SMEs need marketing via the Internet

Marketing experts assess the government's time to direct the use of the Internet on SMEs and coach them concerning the right branding strategy.

"The government is already doing a lot of coaching and staging a businessman. Yet the results to date still has not appeared a significant transformation of SMEs," said Director Etnomark Consulting, Amalia E Maulana Ph.D in Jakarta, Monday (3 / 1).

According to him, not the number of actions taken by the government for them, but it is how effective and efficient activity with satisfactory results.

Amalia refer BPS data showing the number of units of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the year 2008 reached 51.3 million units, and this means that 99% of the total national businesses . But when viewed from the side revenuenya donations as a group, the contribution of SMEs is very low compared to its potential.

Whereas with the ASEAN Free Trade Area, China (ACFTA), especially that Indonesian companies of small and medium scale most affected because they were not ready to face the battle, he said.

He further said that the activities selected by the Government as the builder is an activity that does not have a broad impact, so do not strategically think about whether it is appropriate to transform the SMEs become more competitive and successful.

Besides, he added, has been wasting for the selected activities should have a cheaper cost.

"Two things I observe that government does not direct how an optimal utilization of the Internet, because the Internet actually can be better utilized not only for transactions, but as a medium for communication and media research netnographi. Besides, the government also has not specifically SMEs in the understanding of the strategy branding right, "said Amalia, a graduate of the School of Marketing, the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Included in media coverage of the Internet is a contemporary media including websites, blogs, e-forums, social networking like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Community.

Amalia also believes the Government has not supported and SMEs to take advantage of new media is correctly and optimally.

He said that the government is wrong to understand if the view that the use of the Internet means the end is an online transaction.

"This is a very ineffective and inefficient, because the difficulty level of online transactions could be higher than most other internet activities," he said.

To get there, according to him, several steps must be passed easily from first, ie use the Internet for communication (promotion), and this is not the only one-way communication, but also two-way and for research or study on the consumer. Many small and medium entrepreneurs will begin to look different this new medium, but still follow the development of stuttering, more powerful communications medium of this.