The UMN Initiative and Facebook to Improve the Competence of Indonesian Communication Practitioners in Community Management

Muhammad Fikri, Partner Development Manager dan Community Partnership Facebook Asia Pacific sebagai pembicara. (dok.UMN)

TANGERANG – The Strategic Communications Study Program at Multimedia Nusantara University (UMN) held a guest lecture through Zoom for the Community Relations & Engagement course on Wednesday (05/05/2021) with the theme “Managing Online Community: Connect & Collaborate in the Time of Pandemic.”  This guest lecture invited Muhammad Fikri, Partner Development Manager and Community Partnership Facebook Asia Pacific as a speaker.  On this occasion, Fikri explained his knowledge and experience about community marketing.

Fikri explained that a community is very important in a company because the community can create a captive market.  A marketplace where a business makes any product or service and consumers simply receive it.

“For instance, when the iPhone releases the iPhone 12, 13, 14, or when Nike releases its new shoes.  When they launch a new product, people will buy it and even queue up,” Fikri explained.

In addition, with good community management, the community can help for marketing, public relations, research & development, company website, customer service, and financial reasons.

In the pandemic circumstances, all ideas for community activities are of course run online.  Fikri suggested choosing a platform that could provide interaction with members, which is not one-way.  Such as live features owned by Facebook and various other platforms in which people can interact, as well as Facebook groups to increase our engagement with the community.

To help improve people’s community managing capabilities, Facebook launched a program called “Facebook Blueprint” in early February last year.

“With this program, Facebook provides guidance on how to become a professional community manager with free online courses.  This course will help build marketing skills on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.  Everyone, not only people who are already working, can take this course,” said Fikri.

Also read Webinar PRIDE UMN 2021: Create Brand Communication Strategy

In addition to courses, Facebook Blueprint also provides certificates for people who take the test.  For 49 dollars (about 702 thousand rupiah), test takers will get a certification which is valid for two years.  The certification will need to be renewed after the two years have expired.

“If you successfully pass and get a certificate, you get recognition from Facebook and this can help students look credible and easily get jobs such as being a social media manager, and others,” said Fikri.

To help improve the skills of students, lecturers, and staff, Citra Indah Lestari as one of the lecturers on Community Relations & Engagement who led this guest lecture said that UMN would provide a voucher worth 49 dollars for students, lecturers, or staff who were interested and registered.

“30 students and 20 lecturers or staff at UMN will be randomly selected from the registration list provided during the guest lecture,” said Citra via Whatsapp, Thursday (06/05/2021).

With this opportunity, Citra hoped that all online course participants and certification from UMN could successfully pass so that the number of professional community managers in Indonesia would increase.  It is not only to contribute to the development of public relations (PR) or marketing of existing brands, but also to develop a social business that is oriented towards the interests of the community.

*by Levina Chrestella Theodora – Multimedia Nusantara University News Service

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan | International Program, di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. www.umn.ac.id