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Executive summary

Social media is fast expanding with billions of users joining the platform. This has made

social media a perfect platform for marketing and creating perfect opportunity to reach potential

customers. In addition, the social media platform is effective communication, which businesses

can use to reach their clients more effectively. The new technology has fast replaced the

convectional communication channels like emails because it is more flexible and allows users to

discuss on the messaged and provide the sender with feedback. The tourism and hospitality

industry is among the industries that are making effective use of the social media platform to

market their products and services to the potential customers. Therefore, several ways exist

through which business can use social media to enhance to improve operational efficiency,

decision making and gain a competitive advantage in the market id properly utilized. This paper

explores this ways with reference to the Fairmont Company based in Singapore. The business

has a maintained an online presence through its site and social media pages in Facebook and

tweeter.
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Table of Contents
Executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Literature review ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Case study: Fairmont Company Singapore ................................................................................................... 7
Using social media to achieve operational excellence .............................................................................. 7
Using social media as a communication tool ........................................................................................ 8
Using social media to promote events .................................................................................................. 8
Promoting sales ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Improving customer experience ............................................................................................................ 9
Using social media in decision making................................................................................................... 10
Using social media to gain a competitive advantage .............................................................................. 12
Using social media to gather market intelligence ............................................................................... 13
Using social media as a marketing platform ....................................................................................... 14
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 16
Works cited ................................................................................................................................................. 17
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Case Study: The Use Of Social Media In Tourism And Hospitality Industries In Achieving
Operational Excellence And Improving Decision Making To Gain A Competitive Advantage In
The Market

Introduction

The innovation and expansion of the social media has resulted to an influx of marketing

opportunities for companies targeting to reach more people through the social media platform.

The emergence of web 2.0 has created an opportunity for more things that people can do through

the internet. The new technology has replaced the old internet technology of just using emails for

communication or only restricting people to surfing the information provided in static websites.

The emergence of the new technology has created a new platform of marketing which business

can utilize to expand their market. Some of the traditional business functions have migrated to

using social media including product promotion, public relations and advertisement.

Communication is now more convenient when compared to using conventional methods. This

not only saves companies millions in operational costs but also is also more convenient and even

faster. The most common social medial sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and

YouTube (The Statistics Portal, web). The advantage of the social media platform is it is

available to every user that has internet connection. As a result, the tourism and hospitality

industry is among the many industries taking advantage of the social media to expand their

business operations. Consequently, Social media also therefore become an important part of

every business that seeks a competitive advantage in a market that is online driven. This case

study is based on Fairmont Company in Singapore. The company is in the tourism and

hospitality industry. As one of the fastest economies in Asia, majority of the Singapore

population have online access. In addition, the internet connects the hotel to billions of online

users worldwide. The research paper therefore explores how the Fairmont Company can make
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use of the social media to excel in its operations, decision-making and gaining a competitive

advantage in an emerging internet driven market.

Literature review

Several media refers to the web based services that make it possible for users connect

with others within an inbound system through their profiles (Ellison& Nicole, pg.2). They have

attracted millions of users since they were first introduced. These internet applications in the

World Wide Web that focus on sharing services are referred to web 2.0. They provide a platform

where users can connect based on their interests, locations and even activities. The popularity of

social media continues to expand especially with the emergence of mobile devices that have

access to the internet. They are unique because the provide users with an experience of

interacting other users in their social networks which is not the case for static websites.

Since its emergence in the 90’s the social media has grown to include various famous

sites, which have attracted millions of users worldwide. Among the most popular social media

site is Facebook. The site was launched in 2004. Founded by mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was

ranked as the most popular site in the world by Google with users estimated to be more than 500

million in 2010(Edosomwan et al, pg.4) . As of 2016, statistics estimate the users of Facebook to

be more than 1.7 billion (The Statistics Portal, web). The other famous social media site is

