INDUSTRY.co.id - Makassar- With the development of communication technology it has recorded as many as 371 million sim cards circulating in Indonesia or exceed the population of Indonesia.

The number of internet users in Indonesia is on average up 51 percent per year, said General Manager of External Corporate Communication PT Telkomsel Pusat Denny Abidin.

"From this internet user, about 34 percent of them are social media users," said Denny at Public Relations Workshop (theme of "Conquering and Synergizing Mass Media-Social in the Digital Age") in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Friday (13 / 10/2017)

The phenomenon, he continued, a mobile phone users use two or more mobile phones and sim cards.

Observing the condition, he said, the challenge of today's public relations profession is to become a digital publicist.

According to Denny, as a digital publicist is required to master the integration of traditional public relations roles, also combine research results, social media and core marketing.

Meanwhile, academic who is a PR and Marketing expert from Hasanuddin University, Makassar Dr. Muh Akbar said, as a publicist should be able to know the vision of media mission that will be the place to socialize the program or product.

Academics as well as practitioners is more about the real conditions in the field faced by public relations and tips to penetrate the media. While Harian Fajar Editor Ruslan Ramli, Phd invited about 70 workshop participants to practice making releases.

"The role of Public Relations or PR here should be able to be a mediator between the public and the policy makers who lubricated," he told the media crew in Makassar.

Thus, he continued, the role of public relations should be good to the internal and external environment (media), so that the role of public relations can be aligned with its function as an extension of information company or institution.