Dari Engagement ke Komunitas Dakwah Digital: Etnografi Virtual Akun Tiktok Ning Umi Laila

Abstract

This study examines how engagement strategies on the TikTok account @lailaarrahmah88 transform the consumption of da’wa content into participation in a digital community. Previous studies on Ning Umi Laila have primarily addressed content characteristics, preaching methods, and preacher competence, leaving the relationship between audience gratifications, forms of engagement, and community formation insufficiently integrated. This qualitative study employs virtual ethnography of da’wa videos, comment sections, and live-streaming sessions documented from May to June 2026. Data were collected through non-participant virtual observation and documentation, and analyzed through data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing. Uses and Gratifications provides the lens for interpreting the needs associated with audience involvement, while audience-engagement and virtual-community concepts explain how such involvement is manifested and develops relationally. The findings identify five key strategies: relevant and contextual content, humor, two-way interaction in comments, live streaming, and content consistency. These strategies operate as a gratification–engagement–community cycle: cognitive, affective, social-integrative, and tension-release gratifications encourage attention, emotional closeness, and participation; repeated interaction subsequently develops belonging, collective identity, and redistributive participation through fan accounts and reposting. The study argues that engagement in digital da’wa should not be reduced to performance metrics. Rather, it functions as a relational mechanism through which audiences become active participants who contribute to the circulation and continuity of a digital da’wa community.