Impact on Information Availability to Business - Use of Social Media - Case Study Example

? ITM501 MoD 3 Case the internet as social media Introduction The case deals with an incident of a musician d Dave Caroll who wastravelling from Canada to Nebraska with his musical band. Dave observed that his guitar and other instruments were not properly taken care of by the baggage department. Dave complained about this incident to the airline authority, but no steps were taken by the authority. Dave posted this incident on YouTube. It was a case of service failure where the guitar and baggage were damaged due to the mishandling flaws. The authority did not react proactively, and so Dave had to raise his voice by spreading word of mouth via a social network. Social network is a very useful tool for advertisement in our era. Social media is a virtual network where people can view, create and share different information. For marketers, social media is the most convenient way to reach maximum number of customers at the same time. As people can share their ideas and opinions via social media, the company has an opportunity to get feedback from social media. Social media is different from other traditional media in terms of reach, frequency, performance, immediacy. With the change in lifestyle, social media has gained popularity among individuals, especially among the young, as it is very fast. In our case it will be discussed how far social media is able to provide business with new information. Impact on information availability to business: use of social media The case of Dave Carroll and the incident with his musical instrument, a guitar, during his flight from Toronto to Nebraska with the United Airline brings to our attention the effectiveness of social media in providing useful and new information related to the business houses. The United Airlines, being a Fortune 25 company, did not take heed of the concerns of the young musician, Dave Carroll. The United Airlines ignored his claim that his guitar was damaged and devalued by the United Airlines personnel during the journey as a result of mishandling of his guitar and baggage. In order to make his point and gain support against the airline giant, the slender musician used the social media on the Internet to make a viral response with the support of billions in the community (Al-Deen &  Hendricks, 2011). The social media on the Internet uses its unique features of connectivity as well as immediacy to reach out to millions of members in the community very easily through videos, public messages, etc. Social media has a rippling effect in terms of spreading the message across the communities and making new and useful information available to the companies (Sigala, Christou, & Gretzel, 2012). In this case, the preparation of the video by the musician, which cost hardly $200 helped him to send the message of his dissatisfaction with the customer service provided by the United Airlines (Harvard Business School, 2010). The information spread like a virus, and it easily reached the top of the management of the United Airlines. This information is of extremely high value to the United Airlines as it is publicly available and, along with it, the image and goodwill of the company is affected. Thus the availability of the information in social media creates an impression in the minds of the customers and impacts the interest levels of the consumers to access the services of the company (Kerpen, 2011). In this case, the availability of the information from Dave Carroll and the entire description of the event of breaking of his guitar were displayed by the musician on YouTube. This information reached very easily the management, and this helped the top management to limit the risk of loss of goodwill and the loss of revenues due to reduction in the customer base. There are, however, various other alternatives where the information on the operations, customer service and customer grievance is readily available to the business. This helps the companies to assess the value of brand image in the market and the acceptability of its services among the customers. Various posts on Facebook and Twitter are of extremely high value as they provide information on the customer’s experience of the services offered by the company (Tjoa, Quirchmayr, You, & Xu, 2011). These platforms of social media also allow the members or the Internet user to share the experiences with each other and provide feedback to important queries as part of resolution. Thus the new and useful information spreads like a ripple and reaches the target stakeholders, which forces them to take necessary action to respond to such posts or take steps to sustain the value of business. It is true that availability and the use of social media can provide different and new key information to the businesses. Social media is widely used throughout the globe. In US, several leading organizations can avail useful business information as they are able to link with the target customers through the real time interaction (Weinberg, 2009). Moreover, people can avail significant information about an organization’s business operation strategy. On the other hand, the organizations can get instant and quick feedback from the customers through the review of customers (Funk, 2012). The total number of social media users is expected to grow dramatically in near future. The popularity of several social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook is increasing slowly and gradually throughout the globe. Many organizations use social media as an effective promotional tool. Social media advertising can help the organization to target both national and international customers. It is quite clear from the case study that Dave Carroll’s posting his experience about the inadequate customer service of the United Airlines helped the organization in several ways (Wankel, 2010). This post helped the organization to review the whole organization structure and business operation process. Airlines are considered as service providing industries. Effective customer service is the major growth driver of these organizations. This particular incident affected the organization’s brand image in the global marketplace. This negative customer feedback helped the organization to identify the issues and challenges associated with the business process (Tatnall, 2005). It is an indirect and cost-effective feedback process through which the organization can improve the quality of products and services. However, feedback from a customer about a particular product or a service can make aware of the problem thousands of people within a second. It can benefit both the organization and the competitors of that organization (Zarrella, 2010). This online feedback process through social media networks can give a chance to an organization to improve the quality and competence of the specific products and services. On the other hand, this feedback can help the competitors to undertake several aggressive strategies against the flaws (Castells, 2002). It will provide effective and potential advantages to the competitors within the specific industry. Several leading organizations around the globe are trying to capitalize on the potential opportunities that have developed due to technological revolution and globalization. These organizations are trying to implement advanced technology in their business processes to reduce cost. Social media promotional and marketing strategy is the consequence of global technological business development (Stair & Reynolds, 2011). Moreover, several global business firms can identify own strengths and weakness and external opportunities and threats through the feedbacks that is posted on social media sites about the product or service (Mandiberg, 2012). Conclusion The specific incident had a strong effect on the consumer’s mind as soon as it was disclosed on YouTube. The popularity of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is increasing at a rapid speed as more and more people have started communicating via social media (Bozarth, 2010). The authenticity of social media is increasing also as social media sites are increasing their safety technical tools. Comparing with advertisement and other promotional tactics, social media has become a more popular and reliable tool because not only the marketers but also the customers themselves are sharing their views in social media. When selling a product, the most reliable tool for marketing is word of mouth communication. It has become a standard rule for most of the customers to go through the user review before buying any product. The negative word of mouth communication spreads ten times more rapidly than a positive word of mouth communication (Evas, 2010). The case deals with the ignorance of service recovery. The posting of complaints on YouTube hampers the brand image of the United Airlines. But the positive part is that the company could learn many things from the incident. The company could identify the problem through the customer feedback and get an opportunity to recover from the problem in future. 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