Social Media Usage in Telstra Assignment Sample

Subject Name : Social media

Introduction to Analysing Social Media Usage in Telstra

The telecommunication industry is a profitable and emerging industry that has a wide array of opportunities in the future. Concerning such fact, Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and Technology Company providing quality communication services to its customers within Australia and across the world (Telstra.com, 2020). The company provides more than 18 million retail mobile services, over 3 million retail fixed data services, and over 1 million standalone fixed voice services within the Australian market (Telstra.com, 2020). During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, telecommunications firms like Telstra and Optus have offered effective services to its subscribers to connect with their families and friends. The company has a strong social media presence in every platform be it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Crowdsupport, and others (Telstra.com, 2020). Using the effective tools of social media, the company communicates with its customers to resolve issues and improve business tactically. Thus, this report will provide a substantial understanding of how Telstra uses social media as a marketing and organizational communication tool as compared to others to improve business and customer experience efficiently.

Industry Context

With the emergence of social media usage by the public and its popularity with societies across the world, businesses are effectually using social media as a tool to communicate with their customers concerning marketing and organizational (Sengupta, 2017). Telstra being the leading telecommunication service provider in Australia utilizes the effectiveness of social media strategically to ensure sustainability and profitability at the same time (Telstra.com.au, 2017). There is been always stiff competition within the telecommunication industry to gain market share; however, the way of communication plays a vital role in determining organizational effectiveness (Sengupta, 2017). Telecommunications companies in the recent era of innovation and technology use social media as a tool to build positive customer experience and communities to ensure business sustainability (Telstra.com.au, 2017).

There are several theories and concepts related to social media and communications that provide significant relation to how social media is used as an organizational and marketing communication tool (Baker, 2019). According to a study by Al-Qaysi, Mohamad-Nordin and Al-Emran, (2018), that discusses the acceptance and adoption of social media in the context of educational concepts such as social constructivism theory which is mostly applied theory. The study reveals that social constructivism theory is a theory of sociology that states human development is situated socially and knowledge can be built by social interaction (Al-Qaysi, Mohamad-Nordin and Al-Emran, 2018). Other telecommunications companies in Australia like Optus, Vocus, and TPG uses social media as a tool for organizational and marketing communications as well. Relating to such fact, in a company article by Optus, (2020), described that how the company considers social media, SEO, and Google rankings is vital for the business to grow and succeed (Optus, 2020). This indicates that the competitors of Telstra are using social media efficiently to create a sustainable business.

Telstra Context

Telecommunication network, internet speed, reliability, quality service, and problem-solving potentials and importance are the key factors that differentiate telecommunications organizations from one another. Concerning such fact, Telstra is the market leader in Australia for providing quality telecommunication and network services effectively use social media efficiently to improve business, customer satisfaction, and most importantly customer perception towards the product (Telstra.com, 2020). The company considers their interaction and ability to solve customer concerns will enable them to create a positive customer experience and perception towards the company as a whole (Khan et al., 2014). Brand image, customer loyalty, and outlook towards the company is crucial for organizations like telecommunications to ensure that no customers are switching to their competitors in case of encountering any bad service experience (Della Corte et al., 2015). Telstra has significantly understood this fact and efficiently leveraged the business model to ensure effective customer experience in social media channels of the company, for example, in recent posts by Telstra in their social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others, the comment box was filled with negative comments and it shared to the public.

However, with the positive, polite, and helpful response from the company’s support team has ensured organizational effectiveness by creating a positive perception towards the brand proficiently (Carmody, 2016). Relating to such fact, other telecommunication in the market may or may not consider social media as an efficient way to improve business and customer experience at the same time. Telstra presents itself as a committed to ensuring quality service and customer experience to its every customer across the world (Telstra.com, 2020). The acceptability and adaptability of social media as a strategic tool for organizational and marketing communication to brand products, increase customer loyalty, awareness, and customer satisfaction consecutively has benefitted the company massively (Al-Qaysi, Mohamad-Nordin and Al-Emran, 2018). This indicates the organization has effectively adopted the theory of social constructivism and gained significant benefit out of it.

Discussion on Analysing Social Media Usage in Telstra

Social media platform analysis:

Facebook: Social media pages of organizations play a vital role in determining the organizational effectiveness in managing customer queries and expectations. According to a study by Effing and Spil, (2016), it has been assessed that around 90% of the internet users in Australia use Facebook and 41% in twitter (Effing and Spil, 2016). The Facebook page of Telstra has gained a massive number of followers and subscribers not only in Australia but globally across the world (Effing and Spil, 2016). Facebook is an effective, popular, and mostly used social media platform by the public to communicate with the world. Businesses across the world have understood the fact of creating mass awareness and connect with users in order to identify issues and improve business effectiveness.

Posting organizational contents in context to product and services promotions, new launches, news, organizational progress, marketing campaigns and more are some of the key factors that business organizations like Telstra uses Facebook as an effective organizational and marketing communication tool to increase customer satisfaction and experience. There are chances that some third parties or any unknown may try to defame the organizational reputation by posting fake news about the company and which may lead to business downfall. In such cases, having a prompt response and acquirement of a blue tick mark on the Facebook page shall ensure positive perception and trust towards the organization and its service (Connolly, 2020). Post engagement in Telstra’s Facebook posts are constant and generate new and existing follows massively as the number of fans is increased with their prompt response time and problem-solving abilities towards its every customer.

Instagram: The Instagram account of Telstra is an effective way of creating awareness through a promising and effectual social media platform. Instagram is been growing rapidly in terms of enabling businesses to make effectual awareness programs and can fetch a number of new customers with its consistency and effectiveness to reach out to the maximum audience by means of users taste and preference analytics. Currently, the company has posted over 340 posts and are having more than 36 thousand followers worldwide to connect with their customers and stakeholders efficiently in order to promote and grow business effectively. Consistency of post and responsiveness to users are key factors that organizations like Telstra need to consider while interacting and ensuring organizational effectiveness within the markets it operates.

