Social Media Influencer in Wayang Performance: the Punakawan

Abstract

Nowadays, the role of social media influencer in introducing a brand and raising brand awareness through social media is quite significant. Even though most of the social media influencers are not celebrities who have previously been famous in conventional media, they hold the same significant role in influencing the society. In the world of Wayang, there exist characters who have roles akin to the social media influencers that introduce messages from sponsors or brands within the Wayang performances. These characters are called the Punakawan, four Wayang characters that have a more fluid and comedic dialogue in Wayang performances. The audience of Wayang performances always eager to see the Punakawan to appear on the performance even though they are not the central figure of the story. With the increasing use of social media and the important role of social media influencer in this digital era, it is imperative to understand how these Punakawan characters carried themselves out in Wayang performances to better understand the way personal branding can be used to enhance the role of social media influencers. This article will analyze the characters of four Punakawan by using personal branding strategy approach based on eight main concepts of personal branding to understand the image of the Punakawan and the way they represent themselves within the society. The result is that the social media influencer and the Punakawan Characters have a similar role that is to deliver messages through the way that already becomes almost every person's favorite. The difference is a social media influencer could have just deliver any positive and negative impact to the audience. However, the Punakawan would always deliver a positive impact due to their presence is already being a part of the cultural heritage that always brings values of humanity and kind-heartedness