Social Media Strategy and Management â€Free Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about theSocial Media Strategy and Management. Answer: Introduction: In this report we discuss about the social media strategy of Woolworths. Before discussing about the social media strategy of Woolworths, lets talk about the Woolworths. Woolworth was founded on 5th December 1924, and in 1927 it becomes a chain and 2nd store of Woolworth open. Woolworths open sixteen stores till 1930 across New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand (Woolworths Limited, n.d.). And currently Woolworths growth plan is depend on these strategic plans: maximize the value of its shareholders; increase its leadership in the products of food and liquor, develop the new ways for growth and maintain the record their company of building new businesses for growth. According to Woolworth behavior of customers are changed and now they have more choices, therefore Woolworth develops new ways to meet the need of customers. In this changing era only retail store outlets are not enough for selling the products and providing services to the customers, a new platfor m is developed for the customers that are social media platforms. Now, customers are updated and they want everything on their finger-tips which increase the need of proper strategy related to social media. This report contains the discussion on importance of social media strategy for Woolworths and also a brief discussion on various aspects of social media such as social media presence, social media audience, social media marketing, social media technologies, ethics, privacy security. Woolworths try to respond to this new era with their growth strategies and found a new way of growth and opportunity. Woolworths also create new ways for shopping for their customers (Woolworths Limited, n.d.). in last we conclude the report with brief conclusion. Social Media Strategy: Social media strategy defines how social media can be used also its need: For internal and external social communications. Used as a tool to manage internal external reputation of brand and also monitor the same. Help in developing collaborative relationships. Social media helps in developing the relationships by providing equipments and methods which facilitate conversation, help in sharing information and strengthen the relationship. From above discussion we can say that social media strategy not only defines relationships but also their value and provide tools to harness them, which helps in achieve a goal or sets of goal. Reasons for Using Social Media: Marketing: social media helps in understand the needs of customer and create a brand value. Employee Engagement: it helps in recruiting the new talent and also develops the culture of company. Collaboration: it helps in collaborate with the customers, suppliers and other partners (Tribal Caf, n.d.). Social media concept is very important for today business executives. Everyone is trying to find the new ways for using these platforms for making profits. Various platforms are there for making profits such as YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. (Kaplan Haenlein, 2009). Woolworth focus on their customers need and develop different framework for satisfying the needs of their customers. Nikki Cockroft, group head of online operations of Woolworth says "We put the customer first and then we've established our online strategy around that (Social Bakers, n.d.). According to Nikki their customers are not only have brand knowledge but they also have knowledge of technology which shows that customers are more informed. Social media plays very important role in todays life and Woolworths know this. Cockroft says that thorough social media they reach their customers and also satisfy them through their services.Various social media platforms are used by the company such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and Google+. Companys focused on the needs of their customers. Aspects of Social Media Strategy: Social Media Presence: Now a days business organization wants recognition on social media. Good social media presence helps businesses in their growth. Woolworth is also taking step forward in this way and tries to increase their presence on social media. Following are the ways which help in increase the presence of Woolworths on social media: Identify Goals and Objectives- first step towards the growth of social media presence is identifying the goals and objectives of organization. Before entering into social media, Woolworth ensures that how each platform of social media works, which type of audience is met on each platform. Understand the needs of audience: as above discussed Cockroft says that main aim of Woolworths is satisfying the needs of their customers. Understanding the needs of your audience will help you to interact with them in a better way. Include the icons on your website- include the icons of your social media platforms on website of company, this will increase the following of customers and also it connect the customers with you (Woolworths, n.d.). Link your profile to your website. Create a strategy for social media Provide benefit to the customers you reach. Use games and fun activities to attract the customers. Post valuable products on comfortable rates (Rampton, 2014). Social media audience: it includes the type of audience an organization wants to connect with. Various types of audience are there which an organization wants to connect such as: Current clients or customers, Potential clients or customers, Journalists and editors, Bloggers Suppliers. Majority online shopper of Woolworths is women and Woolworths trying to connect the men also for online shopping. Main online shoppers of Woolworth are in metropolitan areas like Johannesburg, Cape Town and then Durban leading the charge. In 2012 World Wide Worx conduct a research in which sales figures in South Africa in 2011 was recorded at R2.636 billion from online source. Cockroft says that innovation through digital media is a strong focus for Woolworths and it is a main part of their business strategy (Vorster, 2013). Social Media Marketing: For business organizations social media marketing plays a very important role in growth of their business. Research conducted by Hubspot says in 2014 92% marketers claimed that social media marketing is important and research conducted by social media examiner says 97% of organizations are