Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

In recent years, social media have been increasingly adopted in enterprises. Enterprises use social media as an additional way to get in contact with their customers and support internal communication and collaboration. However, little research is devoted to the adoption and internal usage of social media in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are of high social and economic importance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption, usage, and benefits of social media in SMEs as well as potential concerns that may prevent a wider adoption of social media in SMEs. Therefore, a survey of decision-makers in German SMEs was conducted. Findings based on 190 responses indicate that SMEs started to use internal social media (e.g., wikis, blogs) in order to support collaboration among employees and to improve knowledge management. However, SMEs still face problems to manage adoption and to identify relevant business values. Based on our results, we derive several implications for SMEs, in particular how to overcome the obstacles to a wider adoption of social media.

Full text

F. Harmsen and H.A. Proper (Eds.): PRET 2013, LNBIP 151, pp. 61–75, 2013.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Adoption and Use of Social Media
in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Christian Meske and Stefan Stieglitz
University of Muenster, Department of Information Systems,
Leonardo-Campus 11, 48149 Münster, Germany
{Christian.Meske,Stefan.Stieglitz}@uni-muenster.de
Abstract. In recent years, social media have been increasingly adopted in
enterprises. Enterprises use social media as an additional way to get in contact
with their customers and support internal communication and collaboration.
However, little research is devoted to the adoption and internal usage of social
media in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are of high social
and economic importance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption,
usage, and benefits of social media in SMEs as well as potential concerns that
may prevent a wider adoption of social media in SMEs. Therefore, a survey of
decision-makers in German SMEs was conducted. Findings based on 190
responses indicate that SMEs started to use internal social media (e.g., wikis,
blogs) in order to support collaboration among employees and to improve
knowledge management. However, SMEs still face problems to manage
adoption and to identify relevant business values. Based on our results, we
derive several implications for SMEs, in particular how to overcome the
obstacles to a wider adoption of social media.
Keywords: social media, SMEs, adoption, usage.
1 Introduction
In the last few years, web 2.0 technologies and associated social media applications
such as social network sites (SNSs), microblogging, weblogs, content communities,
and wikis have been increasingly making their way into organizational environments
[1], [2]. While the use of internal social media applications is believed to improve
communication and collaboration among employees, knowledge management, and
product/service innovation, companies started to establish social media based
networks with business partners and engage in public social media for purposes of
marketing, customer relationship and reputation management, recruitment, and
product/service innovation [3]. According to recent studies, 72% of large enterprises
have already deployed at least one social media tool. 40% say that social networking
tools as well as blogs were in use [4].
Not only social media have proven to play an important role for larger
corporations, it also becomes increasingly relevant for small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). According to research by US-based marketer Constant Contact,

62 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
24% of small businesses use social media in a structured way, and a further 20% use
it in an informal way, with slightly higher percentages for medium-sized businesses
[5]. In Germany, 47% of all companies use social media [6]. In particular, SMEs can
benefit greatly from easy-to-use and easy-to-implement social media applications [7].
Moreover, the adoption of social media applications is rather less complicated and
less costly due to its wide diffusion and technological advances [8]. Furthermore, it is
even argued that SMEs should proactively embrace social media technologies and
(re)-design their core business processes in order to maximize their efficiency. The
widespread adoption of social media by SMEs might help to “level the playing
ground” with large firms [8]. However, many small businesses that use social media
may fail to understand how to use them correctly. The Business Network International
addresses this by surveying 1,000 business owners. They found that three quarters of
the surveyed owners have been “put off” a company because of improper use [9].
There is a growing body of academic literature on social media use in corporate
context. However, most of the studies focus on larger enterprises and there is little
research on social media in the context of SMEs explicitly. As SMEs are a vital
component of all economies representing 99% of all companies in the European
Union and employing half of the total workforce in the EU [10], they are of high
social and economic importance. However, SMEs often are behind larger companies
regarding the adoption of innovative technologies. Reasons for this are, for example, a
limited ability to realize risky investments and a stronger focus on core business
activities, which are directly aiming on increasing the company’s profit. Given their
typical limited resources and capacities, SMEs have to make well-conceived decisions
regarding the adoption of new technologies such as social media applications. In this
regard, knowledge of key success factors as well as potential impediments may
significantly improve their ability to make informed decisions on whether or not to
adopt social media. In particular, it is important to identify factors behind the
reluctance of SMEs to introduce social media in their organization despite its
potential benefits.
The main purposes of this paper are therefore
(1) to investigate the adoption, management, goals and added values of internal
social media platforms in SMEs, as well as
(2) to explore factors that may prevent a wider adoption of social media in
SMEs.
To address these research purposes, we surveyed decision-makers in German SMEs.
In order to be able to compare the social media adoption in SMEs with adoption in
large scaled companies (LSEs), we additionally surveyed a smaller sample of German
LSEs. We do so to search for significant differences and to explain their reasons.
Moreover, we validated our results by comparing it with findings of other studies.
Finally, based on our results we derive several implications for SMEs, in particular
with respect to how to overcome obstacles to a wider adoption of social media.
The paper is structured as follows. In the next section, an extensive literature
review concerning social media use in corporate context and especially for SMEs is
provided. Section 3 outlines the applied methodology for the survey. Following, we

