instagram as the promotion medium. Promotion through Instagram is one form of social media marketing activity (SMMA). SMMA consists of several aspects, such as entertainment, customization, interaction, electronic word of mouth (e-WoM)


Introduction
The use of social media has become a popular online activity.Social media users have increased to 4.55 billion users in October 2021, with an average of 1 million new users per day (We Are Social, 2021).Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms in the world, in fourth place after Facebook, Youtube, and WhatsApp (We Are Social, 2021).
In a tourism context, Instagram has become the core of traveling: how people interact with the places they visit, where they decide to go, and the art of telling their travel stories (Lonely Planet, 2020).Brooks (2018) also argues that Instagram is a treasure for travel inspiration by seeing beautiful and interesting photos of tourist destinations around the world.Therefore, companies, institutions, and other tourism stakeholders mostly choose Instagram as the promotion medium, as said by Hur et al., (2017), who state that the tourism industry is largely influenced by social media.Not only private companies, but the government at both central and regional levels also use Instagram as a medium for tourism promotion, such as the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenparekraf RI) through Instagram @indonesia.travel and the Central Java Provincial Youth, Sports, and Tourism Office (Disporapar) through Instagram @VisitJawaTengah.
Since Indonesia was hit by COVID-19, the government of the Republic of Indonesia has established a policy of large-scale social restrictions to suppress the spread of the virus in 2020 (Kemenkopmk.go.id, 2021).Then, in January 2021, the government decided to rearrange the Implementation of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM), especially activities that could potentially cause transmission and spread of the COVID-19 virus.PPKM was first implemented from January 11-25, 2021, in the capitals of seven provinces in Java and Bali, and in regencies or cities around or adjacent to the provincial capital that are at high risk, or in other districts or cities with a stipulation from the governor (Covid19.go.id, 2021).This policy certainly affects tourism activities and other activities in Central Java.However, Disporapar continues to make promotional efforts focused on social media, especially Instagram.
Since January 2021, @VisitJawaTengah uploaded various types of information with a different theme each day: Monday_nature tourism, Tuesday_artificial tourism, Wednesday_special interest tourism, Thursday_ cultural tourism, Friday_culinary tourism, Saturday_shopping tourism, and Sunday_ religious tourism.Those contents are presented in the form of photos and videos with a brief caption in three languages, namely Indonesian, English, and Chinese.
Promotion through Instagram is one form of social media marketing activity (SMMA).Previous studies have shown that SMMA can increase brand knowledge and purchase intentions (Cheung et al., 2019).Given the increasing importance of social media, marketers use SMMA to communicate brandrelated messages to build a strong and positive image in consumers' minds (Cheung et al., 2019).
When accessing Instagram, users will get more tourism information through photos and videos.Then, marketers must pay attention to how to build the relationship between consumers and the brand (Ismail, 2017).Marketers have to realize that SMMA is a complex construction consisting of several aspects such as entertainment, customization, interaction, electronic word of mouth (e-WoM), and trendy (Tugrul, 2015;Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017).
The SMMA construct has been widely used in several previous studies in different contexts.Research by Yadaf and Rahman (2017) proves that SMMA e-commerce has an effect on purchase intentions and brand purchases.Likewise, in the context of fashion luxury brands, the five aspects of SMMA affect brand equity (Kim & Ko, 2012).In the airline industry, SMMA has a significant effect on brand awareness and brand image (Seo & Park, 2018).In this study, the author intends to use the SMMA construct to evaluate public perceptions, especially among Instagram social media users, of social media marketing activities by @VisitJawaTengah during the COVID-19 crisis.

Perception
According to Brian Fellows cited in Mulyana (2001), perception is a process that allows individuals to receive and analyze information.Rudolf R. Verdeber defines perception as a process of interpreting sensory information (Mulyana, 2001).Perception can also be defined as a process conducted by individuals in selecting, organizing, and interpreting stimuli into images that make sense (Hikmah & Nurdin, 2021).
The definitions above confirm that perception is a process of meaning.The meaning created by individuals in sensing objects depends on internal factors such as pleasure, hate, happiness, and others.External factors include social organization (Mulyana, 2005;Panuju, 2019).
Perception is the essence of communication.Communication is important in marketing to ensure that what is received by the consumer (the receiver) is in accordance with what the marketer (the sender) means (Panuju, 2019).If there is noise in communication, it can result in misperceptions (Panuju, 2019).

