Understand the Behavior of Karya Karsa Creators on Sharing their Work to the Audience
Karya Karsa Case Study
Research Overview
Karya Karsa is social commerce that helps local creators from Indonesia to help them sell their works such as comics, books, video, audio, and other digital goods directly to their fan communities on a Website or even an Android App that Karya Karsa has been made to facilitate all the local creator in Indonesia who willing to sell their works.
In order to make the creation of the creators from Karya Karsa could be known to their fans, they had a lot of options promoting from their personal social media such as Twitter or Instagram, or even joining a Community that Karya Karsa made in order to facilitate them to promote their creation to a more large number of people. However, according to Karya Karsa, all the platforms that have been made to help the creators to promote their works are still not fully utilized and the less optimal because the only channel that are popular only for a certain specific genre such as Horror and Romance in Twitter space. There are still a lot of creators who are complaining to Instagram about Karya Karsa mentioning that their creation of work is still not getting exposure or that no one has purchased their works.
Based on the data that was provided by Visage.com related to content creators’ biggest challenge, one of the biggest challenges was related to content distribution as well as creating the right content that related to the distribution channel from the creator. It is because the right content could get traffic.
Hence in this research, we would like to Help Karya Karsa to discover the behavior of their creator after publishing their content in Karya Karsa in order to understand their needs and challenges to share or publicate their content so it could increase their brand support.
My role in this project
In this project, I am responsible as a UX Researcher within team G in the Somia Design Research Skills Workshop collaborating with Karya Karsa. So in this research, I am not doing all the research alone but with the help of my peers or teammates that also collect the data, make the analysis and create the report to the Karya Karsa. I would like to inform you that for this project, I am not affiliated with Karya Karsa because it is intended to be a study case from the Bootcamp.
What am I trying to learn from this project?
Through this research, we would like to discover the behavior of the creators in sharing their work with their audience and we also would like to learn more about their process of promoting their content. So by knowing the big goals, We decided to break them down into several objectives that would be more achievable in this research that as you could see down below :
- To learn the process of how Karya Karsa Creators make their content for the Karya Karsa Platform
- To Learn Karya Karsa content creators' behavior process on promoting their content after publishing on the Karya Karsa Platform
- To learn Karya Karsa creator's perception of a community that Karya Karsa provides in their platform
- To identify the challenges/pains that creators felt when publishing and promoting their content in Karya Karsa Platforms
- To discover the desired needs of the creators to improve their experience when promoting their content on Karya Karsa Platforms
Then, What kind of impact will we have by finishing this study?
- Increase Social Media and Referral Traffic in Karya Karsa App from the Creator
- Reduce the Churn rate from the Creator that create their Work in Karya Karsa Platform
- Reduce Churn Rate from the Readers.
How do we conduct the research?
In this research, we would like to understand our user behavior, thoughts and feelings, and reason about their process to promote their work after they upload it on the Karya Karsa Platform. Hence because we would like to get those data we tend to choose a method that would generate qualitative data. In this research also do the research virtually or remotely by using the help of Google Meet instead of visiting them in their city.
So according to the research objective, one of the methods that we could utilize was In-depth interviews. We tried to talk to two creators who upload their content through Karya Karsa in this research because they are the ones who understands the flow as well as the result of using that process. In this research, we are able to talk with creators who had a different genres in their work but all of them have become authors even before joining the Karya Karsa Platform.
Then What kind of insight that we get from the research?
After we do our fieldwork and meet the creator we get four main things that we think need to be considered as the insight based for the improvement. Here are the four main things that we found :
Part 1 — Time and Resources could be the challenge when doing Content Promotion
When doing a promotion participants tend to promote their content to popular social media such as Twitter and Instagram because the community, especially for a writer content creator, is huge on those platforms, even some production houses are also looking for talent for a writer on Instagram and Twitter.
When we talk to the creators they tend to choose either Twitter or Instagram which gives them a lot of opportunity to make their content or fame even bigger because of the community. Even one of the creators that we met was also hired or invited by Karya Karsa from Twitter. Twitter and Instagram are also places for production houses to look for new talent in terms of writers.
“saya memakai platform twitter, instagram dan youtube karena banyak orang yang buka adalah ketiga platform itu mindsetnya lbh bagus di ketiga platform itu. Selain itu, dari pihak ph dan penerbit lebih banyak perhatian di platform2 tersebut.” — P2
When promoting on Instagram or Twitter , participants tend to use a post with a quote from their books with some design aesthetic on the post or even using a role play to make the character more lively because with a good design or with a more live character it would make the audience more interested with the content and make them curious about the content and increase the favors to read the book on Karya Karsa.
The creator that we met during the fieldwork tends to use a design post with a quote from their book as their tools for promotion or even a role play that would make the character in the book or the story more lively because it would make them more attracted and curious about the story inside of the book instead of just share it on the Instagram story or just plain quotes that make the audience not really interested based on the Creator experience when promoting their content.
