Deployment, Usage and Impact of Social Media Tools in Small and Medium Size Enterprises: A Case Study
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The document examines the deployment and impact of social media tools in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a case study of three Greek companies. It highlights the challenges and benefits faced by these SMEs regarding social media usage, including the lack of time and knowledge on how to utilize these tools effectively. The study concludes that while social media tools can positively influence SMEs, the need for more guidance on their appropriate use is critical for maximizing their potential.
Deployment, Usage and Impact of Social Media Tools in Small and Medium Size Enterprises: A Case Study
- 1. Deployment, Usage and Impact of Social Media Tools in Small and Medium Size Enterprises: A Case Study. Elefterios Papachristos, Christos Katsanos, Nikolaos Karousos, Ioannis Ioannidis, Christos Fidas, Nikolaos Avouris upatras.gr
- 2. Objective h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r Evaluation of the deployment of social media tools in small enterprises What needs does a typical small enterprises have regarding social media? What kind of tools could assist them? How easy can these tools be integrated into their activities? How much impact can tools have on small enterprise’s social presence? 2 of 23
- 3. SMEs h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 3 Greek SMEs with diverse profiles. (staff of less than 20) SME 1 SME 2 SME 3 3 of 23 Software Quality Research Group 16 staff members Software Company 2 resident staff members and 4 external collaborators Internet Company 6 resident staff members and 2 external collaborators
- 4. SME 1 profile: Software quality group h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 4 of 23 • Facebook (67 likes - 10/month) • Twitter (10 followers – 119 tweets) • LinkedIn Somewhat active SM users 1 hour/week 1 staff member responsible for SM management Main goal: Networking, promoting our research, attracting project partners
- 5. SME 2 profile: software company h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 5 of 23 • LinkedIn (no company account) • Facebook (48 likes) • Twitter (0 followers – 0 tweets) • YouTube Mostly passive SM users 3 hours/week 2 owners responsible for SM management Main goal: Establish the company’s brand in the market of software houses
- 6. SME 3 profile: internet company h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 6 of 23 Active SM users 1 hour/day 4 staff member responsible for SM management • Facebook (3418 likes, 3-4 posts/day) • Twitter (0 followers – 0 tweets) • Google plus • Pinterest Main goal: Increase our reach, widen our customer base and sell more products 3 staff member responsible for SM management New project • Facebook (0 likes) • Twitter (0 followers –0 tweets) • Google plus Travel agency Deals website
- 7. Study method h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r We introduced a variety of Social Media tools to the SMEs: Monitoring tools Aggregators Presence Enhancement tools Provided instructional material/tutorials and support Encouraged them to use them but did not impose them to them Interviewed them regularly Monitored their Social media activities 7 of 23
- 8. Social media Tools h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 8 of 23 Hootsuite (commercial tool) InterSocial Experimental tools InterSocial Monitoring Monitoring Soneta Enhancement ESA Aggregator - Aggregator - Enhancement - Monitoring
- 9. Study timeline h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 9 of 23
- 10. Pre-study interview (phase 1) h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r General Questions about SM usage SM management/policy Social media Strategy Usage of SM Tools Followers/fans profiling 10 of 23
- 11. Tool introduction h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 11 of 23 InterSocial Monitoring tool Tutorial 1.General tool Information 2.Specific Instructions 3.Task Examples For each tool introductory material was prepared
- 12. Deployment (phase 2) h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r What tools did they use? How did they use them? For how long? How easy it was to learn to use them? 12 of 23
- 13. User experience (phase 3) h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r Usefulness Usability Learnability Functionality 13 of 23
- 14. Overall impact (phase 4) h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r What was the overall impact? Did the tools support them in achieving their goals? Will they keep using them? Did their social media – related activities change? 14 of 23
- 15. Result analysis h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 15 of 23 Qualitative Quantitative Narrative Summary Analysis Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Statistical Analysis of objective metrics • Klout • Facebook Insides • Sprout Social … • Reach • Page likes • followers • Post views … Objective metrics interview transcripts Code frequencies Study result Summary
- 16. Stated problems h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 16 of 23 1. Not convinced about ROI of SM for their kind of company 2. Management of multiple social networks 3. Don’t know what to post 1. Management of multiple social networks 2. Lack of time to engage with SM 3. Don’t know what to post 1. Need more information about how to use new social media 2. Lack of time to engage with SM 3. Don’t know what to post Qualitative data Pre-study interview SME 1 SME 2 SME 3
- 17. SME 1 results h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 17 of 23 Small increase in Facebook followers from 69 to 74 page Likes Small increase in Klout score from 27.1 to 30 Small increase in activity Quantitative Qualitative The tools motivated the staff to increase their social media activities Engagement in new types of social media activities (e.g. trend monitoring, designing of campaigns) Mostly interested in aggregators for the purpose of monitoring multiple Social Networks 40% of comments related to the management of multiple Social Networks Intend to continue using social media aggregators for posting purposes to identify social media opportunities.
- 18. SME 2 results h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 18 of 23 Small increase in Facebook followers from 48 to 53 page Likes Small increase in Klout score from 22.4 to 27 Small increase in activity Quantitative Qualitative Change in attitude towards social media They take the company’s social media presence more seriously than before. They revisited their social media objectives and strategy Mostly interested in aggregators for the purpose of posting on multiple Social Networks 72.2% of comments: “Don’t know how to use it appropriately” Intend to continue using social media aggregators monitoring tools (such as the ones provided) to identify social media opportunities.