Social Media Marketing Activity (SMMA)
Social media refers to online applications, platforms, web tools, and technology systems that allow members to collaborate (Solis, 2010), such as social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and Twitter (Tess, 2013).Nowadays, social media is evolving into a brand's marketing communication tool.Social media marketing activity is a particularly important marketing strategy (Cheung et al., 2019).Its interactive nature is useful in building relationships between consumers and brands and can drive consumer loyalty (Valos et al., 2016).This research adopts the SMMA construction developed by Cheung et al. (2019), which consists of several dimensions, namely entertainment, customization, interaction, trendiness, and electronic word of mouth (e-WoM).
Entertainment plays a signiicant role in building relationships between consumers and brands, brand knowledge, and purchase intentions (Seo & Park, 2018).Games, photos, videos, and contests can create a fun and playful consumer experience (Cheung et al., 2019).Thus, entertaining content is increasingly being used in SMMA strategies as an effort to build consumers' awareness and loyalty intentions (Barger et al., 2016).
Social media technologies enable message customization.Godey et al. (2016) stated that customization refers to the extent to which services are customized to satisfy consumers' personal preferences.According to Kim and Ko (2010), social media not only provides interesting information but also information that they need to express their thoughts.Previous research has proven that customization efforts are influential in reaching the intended audience, building trust in the minds of consumers, and strengthening consumer purchase intentions (Martin & Todorov, 2010).
Social media also allows for two-way communication as well as information sharing (Dessart et al., 2015), and people can exchange ideas about certain products or brands with other like-minded people (Kim & Ko, 2012).Previous studies have reported that interactions can be a motivating factor for consumers to create content on social media (user-generated content) (Fischer & Reuber, 2011), as well as influential in strengthening consumer attitudes towards brands and their purchase intentions (Hajli, 2015).
Trendiness is related to how brands communicate the latest, most up-to-date, and most trendy topics (Naaman et al., 2011).Consumers turn to social media for information because it is more reliable than traditional marketing companies.Trending information contributes to building consumer awareness and driving brand loyalty (Godey et al., 2016).
The last aspect is electronic word of mouth (e-WoM).Researchers discuss a lot of social media e-WoM from three perspectives: opinion search, opinion giving, and opinion delivery (Chu & Kim, 2011;Seo & Park, 2018).A study proves that positive e-WoM can build positive perceptions toward brands and strengthen purchase intentions (Esch et al., 2006;Martin & Todorov, 2010;Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017;Cheung et al., 2019).

Method
This study uses a quantitative approach with a survey method to describe or solve the issue.The result of the study will be considered a representation of the entire population, using questionnaires as the main instrument (Wekke et al., 2019).The survey method used by the author is a descriptive survey.The descriptive method is a research method to describe existing phenomena (Wekke et al., 2019).This study will explain social symptoms that are examined by describing variable values based on indicators without making a connection and comparing them to many other variables (Wekke et al., 2019).
A quantitive research requires a representative sample of the entire population, so the researcher uses purposive sampling techniques or based on specific criteria, such as social media (Instagram) users.The number of samples taken in this study uses the Lemeshow formula because the population amount is unknown or infinite (Riyanto & Hatmawan, 2020), as follows: Based on Lemeshow formula, with a maximum estimate of 50% (0.5) and an error rate of 10% (0.1), the number of sample is 96 respondents.The researcher used all incoming samples, 138 respondents.n = = 96.041,96 2 *0,5(1-0,5) The operational concept in this research refers to the theory of Cheung et al., (2019) to examine the impact of social media marketing dimensions on brand awareness and brand image; entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and e-WoM.
The validity and reliability test is necessary to make the research instrument more objective.The validity test aims to determine the validity or accuracy of a question or a statement in measuring the observed variable (Kurniawan & Puspitaningtyas, 2016).In this research, the validity test uses Pearson's correlation formula through Microsoft Excel.The item has been declared valid if the loading factor is at least 0.4 (Sharma, 1996).
The reliability test aims to determine the reliability (level of trust) of a question or a statement in measuring the observed variable (Kurniawan & Puspitaningtyas, 2016).A research instrument is declared reliable if the test results are relatively stable (consistent).The researcher uses Cronbach's alpha formula through Microsoft Excel, with a result of 0.923.A questionnaire is stated to be reliable if it has a Cronbach's alpha value of at least 0.7 (Riwidikdo, 2007).This means that the SMMA variable, which consists of a total of 11 statement items, is reliable, so it is suitable for research.
The questionnaire was distributed online to respondents through a Google Form.The questionnaire uses a Likert scale.A Likert scale is a statement accompanied by a measurement scale and can be selected by the respondent according to his attitude towards the statement (Suasapha, 2020).The scale used is a five-point scale, with each point being Strongly Disagree for 1 point, disagree for 2 points, Neutral for 3 points, agree for 4 points, and Strongly Agree for 5 points.The survey was held from September 14-20, 2021.

