Erika Siregar
School of Information, Journalism and Communication
Grantham Scholar
- Profile
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Assessing Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Digital Presence Through Social Media in Indonesia: A Big Data Approach
The project
Erika is a PhD researcher in Data Science whose research develops a data-driven approach to measuring and monitoring the digital presence of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia using social media data. The project explores how social media platforms can provide insights into MSMEs’ digital presence, complementing traditional monitoring approaches and acknowledging the limitations and biases of social media data.
The research combines machine learning and social media analytics to understand MSMEs’ digital presence. It involves classifying posts to identify MSME-related content, types of activities, and industry categories, and then integrating these insights into a social media presence score that reflects business’s visibility and engagement online. These computational analyses are complemented by interviews with MSME owners, providing context and validation to interpret what digital presence means in practice. This approach provides a novel framework for understanding MSME digital engagement and offers insights that can inform more responsive monitoring and policy decisions.
Outreach
Beyond her research, Erika contributes actively to the data science, and particularly the R, community. She co-founded R-Ladies Jakarta, supporting diversity and inclusion in R programming and data science, and has been involved in mentoring and community-building initiatives, including workshops and open-data projects. She was also selected as an rOpenSci Champion, contributing to reproducible research and collaborative package development in the open-source R ecosystem.
Social media