YouTube. Founded in 2005, the site is a popular online video site where people connect and

share their content especially in video form. Although the site was acquired by Google in 2006,

it still maintains most of its original functionality and a perfect platform for advertisers. New

emerging social media sites include tweeter and Linked In. Tweeter was launched in 2006 and

fast gained popularity because its functionality extended to micro blog in and one could follow

celebrities. These sites have also attracted millions of users (The Statistics Portal, web).).
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One of the factors that make social media so popular is its evolving technology and

personality. The platform forms an effective communication channels in businesses and

organizations. Social media has made it possible for organizations to communicate effectively

and with less cost. Through Facebook message or tweet, it is possible to communicate a message

and get immediate feedback. This functionality was the main limitation of the convections

methods of communication like phone calls, emails and meetings. In addition, communication

through social media allows people to generate and add their viewpoints and ideas to the

message improving teamwork and collaboration. Furthermore, communication is more enhanced

because people can easily enhance their message content using videos (Baruah, pg.8). Users can

also open discussions on the message communicated and discuss it through the social media. In

addition to communicating messages, the social media platform is a platform where employees

can share project ideas. Social media communication is also not limited to business but also for

family and friends communications and for academic purpose (Jothi & Neelamalar, pg. 5)). As

part of the daily life, social media has become a crucial communication platform where friends

and families share their experiences. Social media has also formed an essential communication

tool for scientists and scholars as well. There are countless science bloggers using the social

media platform to share their scientific ideas with the rest of the world.

The benefits of social media are not limited to communication alone, but also a perfect

marketing tool for companies. The rapid expansion of social media users has created a vast

market, which is an opportunity for marketing purposes. The tourism and the hospitality industry

is one of the industries that utilizing the social media platform. The platform provides

opportunities for the companies in the industry to market their services and promote their

services. Using social media, the company can promote its products in the social network
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reaching millions of people using the platform more easily and with less effort. Marketing is also

an important part of many businesses. The emergence of social media has therefore created an

opportunity where they can reach people and access their potential customers even more easily.

Social media marketing plays a significant role in helping businesses create brand awareness and

direct sales. It also improves customer service as customers can get easy feedback on the

questions through the platform. In addition, the business can easily use the social media platform

to monitor the reputation of its products and educate customers of the new changes in its

products (Lim pg., 25).

The tourism and hospitality industry has made aggressive use of social media especially

after financial crisis that hit the world in 2008. With many of the businesses experiencing low

turnover since that period due to reduced spending on travel and leisure, they have turned to

social media marketing. Majority of hotels and resorts have maintained an online presence to tap

into the competitive world and inform customers of their products and services. most of the these

business uses Facebook as it has a wider reach and also its functionality allows sharing of images

and photos to potential clients. You tube is another social medial platform where businesses

utilize to run their adverts to potential viewers. According to Lim (pg.44), the main reason why

companies are investing in social media marketing is that it is less expensive than conventional

traditional marketing. In addition, despite using less resource to run, social media marketing has

a wider and amore diver customer reach compared to the traditional marketing. In the tourism

and hospitality industry, social media platform has also expanded facilitate online bookings and

reservations. It is therefore even more for the target customers to make their bookings and

reservations in the same platform with ease. This has made the social media platform a platform

for both marketers and sales persons.

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Statistics indicate that in Singapore, the tourism and hospitality industry is fast

expanding. According to pang, (pg. 5) visitors to the country in 2007 were estimated to 10.3

million despite the financial crisis in the world. This indicates how important the industry is to

the economy and how essential social media can boost the industry if properly utilized. The

country also enjoys the fastest developing infrastructure in the world and therefore the potential

of the industry is immense. Combined with the power of social medial, the industry can market

itself worldwide and significantly boost its sales.

Case study: Fairmont Company Singapore

As one of the top hotels in Singapore with a growing online presence, the Fairmont hotel

is utilizing social media to reach its customers and improve its sales. The company has a website

with online booking functionality. The hotel has branded itself as a leading center of hospitality

globally. It has a widespread reputation for hosting historic icons and celebrities. Fairmont

Singapore hotel is located in the central businesses district from the Changi airport and one of the

leading hotels in the tourism and hospitality industry. The hotel offers prestigious guest rooms

and has over 15 restaurants and bars collections. According to the information published in the

company website, the hotel offers accommodation and services to visitors touring Singapore.

