Maverick Indonesia

Credibility on Facebook Groups

Most people would equate Facebook as good for personal social networking and little more. That it certainly is. But it also has more uses than just this, and corporations would do well to consider whether this medium could help them add to their arsenal of communications vehicles.

The Facebook Group feature provides opportunities for corporations to gather users with shared interests and causes. Facebook members can create a Group for any topic and Group creators are able to email (list serve) all group members for notifications and communicating to the entire group. For instance, in 2007, DKT Indonesia, a social marketer of Fiesta and Sutra condom, conducted the “National Condom Week”.

DKT Indonesia created a Facebook Group that broadened its engagement with its target audience by educating youth and adults about safe sex. Moreover, the risks of unsafe sex can be further discussed in the discussion board that allows raising the level of awareness and encouraging the people to use protection to protect someone against unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Facebook can also be an effective communication tool in crisis-like situations. Here’s how it could work: Imagine a restaurant in Indonesia setting up a Facebook group, say Fans of Restaurant Glutton and invites its fans to join their group. (This is not so far fetched – the Manadonese restaurant, Beautika, for instance, has a Group with 350 members who enjoy its spicy dishes and servings of paniki.

Now, let’s say, Restaurant Glutton that enjoys a mostly Muslim clientele, is suddenly beset by rumors that it uses lard in its cooking. What should it do?

If it already has a Facebook Group it can post a message or send an email to all members of the Group to explain that the rumors were unfounded. If the restaurant owner has been using Facebook to connect with its fans all this while, a simple posting like this would be effective in quashing the rumors with its Facebook fans because the owner would be familiar to them as a trusted fellow Group member.

Crisis averted, back to business as usual, little fuss little expense. For an in-depth discussion of this application and other situations, go to this link.

So see you in Facebook?

Tags: New Media