Impact Of Social Media Channels On Business Activities: A Case Study Of Virgin Australia Airlines

Social Media Channels and how they are been used by the Virgin Australia Airlines

Discuss about the Social Media Channels on Business Activities.

The modern business world has been greatly influenced by the growth of internet and especially by the increasing use of the different social media channels in which most businesses have realized that these channels provide great platforms for enhancing business growth and even reducing the operational costs of a business (Nowi?ski & Rialp, p. 452, 2016).  Many business organizations have used different social media platforms or channels for different purposes due to the advancement of information technology which has greatly influenced how the businesses conduct their business. Businesses have grown due to the establishment of electronic business which involves the use of internet and business technology in a company’s operations. Social media and social networking have changed most business landscape both for companies that have adopted the use of the channels and for those who have not. It has been projected that the growth of social media in business by the organization will continue to increase rapidly (Sriwilai & Charoensukmongkol, P. 431, 2016).

In Australia, most businesses have adopted the use of social media channels to aid to various organizational or business development agenda. However, the percentage of usage of the channels differs from small businesses to medium and to large business organization. The small-scale businesses have been found to have the least use of social media with a loss of 26 percentage uses (Fleck & Johnson-Migalski, p. 140, 2015). The middle businesses have been reported to have engaged in more useful business activities using social media compared to the small-scale businesses with an estimated 46 percent use. However, it has been found that nearly 80 percent of the large business organization has increasingly embraced the use of social media in their business operations. This essay, therefore, seeks to analyze the impact of social media on their businesses of Virgin Australia Air Travel Company by understanding the various social media channels and how they have been used by the company to enhance its business operations. The figure below shows some commonly used social media platforms in business by different companies and their projected increase in terms of usage by the year 2020.

Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Limited is the second largest airline in Australia and is based in Bowen Hills, Brisbane. It was founded in the year 1999 by Richard Branson a British businessman and started its operations with two aircraft operating in a single route and has grown increasingly to become the second largest airline in Australia directly serving 29 cities in Australia (MRAZOVA, p. 111, 2014). Therefore for the airline to experience such a growth in the industry, it must have had established business strategies and mostly marketing strategies to expand the operations of the company, enlarge its customer or client base through a number of established channels. One of the greatest channels that have contributed to the growth of the company has been its ability to utilize various social media platforms to enhance business functions within the company. The company has relied on its social media for customer relationship, for customer retention and increasing customer base, for conducting market research and product management, for establishing or increasing the company advantage in the industry and for controlling costs of operation, increasing sales for the air tickets as well as facilitating smooth recruitment processes (D’alfonso&Nastasi, p. 736, 2014). The company has, therefore, has been found to have an increased use of its social media channels such as the twitter, linked in, Facebook among others.

Promoting Customer Relationship Management

The most common social media channels or platforms used by the company are the Facebook, Twitter and linked in as well as the company official internet websites. The Facebook channel provides a great platform for interaction with different customers forms various backgrounds and therefore helps the company to understand the different culture of different groups by communicating with the groups and therefore provides a great marketing platform for the company goods and services (Watkins & Lee, p. 482, 2016). Twitter accounts are more official than Facebook accounts and therefore may not have a great number of followers as compared to Facebook but performs a very critical role as studies have shown that most information communicated by the companies through their twitter social platforms are more trusted as compared to the information on Facebook where privacy is not much emphasized or controlled as compared to Twitter accounts which are entirely controlled by the company. Another very important channel that has been used by the company is the LinkedIn social platform which just as Twitter is also used for official purposes of the company and especially in communicating important company news and advertisement and most importantly used in the recruiting exercises of the company (Gravili, p. 382, 2014). The company has also created a website which can be accessed by every customer both the perspective and potential customers who may be wanting to learn more about the company, the goods and services they offer and interact one on one with the support staff of the company for any clarification about the services provided by asking questions. These platforms have therefore contributed positively to the growth and success of the company and the company is also looking into other social platforms to continue to venture and exploit their potential even as the company grows its services globally.

One of the most important roles of the social media channels and that has greatly enhanced service provision by the company to its clients and customer is promoting customer relationship management. The growth and success of a company are determined by the level of satisfaction of the company clients or customers with the goods and services offered by the company. This can, therefore, imply that customers can be said to be the greatest assets of a company and therefore call for effective management (Hood et al., p. 28, 2014). One of the greatest advantages of a social media platforms and channels is the opportunity to strengthen the relationships between a company and its customers. Such relationships and online connection have helped the company to convey information regarding its brand. The company has therefore used Facebook to communicate and advertise their airline services and especially through messages which have been created in form of advertisements promoting the services of the airlines and encouraging their customers to want to use the airlines for different business and leisure travel.