“Kalau aku memang lewat Instagram lewat aku pakai selain di Instagram sebar di WhatsApp bukan WhatsApp admin ku suruh ngeblast karya karya juga setiap update biasanya di penggalan cerita atau enggak quotes pembaca baru mereka tertarik tentang penggalan cerita atau quotes Yang bikin aku memilih cara itu tapi pembaca tampilan sangat penting penampilan itu sangat penting misalkan kata kata romantis tapi cuman latar putih orang gak akan baca lagi — P1”
However, because participants had to create content for promotion as well, participants tend to feel time could be considered as the pain because not only they had to create another story or book to be published so they are not being forgotten , they also had to create content for their book promotion. It is because participants did it by themselves without the help of other people.
Participant feels that time could be their enemies because participant had to take care by them self from creating a content such as design content that they need to learn to make them that would take a longer time while also had to create another story to keep the momentum and make sure the creator consistent in term of publishing in the platform. So sometimes time could be the participant ‘s biggest enemies because they had to do it by themselves.
“Kalau promos karya mau di manapun halangan pertama waktu itu karena untuk membuat sebuah postingan promosi itu butuh memakan waktu kurang lebih satu hari kita harus mengedit sendiri kita harus mencari gambar sendiri Tools untuk editing harus belajar dulu harus buka youtube mempercantik tampilan postingan jadi wasting time nya disitu seperti itu jadi memang jarang banget kalau enggak lagi pingin promosi aku gak akan promosi — P1”
So participants tend to need tools that would help participants to promote their content/book/story inside of the Karya Karsa Platform to other social media to make the promotion much easier because time and ability to make the content make the process take longer than expected.
Because of the time and also ability to make promotional content in Instagram take a longer process as well as make participant have to spare time more just to promote their content in karya karsa, participant tend to need features or tools from karya karsa that allows them to promote their work or creation inside of the karya karsa to another platform such as Instagram or Twitter much more easily.
“kalau ada bantuan dari karya karsa kita amat sangat membantu dalam mempromosikan kalau dulu sekarang sudah gak ada kalau di Wattpad ada link kita bisa ngeblock beberapa jumlah kata bisa langsung kontek langsung di instagram — P1”
So What Could We Do to Help the Participant to Solve Their problem?
Karya Karsa Could Create a feature that allows the artist inside of the platform to share their works or creation such as quotes from their book with a good design that would help them, especially for a book writer inside of the Karya Karsa to promote their work faster and easier.
As we know the time to create the promotion content is a pain for the creator because they had to learn first and then create it by themselves without the help of someone else that dragged them because it took longer than participants expected so it could interrupt their time to focus on their new work or creation. So we could help them by helping them with a tool that allows them to share part of their work on social media to promote their work as well so it would at least reduce the workload and time needed for promotion.
Part 2 — Less Help from the Platform to Promote their Content.
Participants tend to choose karya karsa because it’s not complicated to apply it as a creator also with a higher royalty compared to others
As we speak to the creators of Karya Karsa , we knew that one of the reasons they choose karya karsa as one of the platforms to publish their content is because of the simplicity to apply as a creator overthere. It’s not complicated like other platforms. For example, the xx platform had to sign a contract first in order to be part of the creator. And also the royalty is quite huge compared to other platforms so while their hard work is paid off , their work is also protected from plagiarism by uploading it to Karya Karsa.
“Pakai karya karsa itu Jujur sih karena gak ribet nomor satu kalau kita mau fair fair an platform menulis itu gak banyak yang gak bertele tele. tapi kalau karya karsa itu kita gak perlu ribet kontrak kita dapat royalti nya juga besar untuk ukurannya kalau biasanya platform lain itu menulis cuma dapat 10% sampai kalau di Karya Karsa itu 90%” — P1
However, Participants feel disappointed with the promotion in Karya Karsa because only the popular one who got the promotion while the new creator did not have the chance to be promoted
However, in terms of helping a new creator is still disappointing for the creator because only the popular one while the new creator did not have the chance. Because unlike in Karya Karsa, Wattpad did the promotion by getting the work on the highlight based on the user’s interest whether the work is from a new creator or from the popular one so they get the same opportunity as the big one. And also participant think that a platform could be big because of the users and with being promoted could motivate the new comer to promote the content while also make a lot of user coming to karya karsa to enjoy the work of the creator.
