The Power of Facebook as a Social Platform - Case Study Example

EXEGESIS STUDENT’S NAME: INSTITUTION: INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: DATE: Since the introduction of the internet to the world of technology, there has been a transformation in communication such that social media is the leading platform for communication. Social media is a place where people can interact, view photos, criticize, debate and give opinions on things that concerns day to day life. On the other hand, social media is an important aspect of a company or an entrepreneur. It is obvious that a platform that connects people globally has the most influential power. Social media has connected people globally, and it continues o influence more people (Olivas-Lujan and Bondarouk, 2013). Companies use social media to advertise their products and services, therefore, good photographs and testimonials from clients have been used as a content strategy to influence customers. The act of using social media as a strategy to target more customers globally requires a combination of information that will be published in the social media for viewing. Therefore, a content strategy has to be developed and provided to potential customers through social media. In this case, we are going to analyze the power of Facebook as a social platform that has been used by Jester Company to target its customers and to provide customer services. A content strategy is a tool used by organizations and entrepreneurs in developing strategies that will enable the success of their goals and mission. Content strategy has always been used to identify steps to be involved in the goal oriented journey. The company should be able to plan, organize and implement their decisions. They, therefore, need to evaluate and analyze their goals so as to arrive at a specific strategy that will make their performance outstanding. According to Halvorson (2010), Content strategy should be useful, and it should be in the form of publication whereby one can be able to get information about the company. With the interest in learning more about Jester Airways, their content strategy is well presented with information on how the company was formed and its growth. Being an evolving air transport in Melbourne, it is obvious that everyone would want to go through its profile. The company appreciates technological advancement in the sense that it deals with a very sensitive aspect when it comes to customer service. The company, therefore, has embraced the use of technology to diversify their reach and to win more customers. Social media being one of the strong platforms for influence, air travel industry would opt to enlarge its market through social media. One of the most used aspects of influence customers is the use of photographs of the company products and services. Jester Airways has employed skilled and competent graphic designers who can provide the best when it comes to photography. The company can present their products in the form of photographs of various destinations they reach serve; these photos are taken while concentrating on the services presented in Jester Airways. Also the fact that there is a competent group of sales and marketing, the company uses testimonials from clients to influence people on the social media. The company has detailed its services on their website such that a client or customer can log in and get to view all the services offered before making a decision to travel with Jester Airways (Frick, 2010). It goes without doubt that Jester Airways developed the best content strategy and embraced the use of social media to advertise their services. Since air transport is a very sensitive sector, it demands that the customer should be presented with enough information for the purposes of influencing them to choose Jester Airways and not consider other airlines. The services being provided at Jester should be portrayed in a way that they are unique. Considering the growth of Jester, it has been on domestic operation since 2003, and they recently decided to venture into regional and international airline after the realization that its growth was gradual. It is obvious that a company’s growth is measured regarding the profits they make, physical growth is also determined by factors such as the addition of more employees, expansion of its offices, diversification of the services and also the number of customers compared to the initial stage of company growth. Let’s take a look at the company growth regarding employees, you find that the company had an initial number of employees at 400, this was because the company was the start- up stage as per the cycle of business growth. This was the stage where the company was trying to identify the potential customers who would proof whether the services were good or not. Also at this stage the company making minimal profits and hence they could not add more employees. Down the start-up stage, the company experienced growth so that it had to employ more staff, looking at the current number of employees, it is clear that the company is at its growth stage whereby they have been able to employ 7000 employees, and also they have expanded their office stations all over Asia. The company, therefore, is becoming successful with the fact that it is in the process of considering regional and international travels, which indicates that the company has attained a competitive strategy among the domestic airline services. The company currently offers the flight to more than 60 destinations distributed in 17 different countries around the world; this is another indication of growth in the company. Since it now operates international flights, the destinations are growing because the company is becoming more popular in Australia. The popularity of the company has been contributed to the fact that Jester uses social media to advertise their services. Looking at the social media platforms used by the company, it is evident that more customers are influenced to use Jester airlines compared to other airlines. Take for example the use of Facebook whereby the company has influenced clients and potential customers through their Facebook page. In this page, the company can upload photos of different destinations they serve, the services offered for customers in their airlines and testimonials from customers. Jester Airways will post on their page and customers will get more information about pricings and the flight schedules. The number of likes in a face book page will determine the popularity of the company. For the case of Jester, they have 514,135 likes meaning that the company is popular and that customers like their services. When it comes to social media platform, the rate of influence is determined by the chosen platform in the sense that each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. According to Ray (2013), Face book, for example, is the most influential platform, the reason being that many people are on Facebook globally, Facebook has gained popularity far much more than other platforms and hence making it the best platform for reaching out to customers globally. Facebook has been made accessible to any person who is over eighteen years of age, and there are no restrictions to registering the account or liking a page. That does not mean that other social media platforms are not popular, but the rate of using them is a bit low. Twitter is another platform that influences people globally; taking a look at the number of followers that Jester Company has attained implies that customers are interested in their services. The Twitter account for the company has about 236 likes. However, despite the low number of likes the account has got about 139000 followers and 45500 tweets. Going through all the platforms used, it is clear that the company considers the use of Facebook more than other social platforms. This is per statistics to determine which social platform is favored. It is not easy for a company to attain more than a 100,000 likes on their Facebook page, this, therefore, indicates that customers get satisfaction from visiting the company page where they can inquire and even check on the flight schedules. In conclusion, it is evident that Jester Company has gone through the stages of a business growth which are start-up stage, and they are now at the growth stage whereby they are considering expansion of their airline industry. Social media is the best strategy for marketing services and products especially in the case of airline transport. This is because they provide a platform whereby customers can get the information they require. In fact, airline transport system has made I easier for clients to book their tickets online, therefore before considering the best airline o book, they first check on the social media platforms to find out more about their preferred airline travel. If they find good testimonials from the social media, they will, therefore, proceed to book from their choice. In this case, Jester consideration of the four discussed platforms, it is evident that Facebook carries more weight when in regards to power of influence. It is, therefore, the best strategy to get more customers. Also, the company provides feedback immediately for any client who posts for inquiry which also adds to the strength of the company in regards to customer service (Garner, 2013). References Frick, T. (2010). Return on engagement: content, strategy, and design techniques for digital marketing. Boston, MA: Focal Press Garner, R. (2013). Search and social: the definitive guide to real-time content marketing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Halvorson, K. (2010). Content strategy for the web. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. Olivas-Lujan, M. and Bondarouk, T. (2013). Social media in strategic management. Bingley, UK: Emerald. Ray, R. (2013). The Facebook guide to small business marketing. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Riff, D., Lacy, S. and Fico, F., 2014. Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Routledge. Read More