Billabong: Using Social Media to Improve Communication Strategies

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Added on 2023/06/04

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This report examines the importance of social media in enhancing internal and external communication, using Billabong as a case study within the retail industry. It identifies key issues such as vague rumors, conflicts among workers, and product copying, and proposes strategies like identifying the social media audience, creating video content, and developing attractive articles to enhance communication. The report analyzes the impact of social media on Billabong's business, including customer feedback and online purchasing trends, and provides recommendations such as using copyrights, reducing worker conflicts, and developing strategies to avoid rumors. The conclusion emphasizes the role of social media in boosting business profit, highlighting the need for maintaining privacy and offering positive outcomes for Billabong. The report addresses the problem statement by discussing how social media can be used to enhance communication within a business.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE ITS INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
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Executive Summary
The entire study has focused on the importance of using social media in order to enhance internal
and external communication in business. Henceforth, the organisation Billabong, under retail
industry has been selected. Three issues and strategies have been mentioned for understanding
the study. Impact of using social media for business purpose has ben elaborated along with
effective recommendation.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Findings...........................................................................................................................................3
Issues related to use social media for external and internal communication of Billabong..............3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................4
Strategies for Billabong to use social media....................................................................................4
Impact of using social media in context of internal and external communication........................6
Recommendation............................................................................................................................. 7
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 7
Reference list................................................................................................................................... 9
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
At present, most of people use social media and it has been considered as one of the popular time
passing elements. Hence, in order to increase sales of venture, business organisations use social
media as it is an easy way to communicate with many people at a time. The study will focus on
the usage of social media in order to enhance organisational internal and external communication
of Billabong. Issues of the venture will be identified and based on it; strategies related to use
social media will be developed along with effective recommendation.
The problem statement of study is to identify issues related to not using social media in a venture
in communicational purpose.
Findings
Issues related to use social media for external and internal communication of
Billabong
Vague news and rumours
As per the viewpoint of Georgescu and Popescul (2015), everyone can access social media and it
is an effective platform to advertise products or services of a venture. However, many a times, it
is seen that users of social media spread vague rumours related to venture and it leaves negative
impact on the venture. In context of Billabong, as they use social media, it is observed that 20%
customers only believe on their three brands and as result products of other brands cannot hold
the contemporary market (businessnewsaus.com.au, 2016). Different memes related to product
price and quality have been created and it decrease sales of venture in the merchandise market.
The above-mentioned issue can be considered as external communication related issue in
Billabong.
Conflict among workers
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On the hand, people give review related to the products, which they have used. According to
Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), positive review of products assists to earn satisfaction of
employees. In context of Billabong, as a manufacturer of sporting goods and cloths, many a
times, it is found that people prefer clothing design of a specific designer and they give positive
feedback on it. In this case, other designers feel disappointed and it creates conflict among the
employees or designers of venture. It also reduces the cooperative nature among designers in
venture. Thus, using social media, authority faces internal communication related issue in
venture.
Copy the creation
As argued by Wamba and Carter (2016), several times, people copy the products of a venture,
without taking permission from the authority of organisation. In this context, as the source of
creation of products is not revealed, the company, who copies the products of others, can easily
run a business. Therefore, it becomes a question about the creator of specific products. In context
of Billabong, as it is an international retailer company, they face above-mentioned issue related
to the identity of products (au.billabong.com, 2018). Hence, it can be considered as one of the
external communication related issue for using social media like facebook, twitter and many
others.
Analysis
Strategies for Billabong to use social media
Identification of social media audience
In time of marketing a product, ventures in present era try to identify the audience of social
media and they develop products based on their requirements. As suggested by Cardon and
Marshall (2015), if organisational authority rapidly researches on social media, they easily get
idea related to needs of present people. As per the report of social media news, it is found out
that people between young adults (25-39) and senior citizen (55-64) spend their time in social
media like facebook (socialmedianews.com.au, 2018). Therefore, Billabong can develop
questions related to their upcoming products and post it in their social media page. Using the
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above-mentioned way, they can get effective suggestion related to products and it assists to earn
huge profit for the venture. Therefore, it develops internal communication in an effective
manner.
Figure 1: Rate of people of using social media like facebook
(Source: Ngai et al. 2015)
Video content
On the other hand, Jussila et al. (2014) mentioned that in time of marketing of products, the
organisational authority can make a video of the products and upload it in the company page in
social media. As a result, people are able to visualise the product and its application in an
effective manner. It helps them to take appropriate decision related to purchasing of products. In
context of Billabong, as it sells cloths, organisational authority uploads video of their models
wearing their products. The above-mentioned strategy helps to enhance external as well as
internal communication through social media.
Attractive articles related to products
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13-17 18-25 25-39 40-55 55-64 65+
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
7000000
940000
3500000
6100000
4100000
1600000
1200000

