Impact Of Social Media On Business Communication: A Case Study Of Woolworths, Essay.

Question:

Write about the Social Media for Business Communication.

Internet is the very well-known technology that has been used by every individual these days. Advancement in this sector results in development of online marketing by the companies in order to market their products with the use of internet. Social media is considered as the great and a very important part of internet technology as it is the sector that uses the internet connectivity to function. Social media helps the individual to generate the content or the information on the internet space that can be accessed by others whom they want to share this information with (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). Thus social media sites or platforms allow the individuals or the people to communicate and interact with whole world with the help of various tools. The different tools that serve as the platforms for the users to use the technology are websites, blogs, networking sites etc. the owner of these sites buy the space on the internet and allow the user of these sites to have their account. The users who are having their accounts on these sites can post their material on the same in order to share the information. These are the time when web 1.0 technology of internet was there (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010). After the invention of web 2.0, the improvement in this technology has raised the standards of social media channels. This technology enhanced the features of these social media tools such that now these sites also allow the users to chat online, post their videos or images etc. earlier, people can only see the information present on the websites but now they can react on the information at the same time. Distance is major obstacle that come across the in communication process at times. This problem can be overcome by the use of social media platforms. As these platforms allow the user to chat with the people all around the world with just an internet connection, thus it makes the communication process easier (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, 2012). It is not only the individual that is benefitted with the invention of social media, but businesses are also getting its benefits.  Business communication is the term that can be defined as the process of communication that is used to communicate with their customers. This is one of the major functions of businesses as it is very important and crucial task got the business to enhance its customer base. The owners of the companies especially the product based companies have to make interaction with their stakeholders. It is not only the company’s internal communication articles but the external communication also affects the businesses of the firm. Customers play a major role in a businesses’ sues as the major aim of any company its serve the products to their customers as well as to satisfy them with their services. To develop the feeling of satisfaction among the customers, it is necessary to interact and develop relationship with them so that their needs can be identified and the strategies can be implemented to fulfill those needs. This suggests that the first step in order to satisfy a customer is to identify the needs and to do that, it is required to communicate with them (Zarrella, 2009).

Woolworths' Social Media Strategies

It has been observed that small to big businesses in Australia, all are using social media platforms as the medium to interact with their customers and to market their products. As far as the supermarket industry of Australia is considered, it has been identified that it is one of the most competitive industries in Australia. To analyze this important and the impact of social media on business communication, Woolworth strategies can be used as this is the company that is very much known for its social media successful social media strategies. The company serves the customers with many products that can be used by the people on daily basis. As the company deals with such essential products thus it is the need of the company to get the information about the changing needs of the customers on daily basis (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). It is not possible for any company to conduct surveys n regular basis in short interval of time thus interaction with the customers is only solution to this problem. Social media provides such platform to the companies so that they can make connection with the customers on daily basis.

As far as the social media use of Woolworth is considered, it has been analyzed that the company is very much engaged with social media channels in order to make conversation with their customers so that they can get information from them about the products needs and the reviews of the services they are experiencing from the company (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). For making the social media use more effective, the company has developed its own social media team that looks exclusively for maintaining social media business of the company. The development of a social media team for the purpose suggests that the company depends highly on the social media channels for its communication (NewsComAu., 2017). The team is responsible for empowering the customers with the technological tool that can help those customers also to share their views regarding the product and the services they are receiving from the company. The major tool of social media that has been used by the company are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. the company’s IT team has developed the application called Socialbakers which is also called Socialbakers Builders and analytics. This is the major tool of the company that supports all the social media action of the firm. It is the tool that helps the company to find out their target audience. Customer support is also the major part of business communication. Customer support can be defined as the process that deals with resolving the issue of the customers related to the products and services the company is offering to the customers. This process is conducted by Woolworth using the Socialbakers tool (Woolworths Online., 2017). As far as the online sales of the company is considered, it has been identified that the A$1.2bn of the company's revenue is earned through its online sales and online sales is the results of effective communication of the business with the customers through online mediums. The company has made its website so attractive with lots of colors so that people get attracted to surf the same. Surfing o the sites can convert into buying by the customers through the pop up ads. The surfing of the website also helps in determining that who likes which products so that customized offers can be provided to such customers. The company has put the like button its website (Socialbakers., 2017). The reason behind putting this button is to facilitate the customers to reach the company’s Facebook site at one click. It also help the company to know, hoe many customers are lining their online services.

Customer Interaction and Support

It is not mandatory to use social media tools for communicating and advertising about the products by the companies but it is the new way to reach the masses. This is because the customers of today’s era are becoming so much used to of these technological aspects and the innovative technical tools that it forces the company to use such tools to market their products. Most of the population of the world engages most of their time on surfing internet (Brown, Broderick and Lee, 2007). This makes the company to attract the customers at that time only. In addition to it, there are several benefits attached with using social media tools. The first benefit is that it is very cost effective. The company needs not to invest so much on the online advertising as compared to offline advertising that require so much of money investment as well as physical efforts (Bovee and Courtland, 2012). To develop the social media marketing campaign, the company needs to hire a team that is skilled with this technical knowledge and can develop a great marketing campaign for the company. It also provides the company like Woolworths to deal directly to the customer without involvement of any mediators and it results in overcoming the issue of data manipulation. If the company's department directly deals with the customers than it will be easier for the company to know the actual situation of the market as well as to segment the customers according to their choices and preferences.

To conclude, the report suggests that social media marketing has a great impact on the business communication of the companies; this is because it facilitates the companies with so many benefits that cannot be offered by the offline marketing techniques. Social media channels and their innovative features that are developing day by day makes the communication work of the companies more easily (Goby, 2007). As far as the Woolworth social media engagement is discussed, it suggests that Woolworth is the company that is using social media very effectively. The development of the special social media team by the company makes it easier for the firm to maintain its social media presence. This is because communication can only be done if the company has its effective social media presence.

References: 

Bovee and Courtland, 2012. Business Communication Today, 10/e. Pearson Education India.

Brown, J., Broderick, A.J. and Lee, N., 2007. Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network. Journal of interactive marketing, 21(3), pp.2-20.

Goby, V.P., 2007. Business communication needs: A multicultural perspective. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21(4), pp.425-437.

Hanna, R., Rohm, A. and Crittenden, V.L., 2011. We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem. Business horizons, 54(3), pp.265-273.

Hoffman, D.L. and Fodor, M., 2010. Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), p.41.
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91.

Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), pp.357-365.

NewsComAu. 2017. Woolworth’s Facebook response to customer who bought mouldy hummus is hilarious. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/this-rapper-response-from-woolworths-is-hilarious/news-story/04b6d95e1a1db5e7a8b864368d2d5fa8 Accessed on: 29 Apr. 2017].

Socialbakers.. 2017. Woolworths: Great Results for a Small Team with Socialbakers Solutions | Socialbakers. [online] Available at: https://www.socialbakers.com/social-media-content/client-stories/woolworths-sa/ Accessed on: 29 Apr. 2017.

Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2014. Social media marketing. Sage.

Woolworths Online. (2017). Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/Shop/Discover/about-us/media-hub  Accessed on: 29 Apr. 2017.

Zarrella, D., 2009. The social media marketing book. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".