Social Media Strategies for Business Growth: Vodafone Case Study

This report examines the crucial role of social media in business, focusing on Vodafone as a case study. It explores how Vodafone leverages social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter for competitive advantage, marketing, and customer interaction. The report analyzes the impact of social media on Vodafone's business strategy, including its ability to announce new products, engage with customers, and optimize sales and marketing efforts. Furthermore, it delves into the impact of social media on the profit margins of companies like Amazon, discussing the positive effects of increased sales and brand awareness. The report also considers the implications of social media for business in the next five years, highlighting both its benefits and potential drawbacks. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting business strategies to harness the power of social media effectively and to maintain a competitive edge in the evolving digital landscape.

BUSINESS FUTURE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1a Social media as a core competence for competitive advantage in business...........................1
1b Key social media platforms as effective internet market tools for businesses in United
Kingdom......................................................................................................................................2
2a Analysis of impact of social media on the profit margin of Amazon in last three years.......3
2b Social media and its implication for business in next five years...........................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business is considered as one of the activity that is done in order to make money and
provides better goods and services. Thus, it is an action that is performed so as to gain more
benefits (Schmidt and Cohen, 2013). Therefore, if any company want to operate their business in
an effective manner than they must consider the future so that appropriate strategies can be
made. The organisation that is taken in this assignment is Vodafone and it is a renowned
company that provides telecommunication connection in various places. This essay will includes
the importance of social media so as to gain competitive advantage in business. Other than this,
key social media platforms for having effective marketing tools for business in United
Kingdom.
1a Social media as a core competence for competitive advantage in business
Social media is determine as a computer mediated tool that is used for sharing
information, thoughts, ideas with different peoples so as to make them aware about any
information. In this current market scenario there are various tools and technology that are
present like Facebook, YouTube and many more. In context with Vodafone these social media is
giving competitive advantage to the organisation as they are using these platforms for promoting
their plans and company which they are providing (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011). It is used by
this firm so as to make a public relation with customers as social media is a platform that is used
for spreading information. For example: Vodafone is using social media on a regular basis in
order to announce their new products and schemes which they are going to launch. They are
announcing about their plans through this medium and it helping them in doing the same. Other
than this, company is optimising these for the activities like sales and marketing.
Social media gives power to buyers as they can avail the services without stepping out of
their houses. For gaining competitive advancement Vodafone is using appropriate resources that
are available to them and this helping them in giving tough fight to their rival companies. This
company is a renowned telecommunication organisation and is a leading firm in United
Kingdom (Gibson, 2011). Therefore, competitive advancement mainly depends upon three
major factors i.e. durability: this is a period in which competitive advancement is sustained for a
certain period of time. Transferability: In terms of resource, more complex procedure is to
transfer their sustainability according to competitive advancement. Replicability: under this the
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products are not duplicated and purchased from the market. Social media help the company in
enhancing the performance of the firm so that they can enhance the brand image of the
organisation.
Core Competency is activity that is used to perform and creating strategies which they
can apply for gaining and increasing profitability. Some of the elements that are need to be
considered by Vodafone for making appropriate plan of action like resources: company should
optimise adequate resources in limited quantity so that they can make appropriate products
without wasting (Xi and et. al., 2015). This will enhance the brand image and reputation of the
organisation in front of their customers. Capabilities: Every company must make sure that they
know about their capabilities in order to manufacture the product and bring them in market for
competition. By giving unique products it will give competitive advancement to the company.
Apart form this, company must produce goods that are relevant and according to the current
market situation.
To justify this answer, an example can be taken from the company of travel and tourism
i.e. Trailfinders, as they are using social media platform for make their customers aware about
the offers that they are providing. For this, company is taking innovative and unique steps so as
to attract more and more customers towards their organisation. Other than this they are positing
their advertisement in social media like YouTube. For example: As United Kingdom is a very
fascinating place and there are lots of attractive destination that grab attention of maximum
number of people, Trailfinders, in their short video are including top most places of United
Kingdom along with the services and facilities that they are providing, this is influence a large
number of people and pulling their attention so that they can come and visit those places
(Daniel, Cano and Cervera, 2015).
1b Key social media platforms as effective internet market tools for businesses in United
Kingdom
According to the current scenario, social media has become one of the essential tool for
promoting any company as it is the medium which is used by most of the people and find it
appropriate in transferring information. Business firms use social media platforms in order to
connect with customers and partner companies as well. Through this now people can easily share
videos, information, photos, videos etc., form one place to another without any problem.
