Life is all about your passion  

Niken Seka Martini – Marketing Communication Manager Fortune Group

“The only thing that keeps you alive is living with passion,” said Niken Seka Martini in an interview. She thinks that this life principle has become her power for more than ten years until she becomes the Marketing Communication Manager. Enjoying writing as her hobby, Niken also shares, in this interview, her experience on how to benefit from writing a blog. Here’s the full story..

What’s your career journey been like up until now at Fortune Group?

Prior to joining Fortune Group, I worked at a Production House, Eksis Film Jakarta as the Marketing Assistant and Producer Assistant for two years, and then I moved to SWA Magazine as the Marketing Communications Manager for ten and a half years. After that, I officially joined Fortune PR in November 2015 and in 2018 I am entrusted to be the Marketing Communications Manager of Fortune Group. The world of marketing has been my interest while studying diploma in marketing at Victorian Business College and bachelor at Monash University Melbourne. Then I continued studying for a master’s degree at LSPR in the same department. Since marketing is my passion, I’m learning about this field very seriously, such as business marketing, PR marketing, and many more until now.

What makes you interested in becoming the Marketing Communication Manager of Fortune Group?

Because what I see in the field of marketing during my study is that marketing isn’t just about selling, but more to the strategy and execution. Well, in SWA magazine, the marketing that I learnt was more to the selling so the billing was more to the clients, while in Fortune I learn that marketing is more to the strategy so I feel like going back to my background and I want to further hone my strategy skills as a marketing person and to develop my Marcomm strategy for corporate. So, my job is more about corporate image and marketing strategy.

Now that you are officially in charge of Fortune Indonesia’s Marketing Communication team and Fortune PR, what’s your plan?

I want to introduce Fortune Indonesia and Fortune PR more extensively worldwide so that the image will be everyone’s top of mind.

The good and bad times you face while working at Fortune Group?

There are lots of good times. In Fortune, I feel the familial atmosphere, so not only do we work here but we also build the family environment. This makes working feel convenient and because basically, we are as close as a family, we always support one another. I think having a family environment is very important because it really affects the work motivation. The hard times, so far, happens to be the deadline. However, I am grateful that I’m working with a solid team so the deadline is a challenge for us to conquer successfully.

During your career at Fortune Group, which awards have you ever achieved?

Getting the top-to-fourth ranking spot for the SEO of Fortunepr.com website. It was an achievement for me and the team because Fortune PR website had been hacked before. The incident had urged Marcomm team of Fortune PR to start redeveloping the website from scratch; we readjusted things and reinforced the content. We always provide the content with four articles each day with no easy process. We implemented every technique, ranging from interviewing consultants, covering events, and other techniques to reach our four-article-target per day. Alhamdulillah, our SEO ranking is still stable.

Then, ever since I joined the team, Alhamdulillah we have won many awards both locally and internationally. The most recent awards were received by Fortune PR’s clients, BTN and DBS at the MIX Magazine Award. In addition, we also frequently cooperate with several international agencies in prospective countries like Malaysia, US, UK, Singapore, Vietnam, Bangkok, and a lot more countries. My team and I also call it an achievement since it’s not easy to build relationships, especially when we need to decide which agencies can partner with us. We are not only seeking cooperation but also relationship bond that makes each party happy and alhamdulillah, so far, everybody is happy and gives us good feedback. We currently have also developed PRtalk.com as the communication media between the corporate and the consumers. It contains all articles and works of Fortuners that can be accessed easily by anybody. The goal is to expand cooperation which we have experienced recently where many international events offer us to be their media partner.

How do you deal with the challenges in your current job?

Every job must have their own challenges, but I do not consider them as barriers, instead, I face and enjoy every challenge. To face the challenge, my team and I have a meeting every week, a group meeting every Wednesday, and content meeting every Tuesday. So, we are minimizing challenges by developing strategies and plan in the meeting

What work principle and culture do you apply to the team so far?

My principle is to have initiative, be creative, stick to the deadline, and maintain the familial work environment. We hold the meeting regularly twice a week so that we can communicate about all the emerging issues and our daily tasks, as well as strengthen us as a team. Alhamdulillah, this principle has made us a solid team.

Any certain targets you want to achieve this year?

About the target, I hope Fortune Indonesia and Fortune PR will be the Top Of Mind because being the top of mind will attract business and facilitate cooperation in both international and local markets.

Do you have any particular hobby?

I have loved writing since childhood, but now I take it even more seriously by regularly writing blog contents that fit my passion for beauty and traveling. My blog was released in March 2017, so it’s relatively new. At first, I wanted to be a travel blogger because my hobby is traveling, but over time my writing about traveling was not as hyped as that about beauty. Since I happen to be a beauty treatment enthusiast as well, I tried to write about the world of beauty. It turned out that the content of beauty attracted lots of readers, so I delved deeper into writing about beauty without leaving the topic about traveling. Since its release in March last year, the traffic has been rising gradually and I also joined the WordPress online course to learn about the tips and tricks. Then, in March to June 2017, I also tried to join in the WordPress award, and it worked. My posts about beauty got appreciated and promoted in one of the website’s communities I follow. In June 2017, my website was monetized and I have already had the affiliate link.

10. In addition to writing, I heard you are now into photography. Do you have an interesting experience with your hobby of photography?

Yes, besides writing, I also enjoy taking pictures and learn seriously about it just recently. I think good photos can support a blog. So, I decided to buy a camera with which I began to explore my skills in photography. The interesting experience that I have was when my friend and I went hunting for photos on the mountains in Tasmania region, Australia. It was winter then and it was a challenge for us to walk through the mountains that were still covered with snow. My desire to get good photos pushed me and my friend to keep walking up to the edge of the mountain. With a mobile phone camera, my friend and I were so happy to be able to get the desired pictures. I posted the photos on social media and they managed to attract one of the news media in Australia. They asked my permission to post my photos on their media. It feels really good to have my photos appreciated.

Any dreams you are trying to achieve?

In the year 2018, as an individual, I want to be brave enough to position myself as a human, I wish I could be stronger in any situation and position myself as a humble person. For work, I wish to continue working optimally and realize the dreams of the team. I also hope I can still follow my passion because what keeps me alive is passion. Passion can make me alive until now, it happens and it works.