With the popularization of social media, the Sri Lankan mobile telecommunication industry has built a variety of social media platforms in which they seek to better connect with their stakeholders and market their products more efficiently. We looked at the major telecommunication companies in Sri Lanka and analyzed their social media presence. This social media review of Mobitel Sri Lanka takes a closer look at the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages of the Company.
Mobitel Sri Lanka is one of the oldest companies in the Sri Lankan telecommunication industry. The company is a fully owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. According to Fitch ratings, in 2010, Mobitel had a 23% market share in the country.
Mobitel and Facebook
According to the company’s Facebook page, Mobitel is the first Sri Lankan brand to garner 200,000 fans in Facebook – at the time of writing, Mobitel has over 435,000 fans.
The company uses Facebook for product announcements, to answer customer queries, as a discussion forum, to conduct competitions etc. Mobitel joined Facebook in December 2009. At first most of its posts were only advertisements. With time, the company started hosting quizzes and competitions in order to interact more with their fans.
Mobitel shares viral images and popular memes and these have garnered considerable feedback. The Mobitel Facebook page cross promotes its website, its Twitter feed and its Pinterest page. However, the page does not give a link to its YouTube account. Apps created by Mobitel on Facebook include a 3G coverage map, a discussions forum, a service difficulty response form and a knowledge hub with downloadable files.
A look at the recent posts by Mobitel reveals a high number of viral images that are found on the internet. These images might resonate with certain fans but also could impede the professionalism of a major mobile network. Furthermore, the company would be more successful if it posts original images and memes that have been tailor made for Mobitel. Mobitel’s Facebook page does not have any mention of the company’s CSR activities. The company will also reap benefits if it implements a better corporate communication strategy through Facebook. The company’s corporate identity, corporate culture, corporate philosophy, corporate citizenship and its place in the marketplace should be given more exposure through Facebook.
Mobitel on Twitter
Mobitel uses twitter to make announcements, share interesting news items, promote new products etc. At the time of writing, the Mobitel twitter account has over 2,200 tweets and is followed by over 8,800 people. The Twitter account is linked to Mobitel’s website and vice versa. However, we could not find tweets dealing with customer care during our search. Serving customers through Twitter is encouraged as creating and nurturing one on one relationships is a highly profitable and successful experience. Moreover, similarly to Facebook, Mobitel should use Twitter as a corporate communication strategy; they can use it to notify the public about the company’s philosophy, culture, CSR practices and so on.
Mobitel’s YouTube account
Mobitel’s social media marketing strategy includes a YouTube account. The account’s videos have been viewed more than 255,000 times and there are 829 subscribers. However, it was noticed that the YouTube videos are a replay of content which had earlier featured on TV. The Fan Talks cricket segment, which was a very popular programme when broadcast on TV, has the most amount of views.
The other videos are mostly TV advertisements. The content was not very user friendly and Mobitel should create playlists to group relevant videos together or lump videos into time related folders. It can also customize the YouTube account to complement the company’s looks and branding. But most of all, Mobitel should look into using YouTube to post original content with a specific social media strategy. It should look into creating short videos that are quick, simple, engaging and professional.
The largest shortcoming in the social media marketing strategy of Mobitel is the lack of a blog. A blog builds traffic, increases credibility, allows for better customer service, establishes the business as an expert and gives the company a voice. A blog is a great way to build customer relationships and it is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd. Furthermore, a blog is probably the best way to inform customers regarding a company’s CSR activities and corporate identity. Mobitel is losing out by not having a blog and its social media team should take note of this.