Most important, the company has expanded to the social media with a Facebook page where its

adverts its services to the online market. The company also has set up an Instagram profile to

connect with millions of users who use the platform and advertise its services.

Using social media to achieve operational excellence

There are several ways in which Fairmount hotel can use social media to achieve

operational excellence improve decision making and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
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Using social media as a communication tool

With almost every internet user having a social media account, the company can utilized

the platform to communicate with its employee and stakeholders messages rather than use the

conventional methods of emails and memos. Social media platforms are accessible to everyone

and at any time and therefore using it as a communication tool will help the business improve it

operations. Several challenges and limitations arise from the traditional methods of

communication. Sending messages through emails may take time to reach the recipient and get

the required feedback especially for urgent messages. Using the social media, the company can

initiate discussions on the messages through the social media platform and everyone online will

have a chance to participate. The social media platform functionality also allows the comp any to

enhance the content of the message therefore making it more appealing and easily

understandable. Various emerging functions on social sites like Facebook allow users to form

groups where they can contribute to discussions. Others like the twitter have the hashtag where

trending subjects can easily be discussed. Harnessing this power of social media will

significantly promote operations efficiencies from the business.

Using social media to promote events

Although the main services provided by the hotel are based on accommodation and

catering, any events help by the company can be effectively be promoted through the social

media. Social media platforms like Facebook and twitter are effective event management sites

where once events are shared. It is easy to promote them. Although promoting such event

through the traditional media is also necessary, using the social media will make it even more

efficient. The business can include various event promotional features like photos of a similar

past event in the social media attracting even more attenders.

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Promoting sales

The decline of people’s expenditure in leisure and travel has significant impact in the

tourism and the hospitality industry. Using the social media can be an effective way of

promoting sales because will have an easier way of making bookings and reservations. Fairmont

hotel can harness the power of social media and improve its operations in selling bookings and

reservations to customers. The functionality of social media like Facebook also makes it possible

to book a hotel and pay for the expenses thorough the social site. With the technology advanced

to that extent, using social media can therefore significantly help the business achieve

operational excellence.

Improving customer experience

The priority of any company is to improve customer experience better than the

competition. Using social media and its functionality is a way that Fairmont Company can utilize

to improve its customer experience with its services and products. For instance, the technology

available in social media platforms like Facebook makes is easy for customers to rate their

experience with the company or its services. Gathering such feedback would be quite a workload

for the company if it has decided to use convectional means. The social media platform can also

be used to conduct interviews and fill questionnaires on the company services or products. This

is will significantly reduce the time and cost that the company will require to collect such data in

order to improve customer experience. Also important, the company can use the platform to

promote royal customers and reward their loyalty. For instance, every service book online or

product purchased, the company can reward its clients with discounts, which would be difficult

to trace using the normal methods. The social media sites also communicate the location and the

geographical area of the customers. Therefore, the company is able to tailor its services to
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enhance the customer experience of people in the specific geographical region where probably

its customer base is located.

Using social media in decision making

In addition to improving operation efficiency, Fairmont can utilize the power of social

media in decision-making. Social media is the most effective connection for the business to

reach and interact with the customers. The feedback information obtained by the customers is

very crucial and can be utilized by the business to make crucial decision affecting market

structures and product marketing. For instance, before making a decision to introduce a new

survive, the business can utilize social media to gather feedback on the intended service and

guide the company in developing the service. In addition, the company is more aware of the

regions where its products have the highest popularity and focus on marketing on these regions.

Such decisions rely on accurate data and information, which is easily collectable from social

media.

The voice of the customer is important in business. It guides the business on where

improvements are required and how are they required. Information plays a central role in

decision-making and without adequate information, the decisions made could be wrong. For

instance, the Fairmont hotel rely on social media for information before making a decision to

increase the prices of its service, introducing new brands and even rebranding. Most important

negative feedback from the customers may have a negative impact on the business reputation.

