Using Social Media for Effective Customer Service

Since businesses may interact with customers frequently through social media, customer service is one of the business areas that has been severely impacted. According to Arsenault (2014), higher education institutions can use social media to connect with students and stakeholders. In order to determine how schools might successfully integrate social media into their operations, the author of this paper performs a thorough investigation of the literature that is currently in circulation. According to the research, there are several approaches to create a successful social media strategy, including enhancing security, making something more helpful, offering customer support, and making pertinent information available. These findings are relevant to learning institutions since they can employ them to improve student interactions with their tutors and enhance transparency of information. However, since this is more of an article review than research, the information gathered is merely theoretical and therefore its practical application was not tested in this study.
Bertoncini, G. T., & Schmalz, M. T. (2013). What's on Your Mind? Understanding the Influence of Social Media on Authentic Leadership Dimensions and Education from the Millennials' Perspective.
In this article, Bertioncini& Schmalz (2013) set out to establish the extent to which the use of social media affects the dimensions of authentic leadership and education from the perspective of millennials. To do this, the authors use survey method to administer online based questionnaires to collect data. The research findings revealed that millennials believe that social media sites such as You-Tube, WhatsApp and Twitter are vital in their leadership development. However, Bertioncini & Schmalz (2013) expressed their fears that social media might affect the self-esteem of the young professionals since lives of people in the virtual world always look perfect. These findings are important since they will enable business leaders to craft leadership programs that can be delivered through social media platforms such as podcasts and webinars. However, several mishaps can be pointed out from the research which could have impacted the reliability of data. For instance, the sample size was small which could negatively impact the generalization of the findings to a larger population.
Gros, C. H. (2012). The influence of social media on consumers during their purchase decision-making process and the implications for marketer (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).
The field of marketing has been revolutionized since social media marketing allows businesses to interact with consumers at all times. Gros (2012) set out to establish the influence of social media on consumers while they are making their purchase decisions and the impact for marketers. The researcher used both inductive and deductive research designs to collect information through administration of questionnaires. The research findings from this study revealed that consumers are affected by their friends and family on social media while making purchase decisions. The stages of the buying process that are mostly affected by social media are; need identification, information search stage, and evaluation stage. As well, Gross (2012) pointed out that marketers should use social media to increase the audience for their marketing message. Therefore, the information and knowledge generated from this research is important in designing an effective marketing strategy. Nevertheless, the research did not come up with a marketing model that integrates social media marketing.


Hajli, M. N. (2014). A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56(3), 387-404.
In his article, Hajli(2014) investigates the effect of social media on consumers and especially how social media fosters trust between consumers and businesses which in turn affects individuals to buy products from a certain company. The researcher used survey research design to administer online and paper questionnaires for collecting data which was later analyzed through Smart PLS software. The results of the study revealed that "The results show that trust, encouraged by social media, significantly affects intention to buy" (Haiji, 2014). As well, the research findings revealed that trust has a positive impact on perceived ease of usefulness and therefore if the consumers trust a particular company, they are likely to buy their products including the ones that have not been tested in the market. The findings are relevant to business owners since they challenge them to use social media to build trust with customers and this can only happen if social media platforms of a business send a message that is consistent with the values of the organization. The sample used for this research was collected from only one city, and therefore this may affect generalization of the research findings.
Singh, P., and Sinha, R., (2017). The Impact of Social Media on Business Growth and
Performance in India. International Journal of Research in Management &Business Studies
The social media bust has had significant impact on business growth since it can act as a cos tor profit center based on how it is used. In the article, Singh &Sinha (2017) sets to establish the impact of social media on growth of businesses in India and to decipher how companies use social media to connect with customers at a faster speed. To do this, the researchers apply secondary research hence collect literature from various authors and strive to fill the identified knowledge gaps. The finding of this research revealed that businesses in India use social media to market their products which has increased their audience hence boosting the company's' revenues. This can be well captured by the authors' words that "Social media is an effective tool in doing business today and brings out innovative strategies out of companies that used to be very monotonous" (Hence Singh & Sinha,2017). These findings are relevant since they elaborate the importance of social media in the business's continuity. Therefore, business leaders can integrate social media strategy in the business's strategic strategy to ensure that the former steer the organization towards the former. However, since this information was gathered from a secondary study, the reliability and validity of the conclusions are questionable.
Xi, C., "The influence of social media on knowledge gaps about science and technology among Chinese audiences" (2013). Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
In this article, Xi (2013) seeks to examine the influence of social media on knowledge gaps of Chinese nationals using Guokor. To do this, the researchers surveyed students from China and the United States. The findings of the research revealed that social media influence on a person's knowledge gap depends on their motivation, education, gender and other demographic variables. However, the researcher concluded that social media connectivity has no impact on the users' knowledge gaps since most of the social media users are motivated by entertainment rather than education. These findings are important to businesses and governments who may wish to promote public education. Using the findings, these players I the economy of a country would first try to change the motivation of usage of social media so that the users can view social media as a source of knowledge. However, one major limitation of this research is that it analyzes a social media application used for the exchange of scientific knowledge and therefore the findings may not be similar for a social media sites such as Facebook.
References
Arsenault, P.,(2014) "Using Social Media for Effective Customer Service,"The Vermont Connection: Vol. 35, Article 3.
Retrieved from: http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=tvc
Bertoncini, G. T., & Schmalz, M. T. (2013). What's on your mind? Understanding the influence of social media on authentic leadership dimensions and education from the millennials' perspective.Retrieved from: http://lnu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2: 636761/FULLTEXT01 .pdf
Gros, C. H. (2012). The influence of social media on consumers during their purchase decision-making process and the implications for marketer (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).Retrieved from: http://esource.dbs.ie/bitstream/handle/10788/525/ma_gros_ch_ 2012.pdf?sequence=1
Hajli, M. N. (2014). A study of the impact of social media on consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 56(3), 387-404.Retrieved from: https://www.lyfemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Compressed-PDF.pdf
Singh,P., and Sinha, R., (2017). The Impact of Social Media on Business Growth and
Performance in India. International Journal of Research in Management &Business Studies.Retrieved from: http://ijrmbs.com/vol4issue1SPL1/tinap.pdf


Xi,C., "The influence of social media on knowledge gaps about science and technology among Chinese audiences" (2013).
Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Retrieved from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4 491&context=etd