The Construction Of Meaning "Ayah" In Building Nasrul Abit's Personal Branding In Social Media Campaign

Abstract

In 2020 West Sumatra Regional Elections, Nasrul Abit as the one of governor election candidates, had been trying to build his personal branding by creating a personal nickname which is called as “Ayah” . This research aims to find out the meaning of the call “Ayah” that was shown on Nasrul Abit’s social media account with an analysis approach of Van Dijk's critical discourse and also to find out how Nasrul Abit's performance as well as the successful team as actors behind social media accounts for campaign purposes. This study uses qualitative-narrative methods. The research focused on personal branding analysis that Nasrul Abit tried to establish through his “Ayah” call. The results of this study showed that Nasrul Abit through @nasrulabit optimized posts containing the discourse “Ayah” both through photos and videos. The call of “Ayah” was only introduced to the public at the beginning of the campaign. Personal branding that wants to be formed in the call of “Ayah” is a leader who can guide his people. The call of “Ayah” was also intended as a figure who understands the needs of the community including millennials. However, the results of the obtained votes show that the issue of the “Ayah” jargon has little impact. Contrast this to the results of the vote in the Pesisir Selatan where the origin of Nasrul Abit, contributed the most votes. This data shows that regional issues are more likely to generate votes compared to the issue of the “Ayah” jargon.