How to Enhance Quality Interaction Between an Organization and Its Customers

Communication is one of the main tools that enhance quality interaction between an organization and its customers. In the advent of social media, it has become one of the main sources of invaluable information regarding the perceptions of consumers about products and services that they receive from an organization. Therefore, as Bauder, (2017) asserts, understanding behavioral patterns of consumers is one the fundamental tenets of effective social media research that helps organizations develops perceptions of the clients and their needs. To this end, effectively understanding consumer perception and their attitudes towards a product is mainly dependent on the particular research strategies that they use in identifying the preferences of their consumers and needs in a manner that positions them at strategic points of understanding their needs and preferences (Bauder, 2017). In the absence of these theoretical perspectives on how to facilitate effective communication with their clients, organizations become vulnerable to adopt approaches that are very ineffective in the way that they build relationships with the market base. To this end, this paper will critically evaluate different theories of communication in the context of how they may be applied in social media research and subsequently compare the different areas of similarities and differences. In more precise terms, it will focus on the theoretical perspectives of the Social Cognitive Theory, Social Capital Theory Uses and gratification theory. 

According to Kapoor et al., (2017) social Cognitive Theory in the social media research context asserts the importance of understanding the behavioral patterns of the consumers based on the four fundamental as aspects that help to motivate the decisions of the consumer. Arguably, the perspectives of the theory avow that the four components of self-observation, evaluation, reaction and efficacy collectively work towards influencing the way that a consumer decides whether or not to acquire a particular goal or objective. Social media provides a lot of information on the particular ways that a consumer will react to certain aspects of what they see and evaluate the specific gains that they potentially achieve through buying the product (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020). In recent times, the conceptual frameworks of the theory have evolved to incorporate the emotional paradigm of the reaction of a consumer in the context of how their behaviour unfolds. Notably, the influence of the SCT (Social Cognitive Theory) mainly helps to provide the social media research aspect with information regarding how the personal behaviors of a person relate to their actual responses as they perceive the action of others. Therefore, by understanding the reaction patterns of the consumer as they observe others, an organization identifies the particular patterns of behavior that may help to convince the buyer to relate to a specific product or service offered by the organization. To this end, the organization accurately identifies the particular forms of mass media behavioral modeling that may be effective on the consumers. As a result, the organization is in a position to develop marketing strategies that have a great impact on the target market audience. The assumptions that the theory makes on the automatic behavioral changes of the consumers make the theory unreliable because sometimes other factors such as change in personal preferences may impede the anticipated changes in consumer behavior. The perspectives of the theory are different from those the social capital theory in that the latter gather the research data from the particular social unit that the consumers identify with as opposed to collecting the information from the social media organizations as theorized by the SCT theory. 

The social capital theory albeit bearing some close similarities to the SCT theory in the context of how consumers will perceive the benefits that they derive from acquiring products and services is very different in that it emphasizes the commonality of a particular group of consumers. In retrospect, the social media researchers utilize the group perspectives regarding a certain product or services and use that information to formulate their marketing strategies (Jun et al., 2017). Arguably, the research methodology that the organization adopts targets the whole group of particular social units such as a community or a social class unit. Thereby, when conducting social media research, the frameworks of the whole study should focus on the existing hegemony between the members of the particular social group and the products or services that an organization offers. 

According to the (UGT) Uses and Gratifications Theory, the perceptual understanding of communication approaches that organization adopts must ensure that the customer needs are adequately met. More precisely, the argumentative frameworks of the theory assert that6 there is need to ensure that the research of the communication perspectives that marketing approaches adopt must prioritize the needs of the customers to ensure that the appeal to customers is achieved. Social media offers an extensive scope where an organization may conduct research activities on the best ways that they meet the needs of the customers by analyzing their feedback and overall views regarding products or services offered by the organization (Dolan et al., 2015). The frameworks of the theory postulate that audiences use a particular form of media in their communication because they derive a certain degree of satisfaction through using it compared to other types of media. As such, it is essential for an organization to apply customer-centred approaches in the formulation of certain communication approaches. In essence, the arguments of the theory assert that by understanding the particular ways that customers use media, an organization boosts their ability to address issues that are of great importance to the users. Therefore, it becomes of great importance for them to identify the ways that communication approaches help to advance the needs of the customers. 

As aforementioned, each of the three theories adopts unique theoretical frameworks in the way that they approach the research of important information regarding consumer behavior. However, they all intersect in that they all function towards helping to advance the understanding of the consumer behavior albeit at different levels (Fuchs, 2017). For the social cognitive theory, the emphasis is mainly on the reactions of consumers to specific events in the mass media especially in regards to how they influence their decisions to buy or not to buy certain products. In retrospect, it focuses on the mass media influence of the consumption patterns. On the other hand, the social capital theory focuses on the influence of the social units such as community on the behavioral actions of the consumers. Precisely, the collectivist perceptual understanding of a particular social group has a certain degree of influence on the decision that a consumer makes regarding a product (Jun et al., 2017). Thus, it is prudent to adopt strategies that change the overall perceptual understanding of the product of the whole group. Lastly, the UGH (Uses and Gratification Theory) postulates that entities when conducting social media research must focus on the perceived benefits that the consumer gets from the product. 

To conclude, the theoretical perspectives of the three theories each focus on the particular aspects of consumer behavior as the discussions above indicate. Each of these three models adopts very distinct approaches in the way that they explain human behavior in the context of communication at the personal, organizational and societal levels respectively. Therefore, while they may each serve to help to increase the understanding of consumer behavior, they incorporate different perceptual frameworks in the data collection process. 

References 

Bauder, M. (2017). Using social media as a big data source for research.  Geographies of Digital Culture , 39-51.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315302959-3 

Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2015). Social media engagement behaviour: A uses and gratifications perspective.  Journal of Strategic Marketing ,  24 (3-4), 261-277.  https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2015.1095222 

Fuchs, C. (2017). From digital positivism and administrative big data analytics towards critical digital and social media research!  European Journal of Communication ,  32 (1), 37-49.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323116682804 

Jun, J., Kim, J., & Tang, L. (. (2017). Does social capital matter on social media? An examination into negative e-WOM toward competing brands.  Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management ,  26 (4), 378-394.  https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2017.1251869 

Kapoor, K. K., Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., Patil, P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Nerur, S. (2017). Advances in social media research: Past, present and future.  Information Systems Frontiers ,  20 (3), 531-558.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y 

Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2020). Motivation and social cognitive theory.  Contemporary Educational Psychology ,  60 , 101832.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101832