Result And Discussion
The analysis technique in this study is descriptive s tatistics, which involves presenting data in a table or distributing frequency to find the tendency of the result, which is classified into low, medium, and high categories, and calculating the measure of central tendency (Wekke et al., 2019).To analyze respondents' characteristics, the researcher analyzes the demographic frequency, general characteristics, and common characteristics.

Respondents' Characteristics Analysis
Respondents' characteristics analysis shows the characteristic explanations from 138 respondents.Based on gender characteristics, there are 76 male respondents (55.1%) and 62 female respondents (44.9%).We Are Social also reported that as of October 2021, there were more male Instagram ad audiences (51.6%) than female audiences (48.4%).Based on the age characteristic, this research is dominated by respondents aged 18-24 years old, as many as 55 people (39.8%), and 25-34 years old, as many as 57 people (41.3%).Similarly, We Are Social noted that the number of Instagram Ad audiences based on age is mostly between 18-24 years old (31%), and 25 to 34 years old (31.2%).As previously mentioned, most respondents are 18-34 years old (81.1%).This means that when this research was done in 2021, most respondents belonged to the generation that was born between 1987 and 2003.There are several versions of generational classification based on the Badan Pusat Statistik (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2021), namely the Y generation, those who were born between 1981 and 1996, and the Z generation, those who were born between 1997 and 2012.Thus, 81.1% of respondents are from the Y and Z generations.Spencer ( 2009) said that the Y generation is more associated with social media, interactive platforms, and rapid communication, such as instant messaging, SMS, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.Meanwhile, the Z generation feels comfortable with high-tech gadgets and multimedia devices and lives closely with the internet (Naumovska, 2017).
In the context of marketing communication, according to Naumovska (2017), the Y generation responds more positively to messages with more visuals, graphics, animations, and videos with storytelling.Spencer (2009) also mentioned that content is the most important thing for the Y generation.Naumovska (2017) also argued that marketers should realize that the Z generation is a generation that is very easily confronted and moved by technological devices and, therefore, intensively exposed to digital and social media.
The results also show that 81.9% of respondents open Instagram more than three times a day.This means that respondents like Instagram.In the context of travel behavior, research by Werenowska and Rzepka (2020) shows that the Y generation likes to use Facebook to get tourist destination information and share travel experiences, while the Z generation prefers Instagram and YouTube.