Promoting Customer Retention and Expansion of Customer Base

The companies have found these platforms beneficial as a positive customer relationship management yields a positive feedback either through a word of mouth that is exponentially broadcast across the social network and also through written feedback messages. Customers can express their concerns and even give recommendations based on the services b provided by the company in order to improve its service delivery (King et al., p. 245, 2014). The companies have prioritized to create constant and frequent interactions with their customers online as it is believed that the greater the frequency and degree of engagement the stronger the relationship between the company and its customers become and therefore the greater the impact of the relationship on the company air ticket sales, the greater the levels of customer satisfaction and the greater the airline reputation grows.

Secondly, these channels have become great platforms of promoting customer retention and expansion of the company customer base. Research has provided that over 60 percent of social media users who follow a certain brand or company products or services usually end up or are more likely to buy the brand or product. This shows that social media channels create a platform for increasing the company customer base by attracting new customers each day who follow the company services and products on the social media channels (Nowi?ski & Rialp, p. 448, 2016). For example, through the use of Facebook, the company has been able to attract customers from different regions where they operate in the 29 cities in Australia as the company advertises its traveling packages and services through videos and other messages designed to advertise the different customer experiences using the Virgin Australia Airlines.

The expansion of the company customer base is achieved by increasing the number of followers of the company brand through the channels and most importantly through the broadcast of positive customer feedback regarding the company and its products which help in attracting new customers. The company has also focused on developing a social media strategy where it can retain its existing customers through improving their existing relationships by offering traveling offer seasons or packages a move that has been developed by the company due to the fact that is easier done to retain existing customers as compared to attracting new customers (Gravili, p. 378, 2014). The social media platforms or channels of the company are therefore designed with the sole purpose of helping the company improve the customer’s levels of satisfaction with the company services and brands. Mostly this function has been well done through the use of the company Facebook platforms as well as the twitter account which gives constant company updates to its followers anytime there is any breaking news concerning the airlines or any important information which needs to be communicated to their perspective and potential customers. The figure below shows how social media has been prioritized in enhancing customerservice.

Net Base is a global leader in enterprise customer analytics and has been found to help enable most companies to see, analyze and get insights into billions of social posts through a simple bar where the users can type a simple question and then the data is analyzed from different social media platforms used by the company.  This platform therefore processes a million social media posts daily for actionable business insights used for marketing purposes, research, customer service as well for sales and public relation. In this case for example, the company may want to determine the efficiency of their customer services and therefore through the online bar it may ask the question “IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE ON CUSTOMER SERVICE?” to get different views across different  social media platforms used and hence make decisions on where to improve their services. This graph therefore can be used to analyze the impact of social media channels on small businesses in enhancing customer service.

From the question posted on the bar, the Netbase analytical tool is able to collect information and analyze to provide the graphical and chart representations above for analysis. From the respondents reports or comments on social media platforms, majority of them suggested that there is a positive impact of social media use for customer service accounting for 71.2 percent whereas 28.8 percent were not pleased or were of the view that social media use does not have much impact on customer service. To make relevant decisions the company can therefore ask why the respondents think that social media is not effective for customer service and hence will be in a position to make future decisions and take measures aimed at improving the effectiveness of the customer relationships using social media.

The theory uses a cost benefit analysis approach or a comparison of alternatives to explain how human beings interact in different social platforms through communication which led to formation of different social groups. The theory states that individuals engage in behaviors they find rewarding and avoid behaviors that have high cost to them. In this case therefore the theory can be used to imply that most business customers and clients will engage in social media use if the exercise will help them achieve their needs for example in understanding the company brands and products, ability to interact with the company online and get answers to specific questions which in turn lead to customer satisfaction. Therefore the theory can be used to understand the above analysis of the effectiveness of social media use on customer service and draw the conclusion from the customers behavior observed that shows more positive feedback that social media use has a great impact on customer service.

Thirdly the company has deployed the use of social media platforms in promoting company market research as well as product marketing.  This is proved by the fact that a great platform for exploring different cultures, individual views and customer lifestyles that influence consumer behavior. Most organizations have shifted to the use of social media platforms to advertise their services to different potential and existing customers as it creates an area of developing a target audience that is then used by the company to develop marketing and advertising strategies for the company (Goodrich & de Mooij, p. 112, 2014). The fact that issues can be raised from different customers on the current trends in the airline industry the social media platforms, therefore, can be used to alert the companies to issues that may affect the current opportunities.

The company has therefore used the social media platform and especially the Facebook channel to understand the different culture and cultural values of the targeted customers, getting to understand the different tastes and preferences of their potential customers in order for the company to strategize and develop effective plans on how to improve their service provision (Ristevska-Jovanovska, p. 16, 2017). The company also compares the performance of their competitors using their social media channels. Product marketing had before been done through traditional advertising channels which are very expensive for most small business organizations and probably why the small-scale firms in Australia have been reported to have low percentages of social media use. Therefore the platform provides a platform for marketing the company products through messages that are conveyed by other product promotions sites such as the company website advertising and press release (Zanjani et al., p. 575, 2017). The company has been taking photos of their aircraft and some of their exclusive services and ends up advertising them through their Facebook accounts where viewers can express their insights and make any recommendations. The figure bellows shows the use of social media in marketing and the impact it has on overall performance of the business.

