Introduction

Social media is one of the platforms where most businesses are interacting with their consumers. The social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, listorious, blogs as well as the YouTube. The social network has been of great advantage to the firms as it gives the business  the opportunity to get feedback from the consumer as well as introduce their products.( Andzulis, 2012).  Another advantage is that the social media platforms such as the face book page are the cost efficient and spread among a wide range of people over a short duration. However, one their limitation is that the information is seen over a short period then it is replaced with new posts. There are various public listed companies in Australia such as Telstra, Optus, and Virgin Australia that have been using the social media to enhance their firms.

Project objective

The primary goal of this research is the impact of social networking in a business where we will examine the benefits as well as the limitations of the social networks sites.  With the  technological advancement  in various parts of the world,  many companies have adopted the social networks to interact with their consumers. The social networks include the Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn among others

Some of the companies in Australia such as Telstra have adopted the use of social media platforms to engage with their customers who have brought enormous profits. In this work, we will deeply examine the impact of the social network in Telstra as well as Virgin Australia.

Data collection

I visited various firms such as Telstra and Virgi Australia where I reviewed their financial reports since they started using the social media networking. I also interviewed the workers as well as their employees on the impact of social networking.

Research questions

From my research in Telstra company, Virgi Australia as well as the past written works the social media networking affects the performance of the business.

Social media networking  

performance of the business

Theoretical framework

IV: social media networking: it is an online platform that various companies, as well as people, use to develop the social relationship with the customers or other people. The individuals in these platforms have the similar interests, real life connections as well as activities. They include the Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, blogs among others. (Duggan, 2015).

DV: performance: it involves the degree of achievement of an individual task that is  examined through the company’s  income annually as compared  to the previous years or  the set standards. One may also use the total revenue parameter as well as the delivery of services to examine the performance of the business. (Paniagua, 2014).

HI (correlational): social media networking, as well as the performance of the business, are positively related.

Project scope

Telstra firm adoption of social networking

Telstra is one of the leading  business in Australia which   has greatly  used the social media .the company uses the multiple social media platform in different ways, for instance, it uses the twitter  in the consumer  services. It is where the customer makes the inquiries and the service agents respond to them promptly. If the service agent cannot answer them, one can is direct to the department in charge of the issue. It also uses the Facebook page to display their general information, videos as well as in promoting their products. Telstra firm is viewed by millions of people where a wide range of information on their goods and services is displayed.  Telstra is one of the companies that have significantly profited  from social media by recognizing that one  should engage in various platforms, as there are a variety of audiences. (Chugh, 2012)

However the social media at times have a negative impact on business for instance when an employee gives  out a  negative feedback on the media platform . It may contribute to adverse sentiments  from the  consumers affecting the   company’s  productivity.

Social networking in Virgi Australia

Another company that has used the social media platform in Australia is Virgi Australia. The social media has played a significant role in this company in marketing their products.  One of the advantages of the social media platforms is helping in answering the multiple consumer questions. The social media helps in decreasing the number of consumer issues, as one can interact with a broad range of customers on the platforms. (Gran?ay, 2014). It also reduces the number of employee  in the customer services, as one does not need to hire more employees in the call center. By examining this advantages, the  company decided to establish more interactive social media platforms instead of  coming up with, more call centers. They have engaged in media platforms such as Lithium since 2012. Below is one of the charts showing the interaction of this company with the consumers enhancing its productivity.

Category 1:  social media, page views per month

Category 2: access via call per month

With the increase of the views on the social media page, the company has significantly improved in providing services as well as getting more customers. It is because through the social media platform the company can market their product to a high number of people.

However, in the social media platform can face a challenge of competition whereby all brand advertises about themselves. (Oboler, 2012). The Virgin Australia social media specialist conforms to this, but she says that the virgin Australia has still gained many consumers via the social media platforms. It is because mostly the consumers are the ones who get in touch with them on the social network platforms and  they turn this to a great piece of  story attracting more customers.

Performance of Telstra Company

The last year financial report shows that Telstra Company has earned significant profits after adopting the social networking. It is because the customer service has been significantly enhanced by the social  networking platforms  increasing the  customers. The total income increased by about 3.6 % hence the company caught about 27 billion dollars. The company’s  net profit grew by 35 % to a 5.8 billion dollar taking in the share that was sold to Auto home the  same years.  The earning per share of Telstra Company annually augmented to 47.4 percent, which was a 10% increment. Due to this increment, the company has decided to increase their investment in digitization to three billion. Their aim of the expansion is to improve the customer service in the social network platforms as they have seen them to work in the previous year.

