A comparative analysis of social media engagement of brand local fashion in Indonesia

The fashion industry significantly contributes to Indonesia's creative economy, accounting for 17% of the GDP in 2020. With the advent of digital technology and the resurgence of local brands, the sector has seen substantial growth, especially in e-commerce where fashion remains the top-selling category. The increased competition among local brands necessitates effective competitive strategies, particularly through social media, which has seen a dramatic rise in users, reaching 191.4 million in 2023. This research focuses on analyzing the Instagram accounts of the top 5 local fashion brands in Indonesia, as identified by the Fluenshion survey. Using qualitative case study methods and secondary data from Analisa.io, the study evaluates the social media strategies of these brands over a one-year period (2022-2023). The findings reveal varying levels of engagement and strategy effectiveness among the brands, with recommendations emphasizing the importance of content type, posting frequency, and interactive social media use to enhance brand engagement.


Introduction
The fashion industry plays a crucial role in supporting Indonesia's creative economy [1].In 2020, the fashion industry contributed as the second largest contributor to Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reaching 17% or around $11.9 billion [2].Furthermore, the sales of fashion products in Indonesia have been experiencing significant growth since 2017, and the trend is expected to continue increasing until 2024.This increase in revenue is supported by two main factors: the recovery and development of local brands, and the advancement of digital technology, which has become a key driver in this industry.The fashion industry is also the number one product category purchased on ecommerce in 2022 [3].This indicates that the local fashion industry has experienced rapid growth, leading to the emergence of more local brands.Therefore, the ease of doing business in fashion can give rise to even more local brands.
With the increasing number of local brands in Indonesia, consumers have more choices to choose products that suit their interests, making the competition among brands in the fashion industry even tighter.Therefore, it is important for them to think about effective competitive strategies.These brands need to build their branding to attract potential buyers.
One of the strategies is to utilize social media.The use of social media is also increasing.In Indonesia, the number of internet users has increased to 204.7 million.There has been an increase of 2.1 million users (+1.0 percent) compared to the previous year, 2022 [4].As a result of widespread internet access, the number of social media users in Indonesia has dramatically increased to 191.4 million in 2023.About 68.9 percent of Indonesia's population actively uses social media platforms.The count of active social media users has grown by 12.6 percent in 2023, with an additional 21 million users compared to the previous year, 2022.Social media has become an integral part of daily internet usage in Indonesia.Among social media users in Indonesia, Instagram stands out as the leading social media platform, with a significant majority of 84.80% actively utilizing it [5].
With the high usage of social media, a brand can take advantage of the opportunity to increase branding and interaction with potential buyers.The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs of Indonesia also encourages small businesses to utilize social media platforms to promote their products and increase sales [2].Social media has the potential to enhance three main aspects: brand awareness, brand image, and social media marketing [6].In addition, a GWI survey also stated that 78% of internet users seek information about brands through social media [7].Therefore, marketers can provide quality social media that meets customer demand, so that customers will have a high level of brand awareness and a good brand image.However, marketers need to know how they can improve branding through the use of social media.
Therefore, this research will analyze the Instagram accounts of the Top 5 Local Fashion Brands in Indonesia based on the Fluenshion Survey.Fluenshion is an institution that has conducted research on the most popular local fashion brands on social media.The research aims to find out how their engagement and activities are.This analysis will help to determine what are the factors that influence the engagement of the local fashion brands's Instagram account audience.As a result, this research is expected to generate new knowledge from local fashion brands branding strategies used through social media activities and can give some recommendations to brands for improving their social media activities.This research analyzes the activities of 10 brands on social media.The findings of this research indicate that they create engaging content, such as videos and blog posts, to attract user attention.They also focus on marketing through celebrity endorsements and social media influencers to create attention-grabbing campaigns with hashtags.In these findings, it is stated that by using social media, brands have the opportunity to reach a wider audience, create more personal interactions with consumers, and build a strong online brand presence.The use of social media has opened up new and promising opportunities for the future of fashion [9].The conclusion from this research is that social media, particularly platforms like Instagram, has become a significant fashion trend in the modern digital world.It has evolved into a crucial advertising and marketing channel for fashion brands and a primary source of information for consumers.Fashion organizations are leveraging social media by sharing images, and videos lead customers and increase brand awareness.By implementing new technologies, fashion firms can enhance their advertising and management strategies, utilizing social media as an interactive medium of mass communication to improve marketing approaches [10].