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 63
present the results of the survey in section 4. In the subsequent section 5, the findings
are discussed and the implications deducted. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the
results, outlining limitations, and by proposing potential future research.
2 Literature Review
Recently, social media use in corporate context has been subject to considerable
attention. There are a growing number of studies focusing on the use of social media
by companies. In this section, we review relevant literature on the internal use in
corporate context. In addition, we present several recent works on web 2.0/social
media and SMEs. We used the keywords (isolated as well as in combinations)
displayed in Table 1 in the mentioned search engines and searched for publications
from 2003-2012.
Table 1. Search parameters
Keywords Social media, enterprise 2.0, web 2.0, small and medium
enterprises, large scale enterprises, technology, adoption,
deployment, dissemination, implementation, goals, obstacles,
problems, added value, wiki, blogs, social network, microblog,
RSS, social bookmarking, podcast
Search Engines ACM Digital Library, AISeL, EBSCO, Google Scholar, Jstor,
ScienceDirect, Taylor & Francis Online
2.1 Adoption and Use of Internal Social Media Applications
The adoption and use of internal social media applications in corporate context,
widely termed as “Enterprise 2.0”, has recently generated a lot of research interest.
Several case studies on social media adoption and use in enterprises show a diverse
area of application in Enterprise 2.0 implementations (e.g., [11], [12], [13], [14]).
However, the majority of previous works, focused on studying specific social media
applications in enterprise context.
Among others, enterprise microblogging has attracted a lot of research attention
recently. In a case study about the early adoption and use of Yammer - an enterprise
microblogging platform - in a Fortune 500 company, Zhang et al. [14] found that
users vary in their posting activities, reading behaviors, and perceived benefits. The
study also identified barriers for adoption, such as the noise-to-value ratio paradoxes.
Other studies such as by Riemer et al. [12] also confirmed the potential benefits of
enterprise microblogging but still pointed out that there are striking differences in
usage patterns and enterprise microblogging is highly dependent on the particular
organizational context shared by users.
Companies have recently started to use internal social networking platforms.
Richter and Riemer [15] studied three cases of large, knowledge-intensive organizations,
which introduced corporate social networking sites. They identified three modes of use of

