Building competitive advantage in the context of electronic communication with the use of social media

In today’s turbulent environment it is difficult to imagine a modern company knowingly waives the benefits of electronic communication. Simultaneously there is a multitude of companies that misuse these tools, that makes their actions usually having exactly opposite results of intended. Due to advantages of the Internet as a communication channel and effective advertising medium, more and more companies decide to invest into it. In Poland in 2013, with nearly 7 billion of PLN spent on advertising, more than 21% was invested in online promotion. Furthermore, Internet as an advertising channel of communication is the only one noting regular annual increase in spending on advertising campaigns in comparison to other media.

This article is an attempt to show the merits of building companys’ competitive advantage with the use of Internet and particular regard to social media. It presents both own model on-line communication and the results of research among 11 largest retail banks in Poland and opinions of their 1800 customers.