The smart city concept has been implemented in countries worldwide as the solution for various urban problems. In Indonesia, the smart city movement was initiated in 2017 to create 100 smart cities. Previous studies identify challenges to the implementation and that smart people or smart citizens are essential dimensions of a smart city. This study aims to gain insights into the smart city implementation and citizen engagement in Indonesia through the online social network by conducting a focus group discussion (FGD) with four academicians and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with six representatives of the related government institutions. FGD and IDIs indicate that the implementation of smart cities should be adjusted according to the local situation. The critical success factors of the implementation are namely, local wisdom, transformational leadership, sustainability, and political content. The results also reveal that, in general, the city residents have been involved in implementing of the smart city through the online social network. However, a kind of incentive system is still required to ensure that the city residents are encouraged to solve the city problems. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.