64 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
corporate SNS including identifying experts, building personal context and fostering
existing relationships.
Another important social media application, which has been adopted by an increasing
number of companies are enterprise weblogs. For example, enterprise weblogs are often
used as project logs or for communication between the CEO or head of marketing and
the company’s customers (e.g., [16]). Efimova and Grudin [17] examined the use of
blogs as personal communication and knowledge management tools within Microsoft
and identified the benefits to both individuals and organizations. In a recent paper, Wattal
et al. [18] examined the role of network externalities on the use of blogs in an
organization and showed that such usage within an individual’s network is associated
with an increase in one’s own usage. Furthermore, they also found that network effects
are stronger for younger generations and women.
Recent literature has also paid attention to enterprise wikis, which can be used by
knowledge workers to create a shared knowledge base of common term [13], [19].
Recent empirical studies show that wiki technology was used to support a wide range
of work activities within a corporation, including project team collaboration,
information dissemination within communities of practice, idea generation, e-
learning, technical support, customer relationship management, and resource
management (e.g., [20], [21], [22], [23]).
Despite the potential benefits social media offers for organizations, companies are
challenged managing the adoption and use process of social media [4]. In a
comparative study, Fuchs-Kittowski et al. [24] summarized findings about a whole
range of economic, cultural, and technical factors that can be seen as great obstacles
to the use of web 2.0 in enterprises. The most important of them is the fact that cost-
benefit analyses yield unclear results. Similarly, further studies by Kaske et al. [25] as
well as Steinhuser and Smolnik [26] also emphasized the problems of measurement of
social media success. We addressed this issue by proposing various measurement
models and frameworks. In a recent work, Kuikka and Akkinen [27] aimed at
identifying internal and external challenges related to the adoption and use of social
media in a large case company. Results of their study revealed that companies might
face internal challenges such as resources, ownership, authorization, attitudes and
economic issues as well as external challenges associated with company reputation,
legal issues and public/private network identity.
2.2 SMEs and Social Media
Kim et al. [8] presented a conceptual model of web 2.0 applications and analyzed the
usage of these platforms in 100 U.S. SMEs (50 “best SMEs” to work for in America
in 2009 and 50 SMEs randomly chosen from manta.com, an online source of SMEs).
Their results show that while most of the 50 “best SMEs” adopted web 2.0 to some
degree, other SMEs need to increase their efforts to improve their performances, to
connect with consumers, and to remain competitive. Stockdale et al. [28] found that
the business value of social media, for SMEs, lies primarily in customer engagement.
Out of the five case organizations they examined, only the largest one with about 300
employees reported using social media internally. Based on six case studies of the

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 65
application of social media in SMEs, Zeiller and Schauer [7] analyzed the adoption
and implementation, the motivation of team members and their benefit, and success
factors of the use of social media for team collaboration. They found that top-down
adoption strategies based on an initiative by management dominate in the case
companies. Furthermore, two success factors were identified: support of the social
media activities by the company’s management as well as technical and operational
support for users. On the other hand, Li et al. [29] investigated that many SMEs
simply can not afford to establish a dedicated collaborative portal. Subsequently, they
present a platform that includes weblogs, microblogging, and project management.
A few number of studies focused on specific social media platforms. For example,
Stocker et al. [30] studied weblog adoption practices for knowledge transfer purposes
in a case SMEs. Results of their study indicated that weblogs in SMEs also suffer
from the knowledge sharing dilemma although through their simplicity, they will
significantly reduce the cost of contributing knowledge. Moreover, weblogs have to
be actively and professionally promoted, even in SMEs where the number of
employees is lower and group identity may be higher. Another example is a work by
Fuchs-Kittowski and Huttemann [31], which presented a new web 2.0-related
approach towards an integrated collaboration and knowledge environment for SMEs.
More specifically, we proposed a new conception for quality assurance in enterprise
wikis including different methods to measure the structure of the wiki and user
behavior. Chang and Chou [32] argued that IT-enabled collaboration between SMEs
will help companies develop their proactivity, which they define as the ability to
anticipate change. Recent literature addressed the adoption of web 2.0 in SMEs
networks ([33], [34], [35]). As SMEs face new challenges in a complex and dynamic
competitive environment, they need to cooperate due to their restricted resources and
limited capacities.
As shown above, most of the existing studies each focus on certain web 2.0
technologies but do not provide a comprehensive overview regarding the adoption
and internal usage of social media in SMEs in general. With our research paper we
therefore attempt to contribute in this field to get broader insights by analysing the
status quo of internal social media usage in German SMEs, without focussing on
single technologies or platforms.
3 Methodology
To address our research purposes, we follow a quantitative research approach by
conducting an extensive survey of German SMEs. In the period from July 12 to
August 27, 2012, we contacted (via mail) about 500 companies across different
industries mostly from the North Rhine-Westphalia region in Germany asking them to
participate in an online survey. Contact data were provided by the local chamber of
industry and commerce. Furthermore, about 200 companies were contacted
nationwide via Xing, which is a social network platform for business purposes
similarly to LinkedIn. We contacted enterprises, which match the definition of being a
small and medium-sized enterprise according to EU-law [36]. Following this

