Saudi Electronic University
College of Administrative and Financial Sciences
E-commerce Department
Student Name:Student ID:Course Title: Social Media MarketingCourse Code: ECOM322Academic Year/ Semester: 2nd Semester/2020-2021CRN:Assignment Name: Project Assignment – Part 1Instructor Name:Student Grade: out of 10Grade Level:
Table of contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………. 3
Brief overview………………………………………………………………. 3
Audit of social media platforms performance………………………………. 5
Social media benchmarking…………………………………………………. 6
SWOT Analysis……………………………………………………………… 8
Social media marketing goals……………………………………………….. 9
Target audience……………………………………………………………… 9
References…………………………………………………………………… 11
This report focuses on an assessment of social media use and activities of Aramco of Saudi Arabia with a view to prescribing a Social Media Marketing Plan for the organization. The report outlines the recommended social media platform by analyzing the efficacy and relevance of platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Foursquare, Facebook, YouTube and Blog. Furthermore, focus is made on the social media marketing goals and what content will be shared and this is achieved by showcasing snapshots of the created social media accounts.
Aramco is a state-owned company in the petroleum and natural gas industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Aramco, 2021a). The company was established 80 years ago and has now “become a world leader in hydrocarbons exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing” (Aramco, 2021a). Aramco produces an average of 10.2 million barrels per day of crude oil and the company possesses natural gas reserves of 297.6 trillion standard cubic feet (Aramco, 2021a). Furthermore, the company has embraced technological innovations and this includes the introduction of the Dammam 7 supercomputer that has enabled Aramco to fast-track its digital transformation by enhancing “oil and gas discovery using seismic imaging and 3D modeling” (Aramco, 2021a).
The petroleum and natural gas industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is quite vibrant as the country boasts of approximately 17 percent of the global petroleum reserves while the sector contributes close to 50 percent of the Kingdom’s Gross Domestic Product (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC], 2021). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also possesses huge reserves of natural gas, copper and gold, among others, and Aramco as the public company plays a pivotal role in the country’s economy (OPEC, 2021).
The company’s LinkedIn account is as illustrated below:
Figure 1: Aramco on social media
Aramco can gain competitive advantage through the use of social media marketing as it provides the company with ways of marketing its products to consumers as platforms like Facebook and Twitter connect Aramco to strengthen its relationships with its customers (Manzoor, 2016). The company can thus use a myriad of platforms to efficaciously market its products to a wider market and to showcase its brand in order to improve its reputation and image (Perdue, 2010). This is in tandem with the stipulations of Barney’s theory to the effect that a company gains sustained competitive advantage if it possesses valuable, inimitable, rare resources for which it is organized to exploit (Barney, 1991). Social media platforms can provide the systems and processes that enhance the value of the brand and give Aramco basis of differentiation that will enable it to outpace its rivals within the petroleum and natural gas sector (Barney, 1991).
Social media will be used to promote Aramco’s brand throughout the world in order to increase brand awareness and recognition while also showcasing the products the company produces in order to create demand.
Aramco’s social media presence is as illustrated in Table 1 below:
Table 1: Aramco social media presence
MetricSentimentReachCompany PostsFeedbackAverage response time to feedbackFacebook+0.0552,406861,00224 hoursLinkedIn+0.071,511,29610,0011,35220 hoursTwitter+0.10326,90026,4004,60018 hours
Aramco’s social media presence is phenomenal as the company is on Facebook, Twitter ad LinkedIn, which enables it to reach out to its customers and stakeholders alike. The sentiment analysis that determines the feelings and attitudes of customers by considering their emotions and opinions on Aramco’s brand shows that there are positive feelings about the company (Hootsuite, n.d).
ExxonMobil’s social media presence is characterized by an average of three tweets per day on Twitter and an average of 118 likes per tweet within a month (Craft, 2021). This company’s social media accounts are more active than Aramco’s as they reach out to more people and the amount of feedback that is received is substantial. For instance, ExxonMobil’s Facebook account has 3,099,591 likes and 129,106 people are talking about the page (ExxonMobil, 2021). This competitor is also on LinkedIn and Twitter where it has a 325,500 followers and actively posts updates every three days (ExxonMobil, 2021). Please refer to Figure 2 below for a snapshot of one of the company’s social media platforms.
Figure 2: ExxonMobil on social media
Marathon Petroleum, for instance, uses its Twitter handle to enhance its relationship with its stakeholders and in one of the retweets from Save Mount Diablo the company highlighted that “we would like to give a huge thank you to our friends at @Marathon PetroCo for their incredible generosity… Thanks to their grant supporting our stewardship program…” (Marathon Petroleum, 2021). Retweets are getting heightened engagement and the company currently has 8,050 followers and Marathon Petroleum’s Twitter page is updated after every four days. This company is very successful on this platform as it responds to comments and tweets and this is the general trend on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. This is the general trend across all competitors’ platforms and these players include Shell, BP and Total that use several social media platforms to reach out to its customers.
