The Role of Social Media Networking in Supermarket Companies - A Reflective Analysis

This reflective analysis explores the role of social media networking in supermarket companies, specifically Woolworths. It discusses the effectiveness and usefulness of social media networking, the learning process, and the evaluation of the learning. The analysis also covers the negative influences of social media networking and how it can be applied in the future.

Running Head: Reflective 1
Business Research

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Contents
Overview......................................................................................................................................................3
Effectiveness and your use of the learning experience ...............................................................................3
Usefulness of learning process....................................................................................................................3
Activity in the learning process....................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of the learning............................................................................................................................3
Explanation of the learning process.............................................................................................................3
Applied learning...........................................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................................................4

Reflective 3
Overview
According to me, social networking helps a business to control the variables that could influence
the performance of the business. I have learnt that this strategy is helpful for several retailers for
the purpose of developing the awareness among customers about the company. I have observed
that this system has the significant role to expand the business and amplify the demand of the
customers because of the convenience of getting the information in the relation of the products
and services. I have found that the importance of social media in the supermarkets are increased
day by day as it enable to connect the viewers and readers through different channels such as
Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. The example of Woolworth has been considered in the
assignments that helped me to understand the use of social media in the supermarket company. I
have learnt that it is noteworthy for Woolworths to increase the business into the big market by
approving their products on different social media channels.
Effectiveness and your use of the learning experience
The use of learning experiences is very effective for me as I recognized that a corporation can
face issues in relation of promotional and marketing activities due to globalization effects in the
market. It showed that the use of social networking is a good strategy for enlarging the
operations by developing the favourable responses not only for potential customers but also for
current customers. I have observed throughout learning that traditional sales promotional tool
could be employed by the company as it is favourable to expand the revenue of the company. I
have realized that the social networking system has some negative influences as well as it is
costly as well as untrustworthy mode as it has the potential to ruin the image of the company in
term of wrong postings of feedback by customers on the site of the company (Taneja and

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Toombs, 2014). it has been found that people have the right to visit on the page of the company
to impact of promotions and advertisements, yet; there is more chance of neglecting the
advertising by people because of inadequate time. I have learnt that the social network makes the
awareness of people towards the services and the products that help them to take their decisions
on their own towards purchasing the products. It is also necessary for the business to increase the
operations of the company with the potential customers (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp and Agnihotri,
2014). It is evaluated that there are number of users that use online mode to buy the products as it
offers a huge opportunity to Woolworths for increasing their business across the world.
Usefulness of learning process
This learning experience might serve me in my course by which I can perform better in future. I
have found that there is a number of retailers are aware of the customers regarding the company.
I have learnt that the social media networking system is vital for spreading information in the
relation of the products and services which can be taken in use by the company. I have learnt that
Woolworth has around 20 social media channels and fan following of over 2 million and attracts
more than 3 million interactions per month (Turban, Outland, King, Lee, Liang and Turban,
2017). I have observed that there is a great importance of Woolworth in social media networking
as the main strength of the company was in instant responses to the concerns it may have been
facing. Along with that I have found that the major illustration of the way in which the use of
social media is facilitated to build a sense of transparency.
Activity in the learning process
I have taken use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods to accomplish the research in
which I have found that both methods have a significant role in collecting the data regarding the

