Metharani: Everyone is an influencer

“Everyone’s already an influencer,” said Ditya Metharani at her newly established coffee shop in Gandaria, South Jakarta.

Graduated from a fashion school in Italy, Ditya Metharani --or more commonly known as Metharani-- has been creating content since 2004. Before social media, Metharani has had experience as a photographer, magazine cover designer and host of TV shows on big TV networks in Indonesia. She even blogged her images back when she’s studying in Italy.

The main job of a content creator, according to Metharani, is designing message. In a way, it sounds almost similar to advertising. “Take, for example, influencer. It is part of content creator job. We have to think a lot about the content we spread to audience,” said Metharani.

“Think about the social situation, what people might perceive of you characters. If you are planning to attend a party as an influencer, you have to show enthusiasm and commitment through your apparel, expressions, captions, or something else. If you look interested, people will also be interested.”

To achieve that, influencer has to have purpose because everyone has the power to influence others. “We are all influencers because we like to exchange information to each other. It’s because you, as a person, is a media that could influence other people,” she continued. “The question must be, ‘do you have a message for people? Do you have something that you want to say?’”

She does have a point.

In the sea of content and information on the internet constantly thrown at people every second, it’s easy to move on from one content to another or one influencer to another. Content with no meaning is the first to be forgotten. To tackle that, there are three necesseties for Metharani in building her content.

1. Well-designed information

Years of creating content taught her that content is easy to make but a smart content? Now, that’s a real challenge. Smart content, according to Metharani, doesn’t necessarily mean motivation or education kind of content, but the content that is neatly wrapped to its preferred audience and clear on what it is saying.

That also doesn’t mean that dumb and silly content cannot be considered as smart, but rather that those content is wrapped differently. Every creator has their own ways in wrapping the message and delivering to their audience.

“Some may wrap it in humour or comedy, or even sexual innuendos. There are a lot of different packaging, it all depends on the message and its target audience,” she added. The most important thing is it has to be well-designed.

2. Consistency in characters

An influencer that has a strong character will have a lot of followers. “Take Syahrini for instance. Syahrini has loud personality and it is shown throughout all her posts. People are intrigued by that and they want to find out more.”

The most convenient example is Metharani’s own content. As a highly spiritual person, her images reflects her energy. There are a lot of nature in her post and vibrant colours that translate well into her personality. There’s also image with her dance pose, a reflection of herself as a dance teacher.

When being asked about how she styles and plans each post, she answered, “I’m just being myself.” That is probably the key to maintain consistency.

“If you are providing smart and consistent content, people will be interested in following you,” she said.

3. Authenticity

“A good influencer is the one who is living as themselves. They are that creative, that beautiful and smart. They pour part of themselves into social media,” said Metharani. “They have to find out who they really are in order to do that. But it’s not just about focusing on themselves.”

Once influencers incorporate what they do in real life into social media content, that’s when they stand out. It’s a piece of information that their followers are longing for. How are they in real life? What are their hobbies? It’s the same reason why artists, films, celebrities post behind the scene videos and images. People have seen enough crafted image on screen but the rawness of the production process is more relatable to them.

Above all, as Metharani put it, “information is scattered in the internet and people are free to choose what to consume but a good person with character will shine.”