“tapi kalau bisa itu harus mempromosikan karena kenapa jangan kreator yang sudah ada namanya gak usah di promosikan orang bakal cari yang cari yang baru karena kan istilahnya sebuah platform tidak akan besar kalau tidak ada suaranya apa salahnya platform gak harus terus terusan seminggu sekali memang sudah ada di Instagram karya yang cocok kalian baca cuman yang ditaruh yang sudah ada nama janganlah yang sudah ada nama ” — P1
So, Participant needs a feature that allows the new creator to be able being promoted by Karya karsa as well because for now still only the popular ones who are being recommended or promoted on the platform
From those issues, the participant needs a feature that allows the new creator or the one who just debuted in Karya Karsa as a creator could also get a highlight or get recommended as well because it would help them to keep motivated and ask their fans to come to karya karsa as well and also for now only the popular one who being promoted so they feel that the new creator also need attention so they could also get a recommendation or highlight in the Karya Karsa Platform
“user yang lain sebelum user ini belum mengundang penulis kawakan yang sebelum sebelumnya user user lain yang awal awal yang ladang baru itu lihat disitu jangan cuman yang udah tenar yang sudah punya it’s okay namanya sudah tersebar yang belum belum butuh api buat ngebakar semangat karya karsa tapi kalau hanya tempat tapi gak bener jiwanya sebuah platform bisa hidup karena kalau tanpa user jadi harus take and give yang perlu ” — P1
So What Could We Do to Help the Participant to Solve Their problem?
Create a highlight feature for a new content creator or a rising content creator in the Karya Karsa Platform so a new content creator feels like they get attention from the Platform, Karya Karsa as well, not just the popular one.
From the issues regarding the content creator promotion, they said that Karya Karsa did not help them to promote in their platform, especially for a new content creator unlike in Wattpad. So what they could do is to help them by creating a feature that highlights a new content creator through recommendation or a ranking list for a new content creator so they feel like they also get attention from the platform that will keep them motivated to create content.
Part 3 — Perception of Karya Karsa Community Platform
Content creators know Karya Karsa Community Platform but they choose to promote on their preferred social media platform outside of Karya Karsa community platform e.g. Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp because usually they rely more on their communities and supporters that follow them through their social media
The participants know karya karsa community platform in Discord and Telegram but they prefer to promote their works on their own social media platforms e.g. twitter, instagram and whatsapp as it gives them several benefits. It connects them with their followers so they can update their readers in the platform, have community members that help promote their works in their respectful account (through retweet and twitter space) and can get exposed to publishers and PHs that saw their works on the platform and the significant popularity of their works. The enthusiasm and feedback gained through the platform also encourage content creators to consistently create and promote their works there.
“kalau misalkan kita itu share di grup itu nanti akan langsung mereka akan share balik gitu itulah yang menjadikan bentuk kayak ini sudah ada yang upload itu sudah ada retweet bareng bareng seperti itu kita ke arah satu frekuensi nya itu ke arah satu horror gitu kan jadi kalau misalnya kita share pun harus lebih enak ke horror lagi ada basic basicnya gitu ” — P2
On the other hand, Karya Karsa Community Platforms members are mostly content creators and not enough users/supporters so content creators seem to find that promoting their works through the platform is fruitless
Participants find that Karya Karsa Community platforms are filled with mostly fellow creators/writers and not supporters so it seems like doing promotion it is pointless. At first, participants thought that Karya Karsa community platforms can be used to promote their works so there are a lot of writers that share their karya karsa link there, but turns out most of them are also fellow creators so it didn’t get much attention. Accordingly, fellow creators, especially from different genres, seem to not bother to help promote fellow creators on the platform since they also struggle to promote their works.
“Kalau aku gak promosi di Discord atau telegram karena aku sudah sebagai kreator cara berfikir kreator mereka sebagai kreator menghasilkan karya bukan membaca karya orang itu sisi selfish kita sebagai kreator kenapa sudah ada itu bukan pasar saya itu gak ada yang bakal baca gak ada yang baca karena itu penjual semua buat apa seperti itu makanya gak pernah telegram buat apa buat kita mempererat buat bagi bagi ilmu penulis penulis baru aku bisa ajarin ” — P1
So What Could We Do to Help the Participant to Solve Their problem?
Give creators and users a sharing platform with channel recommendations that are related to their preferred content genre to connect them so creators can get more attention to their works and users can engage with creators within their preferred genre
We know that Karya Karsa creators have an issue with telegram or discord community for lack of supporters and mostly cater creators. So Karya Karsa could encourage their creators to promote their content on the platform by giving them a specified genre channel recommendation that is also filled with supporters and related content enjoyers (Publishers, PHs) so they could connect, communicate, and promote their content and also can get motivated by their supporter's feedback in the forum. Likewise, channel recommendation for users in Karya Karsa Community Platform can be the place where the supporters/users engage with creators and fellow like-minded supporters so they can be exposed to other creators in the specific genre.
What did I learn from this research?
In this research , I learned a lot when doing a fieldwork is not about talking or asking a question as well as listen to the participant but as a researcher we could stimulate our participant with a stimuli in order to gain another new perspective related with the topic of the discussion we could ask them show or make them showcase their process to do something or even we could showcase our prototype of the product so they could had a more clarity in term of what we are talking about in the session. It’s really helpful even in my recent project in Niagahoster, I often prepared a stimulus so it could gain a new perspective and insight as well.
