The Role of Social Media in Business
In the global world, the rate of internet users have gradually increased transforming the whole world both in the personal and the business activities as many individual spend most of the time chatting with colleagues . The high rate has created an urge on most of the business to divert most of their technique in operating their daily activities. Social media has proven to be a more direct way of connecting customers and business hence improving the sales and creating a more cordial relationship. Many small companies such as Optus, Virgin Australia, and Telstra have embraced the use of internet network in conducting their daily activities such as marketing, recruitment, sales, and creation of presence awareness. Social networking sites are definable as a group of internet based applications that developed on the ideological and technological foundations of Web. The apps allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. With the use of the applications, and the internet users are capable of creating their profile and uploading different photos, videos, and messages on the particular websites. It is observable that among the Australian population, 90% of the internet users are on Facebook, with 41% on Twitter. Telstra Facebook fan page has a significant number of followers not only in Australia but also globally. A large number of the fans help the company to create awareness of its presence to the new customers who might not know its existence, through uploading various updates and references from the potential customers. Telstra twitter account helps it to highlight customer’s testimonials that have a positive impact on its daily operations. Various social media sites such as LinkedIn are sites that tell others whoever you are. Facebook is a site that explains others who you know while twitters a place that shows others whatever you is doing. The purpose of this article examines the use of social media in promoting the marketing, sales, staff recruitment, and creation of awareness. The article goes further to suggest social media applicable in promoting the performance of the company.
Telstra is an Australian multinational telecommunication company that mainly deals with mobile and commands a market share of about 17.4 million mobile services, 6.8 million fixed voice services and 3.5 million retail fixed broadband services. Telstra applies many different social media in operating most of the activities such as marketing, recruitment, sales, and the creation of presence and awareness of the company. Telstra has embraced the social media platforms and has encouraged the employees to engage in social media to enhance the business objectives, but to restriction to the set policies of 3Rs, which are; representing responsibility and respect. The first R-representing requires staff only to serve the Telstra on the external social media platform only if authorized by the management and to make the representation just in an official capacity. The second R-responsibility requires the accredited staff to take responsibility for any publication, and they must be factual. The third R- respect requires that the certified team offer respect to every individual while interacting with the communities.
Case Study: Telstra’s Social Media Presence
Online marketing is definable as the group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 thereby allowing the creation of personal profile and exchange of user-generated content such as photos and videos. Online marketing is a new concept that is currently used by most of the companies to attract the attention of most the customers. Telstra uses the social platforms such as Facebook, twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn to promote sales and build the brand image. The online marketing has been prone because of the today’s increase of the consumer’s technological use in both home and workplaces thereby giving the marketers opportunity to use it to reach the various targeted groups with their products and services. The study shows an increase of online marketing has increased from 29% in 2009 to 34% in 2016. The typical used social is such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Through the social sites, Telstra can know the consumers’ attitudes and motives of the particulars food items. The studies show that Facebook users are more prone to display their profile information than any form of a platform because users openly reveal their feeling about any particular brand. Facebook platform provide consumer-to-consumer approach that enables the users to share experiences and create a shared knowledge on a specific name, and at the same time, it gives the manager an opportunity to have a direct.
Telstra Facebook fan page has about 34 million followers that the business uses to market the products and services. In August 2012, Telstra performed a significant cross-media campaign that aimed at increasing the pre-paid sales and recharge. The campaign included targeted page post ads on desktop and Mobile News Feed for high awareness through posting on its page to a youth audience.
Figure 1: The responsive percentage of engaged customers.
The campaign ran for about six weeks and yielded a good result because of more than 4.6 million exposed to Telstra products, with 77% people to visit the mobile shop to make the purchases than those who unexposed to the Facebook page, while 29% were more likely to visit the shop, with only 1% will not visiting after being exposed. As a result, it is observable that the marketing through Facebook captured attention of many people who turned up in the shops for the advertised products.
Figure 2: Awareness creation of Telstra through social media
Impact of Social Media on Sales and Marketing
During the campaign, more than 680,000 people engaged through commenting, sharing, playing videos and liking. From the above people, there were 56% of new fans that were as an influence of friends and family members, while 44% got the exposure on their own. Through the Facebook campaign, many other people who are not members of the community were able to have a look at friend’s shares and get interested, Therefore, the people whose attentions are grabbed end up to buying the mobile phones because of the increased interaction between the business and the customers.