Good feedback results to loyal customers. Therefore, the decisions used from such customers

reflect the actual will of the businesses customers and should such issues should be given a

priority.
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Probably, the relationship between decision-making and social media may be explicitly

expressed for businesses that do not make effective use of social media. In its Facebook page,

Fairmont Singapore has created discussion forums on the services and products that they think

are best for their customers in a particular time. However, making a keen follow-up of the

progressing discussion on the posted information, one can realize that in some instances, it’s not

the best interest to the users of the service or product to purchase the advertised service or

product at that particular time. The impact of such information from social media may be used

by the company to make the decision on the company on improving the service or making it

more inclusive to its customers. Similarly, social media can used to identify how company

teams share information and engage in discussions posted in social media. This is an important

platform to gauge how the company employees are reconnecting to each other and the potential

clients. The company can base on this information to upgrade the teamwork skills of its

employees. Social medial therefore becomes an important tool determining how the business

makes teamwork decisions.

The social media is also a good platform for a company to review how their competitors

are performing and reevaluate if they need to change their strategies to improve their services

and products relative to its competition. For instance, Fairmont hotel is among the many hotels in

Singapore offering similar hospitality services. By tracking the feedback of the competitor

audience through the social media platform, the company can make decisions to re-evaluate its

service to take care of the concerns raised by the competitor’s customers. Although this is more

relevant to gaining a competitive advantage, the decisions that are made using this information

demonstrate how effective a business can utilize social media platform to make right decisions.
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Social media is an effective platform where companies can gather information on the

faults with their products and services. The company can make use the platform to identify

where the faults with their services and make a timely decision to rectify them early before they

ruin the reputation of the company. For instance, a new customer who has booked

accommodation with the Fairmont hotel may also require the hotel to make travel arrangements

and a tour guide included in his/her service fee charged. Social media therefore aides the

business in identifying their faults in their services and making decisions to rectify them early

enough before they ruin customer experience.

Decision based on customer loyalty and satisfactions are very crucial for business

especially in hospitality and tourism industry. This is because most of their services serve

customers on leisure and therefore have to be tailored to such an expectation. For instance, it is

probably not good for a customer in vacation to have problems with internet connection or

communication and entertainment equipment’s in a hotel where they are booked. Using the

social media platform can save the business such inconveniences by following such discussions

on social media and following up on such remedies. Customers are also more unlikely to transact

with a company which does not address complains raised at all. Considering social media hosts

thousands of discussions on customer experiences while marketing, this information is properly

utilized than help a business in decision making to avoid a repetition of such inconveniences.

Using social media to gain a competitive advantage

With the innovation of smartphones and other devices, connecting people to the internet

use of social media has become even more crucial to businesses than before. The internet has

migrated from using computers to using mobile phones and the numbers are fast expanding. This

is implies that the companies have more easier way of reaching their potential customers than
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before. Therefore, that task remaining is gaining competitive advantage over other businesses to

win customers in online driven market place. The Fairmont hotel is one of the numerous

businesses targeting the same number of customers with equally attracting services in the highly

competitive tourism and hospitality industry. The company can utilize the power of social media

to gain a superior performance when compared to other competitors though the following ways

Using social media to gather market intelligence

Social media provides an excellent platform to gather intelligent information on the

changing market dynamic and working and using such information n to outdo competitors. The

days of predictable stable markets have long changed especially with the access to information

that has kept customers more informed of better products and services and at less affordable

prices. Using the intelligent information gathered through social media can help a company

adjust to changing customer trends and well ahead of competitors. For instance, Fairmont

Company can utilize the market intelligence information on social media to adjust its rates

according to the global financial trend and customer preferences. Business environment is

changing quite rapidly and utilizing these skills can lead to a better planning on how to adjust

with the situation before the competitors. Although social media was initially used by teenager,

their parents and who have wider purchasing power joined the platform to monitor their

teenagers. Statistics indicate that social media use y ages above 365 years is increasing rapidly

(Claudia, pg.4). Therefore understanding what this group of users requires will give a business a

competitive advantage. In addition, the social media platform provides an excellent platform

where companies can perform competitive analysis and see where they rank with their

competitors. Fairmont Company can use the platform to learn about the services offered by its
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competitors and know where to focus to outdo competition. This valuable market intelligence

information can mean a greater market share if well utilized.