66 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
definition for SMEs, the number of employees does not exceed 250 and the annual
turnover does not exceed 50 million Euros. Furthermore, we contacted large
companies with more than 250 employees to allow a comparative analysis.
Based on our research goals and the findings from the literature review, the survey
was structured as follows. First, we explained the differences between externally and
internally used social media as we did in the first paragraph of chapter 2 (literature
review). That was to ensure that participants have the same understanding of the
matter they will be dealing with in the survey. In a second step, we asked participants
to provide information about number of employees, sales, geographical affiliation,
and industries of their firm, as well as information about the position of the participant
within his/her organization. Subsequently, we asked participants whether their
company has already adopted social media platforms in their organization. Depending
on their answer, respondents were assigned a corresponding subset of follow-up
questions. On the one hand, respondents of firms that have already adopted social
media platforms were asked to answer questions about the status quo in their
organization, process of adoption, areas and benefits of social media use, as well as
evaluation and plans for the future regarding adoption of additional platforms.
Moreover, participants were asked to report factors that may impede a wider adoption
of social media in their firms.
On the other hand, organizations that have not adopted or used social media were
asked whether they are planning or considering using social media in the future.
Finally, we asked a number of questions to companies that have explicitly rejected the
use of social media to elicit the reasons for that reluctance. In total, the survey
comprises 30 questions of different types including yes-no and multiple-choice
questions, rating scales as well as open-ended questions supporting the exploratory
approach. We closed the survey after having obtained responses from 190 companies
in total. This yielded a response rate of about 27%.
4 Results
4.1 Descriptive Data of the Respondents
Overall, we contacted 700 companies, of which 190 managers (27%) responed. Only
one manager per company participated. This data set included 147 (77%) SMEs with
up to 250 employees and 43 (23%) LSEs which each employ more than 250
employees. In our analysis, we focus on 80 companies, 64 SMEs (44%) and 16 LSEs
(37%), which stated to use social media for internal purposes. For the other
companies (83 SMEs, 27 LSEs), we analyse the reasons for not adopting internal
social media, as far as they provided such information.
The diversity of industries in which the sample firms are engaging is high covering
manufacturing, services, retailing, IT/telecommunication as well as other services.
Most of the responding enterprises belong to the IT/Telecommunications industry
(SMEs: 55%, LSEs: 31%) or are service companies (SMEs: 28%, LSEs: 31%). 13%
of the participants of our survey classified themselves as “other”. However, they