Penn who is the company’s CEO has said that it has increased the number of consumers on each of its products in the past year because of the social network platform.  It is because the social network platforms have enhanced their customer service attracting many consumers. Telstra company started adopting the social media the  social media platform  since  2011 which has seen it grow over the years.  In the following year 2012 after the adoption of the digitalization strategy, it had about 140000 live chats with its consumers. It also grew its social media workforce to 30 to fulfill its goals.  The customers can make consultations as well as share the queries with the service agents in the media platforms hence the number of complaints has reduced. The telecommunication industry report shows that the number  of allegations against Telstra has decreased from about 78600 to fifty five thousand five hundred .  The primary contributor  these is  the improved  customer service  because of the social media platform.( Johnston,  2015.).

 Performance of Virgin Australia

Since Virgin Australia adopted the social networking, it has also been improving its performance. For instance,  in 2014 statistics show that it  served about  twenty million customers and in 2014  it served  22. 3 million earning a significant profit. The enormous rise has been attributed to the use of social networking which makes the company known by various people as well as the excellent customer service. In 2014, the company came up with the ideas lab, which is a business platform that has been helping the firm solve the problems. People come up with various ideas in the platform, and they get backing from the up to 1800 members on the crowd-sourcing tool. As such, the employees get more suggestions as well as ideas on how to tackle the Virgin Australia business issues. It has seen the improvement of Virgin Australia, which had a significant loss of 162 million in 2014 to just 49 million in 2015. It shows that the company is continuing to gain stability over time by increasing its consumers through social networking as well as improving their services.

Literature Review

Social networking is one of the great technological advancement that has been adopted by various companies. People have both the negative as well as the positive perceptions of social networking in business. Researchers have come up with different hypotheses where they link the social networking to the organization’s brands. The researchers noted that the companies that have adopted the social networking had reshaped the organization of the brand. The reshaping further led to improved ways of working and increased the worker’s satisfaction and productivity. The researchers measured the performance of the company due to social networking by carrying out interviews in various firms. After the research, they n noted that though the social networking has been undervalued the companies who have adopted them have reaped several benefits. Some of the benefits include increased productivity due to the improved communication as well as cooperation among the employees. The social networking also makes the consumers, as well as the workers, feel like part of the organization even when they are not in the company’s physical offices. The social networking has also enhanced the knowledge transfer in the organization increasing the productivity. Therefore, from the study, we see that the social networking is positively related to the company’s productivity. (Bennett, 2010)

The journal article claims that social media has been taken up by various companies which have contributed to their tremendous performance. The social media platforms that these companies are using to interacting with their consumers include the Facebook as well as twitter. The paper still adds that the companies display a broad range of user-generated content on these sites and they can get various views from their customers. The businesses can also undertake competitive analysis on the social media sites. One can get textual data on their competitor’s social media sites, which helps the company in decision-making. The researchers undertook an in-depth study on the use of the social media sites for competitive analysis. After the study, they noted that most companies were using multiple information found on their competitor’s social media sites enhancing their services. Therefore, from the study, it is true to say that social media has played a vital role on the productivity of various companies. It has not only assisted in improving the customer services by increasing the interaction with the consumer but also in the competitive analysis.

This paper hypothesizes that the proper use of social media, as well as social networking in the companies, has a broad range of benefits. From the 1980s, the internet became an international network and had considerably contributed to the success story of various organizations. The social networking such as Facebook has been used by different companies in advertising their products and services increasing the company’s productivity. It is because through the social media networking the marketing of the company is enhanced by a wide range of people gets the information on the products. It is because when one gets the information on the goods and services on the social networks such as Facebook, he or she shares with the other friends. The paper also adds that the technology is significantly evolving and the traditional methods that were being used in marketing have been challenged by the use of social networking. The social networking has increased the awareness of products and services of the companies that have adopted it than the ones using the traditional marketing strategies.

The paper also claims that the current social networking platforms also allow the consumers to interact with the service agents as oppose4d to the traditional methods. Therefore, through the interaction, the service agents get new ideas, which help, in improving their products and hence attracting more consumers. The social networking is one of the driving forces of the attention according to these researchers. The 21st century is the attention age, which came after the information age, and people are using the social networking sites in advertising various products. One gets information in the company’s social pages and shares with the rest of the other social media sites. As such from this paper, social networking has increased the performance of various companies by increasing their interaction with the consumers as well as enhancing marketing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, after looking at the past journals as well as Telstra and Virgin Australia companies, it is true to say that social networking contributes significantly to the company’s productivity. The social networking increases the interaction with the consumers as well as enhancing marketing improving the company’s productivity.  However, there are some limitations such as sentiments, which may adversely affect the company. Therefore the employees should be careful in their posts and make sure that whatever they post will not have adverse effects on the business.

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