BANDUNG, Telkom University – Welcoming the New Student Admission (PPDB) Telkom University lecturers from 3 (three) Faculties, School of Business Communication, School of Applied Industry, and School of Economics Telkom University Business organize PPDB Assistance activities in community service programs. This activity, which will last until March 2022, collaborates with the target community, namely teachers and staff from the PPDB team of Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School.
The first material given, namely Growing a Marketer’s Spirit for the entire Academic Community of Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School, became the first material and the opening event for this community service activity. Mr. Yanuariadi K Baskoro opened the hybrid activity as VP Primary & Secondary Education Operation, Control & Evaluation of the Telkom Education Foundation online and continued by Mr. Dr. Eng Faisal Budiman ST., MSc as the Head of the Abdimas and Journal Publication of Telkom University as well as Mrs. Kadhafiah Hilmi S.Pd (Oka) as the Principal of the Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School onsite.
They hope that this community service activity can be of long-term benefit and sharing knowledge, especially for the sustainability of PPDB for Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School. The sharing session is presented credible resource persons in their fields, namely Indra Novianto Adibayu Pamungkas, SS, M.Sc., Dini Salmiyah Fithrah Ali, SS, M.Sc., and Syahputra, S.Sos., M.Sc., Ph. .D. who is a lecturer from the Faculty of Business Communication at Telkom University.
Indra said, “Everyone can be a marketer, but it is just a matter of whether or not they want to be …”. (06/01).
Community service activities are carried out to solve problems at the Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School. Digital marketing training was carried out to the PPDB Team and Teachers at the Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School to prepare for the momentum of digital flows in marketing activities. Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School, which has the slogan “Definitely Unique,” strives to show its superiority compared to other SMK or SMA in Bandung.
“Showing excellence, achievements, and educational programs at the Tourism Vocational School of Telkom Bandung, of course, also needs to be accompanied by other strategies. Story-telling marketing elevates the community and customer journey to be one of the spearheads of digital marketing activities that the PPDB Team and Teachers can apply at the Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School. “Everyone is marketing for their institution,” concluded Dini (06/01).
In digital marketing activities, the role of the PPDB Team and Teachers is not only to create a registration program to search for new students but also to become a content creator. Referring to the marketing target, namely the younger generation who prefer to use social media, it is necessary to create engaging content to reach junior high school students captive so that they do not feel like they are being advertised. Content must also reach parents as decision-makers for children to continue their education.
Then Telkom Tourism Vocational School can also use assistance from Alumni to share their experiences while studying at Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School. This experience will later become an advocate for prospective students to choose Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School as an option to continue their education.
The primary purpose of digital marketing communication activities for educational institutions is to foster loyalty. Students who study at the Telkom Tourism Vocational School are expected to get an excellent, memorable experience. When the experience is shared, it will positively respond to the school. To reach the target audience, the PPDB team and teachers need to understand the consumer behavior of the target audience to determine what kind of digital content is appropriate to create. In addition, it is also necessary to find the position of Telkom Tourism Vocational School in the community. This position can be identified through a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) so that the content created can match existing needs.
“To be able to understand our organization, we must understand what its strengths and weaknesses are, continue to improve it to become even better,” said Syahputra (06/01)
Community service activities are also carried out by practicing content creation on their Instagram social media accounts. Participants were assigned to create content related to SMK Pawirisata Telkom Bandung creatively. Furthermore, the 3 (three) best content will be selected to get a certain amount of e-money for each selected account owner.
This series of events aims to train the PPDB Team and Teachers to become marketers for the Telkom Bandung Tourism Vocational School. The activity, which lasted for approximately three hours, around 30 participants attended, was closed by Marwa as the host of this time’s abdimas activity.