Impact Of Social Media On Contemporary Business Communication

Traditional and contemporary form of business communication

Discuss about the Interpersonal and E Communication for Social Media.

Communication is the basic and integral part of every business towards conveying most important information to the customers regarding their products and services Gensler et al. (2013). The study will highlight the impact of social media on contemporary business communication. Apart from that, the study will describe the impact of social media on contemporary business through the example of one suitable business organization. Furthermore, the study will also demonstrate some examples through which the organization utilizes social media channels in their business.

Business communication is an extremely vital pathway for communicating important business information among the internal as well as external stakeholders of an organization. The prime intension behind business communication is to promote the value of the product and services for getting commercial benefits out of it (Huang, Baptista and Galliers 2013). Moreover, business communication involves constant flow of information and mutual exchange of understanding generated from the receiver. Tradition form of business communication was completely different from that of today’s business communication. There for less tough of digitalization in the communication vital information to the audience groups. As per Paniagua and Sapena (2014) traditional business information used to be communicated mostly through billboards, publications, face-to-face communication, television and radio. Moreover, Trainor et al. (2014) opined that such traditional business communication channels were very limited to reach at the target audiences.  Furthermore, earlier business organizations often used to fail in communicating the right information to the right person within right time.

Over the last 20 years, business communication has taken a new shape and form for delivering business information. Recent form of business communication is completely different from earlier business communication (Baptista and Newell 2015). Moreover, today’s business communication is all embraced with advanced technology and intended to communicate with the customers more personally (Wagner, Vollmar and Wagner 2014). The emerging needs of competitive advantage and tough market competition have raised the needs of speed in communicating business information. Promptness in business communication can better help in beating the marker competition (Gensler et al. 2013). With the emerging needs of the businesses towards establishing personal relationship with the customers, the organizations are more inclined to search for personal information of the customers in the internet (Aral, Dellarocas and Godes 2013). In such extent, social media has gained extreme popularity in the recent business communication.

Ngai, Tao and Moon (2015) opined that social medial has provides the business an opportunity towards understanding the customers more personally. The contemporary businesses are more capable of interacting with the customers for understanding and identifying their dynamic needs and demands. Apart from that, the contemporary organizations, which have global businesses, have obvious needs for reaching timely information to the global customers for gaining competitive advantage (Treem and Leonardi 2013). In this extent, social medial is quite helpful in interacting with the global customers more intensely.

Significance of speed in business communication

Social has become a fundamental part of every people and it is associated with the daily lives of the people. In this way, organizations can reach to wide customer base in fraction of second through the usage of social media. In this way, social media assists in expanding the customer base of the organizations. Furthermore, Hajli (2014) opined that social media helps the contemporary businesses to towards beyond mere information exchange. Through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, the customers can share their preferred images and videos regarding the specific products and services. In this way, the contemporary businesses are quite capable of understanding the customer perspective regarding their products and services (Wagner, Vollmar and Wagner 2014).

Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker and Bloching (2013) pointed out that customers can also freely provide their feedbacks regarding their experience about the specific products and services. Moreover, social media channels have become effective interactive communication medium for the contemporary businesses. Therefore, it becomes quite easy for the organizations to modify their products and services as the needs of the customers. In this way, the contemporary business organizations are more capable of gaining competitive edge over the rivals through unique touch in their products and services (Goh, Heng and Lin 2013).

Being highly interactive in nature, the social media channels assists in better promotion of products and services of the organizations. As per Huang, Baptista and Newell (2015), customers can share important information, links and images of their preferred products and services through social media channels. Customers often recommend their preferred products and services to their closed ones through social media channels. In this way, social media facilitates in enhancing electronic word of mouth for the products and services. Moreover, electronic word of mouth actually minimizes the expensive advertising cost of the contemporary businesses (Rishika et al. 2013).

In this highly competitive business environment, contemporary business organizations face tough challenges towards maintaining the speed in business communication. It is mostly a challenge for the global businesses towards providing right information to the global customers in right time. According to Yu, Duan and Cao (2013), social media is the perfect medium for these contemporary businesses towards reaching at the global customers in shortest period of time. On the other hand, Jiang, Luo and Kulemeka (2016) argued that contemporary business organizations have no control over the communication with the customers. Moreover, the negative feedback posted by the customers in the social media channels can destroy the image of products and services to wide range of customers.

Social media as a medium for global businesses

With the globalized nature in contemporary businesses, the organizations are to manage global teams with decentralized management approach. In this way, recent business organizations often face the issues of employee engagement in global basis. Braojos-Gomez, Benitez-Amado and Llorens-Montes (2015) pointed out that social media platform can be quite helpful for the organization towards building effective networks of employees. Moreover, the employees can effectively share vital organizational information among each other, which develops employee bonding and engagement. However, Yadav and Rahman (2017) opined that in some situation, employees either intentionally or unintentionally share some confidential information of the organization through social media, which was not actually intended to communicate. In this way, social media can sometimes lead to security breaches for the organizations.

