Possibilities of Utilizing and Applying Social Media in Entrepreneurship
Name
Getter Zirk
Abstract
Over the past years applying social media to business challenges is gaining popularity. Companies understand that social media sites and plugins should be a part of their marketing plan.
The purpose of this thesis is to describe the main objectives and goals for using social media in business, clarify the possibilities and solutions that social media channels offer and observe how they are used in practice. Based on the observation results some advice is given to corresponding companies and in the last chapter overall recommendations are presented.
The first part of the thesis focuses on describing the possible objectives for what social networking systems can be used for and lists different kind of threats and important aspects to consider.
The second part of the thesis specifies 4 social media channels that are observed, explains their qualities, usage and how they are used by 11 different businesses and websites.
Last part of the thesis gives general recommendations for using social media sites and plugins. Most important conclusions that were made are:
Companies are not following one of the main basis of social media which is to ephasize communication and engage clients. Games and competitions should be more frequent and it would be nice to reward loyal and active followers with free products and gifts. At the moment there are too many posts about official news.
50
Companies are rarely using possibillity to collect users feedback, opinions and ideas about their products through social media. Furthermore, users should be included in the developent process of the products much more, than they are now.
Only a small number of companies use social media for providing clients with new insights, interesting knowledge and sharing information beyond the company borders.
The results can be used by small businesses and be helpful when developing social media strategy. Reviews and recommendations made in the thesis give diversified information for setting goals and informs about important aspects to be aware of. Additionally, the paper includes many concrete examples of practices that illustrate how social media can be used, so readers could learn from them and make conclusions on how to improve their own business.
Graduation Thesis language
Estonian
Graduation Thesis type
Bachelor - Information Technology
Supervisor(s)
Erkki Leego, Margus Niitsoo
Defence year
2012