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research topic. Along with that, I have used research strategy, sampling method and action plan
to make my research more convenient for the readers. I have found that the role of advertisement
is huge in the supermarket as it helps to increase their productivity that is why it is required for
the company to focus on advertising to make marketing strategy. I have learnt that there are a
number of strategies that give a data for your business to target customers who are showing the
interest in purchasing their goods as well as services (Verhoef, Kannan and Inman, 2015). With
the help of research method, I have analyzed that Woolworth focuses on the social networking
website for the purpose of exploring the information in the relation to their products and services
with high speed. Due to this strategy, I come to know that social networking sites are a major
platform to collect and broaden the information regarding the product and services of the
company. I read a number of journals and articles regarding the topic that enabled me to
understand the role of social media in the different industry by which I was able to compare the
use of it in various companies.
Evaluation of the learning
The role of business research is very important for me as it helps me to understand the use of
social media networking in the supermarket company. I have found with the help of business
research that the entire retail Supermarket of Australia cannot be evaluated to be focusing on
environmental sustainability. I have found that the role of social networking in Woolworth is
wide as it helps them to expand their business in the Global market (Boulouta and Pitelis, 2014).
It is also illustrated that a high number of customers in Australia could also lead the company for
increasing their publicity and profitability. I have found that 53% of Australians are loyal to their
brand because of implementation of the social network. Along with that, I have observed that
social media networking enables organisation to understand the needs and desires of the

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customers by which the organization can fulfil their demand and make them satisfied towards the
services of the company (Grimmer, 2018).
Explanation of the learning process
There is a number of reasons to conduct business research into two assignments because the
concept of both assignments are different as the first assignment entailed project objective, scope
and the literature review of the research topic by which I learnt that the use of social media in the
supermarket can do work as a boom for them. In my next assignment, I have learnt that how data
can be collected in a significant manner by using various approaches and techniques. It helped
me to understand the suitability of research design, approach, and type for this research (Smith,
2015). I made action plan in this assignment that enabled me to categories the activity as per
their preferences. I have learnt that the sequence of activity and the proper time frame is must
accomplish the research within the time frame as it helps in developing the better understanding
about the project (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). Along with that, I have realized through the first
assignment that social networking could be a valuable approach for the company as it can get
better its gratitude at international level (Kim and Johnson, 2016). Furthermore, Woolworths is
using this approach to sponsor their products and services in front of both local and global
customers. Thus, it can be suitable for a business to increase their important data among the size
of customers in the least time.
Applied learning
This learning would be applied in my future to widen my awareness regarding the use of social
media networking in the business. I have learnt that social networking system enables the
connectivity of the business to the global extent. Furthermore, it facilitates people to interact

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without any interruption or mediator with the company in relation to their products and services
as the modification can be done in the products and services as per their requirement. It could be
an effective approach which would be helpful in my further career to boost demand of
customers. I have found that a social networking could be employed by Woolworth in 24*7
hours as it would be noteworthy to control the customers towards their brand (Bharati, Zhang,
and Chaudhury, 2015). However, there are some negative factors of social networking that builds
legal consideration in the company as it can be more expensive for business practices.
Furthermore, the impact of social media can be for minimum time as I have learnt that it creates
the difficulty for the company to manage for a long time. The company image can have a
negative impact on users can present their unfavorable responses on the page of the company
(Kohli, Suri, and Kapoor, 2015).

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References
Bharati, P., Zhang, W. and Chaudhury, A., 2015. Better knowledge of social media? Exploring
the roles of social capital and organizational knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge
Management, 19(3), pp.456-475.
Boulouta, I and Pitelis, C. N., 2014. Who needs CSR? The impact of corporate social
responsibility on national competitiveness. Journal of business ethics, vol. 119, no. 3, pp.349-
364.
Grimmer, L., 2018. The diminished stakeholder: Examining the relationship between suppliers
and supermarkets in the Australian grocery industry. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1),
pp.e13-e20.
Kim, A.J. and Johnson, K.K., 2016. Power of consumers using social media: Examining the
influences of brand-related user-generated content on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior,
58, pp.98-108.
Kohli, C., Suri, R. and Kapoor, A., 2015. Will social media kill branding?. Business Horizons,
58(1), pp.35-44.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
Taneja, S. and Toombs, L., 2014. Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and
sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of Marketing
Studies Journal, 18(1), p.249.

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Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A., and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology usage
and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM.
Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2017. Electronic
Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. USA: Springer.
Verhoef, P.C., Kannan, P.K. and Inman, J.J., 2015. From multi-channel retailing to omnichannel
retailing: an introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing. Journal of Retailing,
91(2), pp.174-181.