Online Tutoring on BUPA Health Insurance
Introduction
Health Insurance industry is pretty big in Australia as majority of the population would like to have a health cover. Though when it comes to deciding on which company to select for your health insurance, is never going to be an easy task. There are many health insurances companies that are operating in Australian market, from the largest health funds to the local health insurance service providers (FairHealthCareAlliance.com). However, when it comes to analyzing who’s the biggest or got the biggest market share than there are only few names that comes to your mind, such as Bupa Health Insurance, Medibank, NIB and few more. These company’s despite of having bigger market share are always trying new strategies and tactics to get bigger market share. Bupa Health Insurance claims to be among the top three leading health insurance service providers in Australia, with 26.9% market share, Bupa is the 2nd largest health insurance service provider. The company is foreign owned private company that entered Australian in the late 2002 (Comparingexpert.com.au, 2020).
To be able to analyze social media and web presence of any brand or company there’s a list of social media channels that needs to be analyzed in detail. Channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the likes of LinkedIn needs to be analyzed in terms of the quality of content that the brand is posting and how often they post content on these channels (Chegwindden. Y, 2016).
Social media Channels of BUPA
Like all marketing campaigns, it is very important and crucial for companies to keep their eyes on social media marketing and if their efforts on social media is working or not. The best part with social media campaign is that, the brands and companies can analyze what’s working and what’s not. As stated by Jessica. F, 2013, there are various online tracking tools that can be used to analyze the performance of your website and other efforts made on social platforms.
Talking about social media than it wont be wrong to say that Social Media has grown in exponential manner, the large segment of the overall population around the world is now actively involve in the use of social media for various reasons (Pew Research Center, 2014). It is with the help of social media that it has allowed social media users to stay or get in touch with their peers, family members and friends (Schawrtz, 2010). Social Media is not only useful for individual but if used properly is likely to be very useful and effective for brands and companies. Companies are using social media and at the same time believe that it is really very important to have a strong brand presence for the purpose of engaging with customers, provide them the utmost services and retain bigger market share.
Having a social media presence is now considered to be a necessity for both private and professional life in the 21st century. In many ways, social media presence can manifest itself with the use of platforms like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and can also be implemented with the help of various applications like online chat and web comments (Malyshev. A & Loop. J, 2013). Over the last few years many changes have been noticed in the business world, how companies used to communicate with their customers is definitely changed. Many popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, that crossed the one billion user figure in 2012 has encouraged many companies to use social media for various communication. An interesting figure to note is that in 2012, over 70% of fortune 500 companies were reported using a corporate twitter account that is an increased by 10% over th previous year (Malyshev. A & Loop. J, 2013).
Taking the lessons from other companies and brands many health insurances companies has also realized the importance of using social media to be able to reach to its customers and be able to communicate with them properly. To do the same, BUPA Health Insurance has realized the importance of having its present on various social media platforms and as well as to have its website up to date with full of relevant and quality content and information.
Analysis of each of the social media channels
There is no doubt that Facebook is the most common social media platforms among the majority of the population. It won’t be wrong to say that Facebook remains the primary channel for health insurers (Chegwindden. Y, 2016). As can be seen from the above snippet that in 2016 BUPA health insurance had the most number of likes i.e. 161,750 almost double the amount of Medibank. BUPA is very active when it comes to using Facebook, as the company is posting engaging and valuable contents on its Facebook page on almost daily basis. For example, the company post few images on the mother’s day highlighting the importance of Mothers in our life and how the company is engage in providing quality services to our family members.
Source: (facebook.com/bupa)
As per, social media not only helps in marketing processes, but it also aids in various business functions such as human resources, supply chain management and finance as well. As stated by Huy, Q and Shipilov, A (2012), social media is one of the effective ways to help companies market their products and services, at the same time it also helps in various other business functions like supply chain management, customer service and sales (). Realizing its importance, BUPA is not missing out on using TWITTER to its fullest. As of today, Bupa has over 12.4k followers alone in Australia, which is a big number for any brand to be able to effectively communicate with its customers. The message communicated through twitter is seems to be very much similar to what the company is communicating through its Facebook page. Content is not different at all, is just that Bupa doesn’t want to miss out on such a key social platform to be able to market and communicate with its audience.
Source:https://twitter.com/bupaaustralia?lang=en
Another important social media platform that any company or brand don’t want to miss out is LinkedIn. Linkedin is more targeted towards professionals regardless of the industry and market they belong to. A lot of recruitment and networking is done through the same channel, as its purely for professionals to make connections and socialize in a more professional manner (Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P., and Silvestre, B.S. (2011). Among all the social media platforms, LinkedIn is considered to be the most effective platforms when it comes to recruiting candidates. Many companies are making full and effective use of LinkedIn to advertise their present job vacancies that they have, not only this but they have their recruitment staff members to find the the most suitable talent to fit their vacancies. As can be seen from the below image that Bupa is using LinkedIn properly as various job vacancies are advertised on its LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn is a very dynamic tool that is very effective in the healthcare industry. Though its not a stand along strategy but one should make sure that it is part of your overall strategy and marketing efforts (Zelm. A, 2015).