Methodology
This scientific article was generated using qualitative research methods employing a case study design and supplemented by secondary data.The sample to be tested in this study is the Instagram accounts of the top 5 fashion brands in Indonesia based on the Fluenshion survey results.This research case study utilizes processed data from a social media analytics tool, Analisa.io.The reason for using Analisa.io is because it has all the desired parameters.Brands with high engagement rates tend to have a greater impact in conveying messages and improving relationships with their audiences.Based on this comparison, it can be concluded that Brand A has the highest number of followers compared to other brands.However, Brand E has a higher Engagement Rate compared to other brands.This suggests that a high number of followers does not necessarily translate to a high engagement rate.Therefore, the number of followers is not the only factor determining the level of engagement rate.

Traffic Post
Based on the data above, it is evident that a high number of posts does not always result in a high level of engagement.This can be seen with Brand D, which has a total of around 65 posts per month but has the lowest engagement rate among the 4 other brands.On the other hand, Brand E has a high engagement rate (0.74%) with a relatively low number of posts (31 posts per month).This indicates that this brand has successfully created content that captures users' attention, resulting in a high level of engagement despite not posting as frequently.

Type of Post
Instagram has several types of posts, including Reels, Carousel, Photo Feed, and IGTV.Based on the analysis results above, the data shows that the number 1 most frequently used post type compared to other types is Reels.A journal states that Instagram Reels attract more engagement compared to other types of posts [11].The content is hosting a product giveaway.This content invites the audience to like, comment, and tag three of their friends Based on the engagement data analysis from five brands, it is evident that content strategies involving direct interaction with the audience, such as giveaway content encouraging likes, comments, and tagging friends (Brand E), achieve the highest engagement with 203,119 likes and 530 comments.This indicates that audiences are more responsive to content offering immediate value and inviting active participation.In contrast, photo content merely providing product details (Brands B, C, and D), although receiving a considerable number of likes, does not generate significant comment numbers, suggesting lower interactive engagement.Promotional content offering discounts (Brand A) is also effective in attracting engagement, with 135,470 likes and 420 comments.Therefore, to enhance engagement, brands are advised to incorporate promotional and interactive elements in their content, such as hosting giveaways or offering discounts, to more effectively capture and engage the audience's attention.

The Number of Hashtags Used
Based on the analysis through Analisa.io,brands A, C, D, and E use more than 30 hashtags in their posts.However, brand B only uses 2 hashtags for its posts over the course of a year.From the comparison of the five brands, it can be concluded that the level of engagement rate is not solely determined by the number of hashtags used.Brand E is an example of a brand that successfully creates high engagement rates with relatively few hashtags.The use of appropriate and relevant hashtags, along with engaging content, can positively impact the engagement rate.Meanwhile, brand A needs to improve its content strategy and hashtag use to increase user engagement.

Conclusion
From the data analysis provided, there are significant differences in social media strategy and performance among Brand A, Brand B, Brand C, Brand D, and Brand E. Brand A, despite having a small number of followers, has managed to achieve a high number of followers and a fairly good engagement rate.Their promotional content, especially when launching products with discounts, has received positive responses from the audience.On the other hand, Brand B has a larger following, but a slightly lower engagement rate.Nevertheless, they have successfully created content, such as detailed product photos, that has received good engagement.Brand C, with a very limited following, has managed to attract attention with detailed product photo content that has achieved high engagement, even though their posting frequency is relatively low.Brand D, despite having a fairly large following, has a lower engagement rate than Brand C.However, their detailed product photo content has also received positive responses.Meanwhile, Brand E, with a small following but the highest engagement rate, has successfully created content that is very engaging, such as hosting product giveaways, which has resulted in very high engagement from the audience.The suggestion for all brands is to continue to focus on the type of content that receives high engagement, increase the frequency of relevant posts to the audience, and optimize the use of social that Instagram users who are interested in local fashion brands have higher engagement rates with entertainment content compared to informative and reward-based content.Therefore, local fashion brands are advised to use entertainment content as part of their Instagram marketing strategy to increase customer engagement and strengthen their relationship with their target market.By sharing more entertaining image content that users can enjoy and admire, local fashion brands can attract attention and build better online engagement with their customers

Table 1
below lists several previous research regarding the use of social media for branding fashion brands and local fashion brands.

Table 1
Previous Research [2]donesiaThis study aims to measure the impact of Social Media Marketing Activities (SMMAs) on consumer purchase intention in small local clothing brands in Indonesia.Data was collected through an online questionnaire distributed to consumers following local clothing brand accounts on social media.The analysis results indicate that the SMMAs variable has a positive impact on purchase intention[2].

Table 2
Overview Local Brand Fashions Instagram Account in Indonesia

Table 3
Traffic Post

Table 4
Type of Post

Table 6
The Number of Hashtags Used