Social Media Marketing Strategies of Uber-Samples for Students

Question: Critically analyse Social Media Marketing Activities of Your Chosen Company. Answer: Company background: Uber is a company related with transportation network that was founded in 2009. Uber has its headquarters in San Francisco, United States. Uber operates in more than 570 cities throughout the world. The Uber car drivers are required to have a smartphone and an Uber application software installed in it through which they are able to contact the users who book their cab via Uber app ("Sign Up to Drive or Tap and Ride", 2017). In some cities upfront pricing is offered by Uber in which the rider is required to pay before using the service while in some cities Uber calculates the price according to the distance and time of the ride. At certain times, Uber also provides various promotional rates. The payment mode of Uber is very convenient as it accepts cash, credit card, debit card and even mobile wallets. Uber has extensively used various social media marketing tools to reach the position in which it is today. Uber has used E-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkdin and various other social media websites for its promotional purpose (Wirtz Lovelock, 2016). Social media marketing of Uber: Uber has been using the following social media strategies: E-mail marketing: E-mail serves as the primary source of communication for the company. Uber is using the efforts to reach its customers and updating them by promoting their service and providing attractive offers to its customers via emails. Optimization of social media: Uber has always been active on the various social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Uber has approximately 143k active Instagram followers, 438k Twitter followers and is liked by around 3 million facebook users. Uber continuously updates the users regarding its services and new offers via social media networking sites (Agrawal, 2017). Strategic partnership: Uber has also entered into partnership with various website and app based companies such as PayTm, Zomato, BookMyShow, Trip Advisor and many more in order to promote its services through their websites and apps. The websites or apps of these companies have served as an advertisement platform to Uber. Uber uses social media for launching any new offers, products or services and interacting with its customers. Uber uses social media networking sites to create awareness regarding its various offers and deals. Uber faces major competition from GoCatch that also uses social media marketing strategy and aims at providing cheaper and better service than Uber. However, the social media reach of Uber has risen up to a level that is hard for any competitor to match up to that level (Burgess et al., 2016). However, the risk involved in social media marketing is that the customers who are not very internet savvy are not updated about the various offers and services of Uber. Another risk related to the social media marketing is that due to lack of privacy, any bad review of customers or any rumor can cause severe damage to the reputation of the company (Laurell, Sandstrm, 2016). Uber has been a winner in the digital marketing world. Uber has been a great success in Australia and has successfully advertised itself through various channels especially social media websites. Uber has a special help section in its app where the company resolves the issues of the dissatisfied customers. Uber is quite quick in resolving the customer problems and manages the dissatisfied customers very well. It has its own complain number using which the customers can share their grievances and get help (Allen, 2015). The following chart shows the present number of followers of Uber over various social websites: Figure 1 Followers of Uber over social media sites (Source: Authors work) Recommendations: SWOT Analysis Strength Uber has the largest market share among all the ride sharing apps Ubers is the most valuable and the largest ride sharing company across the globe Ubers app is considered to be very convenient and user friendly Weaknesses Some users still mention safety concerns using the Uber app Users have shown concerns related to the privacy policies of the app Opportunities Uber has its presence in around 60 countries and still many potential countries are untapped by it Uber has invested massively in social media advertisements to attract the customers Threats One of the emerging tough competitor of Uber in Australia is GoCatch that also uses social media marketing strategies Changes in the technologies Therefore, it can be recommended that Uber must invest on the latest technologies and keep itself updated in order to maintain its position in the tough competition. Uber must ensure safety of its apps in terms of online payment of fares. Uber must maintain good relations with the customers via social networking sites and pay attention to any grievances or complains of the users as good customer relationship is the key to success in the service industry. References: Agrawal, S. (2017). The Impact of Emerging Technologies and Social Media on Different Business (es): Marketing and Management. InMaximizing Business Performance and Efficiency Through Intelligent Systems(pp. 37-49). IGI Global. Allen, D. (2015). The sharing economy.Review-Institute of Public Affairs,67(3), 24. Burgess, J. E., Matamoros-Fernandez, A., Suzor, N. P., Wikstrom, P. (2016). Ride-sharing and the struggle for legitimacy in digital media.Selected Papers of Internet Research. Laurell, C., Sandstrm, C. (2016). Analysing Uber In Social MediaDisruptive Technology Or Institutional Disruption?.International Journal of Innovation Management,20(05), 1640013. Sign Up to Drive or Tap and Ride. (2017). Uber.com. Retrieved 1 May 2017, from https://www.uber.com/en-IN/ Wirtz, J., Lovelock, C. (2016).Services marketing: people, technology, strategy. World Scientific Publishi