Shell has in excess of five million followers on LinkedIn and the company uses YouTube, Twitter and Facebook platforms to interact with its stakeholders (Shell, 2021). The company posts new content within one week and uses hashtags to promote specific topical issues, for instance #renewableenergy, #energytransition and #netzero, among others (Shell, 2021). Some of the updates that Shell posts on its social media platforms include financial and operational results, project announcements, as well as advice on how to decarbonize road freight (Shell, 2021). Comments and likes are used to engage with customers and stakeholders alike while shares and retweets ensure wide distribution of Shell’s content to a wider audience.
BP, on the other hand, is active on Facebook where it has 1,023,057 likes and the company has an e-mail address dedicated for customers on social media – [email protected] (BP, 2021).
Just like BP and Shell, Total also uses a holistic approach to social media marketing as the company uses YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to interact with its customers by posting new content after every three days while responding to queries expeditiously (Total, 2021). On Twitter, for instance, Total has in excess of 830,400 followers and its tone on the platform is premised on partnerships with the youth, suppliers, solar companies, as well as the company’s corporate social responsibility programs (Total, 2021).
Strengths
Wide reach on all social media platforms.Strong brand equity and broad recognition by customers.Aramco updates its content on all social media platforms regularly.
Weaknesses
Numerous negative comments from Aramco customers.Slow pace of responding to customer enquiries and complaints.Failure of Aramco to build an online community.
Opportunities
Vast technological advancements enable companies to reach out to the community with its content in a more transparent manner (Perdue, 2010).Growing popularity of corporate social responsibility that advocates for community and stakeholder engagement compels companies like Aramco to connect with their stakeholders using social media.Millennials and Generation Y are technologically-savvy and spend most of their time on the Internet and this makes social media a preferred and more effective platform for engagement.
Threats
Online reputation management is proving difficult for most companies and as Brogan and Smith (2009) cited in Perdue (2010) pointed out, checking everything online is a tedious process that requires third parties to assist big companies.Employees are increasingly leaking confidential company information through social media and this exposes organizations to reputational damage (Perdue, 2010).Customers can easily post damaging comments online.
The SWOT analysis can help Aramco identify issues that should be addressed in its social media marketing plan (SMMP), which include how to preclude employees from posting damaging and sensitive information online through coming up with a social media policy to guide conduct. In addition, the SWOT analysis has identified weaknesses that Aramco should address while capitalizing on strengths and opportunities to overcome threats.
6. Social Media Marketing Goals & Strategies
(i) To expand Aramco’s social media presence by incorporating YouTube and Instagram, which are more popular with the Millennials, by 1 April 2021.
(ii) To promote the use of Aramco’s social media platforms by customers and stakeholders by running promotional campaigns where customers can win fuel coupons for sharing and liking the company’s posts, videos and pictures.
(iii) To reduce the turnaround time for responding to customer’s queries from the current 72 hours to 48 hours by 30 June 2021.
(iv) To post on the company’s social media platforms every day with effect from 1 April 2021.
(v) To create an online order system that people can use to place orders and pay for the company’s products using MasterCard and VISA.
Aramco’s target audience comprises motorists who use fuel for their vehicles and the three marketing personas that represent the organization’s audience are as illustrated below.
Persona 1: Millennial
Age : 21-40 years
Gender : Female, Male
Characteristics : Technologically-savvy, outgoing and adventurous,
low income levels, frugal spenders
Likes : Job-hopping, surfing the Internet, buying online
Dislikes : Spending too much time on shopping, career stagnation, costly
goods
Persona 2: High Earners Not Rich Yet [HENRYs]
Age : 41-60 years
Gender : Female, Male
Characteristics : Moderate levels of disposable incomes, highly mobile, high
spenders
Likes : Job security, recognition and self-actualization, premium brands
Dislikes : Poor quality products
Persona 3: Empty Nest
Age : 61+ years
Gender : Female, Male
Characteristics : High levels of disposable incomes, conservative spenders
Likes : Value for money
Dislikes : Hoarding
The platforms that might best help in the attainment of the goals are as follows:
TwitterYouTubeFacebookLinkedIn
References:
Aramco (2021a). About us. LinkedIn. Retrieved from
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aramco.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management
17(1), pp. 99-120.
BP (2021). About. Retrieved from https://m.facebook.com/bp/.
Craft (2021). Saudi Aramco’s competitors. Retrieved from https://craft.co/saudi-
aramco/competitors/.
ExxonMobil (2021). ExxonMobil. Retrieved from https://m.facebook.com/ExxonMobil/.
Hootsuite (n.d.). How to conduct a social media sentiment analysis. Retrieved from
https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-sentiment-analysis-tools/.
Manzoor, A. (2016). Using social media marketing for competitive advantage. In: Competitive
Social Media Marketing Strategies, pp. 201-218.
Marathon Petroleum (2021). @MarathonPetroCo. Retrieved from
https://mobile.twitter.com/marathonpetroco/.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (2021). Saudi Arabia facts and figures.
Retrieved from https://www.opec.org/.
Perdue, D.J. (2010). Social media marketing: Gaining competitive advantage by reaching the
masses. Liberty University.
Shell (2021). About us. Retrieved from https://sg.linkedin.com/company/shell/.
Total (2021). Net Zero by 2050. Retrieved from https://mobile.twitter.com/total.
