This in-depth research report delves into Woolworths, a prominent Australian retailer, scrutinizing its social media presence and formulating strategic recommendations for enhancement. The analysis covers the multifaceted landscape of social media engagement, encompassing audience dynamics, marketing strategies, ethical considerations, and the pivotal role of technology. While Woolworths has successfully navigated the social media terrain, the report identifies areas of improvement, particularly in the context of employee engagement, privacy, and the seamless integration of social media into the overall business strategy. The report underscores the transformative power of social media in shaping consumer behavior and offers actionable insights for Woolworths to fortify its digital presence.
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Business Report on Woolworths
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Executive Summary
This research report has analysed the social media presence of Woolworth and provided the
recommendations about the improvement in its social media strategy. Woolworths is a leading Australian
retailer, which has a well-developed online presence on different social networks. The company has led
many campaigns to understand the preferences of the customers and stay engaged with them. However,
social media has been used by the company’s employees also to express their concerns about the
company. Therefore, there is a need to develop strict social media policies so that the use of social media
by employees does not hamper the company’s image.
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Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Social Media Presence .................................................................................................................................. 4
Social Media Audience ................................................................................................................................. 5
Social Media Marketing ................................................................................................................................ 6
Ethics, privacy and security .......................................................................................................................... 7
Social Media Technologies ........................................................................................................................... 7
Conclusion & Recommendations.................................................................................................................. 8
References ...................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Introduction
This research report aims at analyzing the social media presence of Woolworth and providing
recommendations about the improvement in its social media strategy. In the age where customer is highly
empowered, a highly deliberate and planned social media approach is required so that the companies can
attain a competitive edge in their respective industries. Organisations that consider social media strategy
as a vital part of their business strategy sustain effectively in the long run (Asur & Huberman, 2010). On
the other hand, the managers need to understand that social media strategy is not just about pushing
promotional messages for the audiences rather it is about interacting with customers to keep them
informed about the products and services of the company (Asur & Huberman, 2010).
The company taken for the research purpose is Woolworth, which is a leading retailer, based in Australia.
It operates not only in Australia but across many countries such as Africa, Tasmania, Middle East and
New Zealand with a network of more than 400 stores selling apparel, food, home wares, as well as several
other products and services (Dos Santos, 2011). Woolworths completely understands that it is very
important for its marketing and sales teams to know the needs and wants of its customers as it sells a
diverse range of products and services, and has a very large regional audience or market.
Social Media Presence
As per Ben (2015), the businesses with a strategic approach to social media often gain a competitive edge.
The social media strategy enables the companies to use the customer information in social network,
engage with customers and gain a competitive advantage. The social media presence lets the manager to
embrace the changes in the customer preferences effectively and focus on customer communications.
According to Ben (2015), social media provides a virtual space to the people to express their thoughts and
also share information. The online social networks have made it possible for the two individuals sitting at
farthest corner from each other to connect in an effective manner. The importance of the social media
networks in an individual’s life has led to introduction of a technical revolution for the marketers. The
marketers have got a new ways to advertise and interact with their consumers (Brown & Hayes, 2008).
Since almost every company is engaged with their customers on social media, Woolworths, a retailer
based in Australia is no less. Woolworths has an active presence on different social media networks.
Woolworths’ customer outreach encompasses strategically and effectively crafting or exercising
engagement over a large number of social media portals, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
Pinterest using various analytics tools and techniques. As per Duggan & Brenner (2013), the company
focuses on its customers in the foremost position and then implemented its social media and online
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strategy around that. The reach of Woolworths has increased and expanded manifold since it has become
active over social media.
For instance, the retailer has a Twitter stream and the company is known to be doing a really good job.
The marketers at Woolworths have used their good sense of humour to interact with the customers and
know their preferences. The marketers use Twitter to ask their followers about the five key things from
past of the retailer that they would love to get back in the store. The hashtag #woolies5 is used for this
campaign so that they can know the strengths of the retailer (Dos Santos, 2011). The retailer has also been
hinting on social media about the introduction of an e-museum. This online museum will be part of the
Woolworths website, which would safeguard the heritage of the brand.