Contemporary organizations are getting highly diversified in nature and marinating multiple business units simultaneously. In such situation, the organizations often face challenges in maintaining personal relationship with the customers in different business units. According to Goh, Heng and Lin (2013), social media channels are extremely helpful in identifying the customers’ issues and obligations. Therefore, the organizations can maintain long lasting customer relationship through prompt solution to their issues. However, Rishika et al. (2013) opined that social media offers zero cost per interaction with the customers. In this way, the web is now getting increasing numbers of spam and irrelevant information. Therefore, the organizations are facing extreme challenges in communicating informative messages to the target customers within effective time.

Domino’s Australia can be considered as the suitable example, which relies on extensive usage of social media for its business communication. The organization often post interactive and attractive videos and images regarding their food products through Facebook, YouTube and Instragram (Taneja and Toombs 2014). Apart from interactive videos and images, the organization also shares vital information regarding the quality of the products. In this way, the organization can better promote their products to wide range of customers. Furthermore, the positive feedback posted by the customers on social media has enhanced the positive word-of-mouth regarding the products (Huang, Baptista and Newell 2015). In this way, it has increased the customer attraction capability of the organization, which has increased its sales volume.

Domino’s Australia also offers attractive discounts and coupons in its Facebook and Twitter account. It facilitates the customers towards getting useful and attractive information about the products in regards to product offerings (Jiang, Luo and Kulemeka 2016). In this way, the social media assists this organization towards enhancing the loyalty level of the customers.

Benefits and Challenges of using social media for business communication

Through social media platform also fosters strong customer relationship for Domino’s Australia. Moreover, the organization involves the customers in the business decision making through social media platform. The organization asks customers regarding their experience with the pizzas. Furthermore, as per the customer experience, the organization often makes modification on their products. In this way, the customized tough in the products can help the organization to create competitive advantage over the rivals (Yadav and Rahman 2017). Apart from that, it also helps the organization towards enhancing customer loyalty through enhanced customer value.

Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said social media is highly influential on contemporary businesses. Apart from just sharing the product information, the social media platform also helps in interactive communication with the customers. In competitive business market, there is an emerging need of the organization to create competitive advantage through timely sharing of information with the customers. In such extent, the social media is quite helpful for the organization towards sharing timely information with the customers within shortest period of time. Domino’s Australia effectively use social media platform for gaining competitive edge over its rivals. Moreover, the customer interaction through the usage of Facebook, Twitter and Instragram helps in enhancing customer loyalty.

Reference List

Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media and business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.3-13.

Braojos-Gomez, J., Benitez-Amado, J. and Llorens-Montes, F.J., 2015. How do small firms learn to develop a social media competence?. International Journal of Information Management, 35(4), pp.443-458.

Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y. and Wiertz, C., 2013. Managing brands in the social media environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.242-256.

Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107.

Hajli, M.N., 2014. A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56(3), pp.387-404.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Hofacker, C.F. and Bloching, B., 2013. Marketing the pinball way: understanding how social media change the generation of value for consumers and companies. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.237-241.

Huang, J., Baptista, J. and Galliers, R.D., 2013. Reconceptualizing rhetorical practices in organizations: The impact of social media on internal communications. Information & Management, 50(2), pp.112-124.

Huang, J., Baptista, J. and Newell, S., 2015. Communicational ambidexterity as a new capability to manage social media communication within organizations. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(2), pp.49-64.

Jiang, H., Luo, Y. and Kulemeka, O., 2016. Leading in the digital age: A study of how social media are transforming the work of communication professionals. Telematics and Informatics, 33(2), pp.493-499.

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.

Paniagua, J. and Sapena, J., 2014. Business performance and social media: Love or hate?. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.719-728.

Rishika, R., Kumar, A., Janakiraman, R. and Bezawada, R., 2013. The effect of customers’ social media participation on customer visit frequency and profitability: an empirical investigation. Information systems research, 24(1), pp.108-127.

Taneja, S. and Toombs, L., 2014. Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 18(1), p.249.

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.

Treem, J.W. and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association, 36(1), pp.143-189.

Wagner, D., Vollmar, G. and Wagner, H.T., 2014. The impact of information technology on knowledge creation: An affordance approach to social media. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), pp.31-44.

Yadav, M. and Rahman, Z., 2017. Social media marketing: literature review and future research directions. International Journal of Business Information Systems, 25(2), pp.213-240.

Yu, Y., Duan, W. and Cao, Q., 2013. The impact of social and conventional media on firm equity value: A sentiment analysis approach. Decision Support Systems, 55(4), pp.919-926.