The Usage and Impact of Social Media on a Companys Image and Reputation - Case Study Example

A Research Paper Analyzing the Usage and Impact of Social Media on a Company’s Image and Reputation Honesty ment I hereby declared that the research study is done completely by my own and cannot be regarded as academic dishonesty. Contents Contents 3 Introduction 4 Company profile 5 Social media analysis 6 Social and traditional media comparison 10 Principles of ethics 11 Recommendations 12 References 13 Appendix 16 Introduction Social media can be defined as the social medium of communication. Social interaction can be done among people and information, data can be shared, send, transferred through it. Many organizations use social media for creating their brand image in the market and provide information about their offered products and services through it. This will create an attention among customers. In the last past decade the usage of social media has been increased significantly and this is true not only for individual but also for branded company. This can be used as a search engine optimizer. A company can use key words in social media and can optimize its profile from those key words. This will felt a positive impact on the potential customers. The company can also pick up the right social media for the marketing activities. Social media platform should be selected after keeping in mind about the target customers. If they are accessing any particular social media then that should be selected by the company for promoting its products or services. For example it can be said that a finance company will select LinkedIn as the targeted customers of this company mostly use this social media. Social media is another platform from where the feedback about any particular product from customer’s end can be got by the company. These feedbacks are very much essential for further future growth; maintain competitiveness within the industry and improvement can be done if there is any loopholes in the products or services. Suggestion from customers will also be a great way for improving business. Without given customer oriented services no company can establish a stable position in the tough competitive market. The suggestion from customer’s end will help in this work. A good reputation can be formed by using social media as only the positive messages are shared through it. But there are some negative effects also that a company can face while using this media. If someone intentionally use any wrong words or provide any wrong statement which is against the business and marketing activities of a company then that will be spread to mass within few second. A bad impact will be felt on the services or products of the company and simultaneously a bad image will be created. In such situation company has to tackle the situation in intelligent way. Always a company should stay clear to its customers. Proper and timely clarification and justification will help to handle these unwanted situations. Apart from this disadvantage there are plenty number of opportunities that can be got while using social media for betterment of business. Company profile Evian Water Company is a French multinational company which produces luxury mineral water bottles. The company is owned by Danone Group. There are so many business like organic skin care products, luxury resort business under the ‘Evian’ brand name. Danone Group launched the product of water as expensive and luxury bottled water product in the market. The company uses the proper source for getting raw materials and good quality of water and also uses state of art bottling technique in the manufacturing process. The source of getting water as raw material is Cachat. Here water emerges from a tunnel in the mountain. The temperature is 52.88 degrees F while getting the water. Source is created from snow melt and rain water (Shiva, 2002). Evian water is recognized as world’s number one premium water which is dominated world’s bottled drinking water market. Evian is such kind of brand which can be used undoubtedly when mothers fed water to their new born babies. Their promotional tag line is “The only water for babies”. The minerals which are used in purifying the water and the process of purification are so improved that it will add a value to its brand name. Evian also created an institute which is known as Evian Water Protection Institute. This institute works on various wetland and water management projects in Nepal, Argentina and Thailand (Lindstrom, 2012). Social media analysis Social media analysis can be stated as the analytical procedure of social networks. This analysis will highlight the social relationship with company and customers. It is a key technique in modern marketing strategy. It can make connection with the loyal and potential customers and distribute the concept and planning about the product and services in wide range. Social media can be classified into four categories: Social networking sites- It provides a web based platform for building relationship amongst people and shared information, interest suggestion and activities. Internet, E-mail, mobile phones can be used for accessing these sites. The most popular web sites are Face book (started in 2004), Twitter (started in 2006), LinkedIn (started in 2003), and MySpace etc. (Kapferer, 2012). Evian can create its profile in these networking sites and provide information related to product features, advantages, usefulness, price etc. The customers can give orders about any particular product through these net working sites. Evian Water Company also can use above mentioned social networking sites for the purpose of promotion (as can be seen in figure 1 in the Appendix). Blogs- A blog can be defined as an online journal where individual and organization can present the record of beliefs, thoughts and activities. Evian can create a blog without spending money. So it is a cost effective procedure for doing marketing in the market. Blog can be created by using Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, and Blogspot.com etc. Evian Water Company can create its own blog to fulfill the above mentioned purposes (Dixit, 2010). User Appraisal Sites- It is also can be defined as a platform where appraisals can be shown related to products and services. Customers can share their experiences and views about the product and reviews can be done through it. Mouth shut. Com. is one example of such kind of sites. Other potential customers can see the appraisal of the product and become the loyal customer after using it. So it can control customer’s decision making procedure. It is important as a source of post purchase feedback point. This site will be useful for Evian Water Company. As the company sells high quality products so it will get good appraisal from the customers which will enrich and more flourish their business (McHale, 2012). Content Generating and Sharing Sites- This site also used for sharing images, videos, pictures etc. It is also used as a source of information related to various topics. Picasaweb.google.com, Flicker.com etc are few examples of websites through which photos, pictures and images can be shared (Suetos, 2014). Evian can use these sites for giving the image of their purifying mineral water to the customers. The company can also make some videos related to their production process, purifying process and packaging process. They can share these videos through youtube.com, slideshare.com etc. The company also shares the information by document sharing sites which are mainly used for the purpose of education (Bradley and McDonald, 2013). Evian Water Company can get so many advantages by using social networking sites for the purpose of promotion and marketing. These clear factors which help in the success of business are as follows: Sharing of ideas and values- The Company can use social networking sites to share the ideas, product quality, and value for money concept, service procedure, activities and interests across the geographic, economic and political borders. Tools of communication- The Company can be used social networking sites as tools of communication with customers, society at large, stakeholders, distributors etc. Groups can be formed for online discussion and meeting with the managers, shareholders, distributors and employees at each level of the company (Gillin, 2008). Bridges communication gap- Social networking sites are working as bridges which help to meet the gap among organization, customers, distributors, employees and stakeholders. Source of information- These are the source of information about any particular product or service. Here people can get information about the procedure of purifying the water and if they will satisfied after knowing the detailed information then they will purchase the mineral water bottle for the purpose of consumption (Groner, 2014). Important marketing tool- As the 99% people are now using social networking sites so these are very useful in case of marketing a product. The company can use these sites for doing promotion to a wide range of people. It can also generate opinions on the existing products available in the market and future growth of the business (Evans, 2010). This is an excellent marketing strategy to draw the attention of customers at a single time. Important customer interaction tool- These are the perfect interaction tools with customers. Through these social networking sites Evian Water Company can get customer feedback and support also. Public opinion can be raised through it. Such opinion and comments help to redesign the product features which will fulfill the criteria of the customers. User appraisal sites also can be used for generating opinions and promoting products. Business contacts also can be raised from these sites (Ryan, 2011). Important crisis communication tool- This can be used to communicate with customers and publics when other communication tools are failed at the moment of crisis. Corporate communication team of the company has to understand how they will use the advantages of social media during the time of economic and business crisis (Jacobson, 2009). Cost effective process- It is comparatively very cheaper process to do marketing and promote the product to the public. At a time a certain amount of payment will provide unlimited usage facility and thus reduce costs regarding promotional and marketing activities (as can be seen in figure 2 in the Appendix). Less time consuming- It is less time consuming medium for the work of communication, promotion and marketing activities. Time for just few clicks is required to create awareness and inform about the features and existence of the product in the market (Ayanso and Lertwachara, 2014). The first advertisement published by the company was the Roller skating babies. The advertisements was an popular and recorded hits of more than 70 million and on this date it holds a record at the Guinness World record for being the highest viewed advertisement online. The year 2011 marked the turnaround for the company and the new advertisement touched the customers a lot. Maria Sharapova being the brand spokesperson of the company was used in various events. The face book page of Evian is linked and provides regular updates to drive promotions which create a strong campaign theme. The role of social media in the company’s reputation building is described below. Using social networking sites is one of the strategies taken by any company to reach its target customers. Image of a company will be stronger in the market after using social networking sites. It also helps to reach the customer’s voice and company can redesign its products or change its present strategies according to it. The company should not put up the negative comments on the networking sites and turn those complains into a positive review by providing better quality product as per the customer’s requirement (Wankel, 2010). There are few parameters which will help to evaluate the social media plan. At first it has to check that