Through the fan book page, Telstra Company can pass viral promotion messages such as reduced call rates, reduced mobile phone prices, and browsing rates. The messages reached various customers within a short period making large number when turns up for the event, and the company ends up in making a great sale. Many companies rely on short message service to deliver critical information to customers, and Telstra uses the service to forward information such as pin numbers and links for resetting passwords. When Telstra text messaging service was misdirected, the service was shut-down, and personalized messages developed to random customers to warn them on the breach of the company system.
Through Telstra YouTube, the marketing specialist uploads various videos on how the phones used; the usage procedure always pleases many customers more than the picture itself. Telstra use YouTube videos “always-on “through the Drink Digital that went viral among many Australians to embrace the cost-effective services that helped the business to drive its marketing strategy. As a result, Telstra grabbed about 25 million and above views that created awareness and marketing purposes. From the data below, large number of people, the videos in the YouTube attracted about 82% and 60% saw the pictures of the new phones in the social media. Relating the two aspects, it is observable that those who came across the videos are more likely to make purchases of the products than those who actually saw only the pictures of those products, 50% against 10% respectively.
Figure 3: Analysis of video against picture
Through the twitter handle (@telstra, the marketing personnel can maintain a one on one conversation with the customers by addressing all their issues about particular products and take down their concerns, and the personalized chat brings the customers and the business very close hence making an image to be more robust. The company has also employed viral marketing strategy, such as when it uses the song “Second chance” that went viral in most of the company’s social media platforms. The message intention was to bring back the trust that was lost by some of the customers, because of losing a significant amount of money through a mobile bill fraud that some criminals propagated in the name of the company. The potential customers used the opportunity to pass the message to other colleagues hence they gave the company a second chance.
Impact of Social Media on Recruitment and Brand Awareness
Another social platform used is the WhatsApp an application enables the users to share photos, videos and make video calls and chats every single moment to a group or an individual. WhatsApp is the world’s fastest-growing social messaging service with more than a half a billion people around the worlds being active participants. Through the created WhatsApp groups created, can make a one on one follow up with a particular customer and get the views on certain particulars products. Moreover, through the forum groups created, the company is able to make a discussion with the potential customers on how to improve a particular phone or customize it more, hence resulting in products that are appealing to customers. Through the WhatsApp staff groups, the management can pass specific information without sermonizing a meeting; thus, more time is used in offering services to customers.
Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application that allows the users to upload pictures of a preferred item and share it with other users for a short time before they become inaccessible. Telstra chose the application as it mostly attracts young people since it is viewable as a youth-oriented social platform. Through uploading the short-time photos, that are viewed by some people, the company aims at creating a memorable image of best moments with them and to advertise existing and the new products to their customers who make the positive response by viewing.
The social media marketing has some advantages to various companies that embrace it; the social platform generates an exposure to the business to a large number of consumers. The platform brings in new close business partnerships hence leading to an improved total sale of products and services and reduces the overall marketing expenses the company. The online marketing also have aided by the enhancement of powerful search engines, advanced mobile devices and interfaces, online social networks and peer-to-peer communication vehicles. For a company to have a successful e marketing there must be a virtual brand community created. The virtual brand community is a group of people that share the same interests in a particular brand or product, thereby building trust among the consumers and the business enterprise. Providing online shopping services aims at the growth of the restaurant since it can reach a more substantial number of diversified customers through different sites.
Due to the full range of internet users in the world, the way people find and look for a job has also changed over the past decades from the use of newspaper to the use of the internet. As as a result, many business organizations have also changed the trend and technique of getting the most talented candidates.Telstra Corporation has embraced social media recruitment strategy that has led to the to the Joan Wong named among the top 50 social recruiters in Australia and New Zealand by LinkedIn. Telstra Corporation has applied various online advertisements that aim at increasing the total sales of the mobile phones through enticing the internet users. They have created popup and add that bring out the images of the new phones and their prices in the Google+ websites. Google+ has been a leading social network in marketing search engines that is providing an opportunity to connect to all audience and create followers hence they are able to get most of the updates from the company.
