9369 Social Media

Introduction 

At present, most of people use social media and it has been considered as one of the popular time passing elements. Hence, in order to increase sales of venture, business organisations use social media as it is an easy way to communicate with many people at a time. The study will focus on the usage of social media in order to enhance organisational internal and external communication of Billabong. Issues of the venture will be identified and based on it; strategies related to use social media will be developed along with effective recommendation.

The problem statement of study is to identify issues related to not using social media in a venture in communicational purpose.

Findings: Issues related to use social media for external and internal communication of Billabong  

Vague news and rumours

As per the viewpoint of Georgescu and Popescul (2015), everyone can access social media and it is an effective platform to advertise products or services of a venture. However, many a times, it is seen that users of social media spread vague rumours related to venture and it leaves negative impact on the venture. In context of Billabong, as they use social media, it is observed that 20% customers only believe on their three brands and as result products of other brands cannot hold the contemporary market (businessnewsaus.com.au, 2016). Different memes related to product price and quality have been created and it decrease sales of venture in the merchandise market. The above-mentioned issue can be considered as external communication related issue in Billabong.

Conflict among workers

On the hand, people give review related to the products, which they have used. According to Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), positive review of products assists to earn satisfaction of employees. In context of Billabong, as a manufacturer of sporting goods and cloths, many a times, it is found that people prefer clothing design of a specific designer and they give positive feedback on it. In this case, other designers feel disappointed and it creates conflict among the employees or designers of venture. It also reduces the cooperative nature among designers in venture. Thus, using social media, authority faces internal communication related issue in venture.

Copy the creation

As argued by Wamba and Carter (2016), several times, people copy the products of a venture, without taking permission from the authority of organisation. In this context, as the source of creation of products is not revealed, the company, who copies the products of others, can easily run a business. Therefore, it becomes a question about the creator of specific products. In context of Billabong, as it is an international retailer company, they face above-mentioned issue related to the identity of products (au.billabong.com, 2018).  Hence, it can be considered as one of the external communication related issue for using social media like facebook, twitter and many others.

Analysis: Strategies for Billabong to use social media 

Identification of social media audience

In time of marketing a product, ventures in present era try to identify the audience of social media and they develop products based on their requirements. As suggested by Cardon and Marshall (2015), if organisational authority rapidly researches on social media, they easily get idea related to needs of present people. As per the report of social media news, it is found out that people between young adults (25-39) and senior citizen (55-64) spend their time in social media like facebook (socialmedianews.com.au, 2018). Therefore, Billabong can develop questions related to their upcoming products and post it in their social media page. Using the above-mentioned way, they can get effective suggestion related to products and it assists to earn huge profit for the venture. Therefore, it develops internal communication in an effective manner.

Video content

On the other hand, Jussila et al. (2014) mentioned that in time of marketing of products, the organisational authority can make a video of the products and upload it in the company page in social media. As a result, people are able to visualise the product and its application in an effective manner. It helps them to take appropriate decision related to purchasing of products. In context of Billabong, as it sells cloths, organisational authority uploads video of their models wearing their products. The above-mentioned strategy helps to enhance external as well as internal communication through social media.  

Attractive articles related to products

In order to develop external communication through social media, as mentioned by Ngai et al. (2015), organisational authority can hire content writers, who develop articles related to the products of venture. In this case, attractive writing is able to get attention from social media users. Thus, social media users want to purchase the products. In context of Billabong, the organisational authority follows the above-mentioned strategy for enhancing their communication through social media. In a report, it is monitored that Billabong is able to increase their 46% customers by using social media (businessnewsaus.com.au, 2016).  

Impact of using social media in context of internal and external   communication 

In the opinion of Ainin et al. (2015), social media is platform where, people are able to get information about various topics like business, social status and many others. In addition to this, people can share their personal opinion related to the specific topic. In context of business, organisational authority is able to get feedback of their products and it reflects on the concept of external communication. In addition to this, organisational employees are able to chalk out that in which section; they need to bring improvement of their products. In context of Billabong, organisational authority is able to get effective feedback from their customers and it leaves positive impact on business.

On the other hand, Trainor et al. (2014) stated that as people are busy in their daily life, they prefer to purchase products from online platform like social media. It is quite common matter that in time of purchasing products from social media, people can review the feedback of previous customers. For example, as per the report, it is monitored that 71% people in 2016 have purchased products from online (commonsensemarketing.com.au, 2016). Therefore, it can be confirmed that using social media, business organisations are able to increase number of consumers in contemporary market.

As argued by Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), in context of retail sector especially for cloths, trough social media, people can see the models and get idea related to the looks of the specific cloths. Moreover, they can give suggestion to organisational authority related to design of products. It develops internal communication of venture like Billabong. However, many a times, other people can copy products a reputed venture and it can be considered as the negative impact of using social media (commonsensemarketing.com.au, 2016).

Recommendation 

• Need to use copyrights
• Need to reduce conflict among workers
• Developing strategy for avoiding rumours

If employees of organisation are able to use copyrights, it can decrease chance of stealing their design (socialmedianews.com.au, 2018). In addition to this, workers of Billabong need to receive feedback of customers in a positive manner as they can bring improvement in their work. They should develop collaborative working atmosphere, which helps to earn prosperity in the competitive market. In addition to this, Billabong can develop strategies for avoiding vague rumours.

Conclusion

In order to draw the end line of study, it can be deduced that social media assists to enhance the business profit in the contemporary merchandise market. Throughout the study, issues like rumours, conflict among workers have been elaborated and effective strategies like attractive articles and video content have been developed for getting fruitful outcome. However, impact of using social media for business purpose can be found out and analysis has been done. It can stated that if organisational authority like Billabong is able to maintain privacy of social media, it can provide positive outcome related to the profit of business. Appropriate recommendation has been provided based on the issues. Thus, the problem statement of study has been met throughout the report.

References

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businessnewsaus.com.au (2016), Billabong’s fans show that all about the brand, Available at: https://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/billabong-s-fans-show-that-it-s-all-about-the-brand.html [Accessed on: 12 July, 2018]

Cardon, P.W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), pp.273-293.

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Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44.

Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.

socialmedianews.com.au (2018), Social Media Statistics Australia, Available at: https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-january-2018/ [Accessed on: 12 July, 2018]

Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.

Wamba, S.F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical study. In Social media and Networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications, 58(2), pp. 791-806.