Strategies for social customer relationship management : the case of social media in the Swedish food industry

Abstract: Consumption of meat and poultry has increased during the last ten years while the production in Sweden has decreased. Cheap imports are competing with Swedish products and consumers, restaurant and retail let the price decided what to purchase. Swedish food producers can become better at communicating the added values that meat and poultry produced in Sweden has. Social media gives companies a possible tool for communication in order to communicate and create a relationship with consumers. The rise of social media does not only affect consumer decisions making, but also corporate communication. The objective of this project is to investigate how social media can connect the farmer to the consumer. It translates to an academic ambition to enhance the understanding of using social media. The aim of this project is to explain strategies for improving communication in social media in the Swedish meat and poultry sector. This study is a multiple case study where seven companies in the Swedish meat and poultry business are interviewed regarding social media and an observation is made on their social media channels. All of the participating companies have some social media channel, but they use social media differently. Something that is common for them all is that there is room for improvement. Social media can be useful in creating relationships with consumers; however, there are pitfalls that companies need to avoid. It can furthermore help companies develop since the amount of information about what consumers want are more available than ever due to social media. Social media is originally a medium meant for consumers to interact and not a marketing channel for companies. Therefore it is important to be aware of the fact that consumers instead of marketers are in control here. Companies that regard consumers as controllable are not likely to succeed, instead, see the consumer as a co-creator of the brand meaning. Swedish actors in the meat and poultry industry are likely to gain by evaluating their social media channels and develop a strategy for how they should be managed. Furthermore they should take advantage of the interactive properties of social media in order to better understand what the users of their channels want to see in from their social media presence. Social media is a complex phenomenon and therefore it is important to not underestimate the affect it can have on business. This area of research is still rather new and there has been many questions developing during the academic process. They were presented as future research and can hopefully help another researcher to develop another problem statement to expand the academic understanding of social media.