Respondents' Responses Description
The description of respondents' responses refers to a factual description or the result of respondents' answers to each variable in the questionnaire.The description of the condition of the research variables is carried out by describing empirical data obtained from research results (Widodo, 2017).The description of the data is calculated based on descriptive statistics, which include the central tendency, namely the mean (average).
The mean score is then categorized into several class intervals.This research uses a 5-point Likert scale, so when applied to the formula, the class interval score is 0.8.Table 3 contains mean categories based on the interval scores, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "disagree", "neutral", "agree", and "strongly agree.Table IV contains the distribution of respondents' valuations to indicators on the variables of social media marketing activity (SMMA) and the mean score that shows the tendency of respondents' responses.For the entertainment dimension, both indicators show a positive perception, with a mean score of 4.5 in the "strongly agree" category.It is because @VisitJawaTengah provides contents in various formats, such as photos and videos.Besides, based on observations, @VisitJawaTengah also held competitions such as the Photo and Video Competition on July 14th-August 14th, 2021, and opened opportunities for social media users, especially culinary and creative economy entrepreneurs, to promote their products.According to Cheung et al. (2019), 'entertainment' activities on social media like games, video sharing, and contests can make consumers enjoy the experience on social media and motivate them to participate in social media-based communities.This finding is in line with research by Ashley and Tuten (2015) that 'entertainment' becomes the motivation factor to participate in social media.
Overall, the 'interaction' dimension received a score of 4.3, which includes "strongly agree".Yet, there is an interesting finding in each indicator.First, the IT1 indicator got a score of 4.7.In a tourism context, it indicates that the sharing concept in social media is the main component of social media marketing activity (SMMA).This result is in line with research by Sahin and Sengün (2015), which shows that the purpose of social media is to share photos, videos, and experiences.Thus, young people share their tourism experiences on social media with visual media instruments such as photos and videos.Second, the IT2 indicator got the lowest score of 4 in the "agree" category.Although it is still considered good, 23.9% of respondents chose neutral.It means that some users who receive information from @ VisitJawaTengah are not interested yet in discussing it with other users.This result is proven by an observation on the feeds of @VisitJawaTengah in 2021: only a few users use comments to interact with other users about the theme of the feeds on @VisitJawaTengah.Sahin & Sengün (2015) argued that comments on a site and social media are important as a preference when internet users decide things for travel plans.
Regarding the "trendiness" dimension, respondents in this research have the perception that @ VisitJawaTengah has provided the latest and most up-to-date information, with a mean value of 4.5.According to the finding, @VisitJawaTengah frequently posts contents about nearby events, recent accomplishments, and new tourist attractions.Trendy elements in uploads on social media can affect building consumer trust in brands (Godey et al., 2016), so it strengthens the positive consumer perception of brands (Manthiou et al., 2016in Cheung et al., 2019).
The overall "customization" dimension got a good score of 4.3 in the "strongly agree" category.@ VisitJawa Tengah is considered capable of providing information according to users' needs.Conversely, users can find the information they are looking for at @VisitJawaTengah.It is possible because @ VisitJawaTengah publishes content on a variety of topics every day.Previous studies have revealed that customization efforts affect building trust in consumers' minds (Martin & Todorov, 2010).
Among the five dimensions of SMMA, electronic word of mouth (e-WoM) got the lowest score of 4.15.Although it was still good, 24.6% of respondents chose "neutral".This means that some users receive the information, but they are still hesitant to upload it to their social media accounts.This indicates that the messages in @VisitJawaTengah are not interesting enough to make users want to get involved in sharing them with others.Hoofman & Fodor (2010) explained that e-WoM can be understood as something that is liked, shared with other users, and a valuable indicator of consumer engagement.When a consumer acts as a 'brand ambassador' by conducting positive e-WoM on social media, it helps to build positive brand perceptions (Cheung et al., 2019).

Conclusion
This research provides an overview of the social media marketing activity (SMMA) carried out by a tourism account managed by the Central Java Provincial Youth, Sports, and Tourism Office (Disporapar Provinsi Jawa Tengah) during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.Overall, the results show that @ VisitJawaTengah's social media marketing activities are perceived positively by the public.Another interesting finding is that there is an indicator that gets the highest score, namely 'Interaction' related to the @VisitJawaTengah account, allowing users to share information with others.This means that users use Instagram (@VisitJawaTengah) as a medium to share tourism information.However, the 'interaction' aspect needs to be improved from the side of the discussion among users on @VisitJawaTengah.Likewise, the E-WoM aspect still has to be improved, especially regarding the users' desire to upload messages on the @VisitJawaTengah account on their social media accounts.This study is limited to the tourism Instagram account managed by the provincial and regional governments.So, further research can be conducted to compare public perceptions to social media marketing activity carried out on Instagram by the central government or government at the district or city level.Correlative-quantitive studies can also be conducted to see if there is an effect between social media marketing activity (SMMA) and destination image and intent to visit.

Table III Respondents' Characteristics
Source: processed by the researcher