Social Media Audience
The audiences of the company differ from one social media platform to another. Through various social
media platforms and marketing techniques, the company drives online engagement in addition to offering
better customers support and increased convenience to all its customers (Couldry, 2012). As per a social
media analyst for Woolworths, the company is able to interact with the customers and clients - at any time
and any location, and is also able to provide them with its products and services that particularly suit the
needs of its customers at a specific duration of the day. Woolworths uses various social media tools like
Socialbakers Analytics that not only help it with outreach but also assist the company’s team leaders and
managers in managing the expectations of its employees and other stakeholders and evaluating the
internal strategy (Dos Santos, 2011). Various social marketing tools employed by the company help the
company gain valuable analysis and statistics that the managers can feed back into the operations of the
company. The social media presence and outreach has proved to be very effective and vital in the overall
organisational success at Woolworths, not only that of its online operations. The top management and
other employees at Woolworths see online as a great way of employing technology for resolving, as well
as innovating around the various in-store issues and inconveniences that are faced by the company.
As discussed above, the social media platform has not just enabled the company to interact with the
customers but provided an equally important platform to the employees to express their concerns
(Couldry, 2012). For instance, the digital editor of the Woolworths, Sam Wilson, posted a tweet
indicating his displeasure over the employment policies at the company. This took the internet by storm
and the retailer was targeted for posting insensitive recruitment advertisements in which they specified the
population group requirements for the different vacant positions. This was a negative move taken by the
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digital editor of the company, which impacted the image of the company as an employer in the
mainstream industry.
Social Media Marketing
As per Curtis et al (2010), the traditional mediums used by the marketers to advertise and promote
products or services such as television, newspapers and yellow papers is almost over and there is a new
‘social media revolution’. Reports suggest that a minor percentage of the people are dependent on these
advertisement mediums while the majority depends on social media to engage with their favorite brands.
According to Dann & Dann (2011), users are able to access internet almost everywhere, including home
or office. Also, the use of Smartphone and tablets has made the access to internet extremely easy. As per
an article published in Forbes, Google has around 200 million daily on an average and 6 billion views
each month, which is an indication of the fact that significant number of people use internet on daily
basis.
As far as Woolworths is concerned, the company had carefully analysed and assessed all its business
goals in order to best understand where various social media platforms would fit in and how they will
help the company grow. Effective techniques of social media marketing have helped Woolworths manage
public relations, effectively engage with all its customers, and overcome any kind of sales stumbling
blocks. This is primarily because by being actively present over social media platforms, the company is
able to understand the online behaviour of its target market thereby developing the right marketing mix.
Woolworths uses social media as a vital part of its holistic marketing strategy.
The company markets itself online through various programmes and campaigns. For example, the Love
Birds social media campaign by Woolworths was a big success for the organisation as it created a lot of
buzz on various social media platforms thereby engaging a large number of people from around the
world. In addition to launching social media campaigns from time to time, the company has build up and
sustained a very strong Facebook following. The company will be launching social commerce by the end
of this year. This will allow its customers to shop online in the social network environment. The social
media marketing of Woolworths is very powerful and has helped company gain huge success. Some of
the strengths, as far as social media marketing is concerned, of this supermarket giant are as follows:
1. It acts quickly: The Company responds quickly to any kind of disaster, query or complaint.
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2. It Listens: Woolworths listens to its customers very carefully and then responds to their
comments over social media appropriately in order to reduce the chances of any potential
catastrophes.
3. It knows its customers: Woolworths’ understands the needs, wants and behaviours of its
customers. The company has an idea how its customers may react to a particular social media
post or campaign.
4. It has introduced faster processes: The Company has established faster processes which enable its
social media managers to respond to any kind of potential catastrophes in a speedy fashion.
