Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Today, social media has become so closely related to the lives of most people every day. We often encounter various phenomena related to their use in various fields, for example, ranging from professional motives as a means of job search to personal motives as a means of finding a mate. In the process of using social media, it is undeniable that there is a tendency for someone to judge others based on what is displayed on their social media. This has also become an inspiration to dig deeper into the self-presentation strategies of social media users to be able to get positive reviews from other users.

Inspired by this phenomenon, a study was conducted and then the results were presented through the MD REFO Webinar on Friday (10/12). MD REFO is a webinar aimed at scientific development and is held periodically by presenting lecturers at FEB UGM as presenters. This 1st REFO MD Webinar featured Widya Paramita, M.Sc., Ph.D. as the presenter with the discussion title "Don't Judge a Person by His/Her Social Media Account: Self Presentation Strategy Through Social Media." which is able to increase insight and knowledge in the field of marketing.

This research related to the topic of self-presentation strategies through social media aims to examine the conditional factors that cause variations in the effectiveness of the humblebragging strategy. Humblebragging is objectively a violation of norms, but the researcher wants to find out when humblebragging is acceptable and when it is not. The research method was carried out through an experimental design involving influencers (individuals with lower social status) and celebrities (individuals with higher social status) by doing humble bragging or bragging directly.

Based on Widya's presentation, a self-presentation strategy is a person's effort to manage other people's impressions because in general people want to be perceived positively by others. There are various categorizations of self-presentation strategies, one example is bragging and humblebragging which are the main topics of research. Humblebragging is a self-presentation strategy by covering up the intention to brag by humbling oneself. Humblebragging is seen as effective in promoting positive aspects, but on the other hand it creates negative perceptions. In fact, the research of Sezer, Gino & Norton (2018) found that overtly bragging behavior was rated more positively than humblebragging.

The conclusion of his research, although in general humblebragging is considered negative, social users rate humblebragging more positively if it is done by celebrities than influencers. People think it's perfectly natural for influencers to brag openly in order to increase their status. In fact, when they do humble bragging, they will be judged to be less grateful or incompetent and cause anger (irritation) to other social media users.

Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy/Sony Budiarso.