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 67
provided more information by means of an open-text answer revealing that they are,
for example, energy suppliers, tourism or construction companies.
More than half of the SMEs (59%) stated that their employees are between 31 and
40 years of age (LSEs 50%) while 16% stated an average age of between 41 and 50
years (LSEs: 44%). 59% of the SMEs have only one single headquarter (LSEs: 12%)
while 41% (LSEs: 88%) operate several branches, 35% of them with at least one
branch outside of Germany (LSEs: 63%). 50% (LSE: 37%) of all companies with
more than one branch use social media.
4.2 Adoption and Management of Social Media
In 36% of the SMEs, social media adaption was organized as a top-down process
(LSEs: 25%) and therefore essentially initiated and controlled by the higher
management. Only 14% of the participants described their social media adoption as a
bottom-up process (LSEs: 23%) while 50% specified that social media has been
introduced in a mix of both approaches (LSEs: 63%). The introduction of social
media was mainly initiated by the top management of the company (66%; LSEs:
32%) or the IT-department (25%; LSEs: 25%). Therefore, the responsibility for the
management and control of social media in SMEs is mostly located with the CEO
(44%; LSEs: 19%) while, within LSEs, mainly the IT-, marketing- or corporate
communication-department performs this task (each 25%).
Participants reported that wikis are the most frequently used type of social media
for internal usage, followed by blogs and internal social networks (see Table 2). 61%
of the SMEs companies have been using internal social media no longer than three
years (LSEs: 56%). Concerning the LSEs, our result is backed up by the survey of
Bughin et al. [4], which described social networks, blogs, and wikis as the three most
used social media platforms.
Table 2. Adopted types of social media
Type of Social Media SMEs (in %; n=64) LSEs (in %; n=16)
Wiki 81.25 75.00
Blogs 60.94 62.50
Internal Social Network 39.06 37.50
RSS 32.81 18.75
Social Bookmarking 29.69 12.50
Microblog 29.69 12.50
Podcast 9.38 0.00
In most cases, the board supports the internal social media use, by active
participation (70%; LSEs: 50%) and/or a regular call to use the appropriate tools
(42%; LSEs: 25%). 53% of the companies offered trainings to their employees
(LSEs: 37%). According to the interviewees, the acceptance of social media was
never classified as low or very low (LSEs: 25%). 71% of the SMEs reported a high or
very high level of acceptance (LSEs: 25%). Social media guidelines exist in 45% of
the SMEs (LSEs: 57%), which adopted internal social media.

68 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
4.3 Goals and Added Values of Social Media Usage
The respondents mentioned the need to improve communication structures (58%;
LSEs: 38%) and collaboration processes (60%; LSEs: 44%) as most important
reasons for SMEs to adopt social media. 28% of the SMEs stated that they had
implemented social media primarily because of the current social media trend in IT
(among LSEs even 38%). In only 3% of the companies, social media were adopted
without certain goals (LSEs: 25%). The most quoted goals (multiple choice) were
improved communication (84%; LSEs: 56%), improved information and knowledge
management (83%; LSEs: 50%), and improved collaboration (78%; LSEs: 50%). A
rapid detection of in-house experts and the change or opening of the corporate culture
has been quoted in 30% (LSEs: 19%) and 24% (LSEs: 6%) of the cases, respectively.
The results for LSEs are in line with the survey of Clearswift [37] and Bughin et al.
[4], which points out that increasing speed of access to knowledge, reducing
communication costs, and increasing speed of access to internal experts are the top-3-
purposes for internal social media usage. When asked to what extent social media has
already set a value for the company, improved communication were mentioned most
frequently, followed by faster access to in-house information and knowledge,
improved cooperation, and a positive change and opening of the corporate culture (see
Table 3).
Table 3. Objectives and value added through implementation of social media (n=80, multiple
choice)
Goals of social media usage SME
expected
SME
achieved
LSE
expected
LSE
achieved
Improved communication 84.38% 79.69% 56.25% 56.25%
Faster access to in-house
information and knowledge 82.81% 70.31% 50.00% 56.25%
Improved collaboration 78.12% 59.38% 50.00% 37.50%
Positive influence on
corporate culture 23.44% 28.12% 6.25% 18.75%
Faster access to in-house
experts 29.69% 21.88% 18.75% 25.00%
Reduction of travel costs 14.06% 12.50% 0.00% 0.00%
No goal / no added value 3.12% 4.69%
25.00% 18.75%
Furthermore, we asked the participants to assess the added value and intensity of
use of the implemented social media platforms in the company (scale from 0=very
low to 5=very high). The results are displayed in Figure 1. The size of the circles in
the chart represent the amount of companies that use the corresponding social media
platform. Regarding the intensity of use and added value, since none of the platforms
were rated less than 1.5, the chart has been adjusted to provide a better overview.
Grey filled circles represent SMEs, black filled LSEs. As the figure shows, SMEs
considered social bookmarking, RSS and podcasts as with a low added value and
intensity of use while LSEs rate wikis, blogs, and microblogs as low. In contrast to

