| Summary: | Facebook is a phenomenon. Up to now there is no medium that can attract so many
people to sign up like facebook. More to it, facebook did it in a relatively short time. Today more
than 700 million accounts in facebook from all over the world. Indonesia is the second biggest
facebook users in the world. This comes to a surprise as internet penetration is considered to be
low in this country. But the need to be able to access facebook is so high among Indonesian,
shown in one study that reveals 9 out of 10 internet users in Indonesia are in facebook.
That big number of users make facebook a very attractive medium for companies to use it
as a marketing tool. But, different from other traditional media like newspaper or TV, facebook
has its own characteristic. As a social media, facebook can give access to its users to
communicate in many ways. Users in this case are active, where information can be received,
erased, responded or shared as each user wish to do. In a way the number of users and its social
media characteristic make facebook a powerful marketing tool. But in other way, companies
have to be prepared to face reality when their products or services will get negative feedback
from customers.
With those given conditions, the question would be, whether facebook is the right
marketing tool to use. This study try to look it from marketer � brand owner � and expert
perspective to answer that question. Reference for this study is from Mangold and Faulds (2009),
that the role of social media in an effective marketing communication is as a tool for brand to
talk to customers and the platform that enable cutomers to talk to other customers. The answer is
yes facebook is the right media as long as it is well managed. Communication from companies to
customers is very powerful since the size of facebook users, while the ability for customers to
make a communication can be used as a good insight for the companies.
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