YouTube
When it comes to posting contents in the form of Video’s YouTube is one of the most common social media platforms. As of 2016, Bupa had 3,369 subscribers on its YouTube page. If we have a look on its YouTube page at present, Bupa Health Care Australia has roughly around 8.05K subscribers in Australia (https://www.youtube.com/user/BupaAustralia). Its YouTube page is full of interesting and quality videos that are created and posted just for the purpose of educating its customers and sharing the knowledge. The channel has over hundreds of videos on its page, clearly indicating the fact that this particular platform is being used by the brand effectively and efficiently.
An interesting point to note here is the fact that all this social media engagement is only possible when its done by a professional. Same is the case with BUPA Health Care, its digital marketing or in simple words, its online presence is being managed by a PR company. The private healthcare giant of Australian has chosen Brando to help in rolling out its consumer PR programmed, that would look after its social media presence and developing its brand personality (Gemma. O, 2010).
Web Presence
For any business, having web presence is really very important, specially in this digital era where everything is online. You can order your food online; you can buy cloths and even study online. So keeping all this in mind, similarly it is important for companies like Bupa Health Insurance to have proper web presence. Talking about web presence, it doesn’t only mean to include or have accounts on social media platforms or have a website, instead one need to have good amount of quality content on number of different platforms. Web Presence can be in the form of blogs, vlogs, PR Articles, newsletters, guides and many more (Curtis. M, 2020). Bupa has made sure that its web presence is effective and must be made available to a larger audience. To do so, the brand have made sure that all tools and applications that are available are used to its fullest. Blogs have been written not only on the company website but on various other blogging websites. A proper YouTube channel is maintained where the brand post informative videos about various issues.
Positives and Negatives of Social Media use
In general, social media is a platform for people to stay connected and to build social networks with other people around the world. Many adolescents are now have online accounts and are using their personal devices like tablet computers, smart phones and laptops to stay connected with the world (Kumar. R & Akram. W, 2017). To do so, they not only share the news but at the same time they do follow companies and brands to see what’s happening in their world. Similar to many other website, even social media websites have their advantages and disadvantages. As for this very reason it is important to make sure that the companies make sure that proper and adequate content is posted on its social profiles. With the help of social media, it help companies to speed up their communication process with customers. A new discovery or any news can be shared by a large group of people in a matter of minutes.
Taking the example of Facebook, it has many advantages and disadvantages, for example sharing customer experience to a larger audience is possible through Facebook, similarly customer engagement is possible by putting up quality and informative content. On the other hand, one of the key disadvantages of Facebook is its really difficult to manage the comments and reviews made by customers (Hill, 2014). Taking the example of Twitter, which is considered to be the second largest social media platform after Facebook, has its own advantages and disadvantages. It’s mainly use for the purpose of sharing news with your followers and subscribers. As stated by Rodriguez, R., Peterson, R. M., and Krishnan, V. (2012), majority of the people make sure that they do read the reviews and feedback of other customers before trying out any new service or product. Same is the case with health insurance service providers, if they want to be on top or be the first choice of preference than they have to make sure that they provide quality service as any negative reviews will only affect their clienteles and might result in loose of market share as well. One of many downsides of using social media is that people actually end up spending unnecessary time on social media, their productivity gets minimized and it becomes an addiction for them to spend more and more time on social media.
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Issues / problems with the current social media usage
With any technology there are heaps of advantages, however one should not forget that with advantages there are issues that needs to be considered as well. Though companies and brands are engaged heavily online to engage with their customers but in doing so there are various issues and challenges that they come across. For any business, regardless of its size and nature of industry, grabbing new customers seems to be easy and attractive however retaining such customers is very challenging. As to retain your customers you not only have to deliver quality services but at the same time you have to stick to your promises. In case if you are not able to stick to your promise or if something goes wrong than it doesn’t take long for your online reputation to be ruined . To maintain your online presence and keeping it positive its really very challenging and crucial for brands.
Talking about the issues that might be associated with using of social media specifically in health industry than it won’t be wrong to say that Social media provide health professionals with tools to be able to share information and at the same time be able to promote various health behaviors with their target customers. However, the engagement between health practitioners and customers might not be as effective and efficient as in a physical environment. To list few of the issues that might be associated with the use of social media by companies can be:
Negative customer reviews can destroy your brand image and can have a long-lasting impact on your business. So customer reviews are really very important and positive ones.