Therefore an increase in social media usage has been increased in past one year and it has raised
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to 90 percent. Vodafone is using various social media platforms for promoting their activities
(Gerbaudo, 2018).
Facebook in recent times is considered as a powerful social media as three fourth
population are using this platform for sharing their events that are happening on a regular basis.
Vodafone is having around 17.9 million subscribers and is the third largest communication
company in United Kingdom. They are using Facebook platform for interacting with customers
and delivering the related information about the schemes and ideas they want to give to their
customers. Apart from this, it is providing them feedbacks about the services that they are
providing to its customers whether in a negative or positive form. If customers are having any
queries than they can straight forwardly ask them about the problems and team of Vodafone tries
to resolve the problem in quick time.
Twitter is one of the leading platform of social media and this is used for transferring
information to maximum number of people. Vodafone has approximately 11.8 million followers
on Twitter, company is using this medium so as to communicate with their clients in order to
resolve their issues and queries (Couldry, 2012). They can re-tweet their messages and tell them
about solutions regarding the problems. Other than this, firm is using Twitter for offering e-
coupons to its clients so that it can be shared with other people as well. Vodafone is also
offering gift vouchers like coffee mug to its regular follower in Twitter so as to sustain the
loyalty of its clients for a longer period of time.
Therefore, most of the organisation is using this social media platform for promoting the
their activities so that they can avail their best possible services in order to gain maximum
benefits. These social media tools are helping them in interacting with consumers in an effective
manner. Vodafone has created their own websites on which they are putting related information
from which customers can get the knowledge about the latest schemes that have been provided
by them. Other than this, there are other social media platforms ion which they company are
using for explaining the exited offers of the products and commodities as well (Tufekci and
Wilson, 2012).
2a Analysis of impact of social media on the profit margin of Amazon in last three years
Social media is according to the recent times is dynamic in nature and it has become one
of the revolutionary element as after coming of this it has made life easier and now people can
interact with one another from anywhere in the world. It has some positive and some negative
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implications on the behaviour of person as it depends upon the situations. Business enterprise use
social media for interacting with their business partners and customers in order to explain them
about the related schemes and providing information. With the help of improved technologies
communicating with each other has become more easier thus, social media is helping them in
doing so. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and many other sites are optimised by most of the
companies for promoting their activities as it provides self-expression and creating their own
outlet (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, 2012).
Profit margin is a concept that represent the details about revenues in percentage form so
that company can evaluate the profit that was gained after accounting the fixed and variable cost.
Therefore, it is mostly used in order to compare the internal comparison because the different
industries and their profit margin may differ from one another. If the organisation gain a narrow
profit margin than it shows an increased volatile earnings.
Amazon is a leading company that provides online services with the help of cloud
computing. Its a online shopping site and around 566,000 number of people are working in this
organisation. According to the fourth quarter result that was published on February 1, says that
an increase of 30 percent has been seen due to which $60.5 billion of revenues has raised in the
quarter. Therefore, Amazon has managed to enhance their profitability upto 70 percent.
Company provides all possible services to its customers in terms of food, grocery items,
electronics and many more.
As per the profit margin in context with Amazon of past three years the company growth
rate was low i.e. -1.50 percent and between the period of 2014 to 2015 it diminishes and it came
to -2.12 percent in September 2014 but after giving their commercials and ads in social media an
increase in the growth sales and productivity has been seen because now people are more
conscious about the products that are being soled by the organisation. In the month of June in
the year 2016, profit margin was raised upto 2.86 percent that was a great as compared to
previous years (Kim and Ko, 2012). Therefore, in current year the profit margin growth that was
recorded was 3.19 percent which is higher than all the data that are recorded in a particular year.
Henceforth, it can be seen that Amazon has gained profit in their 11 straight quarters and
social media has become the greater contributor in the business operations. They have influenced
an individuals to go through the products which they are offering. It is gradually increasing their
sales and profitability in a specific time period. Apart form this, they are giving seasonal
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discount coupons on popular holidays and events. This is assisting them in attracting more and
more people towards their company.
