Who doesn't like food? Everyone does! Talking about local foods from Yogya, perhaps @Javafoodie become your reference to seek a new culinary destination when visiting Yogya. The @javafoodie is quite popular in that town, like almost all young people I know even follow this account.

The man behind @javafoodie is Dadad Sesa. He confesses that he is an introvert, yet we think we all agree though his sincerity in promoting local foods around Yogya, it turns out, makes @javafoodie become the most leading food influencer in the city. So now let's read the story of his journey as a food influencer. 

Could you please tell us how you became a food influencer in the first place?

First of all, it's just another hobby of mine. I have loved everything about culinary since I was a child. Mr. Bondan from Wisata Kuliner inspired me a lot. In 2010, I started my blog about foods in Yogya, and in 2014 my blog reader asked me to join Instagram even though I'm not good at photography.

Everything went very fast after that. I quit my job and decided to follow a new journey as a food blogger. Less than a year, people began to recognize me as a 'foodgrammer' (because I use Instagram as the media), but maybe people prefer to call us food influencers. 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Dadad Sesa / Javafoodie (@javafoodie)

In your opinion, what is the future of the food influencers in Indonesia or other countries?

Very bright. It's a very common thing in Indonesia. In Yogya, we used to have only five food influencers, but now we have more than 50. In Jakarta, the growth is bigger than here; actually, people have lost count of how many food influencers there are. 

Currently, there are so many social media influencers out there, what makes you different?

I'm not sure. Maybe the combination of food promotion and comedy on our food videos made us different than any other influencers. 

What are the top three challenges that you often meet by being a social media influencer?

Consistency, idea's block, and time management.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Dadad Sesa / Javafoodie (@javafoodie)

Are you doing some curations with some brands before making agreements?

Of course. I am always asking for their social media Instagram account before I decide to work with them. 

Being a social media influencer is part of a creative job. What influencer does is dependent on the current trend. How would you do to make sure that your creativity is always relevant to the times?

I'm not good at following the trend, actually, but I always keep this in my mind "It's never too late to learn something new".

As we know, social media influencers' lives are very close with people out there who easily give hate comments. Could you give us some tips on how do you face this?

By deleting it, because one hate comment could trigger another new hate comments. So if you find one, just delete it, or block it or restrict their activities.

Talk about the biggest failure you've had, what did you learn from it?

I lost two best friends because of this job, and I've seen that as my biggest failure. I learned that friends and work didn't blend very well. So I have to separate work and friendship.

What keeps you going when things get tough in your business?

My family.

Do you enjoy being famous?

Not at all. I'm not a celebrity, but nowadays, people easily recognize me a lot. I'm not comfortable with that, but I'm trying my best to greet them with a smile. I'm extremely introverted. 

If one thing you could change about YouTube or Social media, what would it be?

I wish anonymous social media account get banned. So people can think before they leave a comment on an influencer account. They don't know how it affects someone's mental health. 

Could you please give us the top three of the best place to eat in Yogyakarta?

Breakfast at Gudeg Mbak Pirang, lunch at Sate Kambing pak BG, and dinner at Bakmi Jawa Harjo Geno.