In case if you end up making even a small or minor mistake than it would be very hard and difficult to rectify that. As sharing content is very easy among customers, in case if Bupa post any content that is harmful for any segment of audience than that can be shared in a matter of minutes and a big issue can be created out of it.
What goes up on your social media or online profiles are likely to stay online forever, so it is very important to keep a proper track and check and balance on what you post online.
Social media channels that can be used to enhance their business and profits.
In 2019, there were roughly over 2.77 billion people who had access to social media platforms. With the smart phones and internet becoming cheaper more and more people are likely to have access to social media platforms (). In this competitive environment, businesses are trying every possible tool and applications to capture bigger market share. To do so, they are involved in social media and as well as traditional media. However, talking about social media, it doesn’t consist of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, instead there are many other social media platforms that are available for brands and companies to use. In the case of Bupa Health Care, though it is already actively using all the popular social media platforms, but there are still specific platforms that the brand can use.
For example, it is important for Bupa to make use of social media platforms like Quora, to be able to answer any questions that people might have related to health insurance or other services that Bupa has to offer. The company should also have its business account on WhatsApp in order to be able to communicate with its audience accordingly. WhatsApp is a messaging app that had over 1.5 million users in 2018. So missing out on such platform, one can imagine what you would be missing out on. Pinterest is another social media platform, though customer engagement through this platform is not as much compare to other platforms, but it would be great if BUPA can create engaging infographics and have it on that platform.
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Recommendations
After analyzing the online web presence of Bupa and how the company is using various social media platforms it won’t be wrong to say that the company has made sure that all social media platforms are used effectively. Though not much needs to be change or the margin of improvement is almost zero, there are still few recommendations that can be made for the brand.
The first recommendation would be to have some celebrity endorsements who would talk about health and how that can be improved or how customers can rely and use Bupa as their health insurance. By having celebrity endorsements, it will definitely increase the level of customer trust in the brand.
- The second recommendation would be to launch an App that would not only allow customers to make appointments but at the same time they would be able to get answers to their basic health related concerns. The app can also be used for marketing purpose, video contents or new blog alerts can be sent through the same app.
- Third recommendation would be to get involve in various PR activities and other brand activation strategies. For example, going to different universities and colleges and check student’s health and encourage them to post their health results on their personal social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, have live videos been uploaded on YouTube and Facebook as well.
So, these are few of the suggestions and recommendations that Bupa can take note of and by making sure that these are implemented properly, the brand can definitely achieve better results and bigger market share. It’s really important to know and realize that having online presence is not the only thing but to be able to engage with customers is the most important thing to do so. Social media has always and will always be important for brands and companies, if used properly companies can definitely capitalize on it and achieve bigger market share.
REFERENCES
Chegwindden. Y, 2016, ‘Top 10 Australian Health Insurers: Most Active on Social Media’, viewed on 10th May 2020 < https://www.thedubs.com/report-top-10-australian-health-insurers-active-on-social-media/>
ComparingExpert.com.au, 2020, ‘Top 10 Health Insurance Companies in Australia | 2020 Rated’, viewed on 10th may 2020 <https://www.comparingexpert.com.au/health-insurance/companies/>
FairHealthCareAlliance.com, 2020, ‘LIST OF PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES IN AUSTRALIA’, viewed on 9th may 2020 <https://fairhealthcare.com.au/list-of-private-health-insurance-companies-in-australia/>
Gemma. O, 2010, ‘Brando lands Bupa Brief’, Haymarket Business Publication.
Hill, K., 2014. Forbes:Ello vs. Facebook, viewed on 9th May 2020http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/01/facebook-vs-ello/
Huy, Q and Shipilov, A. (2012). The Key to Social Media Success within Organizations. MIT Sloan Management Review. Volume 54, Issue 1
Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P., and Silvestre, B.S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizon. Volume 54, Issue 3, pp. 241–251
Kumar. R & Akram. W, 2017, ‘A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society’, Journal of Computer Science, Vol. 5 Issue. 10.
Malyshev. A & Loop. J, 2013, ‘How to Manage a Company’s Social Media Presence’, Property and Technology Law Journal. Vo. 25, No. 4.
Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons. Volume 52, pp. 357—365
Pew Research Center. (2014). Social networking fact sheet. Retrieved 12th May 2020, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/
Rodriguez, R., Peterson, R. M., and Krishnan, V. (2012). Social Media’s Influence on Business-to-Business Sales Performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Volume 32, Issue 3
Schwartz, M. (2010). The usage of Facebook as it relates to narcissism, self-esteem and loneliness.
Zelm. A, 2015, ‘The Power of LinkedIn In Healthcare Marketing’, viewed on 11th Ma
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