entering in the world of social media and actively participate. There are some benefits of social media marketing are: Increase recognition of brand by customers. Enjoy high loyalty from customers. On social media companies react like humans and this is important because customers feel more comfortable with humans instead of companies. Increase the opportunities of growth (DeMers, 2014). In 2013 sales of Woolworths were $ 1.8 billion and their growth in sales start from 2011. This figure places the Woolworths in the list of fast growing retailer of Australia. Many moves like change in marketing strategy are the main reason of this growth. Social media marketing also plays very important role in this growth. The weakest performer of Woolworth was Big W, Woolworths department store, but when Ezibuy acquire Big W, it increase the revenue of Big W. Ezibuy is online retailer(Australia Business Review, 2014). Ethics Privacy Security of Social Media: In last months companies like Nestle, The Red Cross all made mistakes in handling social media. Woolworths also become a part of scam on face book. Woolworths is known from its tag line that is woolworths the fresh food people but recently this line becomes a problem for Woolworths. Users are start complaining on a picture posted by Jason Maloo on face book where doughnuts are labeled as fresh food. Photo gets 13820 likes and attracts 1819 comments. Woolworths acted quickly and remove the billboard and also make a statement on face book: Just letting you know that we are taking the billboard down as soon as we can. Our intention was to show one of the products that we bake fresh every day at our in store bakeries, but we appreciate that the image may have been confusing. After this case Woolworths share the advice to save one from disaster of social media: Act quickly: the main strength of Woolworths is there quick response. Woolworths acted quickly and remove the bill board which saves them from negative impression. Woolworths case is a good example of transparency on social media. Listen: it is important for companies that they listen carefully to their customers and reply quickly on their complaints and queries. It is a duty of company that they look what is going on under their roofs. Many organizations do not react on their consumers complaint which make negative impression and affect the reputation of brand. Respond in an appropriate manner: give response on the platform on which query has been raised and not on any other platform. There is no use if you are replying on twitter and issue is actually raised on face book. Know your consumers: organizations need employees who know about the internet and also the environment of network. Organizations cannot predict how consumers take the post but they must need some idea what to post and how to post. Introduce faster processes: business organization needs fast process which include online department also. It means that online team has to respond fast on any crisis that comes in a way of business (Densely, 2013; Gunkel, 2015). Social Media Technologies: social media change the way of doing business. Every person who has knowledge of digital ways of social media has number of opportunities (McCrory, 2015). Now organizations change the way and trends of doing business. Now there is no door to door selling. Traditional ways of doing business are modified and organizations which do not use social media platforms for doing business are still lacking behind. There are many ways through which social media technologies create values: Create the products after taking advice from customers. Analyzing the demand of particular product. Conduct research of market Grab and create more sales opportunities. Recruit employees Taking care of customers and understand their need (Bullas, n.d.). Discussion: This paper contains discussion about the social media strategy and its importance in growth of business organizations. Social media platforms not only develop the relationship between organizations but also provide a way to understand the need of customers. The perception about marketing is changed with the introduction of social media. New ways are open for marketers. Now organizations can easily connect with the customers (Flekel, n.d.).there are many reasons for using social media strategy and those reasons are marketing, employee management and collaboration. In this report we discuss about the aspects of social media strategy. There are various aspects of social media strategy which are Social media presence, Social media marketing, Social media audience, Social media technologies and ethics and security. We discussed about the Woolworths strategy in this report. Our discussion is basically surrounded on benefits of social media: Social media generates huge customer data which helps organizations to make connection with customers. It increase brand value and reputation of brand. Social media platforms are not expensive as compared to other advertisements programmes and give best results. Social media platforms increase sales and connectivity with customers. Through social media an organization can connect with customers all the time and provide 24/7 support. Organizations can keep eye on their competitors. Information can be share easily and in faster way with the customers. It strengthens the relationship (Copp, 2016; Potential, 2015). Conclusion: In last we can conclude that social media plays a very important role in the business organizations. Organizations which do not use platforms of social media for the growth of their business are lacking behind. While dealing with social media it is important that organizations behave ethically and listen their employees. Large number of Consumers connects directly through social media, so it is important that proper strategy is made for dealing with customers. Persons who have knowledge of digital world have many opportunities. Social media is not only for making relations with customers, it is also used for recruiting talent and increasing the brand value of organization. Woolworth is live example of this. Woolworth deals very smartly with crises of social media and also participates actively. Company has major clients on social media and increases the sales of company. We also discuss the ways through which social media contributes in the growth of business. References: Australia Business Review, (2014). 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