The digital telco war: a content analysis of comments on Globe Telecom and Smart Communication Inc.'s Facebook pages

Abstract

Consumer power shifted when social media emerged. Traditionally, consumers passively asked what was available for them to purchase; but with the rise of social media, they became more demanding of the brands from which they purchased. This shift in power and incessant increase in demands from customers are considered to be very important to service-based companies such as those in the telecommunications industry. More often than not consumer experiences with brands they interact with, whether directly or indirectly, are posted on social media, and these posts color the customer's perception of the brand. This study aimed to determine which of the telecommunications brands has better social media reputation, in terms of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The study employed media content analysis for its methodology, analyzing 2,271 comments on Globe and Smart's Facebook pages. The Friedman test was used to achieve the said objective of the study, while Kendall's coefficient of concordance was used to determine the inter-rater reliability of the analysis. Results showed that negative comments were dominant in both companies' Facebook pages. Consumers tend to commend Globe's post and complain about load thieving. Consumers from Smart's Facebook page tend to recommend products and promo offers to their Facebook friends while complaining about bad Internet service provided by the company.