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 69
Fig. 1. Intensity of use and added value of different social media platforms
that, Internal Social Networks (ISN) as well as wikis and microblogs seem to
contribute a higher value with significantly higher usage intensity in SMEs while for
LSEs this is only true for RSS and Internal Social Networks.
With regards to the overall importance of social media for the companies’
production and/or service provision, 56% rated importance as with "high" or "very
high" (LSEs: 31%), while 20% classified importance as with "low", “very low” or
"no" (LSEs: 57%).With regards to the overall importance of social media for the
companies’ production and/or service provision, 56% rated importance as with "high"
or "very high" (LSEs: 31%), while 20% classified importance as with "low", “very
low” or "no" (LSEs: 57%).
4.4 Obstacles to Social Media Usage
When asked about occurring problems related to the implementation and operation of
social media, SMEs mostly mentioned aspects of lacking support by employees,
effectiveness, efficiency, issues of corporate culture and the lack of resources (see
Table 4). To get more information about factors that prevent social media adoption
we provided an open-ended text question. However, only a small amount of 19 SMEs
answered to that optional question.
Table 4. Preventing classification and frequencies
Total (19) Percentage (n=19)
Insufficient support of SM by employees 6 32%
Poor Effectiveness and Efficiency 4 21%
Lack of Resources 3 16%
Issues of Corporate Culture 3 16%
Others 3 16%
SME: Blogs
SME: Wikis
SME: RSS
SME: Social
Bookmarking
SME: Podcast
SME: Int. Soc.
Network
SME: Microblogs
LSE: Blogs
LSE: Wiki
LSE: RSS
LSE: Social
Bookmarking LSE: Int. Soc.
Network
LSE: Microblog
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
5
1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5
Added value for the Company
Intensity of Use

70 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
Of the 83 SMEs (LSEs: 27) that specified not to use any social media within the
company, 44% reported to have not yet adopted that technology because they have
generally just not considered it (LSEs: 31%). The lack of expected value added due to
social media has been mentioned in 23% (LSEs: 42%) of the cases as a major reason
for not implementing social media internally. Only 6% (LSEs: 0%) respectively 1%
(LSEs: 5%) said that the technical implementation or high implementation costs led to
a rejection. When asked whether the companies plan to use social media in the future,
10% said yes (LSEs: 37%), while 48% (LSEs: 37%) of companies were undecided.
42% (LSEs: 26) reject any future corporate social media use.
5 Discussion and Implications
5.1 Adoption and Management of Social Media
Distributed structures are often seen as a driver for the adoption of internal social
media because of the accompanied difficulty of communication and cooperation
within the organization. However, we could not find a direct link between distributed
enterprise structures in SMEs and the corporate use of social media. Of all SMEs with
more than one branch 50% (LSE: 37%) deployed social media, which is not
significantly higher than the overall adoption rate of social media (44%; LSE: 37%).
As other studies have shown, decision-making processes regarding the adoption of
social media are difficult because costs of the adoption process may be estimated
precisely while benefits can be hardly measured. In this sense, literature has shown
that the personality of firm owners and their attitude to do business considerably
influence decision-making processes in SMEs (e.g., [38]). Therefore, it can be
assumed that in SMEs the affinity of the CEO has a significant impact on the initiated
social media activities. Our data confirm that assumption and show that those
companies with a CEO, who owns a public social media account, apply social media
for internal usage in 55% of the cases. In those cases where the CEO does not own
such a user account, only 13% of the SMEs adopted internal social media.
Additionally, a much larger share (44%) of managers in SMEs than in LSEs (19%)
stated that the CEO is directly responsible for social media activities and that he is
highly involved and one of the most active users. Furthermore, the CEO has been
mentioned as being the initiator of social media activities by most of the managers in
our survey (66%). In contrast, in LSEs usually the IT department (37%) or the
internal communication department (25%) initiates the usage of social media.
Moreover, we found that adoption processes in SMEs often follow a social media
strategy (e.g. SMEs provide social media guidelines and organize trainings in order to
enable employees to effectively use social media). The importance of such procedures
becomes obvious in a statement of one manager which company did not provide a
social media guideline: “Because we have no guidelines and no allocated social
media responsibilities, the communication on non-private topics has stopped. Nobody
feels responsible for the next step anymore.” It also turned out that employees in