the right platform is selected or not. For promoting drinking mineral water bottle Face book, Twitter, You tube can be used. After that message that the company want to provide to its customers that should be organized, briefed and understanding mode. Brand’s demography should be reflected through messages. Then take action plan after hearing supporter or customer’s opinion, their experiences and feed backs (Giaccardi, 2012). Social and traditional media comparison Traditional media can be defined as those media through which promotion and marketing activities are generally done by the company. Advertisement through print media [news paper, magazines, banners, books, posters etc.] and electronic media [television, radio, movies etc.] are recognized as traditional media techniques. These are used for long years. Direct marketing, sales promotion, public relations are also few other techniques of traditional media (Bozarth, 2010). Now discussing about the comparison between social media and traditional media this can be said that Social media is more cost effective than the traditional media. Countless promotion and marketing activities can be done with a few and certain amount of money in case of social media. But in case of traditional media an advertisement through television can be shown only for 30 seconds but take huge amount of money. In case of print media also the cost for giving advertisement is much higher than the social media (Zarrella, 2009). Social media can reach to a mass people at a time which cannot be possible through traditional media. At least 95% people of the world population are used social media in their mobile phones, laptop and internet but the % of usage of traditional media is not so high (Sexsmith and Angel, 2009). Social media gives a platform through which customers can interact with the manufacturer or directly with the company. The management of the company can also do interaction with consumers. It is a two way relationship which helps to flourish the business and to recover any disputes within the product (Wilson, 2010). Traditional media is one way concept through which company can provide information but they are unable to get customer’s feedback, their suggestion about the product (Evans, 2011). The results are measurable which are getting from social media. Management can take prompt action as per the trend and current requirement of the customers. On the other hand results are not measurable which are getting from traditional media. Traditional media especially print media, direct marketing etc. have a tangible effect of the product to its customers which is missing in case of social media (Benson and Morgan, 2014). Principles of ethics Social media can be widely used in business ethics and corporate social responsibilities. Business ethics can be defined as some moral principles that direct and guide the way how a business will behave in the society. This ethics help to do judgment that what steps will be right and what will be wrong. Here Evian Water Company should follow the following principles of ethics while using social media for the purpose of business. The messages and information should be transparent. Company should protect the privacy of customers, IT security policy, confidential business strategies, laws, rules and regulations (Al-Deen and Hendricks, 2012). Company should monitor the behavior of users in the social media platform. It should establish some protocols for more security and try to establish a significant presence on the web sites. Company should maintain records of feedback and suggestion provided from the customer’s end. Company should respect trademarks, copy rights, rights of publicity and other third party rights (Mergel, 2012). Recommendations At the part of recommendation this can be stated that Evian Water Company should maintain all the ethics and principles while using social networking sites. There are so many advantages the company can get after using social networking sites as a media of their promotional activities. But the company should aware about the disadvantages of using this media and has to take proper precaution to overcome such problems. The recommendations to overcome the disadvantages are: The company should take proper steps to avoid identity theft or some mal practices like hacking. The company can handle the negative comments and reviews about the products in an efficient way. As the promotion is done in an intangible way so brief description about the product, its function and advantages should be given on the web sites. Protocol has to be maintained in such a way that image, pictures and information cannot be copied by anyone for fulfilling his own selfish purpose. Always maintain proper professional boundaries for smooth and healthy customer relationship. Client’s information should be kept after using proper procedure of confidentiality. Maintain the public thrust while using the social media for the purpose of business. The representatives or the spoke people of the company should be well trained, have ability to clear the doubts of customers regarding products and they should aware about the organization’s policies and procedure. The use of social networking sites and internet based facilities are increasing day by day in the context of business. This is also used for examining behavioral data of the customers and managers can predict long term outcomes by using these sites. The experiences shared by the customers will help in the optimization of resources. Online buying facility will increase the amount of sale and generating more revenue. References Al-Deen, H. and Hendricks, J. (2012). Social Media: Usage and Impact. New York: Lexington Books. Print. Ayanso, A. and Lertwachara, K. (2014). Harnessing the Power of Social Media and Web Analytics. Hershey: IGI Global. Print. Benson, V. and Morgan, S. (2014). 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Appendix Figure 1: Types of social networking sites Figure 2: Benefits of social media in business Read More