In order to develop external communication through social media, as mentioned by Ngai et al.
(2015), organisational authority can hire content writers, who develop articles related to the
products of venture. In this case, attractive writing is able to get attention from social media
users. Thus, social media users want to purchase the products. In context of Billabong, the
organisational authority follows the above-mentioned strategy for enhancing their
communication through social media. In a report, it is monitored that Billabong is able to
increase their 46% customers by using social media (businessnewsaus.com.au, 2016).
Impact of using social media in context of internal and external
communication
In the opinion of Ainin et al. (2015), social media is platform where, people are able to get
information about various topics like business, social status and many others. In addition to this,
people can share their personal opinion related to the specific topic. In context of business,
organisational authority is able to get feedback of their products and it reflects on the concept of
external communication. In addition to this, organisational employees are able to chalk out that
in which section; they need to bring improvement of their products. In context of Billabong,
organisational authority is able to get effective feedback from their customers and it leaves
positive impact on business.
On the other hand, Trainor et al. (2014) stated that as people are busy in their daily life, they
prefer to purchase products from online platform like social media. It is quite common matter
that in time of purchasing products from social media, people can review the feedback of
previous customers. For example, as per the report, it is monitored that 71% people in 2016 have
purchased products from online (commonsensemarketing.com.au, 2016). Therefore, it can be
confirmed that using social media, business organisations are able to increase number of
consumers in contemporary market [refer to appendix 1].
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Figure 2: Business from online
(Source: Jussila et al. 2014)
As argued by Schivinski and Dabrowski (2016), in context of retail sector especially for cloths,
trough social media, people can see the models and get idea related to the looks of the specific
cloths. Moreover, they can give suggestion to organisational authority related to design of
products. It develops internal communication of venture like Billabong. However, many a times,
other people can copy products a reputed venture and it can be considered as the negative impact
of using social media (commonsensemarketing.com.au, 2016).
Recommendation
 Need to use copyrights
 Need to reduce conflict among workers
 Developing strategy for avoiding rumours
If employees of organisation are able to use copyrights, it can decrease chance of stealing their
design (socialmedianews.com.au, 2018). In addition to this, workers of Billabong need to receive
feedback of customers in a positive manner as they can bring improvement in their work. They
should develop collaborative working atmosphere, which helps to earn prosperity in the
competitive market. In addition to this, Billabong can develop strategies for avoiding vague
rumours.
Conclusion
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In order to draw the end line of study, it can be deduced that social media assists to enhance the
business profit in the contemporary merchandise market. Throughout the study, issues like
rumours, conflict among workers have been elaborated and effective strategies like attractive
articles and video content have been developed for getting fruitful outcome. However, impact of
using social media for business purpose can be found out and analysis has been done. It can
stated that if organisational authority like Billabong is able to maintain privacy of social media, it
can provide positive outcome related to the profit of business. Appropriate recommendation has
been provided based on the issues. Thus, the problem statement of study has been met
throughout the report.
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Reference list
Ainin, S., Parveen, F., Moghavvemi, S., Jaafar, N.I. and Mohd Shuib, N.L., 2015. Factors
influencing the use of social media by SMEs and its performance outcomes. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 115(3), pp.570-588.
au.billabong.com (2018), Billabong, Available at: https://au.billabong.com/mens [Accessed on:
12 July, 2018]
businessnewsaus.com.au (2016), Billabong’s fans show that all about the brand, Available at:
https://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/billabong-s-fans-show-that-it-s-all-about-the-
brand.html [Accessed on: 12 July, 2018]
Cardon, P.W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work
collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business
Communication, 52(3), pp.273-293.
commonsensemarketing.com.au (2016), Social Media for business, Available at:
https://commonsensemarketing.com.au/social-media-for-business/ [Accessed on: 12 July, 2018]
Georgescu, M. and Popescul, D., 2015. Social Media–the new paradigm of collaboration and
communication for business environment. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20(2), pp.277-282.
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(2),
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.
Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.
socialmedianews.com.au (2018), Social Media Statistics Australia, Available at:
https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-january-2018/ [Accessed
on: 12 July, 2018]
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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.
Wamba, S.F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical
study. In Social media and Networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications, 58(2),
pp. 791-806.
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