Utilizing Social Media in SMEs

Social Media is a new phenomenon to offer great opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote their products and services and increase communication with their suppliers and their customers. It is also an excellent way to keep abreast of their competitors and gaining new customers. Social media is the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. Nowadays, the use of social media tools increased significantly. In result, both businesses and consumers are using the media to share information, exchange opinions and recommendations and display certain consumption behavior. At the beginning there were few tools appear in a social media like Google, discussion forums, YouTube and Facebook. The uses of these tools were very simple. Recently, new features were added to the previous tools and new tools were appears such as, Instagram, twitter and LinkedIn. However, once the SMEs realize that they have to expand their business scope, enhance efficiency, and strengthen and consolidate its relationship with its customers and vendors, they found that social media is the best way. Since the use of social media help the SMEs in multiple ways. For example, the way of exchanging information is easier and faster, the customers are more accessible, the time of marketing is decreased, generate opportunities to come up with new products and services and many additional benefits of utilizing social media.