2b Social media and its implication for business in next five years
Social media is considered as one of the important factor that is providing benefits to
people by giving them facilities for communicating with each other. It is determined as a web
based technology it can be further classified into paper based and electronic media former
includes newspapers, magazines etc., whereas latter one involves TV broadcasting, products that
are related to frequency. Although it provides maximum benefits but social media is putting a
great impact on today's generation. It is affecting their health and because of this it is creating a
negative impact on mental and emotional health (Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012).
According to the current market situation enterprise is operating their business as it is
helping them in having a proper interaction between partners and other companies as well.
Therefore, social media has changed the entire world around them and in context with business it
will change the entire concept of interaction. There are some of the elements that must be
considered as it is providing maximum benefits in coming five years. Social media has made the
world smaller and now people can contact with anybody across the borders and zones. It will
help them in boosting the local bonds between each other so that they can gain maximum profits.
In next five years they will empower ordinary people and they will be able to operate their
business in an effective manner as this will assist them in sharing their views and thoughts easily
so as to influence large number of people and stakeholders who can invest their money in order
to get maximum profits.
Inbound and permission marketing will be very useful in coming five years as this will
enable them in providing adequate information to its customers so that they can grab the
attention of maximum number of people. For this, they the elements that will be appropriate are
direct mail, telemarketing or print advertising and many more. Market of global consumer will
expand because of which company will get a vast area for selling out their products as a result an
increase in sales and profitability can be seen (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).
Although social media is providing maximum benefits but they have some of the
implications because of which companies are facing problems in dealing with complications that
arise in business activities. Example can be taken form the recent situations that happened during
the elections in November 8, 2018. Donald Trump won the election because they were having
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personal details of individuals that was leaked by Facebook. It assist them in providing services
as per the facilities that are required by citizen of that nation. Therefore, social media is very
good in relation with communicating with others but have some loopholes.
Henceforth, in next five years eMarketer projects will be doubled by 32.7 percent and till
that time nearly 2.44 billion people will be using social networking sites. Thus, it will be easier
for companies in sharing their information in a proper manner. The biggest implication of social
media is that personal details will be no longer secure because of which the confidential data
may leak. Ideas can be pirated because for example: if a company wants to implement any new
and creative changes in business, that through social media there is a chance that the concept is
adopted by any other organisation. To secure this, company must use cloud computing as it will
provide some sort of securities to the organisation (Schmidt and Cohen, 2013). Therefore,
company must hire technicians who can help them in securing their entire web server so that they
no personal or business details can be hacked.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that, to operate a business it is necessary that
all the factors must be considered so that they can attain competitive advancement. Social media
so one of the important tool that is helping most of the organisation in promoting their activities.
It is providing them a platform for sharing the information in an adequate manner. Therefore, it
is providing some of the benefits but it in some cases social media is acting as a barrier. Other
than this, social media is helping the organisation in increasing their profit margin as they are
enabling them in promoting their activities in an effective manner. For this, there are mainly two
key social media elements i.e. Facebook and Twitter that is helping the company in expanding
the business in an effective way.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Schmidt, E. and Cohen, J., 2013. The new digital age: Reshaping the future of people, nations
and business. Hachette UK.
Zott, C., Amit, R. and Massa, L., 2011. The business model: recent developments and future
research. Journal of management. 37(4). pp.1019-1042.
Gibson, R., 2011. Rethinking the future: rethinking business, principles, competition, control &
complexity, leadership, markets and the world. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Xi, J. M. and et. al., 2015. Mapping the field of family business research: past trends and future
directions. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 11(1). pp.113-
132.
Daniel, J., Cano, E.V. and Cervera, M.G., 2015. The future of MOOCs: Adaptive learning or
business model?. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher
Education. 12(1). pp.64-73.
Gerbaudo, P., 2018. Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto
Press.
Couldry, N., 2012. Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity.
Tufekci, Z. and Wilson, C., 2012. Social media and the decision to participate in political protest:
Observations from Tahrir Square. Journal of communication. 62(2), pp.363-379.
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P. S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages:
An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive
marketing. 26(2), pp.83-91.
Kim, A. J. and Ko, E., 2012. Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An
empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research. 65(10).
pp.1480-1486.
Lovejoy, K. and Saxton, G. D., 2012. Information, community, and action: How nonprofit
organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 17(3).
pp.337-353.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R. and Richard, M. O., 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How
brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information
Management. 33(1). pp.76-82.
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