Conclusion
Figure 4: comparison of Telstra job advertisement and recruitment between social media and traditional methods
From the above table, it is observable that Telstra Corporation embarks more on social media platforms in advertising the vacancy and recruiting the potential staffs. Social recruiting is all about using the social media to attract and hire the potential candidates through the popular social platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter .Through a process known as e-recruitment.E-recruitment also known as online recruitment is the new technology of using web-based resources in the process of finding, attracting, assessing, interviewing and hiring new employees. Organizations use social media to look up for the potential candidates since most of the talented candidates are not actively participating in search of the job, as most of them are satisfied in their current job positions. Through the social media, the recruiter is able tap and grabs the potential candidate. Telstra uses LinkedIn to find the contacts of the potential candidates. Research shows that e-recruitment recognition overgrows in the business world due to the extensive range use of the internet by many business enterprises. From the study about 85% among the job seeker, are using LinkedIn to check for job opportunities while 74% and 39% of the job seekers uses Facebook and Twitter respectively. The study places LinkedIn as the most popular social platform of engagement for both the employer and the employee . It is observable that Linkedln is the most effective social media that Telstra Corporation uses to recruit the potential candidates with 58% followed by Facebook 40% and twitter 10%.
Figure 5: The rate of Telstra social media recruitment
LinkedIn is more like an expanded resume used to connect the employer and the employee in a professional manner with 58% of total recruitment in Telstra. Linkedln information are always more trusted than those found in Facebook and twitter accounts the personal advisor uses the account to identify different business contacts or potential candidates, through their profiles that contain the educational background and work experience. Through the LinkedIn accounts, the job seekers can see the opportunity posted by the Telstra company so as they make appropriate applications.
Through the Facebook fan page called Telstra careers, the recruitment specialist gets into communication with the followers on how to make applications, and many other issues regarding vacancies at Telstra. For example, when the specialist elaborated on the request for a Network Specialist role, the applicants should use the lingo and cross-reference it with the job advertisement making the curriculum vitae read a Network Specialist. That update helped so many people.
Telstra attracts most of the potential employees through the online job advertisement on their Telstra Websites. A large number of today’s generation spend more time on the web, hence an opportunity for a large pool of applicants without any form of geographical restriction”. The constant impacts of social networking sites on communication and socializing draw attention on how the companies carry out the recruitment process. The main purpose of the online recruitment is to make the recruitment process more effective, efficient, and less costly as it can reach a larger pool of the potential employees and conduct the selection.
Telstra get employees faster than paper-based process companies can arrive at a larger number of prospective employees through casting a wider net, the businesses can post a more detailed information concerning the vacancy and as well as answer FAQs, the job advertisement and has more extended lifetime hence many potential employees can make applications. However, the e-recruitment faces the following disadvantaged, such as; the companies are unable to reach job seekers who are not on the Web. There is a high level of competition for candidates among the rival enterprises due to inadequate confidentiality. The large pool of applicants creates a large number of resumes sent. Thereby, the screening process of the applicants become hectic, that end up leaving out some of the potential applicants out .of the shortlisted interviewer list Research study shows that about 43% of job seekers prefer the old option recruitment process while 26% are looking at the online job sites. Telstra has created a simple website that is easy to open for any potential applicant to make an application.
From the above social media platforms, the company can also use Zoho, and software developed to allow easy recruitment and to create a customer satisfaction. The software helps the company in managing the database since the customers’ information is centralized hence Telstra can send personalized messages to various potential customers. The software also supports the company in tracking down prospective employees that are not in their applicant list thus getting the most skilled and talented.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is observable that social media is very vital to the success of many business organizations. The social media powers derived from the rapid growth of internet usage in the global exposing large number to accessibility. The social media platforms enable the business to create its awareness to a larger pool of customers, help in establishing a stronger company brand, will allow the firm to receive valuable customer’s feedback and enables free advertising. Not all the social media platforms are suitable and sufficient for business. Therefore, each one should understand the targeted group, the aim of the social media and the repercussions it can pose. With all the social media advantages, the techniques must be well applicable to offer maximum turnout.
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