Ethics, privacy and security
As per Daivd (2015), the use of social media in the organizations can develop boundaries between the
work roles and private lives of the employees. Therefore, an organization requires efficient social media
policies to blur the boundaries and ensure the employees are able to do jobs related to social media
effectively. For instance, social media strategies require that the social media executives to log into their
personal accounts so that the organization’s social media pages can be administered. Therefore, clear
guidelines need to be provided to the employees about the use of social media to interact with customers
and engage in organisation’s related social media tasks (Daivd, 2015). At Woolworths, clear guidance is
provided to employees so that they can set boundaries when interacting with customers on social media.
The social media guidelines are incorporated into the social media policy of the company, which is
mandatory for all the employees engaged in the social media marketing. Also, the key provision of this
policy is that the employees are not allowed to share any personal or organisation related information with
the customers. All the posts to be updated on the social media pages of the company have to be approved
from the respective managers so as to ensure its authenticity and as a security concern.
Social Media Technologies
Woolworths is a leading Australia based retailer, which aims at attracting different customers belonging
to different economic backgrounds. Social media has become the one of the driving tools when it comes
to connecting with the customers for the retailer. The way people used to shop online was earlier
different. It was based on the conventional factors but due to the intervention of social media, it is not the
case anymore. There has been a significant shift in which people buy stuff today. This fact has been
understood by the marketers of Woolworths effectively through their interaction with customers on social
media (Dos Santos, 2011). There are different things that impact from where people will buy a particular
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thing. These latest factors like peer reviews, blogs, referrals, social networks are something that are not
controlled by companies.
In a way, this is better for the users as people are able to connect online and post their thoughts and
reviews on a specific product. A larger audience can benefit from these reviews and recommendations
making it possible for people to know the value of a certain product or service. This vast network and able
to communicate with so many people has been only possible because of social media (Dos Santos, 2011).
How people share certain information on the social media is another thing to be considered. The one
popular way is of course, word of mouth. This is one thing that has always been the prominent feature of
marketing. People know about everything with the help of social media. Word of mouth is significant
even in today’s scenario because the attitude of people buying things online has been affected because of
it. When it comes to social media, word of mouth has been paramount in spreading things to millions of
users. That is how things or videos or anything unique goes viral. And we all know how fifty shades of
grey became so popular.
A company cannot have success in their marketing process until they are recognized. The change in way
people buy stuff online has stemmed from the fact that people are seeing everything online and if they
don't find it on social media, they might not buy from them. Moreover, if anything new comes up from a
company, people know about it instantly, thanks to sharing of posts and media online. Many people only
post all the wrong stuff but social media takes care of it. This is because a social media will only allow
content that is neutral. Social media searches and comments are some of the things on which people
heavily rely to make their buying decisions. In the end, it all depends on the customers’ choice and taste,
but they will take into account something there friends are suggesting. Moreover, many people only buy
stuff from companies which they trust and have already used. The reputation of the company and its
brand image also matters, but in the end it is all about the social media comments and reviews because
today, a single person has around 69 social ties. So, having a good social media profile is mandatory for a
company (Dos Santos, 2011).
Conclusion & Recommendations
To conclude, it can be indicated that social media marketing has brought revolution in the marketing and
advertising world. With growing importance of social media networks, companies are making efforts to
develop effective and exclusive social media strategies. The retailers like Woolworths are not behind and
take different steps to engage with customers on different social media networks. The presence of
Woolworths on different social networks has led to widespread of the retailer in Australia and other
countries. This has increased the engagement of the customers with the brand and different campaigns led
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by the Woolworths keep the customers related to the company always. However, there are some
recommendations for the company and its social media strategy in future.
• The company needs to train its employees to interact with customers in an effective way and
remain updated on the preferences.
• The company needs to develop social media policies to ensure social media is not misused by the
employees.
• The company needs to incorporate the social media strategy in the business plan of the company
so as to make it an integral part.