According to a study by (Kent and Li, 2020), states that the theory of social presence and engagement is crucial for any business organization to ensure post engagement, consistency of posts, and responsive to users effectively (Kent and Li, 2020). The study suggests that being responsive and has an active presence in social media platform like Instagram, companies like Telstra can increase its customer experience and ensure customer satisfaction by providing prompt replies and handle their queries efficiently (Kent and Li, 2020). There are probabilities that customers may experience poor service from the company and which led them to post negative comments in organizational social media page like Instagram to let other users know their loopholes and inefficiently in dealing with customers’ needs. Relating to such fact, Telstra uses the social media platforms such as Instagram appropriately and effectively which helps them to gain positive perception towards the company and eradicating poor opinions on the organizational products and services efficiently.

YouTube: YouTube is an emerging and popular social media platform among internet users that brings millions of creative and useful video contents to help communities develop, grow, and learn positively. There is an end number of videos which are shared by the public and companies to promote businesses and influence customer to make purchase decision efficiently. YouTube has the consistency and effectiveness that helps business organizations to grow their business efficiently by means of promoting their products and services with the help of sharing creative video contents to its subscribers. Telstra uses YouTube as its organizational and marketing communication tool to effectively connect with their customers in order to create awareness about its new products and services and progress towards the set goal of the company.

By using social media influencers, companies like Telstra effectively branding their company to make positive awareness about the benefits, values, and consistency of using its products. The creativity of contents plays a vital role in YouTube in determining the potentials and effectiveness of the organization. Creative advertisements, online seminars, tutorials videos, and creating awareness about its new products are some of the key inputs given by Telstra in their YouTube channel, which is currently having over 37 million subscribers across the world. In some instances, there are several negative comments that are filled by users; however, with correct and appropriate tactics of responding politely towards such comments has helped them to retain the position of quality and reliability by providing a prompt and effectual response to every negative comment (Telstra.com.au, 2017).

LinkedIn: Linkedin is a proficient social media tool to make a connection with industries and leaders to know more about changing business trends and efficiency. Business organizations across the world use Linkedin to keep in touch with several business associates, customers, and colleagues. Besides, it can provide much more towards a company to gain massive awareness about the product in terms of enabling trust amongst users. Having an account on social media platforms like Linkedin helps customers get access to their favourite companies to know more about their updates and products promotions to stay connected and make buying decisions efficiently (Kent and Li, 2020). According to the theory of engagement and social constructivism, it is important for business organizations like Telstra to leverage social media engagements in terms posts, reviews, and products to influence purchase behaviour and buying decisions effectively (Kent and Li, 2020). In addition, creating or having company presence in trending and popular social media platforms like Instagram helps customers and users to find their favourite company easily and stay connected with it to get recent updates on news, products, services, and solutions to various grievances (Kent and Li, 2020).

Conclusion on Analysing Social Media Usage in Telstra

Social media is an effective tool for organizational and marketing communication that is used by business organizations to increase effectiveness and customer experience. It has been understood that Telstra has utilized the social media platforms appropriately and effectively to create awareness of its product s, services, and progress towards the customers to increase organizational efficacy. The telecommunications industry is a highly competitive industry that needs an effective business strategy to ensure sustainability within the competitive market. Thus, it is essential to have a strong social media presence to effectively interact with customers and help gain a positive perception towards the company a whole. This, in turn, leads to rapid growth in new customer base and benefits the company in augmenting customer loyalty efficiently.

The two broad recommendations for the ongoing maintenance of organizational branding and reputation in the industry will be first, to be responsive towards customers or users of the company in context to their queries, complaints, and having any negative outlook towards the company. Second, gaining trust amongst users or customers is a vital factor to consider by organizations to ensure organizational effectiveness (Connolly, 2020). Thus, by adopting these two strategies within social media activities will help telecommunications companies like Telstra and Optus to maintain their organizational branding and reputation effectively within the minds of their every customer.

Reference List for Analysing Social Media Usage in Telstra

Al-Qaysi, N., Mohamad-Nordin, N. and Al-Emran, M., 2018. A Systematic Review of Social Media Acceptance From the Perspective of Educational and Information Systems Theories and Models. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(8), pp.2085-2109.

Baker, K 2019 ‘Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide’, blog post, Social Media Marketing, 28 October, viewed 12 August 2020, <https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-marketing>.

Connolly, B 2020, Digital Trust: Social Media Strategies to Increase Trust and Engage Customers, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Great Britain.

Della Corte, Valentina, Iavazzi, Alessandra &D’Andrea, Chiara 2015, ‘Customer involvement through social media: the cases of some telecommunication firms’, Journal of Open Innovation, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–10.

Khan, Gohar Feroz, Swar, Bobby & Lee, Sang Kon 2014, ‘Social Media Risks and Benefits’, Social Science Computer Review, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 606–627.

Optus, S., 2020. Social Signals: How Social Media Impacts SEO. [online] Optus.com.au. Available at: <https://www.optus.com.au/yesbusiness/article/social-signals>

Sengupta, D., 2017. How Social Media Has Become An Effective Tool For Telcos To Poach Customers And Is Enticing Job-Seekers. [online] The Economic Times. Available at: <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/how-social-media-have-become-an-effective-tool-for-telecom-companies-to-poach-customers/articleshow/60027669.cms>

Telstra.com, 2020. Telstra - Our Company. [online] Telstra.com. Available at: <https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/our-company>

Telstra.com.au, 2017. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA. [online] Telstra.com.au. Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/seniors/pdf/intermediate-social-media-part2.pdf

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