Mediaboss Marketing

Facebook means business in Indonesia. The Indonesian office of the social networking site is as much focused on working more closely with digital marketing practitioners in tapping industry potential as introducing new features that cater to the needs of local users.

"There is no issue on awareness given how large Facebook is," Facebook Indonesia country manager Anand Tilak said recently.

With a user base of 69 million, Indonesia is one of the largest markets for the California-based social networking site.

"However, people do not know how to use Facebook for their brand advertising," he continued. And this, Tilak pointed out, was the issue Facebook wished to resolve through its presence in Indonesia.

Facebook officially established a presence in Indonesia roughly six months ago, with the early team tasked with "building the foundation" for long-term operations in the country.

Tilak pointed out that part of the know-how the company would like to impart was on the ways to utilize the advertising and promotion tools available on Facebook.

"Our main focus is to educate clients and agencies on how to use Facebook to engage with users," he noted.

Digital advertising spending, albeit small compared to traditional media, is on the rise. Numbers from eMarketer suggest that digital ad spend in Indonesia will amount to US$420 million (S$535.21 million) in 2014, increasing by 71.4 per cent in 2015.

He said that Facebook had become a site where people discovered new content through their respective newsfeeds, which advertisers could capitalise on to create buzz around their brands. Nonetheless, those advertisements and promotions inserted into the site must not "irritate" users.

Like most online platforms, Facebook customizes the advertisements based on the perceived online interests and habits of the user.

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