Extracting Public Opinion and Popularity of Islamic Bank in Indonesia: A Big Data of Social Media and Google Trends Approach

Abstract

Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, has the potential to lead the Sharia banking and Islamic finance sectors. Developing the ecosystem for the Islamic finance industry depends on boosting public awareness and securing strong support from stakeholders. Using a big data approach, we investigate public interest and opinion towards Islamic banking in Indonesia utilizing social media sentiment analysis and search engine popular query terms. We use Twitter and Google Trends data to examine Bank Syariah Indonesia and Bank Muamalat, the two largest Sharia banks in Indonesia. According to our findings, most public opinions—aside from neutral ones—were generally positive, with Aceh, Jakarta, and West Sumatra ranking among the top three regions with the most significant public interest. Our findings reiterate the importance of social media marketing and engagement for Islamic finance sectors. Therefore, industry players should maximize the opportunity to enhance more effective promotion and communication strategies toward their customers.