Social Media as A Public Relations Tool: A Study of Mtn Ghana and Vodafone Ghana

Abstract

The increased use of social media in the corporate world has led public relations practitioners as well as academics to seek to understand how to better use them to communicate. Many studies have explored how social media is used by practitioners in other industries in the corporate domain but few have focused on the telecom industry. This study explores how telecommunications network operators in Ghana make use of social media as a public relations tool. Through a content analysis of selected tweets from the Twitter pages of MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana, the study sought to find out the level of interaction between the companies and their respective clients on Twitter. It also sought to determine the types of communication that exist between the two telecom companies and their clients and to find out if they also take advantage of the platform to meet the informational needs of their publics. Results from the analysis indicated that there was an ongoing interaction between the telecom companies and their customers through replies to questions, enquiries and complaints. The companies also made efforts to provide their customers with information prior to them asking which showed proactiveness on their part to meet customers‘ informational needs. A comparison of the two companies showed that MTN Ghana had more interaction on their page and was therefore more responsive to their customers than Vodafone Ghana. The study concluded that although MTN Ghana had more interaction, both companies were working towards building lasting relationships with their customers through the Twitter platform.