Using social media as a marketing platform

Majority of the businesses with an online presence are using the social media as an

advertising platform but few use it resourcefully. Based on the tourism industry, Fairmont hotel

is relatively well positioned to advertise its services in the social media platform to gain a

competitive advantage over its competitors. Some of the functions that social media extends to

companies include sharing their knowledge and expertise and convincing their customers that

their services as better off when compared to competition. They can also tap into the consumer

wisdom to improve their products better than their competitors can. Consumers have the right

information on the services and products they use and therefore taping this knowledge through

the social media can help a business create unique products that will give it a competitive

advantage.

In some cases, some of the consumers have no idea on the existing better alternatives to

what they use. A business can use the social media platform to reach such customers and win

then before the competitor does, although some of the customers are loyal to specific services

and products, offering them incentives like discounts and promotions is can eventually lead them

to convert to using a business products. The social media forms an excellent marketing platform

where companies can outdo their competitors if they properly utilize the platform. This is

through promoting brand awareness and promoting reputation of the product and services they

offer.
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Several media marketing has several benefits to the business. It exposes to the business

products and services to new consumers who would otherwise not have known of existence of

the product or service. This is useful in creating new traffic and subscribers to the new product or

service. In the tourism industry, social media marketing may help a business like Fairmont

company build new business partnerships and working relations with new companies. For

instance, social media marketing Fairmont hotel can identify businesses offering travel

arrangements and connect their customers to those service. This will give them an upper edge in

the market because the customer will prefer their services as they have collaborate with other

service providers to make the customer work more easier. Effective social media use has another

benefit, which in better search engine ranking (Neti& Sisira, pg.7). This implies that the business

website will be better ranked compared to the competition therefore. This implies more

customers will be directed to the business site when they search of similar services in Google or

other search engines. Moreover, social media marketing reduces the business spending in

marketing and those funds can be channeled to other uses that are essential in growing the

business.

The size of the social media platform is one of the factors that companies can utilize to

boost their competitive advantage. Users on Facebook and tweeter have advertising functionality

that allows companies to market their services and products in their desired location (Perdue &

David, pg.29) Consumers have also realized that social media uses expose them to new products

and therefore businesses can take advantage of this to promote their new products and service

using social media. Another advantage is that consumers also engage on discussions on various

products and services for various companies. Participating in such discussions for companies is

one through which companies can address the customer concerns raised on their product. Those
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will give them a competitive advantage over competitors who don use social media, or provide

insufficient information on their products to the consumer market.

Conclusion
In conclusion, there are numerous benefits for companies using social media. These

advantages include using social media as a communication tool to effectively pass enhanced

content and reach a wider audience using social media. Utilizing the communication

functionality of the social media can effectively help the business achieve operational efficiency.

In addition, business can utilize the platform in promoting their sales, events and improving

customer experience. On decision-making, information gathered from social media is very useful

in making the right business decision on improving service and products. Fairmont Singapore

company has utilized social media through creation of Facebook page where it promotes its

business as well as interacting with potential customers. Other businesses have also realized the

power of the social media platform and established social media accounts where they gather

crucial information to help them in making good decisions. Lastly, outdoing competition is the

first priority of every business. Social media has several uses that make it possible by providing

various ways through which a business can gain competitive advantage. This is through using

social media to gather market intelligence and using the information to tailor their services and

products to match market demand. In addition, social media marketing is one of the principal

uses for business in social media, with billions of users already using the platform through

popular sites like Facebook YouTube and twitter, these platform makes the best marketing

platform is well utilized.

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Jothi, Ms P. Sri, and M. Neelamalar. "The Study of Social Media Communication: Analysis of

Science Communication through Social Networking Sites with special reference to

Scientists." (2010).

Lim, Wendy. "The Effects of social media networks in the hospitality industry." (2010).

Neti, Sisira. "Social media and its role in marketing." International Journal of Enterprise

Computing and Business Systems 1.2 (2011): 1-15.

Perdue, David J. "Social media marketing: Gaining a competitive advantage by reaching the

masses." Senior Honors Papers (2010): 127.

The Statistics Portal. "• Global social media ranking 2016 | Statistic." N.p., 2016. Web.

<http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-

users/>.