The Use of Social Media for Business Communication: A Case Study of Qantas Airways

This report explores the usage of social media for business communication purposes and its impact on customer satisfaction and employee motivation. The case study of Qantas Airways is used to illustrate the proposed communication strategy.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Business Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Topic Question
The use of social media for various purposes of communication within a business is well
known. The research proposal aims to address the question: Is the usage of social media for
business communication purposes useful? It intends to understand if the usage of social media
helps in increasing the productivity of any organization by increasing customer satisfaction.
Introduction
Business communication is one of the most integral parts of operating a successful
business or organization (Dahnil et al. 2014). It helps in easing the flow of information for the
firm both internally and externally. Qantas has been one of the highest revenue earning firms in
the aviation industry and operates across different countries in the world. It has various
subsidiaries performing under it and a large cohort of customers situated all over the world. In
order for the firm to function in a smooth and efficient way, it is very important to use proper
means of business communication. As it is a multinational firm, the impact of the usage of social
media for purposes of business communication is huge. The impacts of the usage of social media
will be studied in the report in particular.
Background
With the advent of social media, the business world has been making use of social media
enterprises and platforms for increasing the reach to the customers as well as solving internal
communication problems. Business communication has particularly been become easier with the
usage of social media platforms (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). Especially in the context of
customer satisfaction, the usage of social media has eased the process of customer feedback
collection which in turn helps the firm to evaluate and monitor the operations according in a

2BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
faster way. Moreover, the usage and implementation of social media with respect to business
communication has also been found to increase the amount of communication amongst the
employees belonging to different positions in the organizational structure.
Context
Qantas Airways has always been one of the most well known firms in the aviation sector
and has been known for the correct use of strategies and techniques. It is one of the most widely
known aviation firms in the world. It has one of the largest fleet sizes in the world. The firm is
known for providing services to destination all across the world. One of the many problems that
the firm is increasingly facing is the increase in the dissatisfaction of customers as the use of
emails for posting and solving customer feedbacks is becoming very slow and time consuming.
It has also been noticed that the amount of motivation amongst the various employees of the firm
is also falling. In this context the required means of communication that will help the firm to
overcome these issues is discussed in the subsequent portions of this report.
Proposed communications strategy for company
Under the circumstances that the firm is going through, it is extremely important for the
firm to apply certain business communication techniques that will help the firm to overcome the
problems with least cost incurrence. Researches and reports suggest that the use of social media
for the purpose of communication with the customers is one of the most widely used strategies
being implemented by firms all over the world (Jussila, Kärkkäinen and Aramo-Immonen 2014).
Hence, Qantas Airways should increasingly use social media platforms to connect to customers
both in terms of feedback collection and also for solving the queries on these platforms
(Vernuccio 2014). The firm should also communicate the product improvisations and features on

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these pages so that the customers have direct access and can understanding how the new
products and services are to be availed (Qantas.com. 2018). Moreover the of an intranet social
media platform can help connect employees working at different positions which in turn will
help to fasten up the process of customer queries being solved.
Outline of report
The report will consist of the proposed question and the issue underlying the problem the
firm is facing. This will be followed by a literature review which will be based on previous
researches conducted with respect to the same context. The research conducted will be based on
secondary research and previous reports published by the firm. The report will portray how the
usage of social media for business communication is the best alternative compared to all other
methods of business communication. The report will also shed light on how business
communication using the effective and efficient means can help to increase the productivity of
the organization and help in attaining the goals facing the firm in a lesser period of time.

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References
Dahnil, M.I., Marzuki, K.M., Langgat, J. and Fabeil, N.F., 2014. Factors influencing SMEs
adoption of social media marketing. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 148, pp.119-126.
Jussila, J.J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in business-
to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30,
pp.606-613.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44.
Qantas.com. (2018). Fly with one of the world’s most experienced airlines | Qantas IN. [online]
Available at: https://www.qantas.com/in/en.html [Accessed 17 Nov. 2018].
Vernuccio, M., 2014. Communicating corporate brands through social media: An exploratory
study. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(3), pp.211-233.