- 19. SME 3 results h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 19 of 23 Quantitative No change in Facebook followers from 3418 to 3419 page Likes Small increase in Klout score from 43.0 to 45.2No change in activity No change in activity Increase in Facebook followers from 0 to 4649 page Likes in 1 month Increase in Klout score from 0 to 51.5 in 1 month Twitter Actively engaged with twitter managed to gain 149 followers in ten days 218 tweets in 1 month Travel agency Deals website
- 20. SME 3 results h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 20 of 23 Qualitative - Engagement in new types of social media activities (e.g. trend monitoring, geolocation monitoring) - Interest in a new Social Network (twitter) - Mostly interested in Enhancement tools and for information about more effective use - 50% of comments related to time constrains Will use introduced tools only occasionally in the future
- 21. General results h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 21 of 23 SME 2: Needed information and examples about appropriate ways of using Social networks specific to their company domain as well as how to incorporate the tools in their activities (marginal motivational effect) SME 1: Had time issues and needed help in their everyday activities (positive effect) SME 3: Needed information about effective ways of using New Social networks. Need information more than tools. (marginal effect)
- 22. Tools h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r 22 of 23 In general tools were considered relatively easy to deploy and use usability 29% usefulness 33% functionality 16% learnability 22% Aggregators received the most positive comments Geolocation monitoring was perceived useful conceptually but companies had problems finding appropriate ways to incorporate it in their activities Simple search data are not very useful to the companies, some kind of data reduction, transformation or summarization is needed
- 23. Conclusions h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r - All In all the study revealed useful information about the deployment of SM tools in various SMEs - Companies with varying profiles have diverse needs and therefore the effect of introducing Social Media tools in their activities differed considerably - Although the tools seemed to have a positive effect on all SMEs it was often the case that information about how to use SM appropriately was valued more. 23 of 23
- 24. h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r Thank you
- 25. Pre-study interview questions h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r General Questions What social media do you use? How much time do you invest on average per day on social media? Do you believe that social media provide reasonable ROI (return/ investment)? What is the main problem you face in regard to Social Media? Social media management/policy Who is responsible for managing the social media account? How do you manage multiple administrator accounts? Who is the contact person? Who reply’s on customer messages? Are employees allowed to post messages without supervision? Social media Strategy What is the over social media strategy of your company? What do you hope to achieve through your presence in social media? Do you have specific, measurable goals for using Facebook? Do you have specific, measurable goals for using Twitter? Do you have specific, measurable goals for using LinkedIn? How do you measure if you achieve your goals? How do you measure your success? What kind of posts are you usually making? Social media Tools Do you use tools to automate posting and measure your success. Do you use or have heard about one of the following tools Facebook insides Hootsuite Klout Sprout Social SocialIQ In what metrics would you be interested? 25 of 20 Followers/fans profiling Do you know what your target audience is? Are you interested in the user profiles of your followers/fans? Does demographic information about followers/fans help you form better messages/posts? 5. Are you searching for and targeting influencers? Miscellaneous Do you launch Social media campaigns? Do you pay to boost posts/ or pay for twitter followers? Do you schedule your posts? Do you know what the best time is to post your messages? What are the most important problems you face in regard to social media? No time to post I don’t know what to post It is difficult to keep up with multiple social media accounts I have no time to engage in conversation with my customers I don’t have enough information about how to use the various social media effectively I cannot afford having an employee focusing on social media What kind of help would you prefer? More information/ guidelines about appropriate use Tools that allow the management of multiple social media accounts (posting, viewing) Tools and Metrics that let me measure my social presence and the achievement of my goals Tools that show me engagement and the effectives of specific post Tools that would help me understand the needs of my audience better Tool that would allow me to build more effective campaigns
- 26. interview questions h t t p : / / h c i . e c e . u p a t r a s . g r Phase1: Deployment of Social media tools interview questions. How easy was to it to embed the provided tools in your SME activities? Did you embed all the provided tools? For each tool you haven’t used, please describe why you not? What level of effort was required to deploy the provided tools? How would you improve the process? Did the deployment of the tools result in changes of your social media policy? If yes, please describe them. How much time did you invest on the deployment of the provided tools? What was the most time-consuming task? Did you find the provided training/instructions activities useful? How would you improve the process? How easy would the deployment be without the provided training? Phase2: User experience with tools interview questions. How useful did you find the provided tools? How easy was it to use the provided tools? How did the provided tools support you in achieving your objectives? Please provide examples. What are the 3 things you like best and least about the tools? If you could make one significant change to each one of the tools what change would you make? How much time did you invest on the usage of the provided tools? What was the most time-consuming task? Did the deployment of the tools result in changes of your social media policy? If yes, please describe them. 26 of 20 Phase3: Impact of tools on business goals interview questions. Did the provided tools support you in achieving your business goals? Please provide examples. Do you intent to keep using the provided tools in the future? Please explain why or why not. Would you recommend the provided tools to other SMEs? Please explain why or why not. How much time did you invest on the usage of the provided tools. What was the most time-consuming task? Did the deployment of the tools result in changes of your social media policy? If yes, please describe them. Please describe the ideal social media tool that would support your business goals.