The airline industry has become one of the most competitive industries in the world and the success of the industry is largely depended on the quality of services provided and the levels of their customer satisfaction or even the nature of their brands. Therefore the company has used its social media platforms or channels to gain a competitive advantage in the industry (King et al., p. 246, 2014). This has been done by listening to a competitor message on social media channels and developing the appropriate strategies and tactics that directly counter that competitors initiatives and therefore end up helping the company gain a competitive advantage. The best competitive advantage in this industry is when the company helps their customers achieve their satisfaction levels or meet their changing tastes and preferences in the travel industry (JOHN et al., p. 146, 2017). The quality of services provided therefore can only be achieved by the companies if they engage in one on one interaction or there is an effective channel of interacting with the company and therefore the reason why the company has invested so much in developing its social media interaction channels for effective customer relationship management.

Other than maintaining effective customer relationships, social media in the current corporate world has embarked on the use of social media platforms or channels for controlling the company cost initiatives. The shift has come as a result of the increased costs of advertising by using the traditional advertising and business promotion strategies (Batra& Keller, p. 136, 2016). Social media provide customized services for marketing company products and services as compared to advertising and marketing their services through print media and through mass media channels which is limited to the scope of its coverage as it may not meet the targeted audience. It is cheaper to develop a marketing website for a company that will enhance the company and customer relationships.

Social media platforms provide opportunities for increasing the economies of scale of the company. Due to the number of followers of a certain brand or a company service who end up buying or using the products, the company gains an advantage of economies of scale and therefore ends up increasing the sales of the company and lead to increased productivity of the airline industry (Diffley&McCole, p. 598, 2015). The company has been able to increase its sales for the airline’s tickets across the cities it operates in Australia by adding social media functions to their corporate websites which enhance the user and company engagements and contribute to increased product sales. Lastly, the company has been using the channels to conduct its recruitment functions and especially through the use of the LinkedIn social platform and the company websites as well as the Facebook accounts. Employment opportunities are advertised on the company websites as well as the Facebook accounts however the company relies on the use of the LinkedIn platform to interact with potential employees as the platforms engages its users and can view the different employees profiles and invite them for interviews based on their qualifications and experiences (Goodrich & de Mooij, p. 108, 2014).

The company can also look into other social media platforms since technology has greatly influenced the mode of interactions and every day new social platforms are being created to enhance human interactions (Schivinski&Dabrowski, p. 192, 2016). The company can tap into those social sites such as Instagram and telegraphs. Telegraphs have recently increased its membership with most businesses using the channels to advertise their products and services advertised for job opportunities and interact with their customers and potential clients. This, therefore, would be an effective platform for the company to interact with its customers and advertise their business and services across the platform. In addition, many individuals have been reported to shift to the use of Instagram social media platforms. The platform has attracted many followers and users due to its attractive features which are not integrated into other social media platforms. The company can, therefore, tap into this opportunity and use these platforms to enhance their customer relationship management initiatives, expand their customer base, conduct product marketing and increase its sales (D’alfonso&Nastasi, p. 736, 2014). However, the company can also improve on its recruitment functions by using electronic portfolios channels where different individuals create their profiles and upload their academic credentials and achievements as well as certifications and also some of the accomplished or done projects. The company can, therefore, use this platform in addition to the use of the LinkedIn platform to recruit the required staff based on their achievements and academic credentials and other non-academic skills which are important in the development of an effective workforce in an organization.

Conclusion

Social media channels and platforms, therefore, provide a great avenue for business growth and development and play an important role in developing a company marketing and communication strategies. However, these platforms should be used for the right purposes as regulated by the media content rights and privacy (de Vries et al., p. 8, 2017). The internet usage has become very sensitive and therefore great protection mechanisms have been adopted to regulate the usage of the platforms by ensuring that the users are responsible. It is therefore recommended that the Virgin Australia Airlines should ensure that her social media platforms and channels are protected to prevent any illegal usage through the posting of irrelevant information which can greatly affect the reputation and image or negatively influence consumer behavior. The company should establish the required privacy protection mechanisms, especially to the official company websites to protect it from the effects of hacking. It is also recommended that the company should also develop other social media channels depending on the trends of the communication world as a result of the continued rapid changes in the information technology industry (Warren, p. 55, 2016). Such a move will ensure that the company keeps pace with the social marketing trends in the current corporate world which will ensure continued growth and success of the company in the industry.

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