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 71
SMEs seem to be very open to the adoption of social media (84% support social
media usage), especially in those cases where the average age of employees is
between 21-40 years. Regarding the adoption of different types of social media, wikis
and blogs are most frequently used. However, about one third of the SMEs already
implemented social networks sites (often based on the Yammer software) to better
connect employees among each other. Surprisingly, social networking sites have been
mentioned as the most value adding and most intensively used platform in SMEs. A
reason for this might be that SMEs often have a “right” size to profit from social
network functionalities: they are big enough to gain value from a higher transparency
of skills and contact information of the work force but on the other hand they are
small enough in the way that people are aware of each other and generally interested
in the activities of their colleagues.
Based on our results, it can be stated that a successful adoption of social media
depends on the support of the CEO and a well-structured adoption process. SMEs are
well advised to perform trainings and develop enterprise specific social media
guidelines [39].
5.2 Goals and Added Values of Social Media
Our findings suggest that SMEs follow specific goals such as to improve knowledge
management and collaboration. Although the current social media trend might be an
important driver of social media adoption in corporate context, adoption rarely took
place without concrete goals. Basically, social media are still associated with
improved communication within the company. Most of the managers in our survey
stated that this goal has been achieved. 78% of the managers also stated that they had
high expectations on social media as an enabler for better collaboration. However,
only 59% said that collaboration became more efficient based on social media (see
Table 3). One participant noted that “within the company, collaboration is not
supported in general“.
Surprisingly, managers come to the conclusion that social media positively
influenced the corporate culture in a stronger way than they had expected it when
rolling-out social media. Regarding aspects of corporate culture, for one of the
participant of our survey it is essential that “one has to know each other better, to
grant other colleagues their space and freedom, to admit mistakes, to develop a sense
of confidence and to accept each other.“ This seems to be in line with our finding that
SNS are one of the most beneficial types of social media for SMEs because SNS are
more focused on social interaction and social relations than e.g. wikis.
Based on these results, SMEs should always consider the enterprise culture and
mindset of the employees. Strict policies may decrease the potential values. The
highest value could be reached throughout the support of the communication via SNS,
but the employees should feel “free” to use the SNS and although be allowed to
discuss private topics. The adoption always follows clear goals, which ought to be
continuously monitored and if necessary adjusted.

72 C. Meske and S. Stieglitz
5.3 Obstacles to Social Media Usage
Compared to LSEs, a much lower number of SMEs already adopted social media.
This is not surprising since SMEs usually have only very limited resources and focus
their knowledge on their specific field of business. The adoption of internal social
media needs more resources and demands a comprehensive managerial strategy,
which can not be easily provided by SMEs. Five SME managers mentioned aspects of
resources such as “high maintenance efforts”, “someone has to keep it running” or
“keeping everything tidy, keeping information up to date”.
The high number of undecided companies and the fact that this technology has just
not been considered shows a great potential for appropriate software vendors.
Furthermore, when asked what value social media has brought to the companies in
our survey which already use social media in total, 62% quoted a high or very high
value. 16% felt that the benefits of social media are low or very low.
SMEs are well advised to keep risk low when adopting social media. Reducing
cost und keeping efforts as low as possible are important challenges SMEs face.
SMEs can address this by choosing open source solutions and hark back to
specialized social media cloud services. Additionally, SMEs are supposed to invest
more in the adoption stage and to buy knowledge from external consultancies instead
of amortize investments in case of a failed adoption.
6 Conclusion
This paper sheds light on the adoption of social media in SMEs, which has so far
received little research attention. In order to provide first results, we conducted a
survey of a number of German SMEs. In particular, the contribution of this paper is
two-fold. First, we identified benefits of social media use, impediments to a wider
adoption, and factors behind the reluctance to adopt social media for a majority of
SMEs. Second, based on our results, we derived several implications for SMEs to
overcome obstacles to social media adoption as well as impediments to social media
diffusion.
In summary, our findings suggest that social media adoption is associated with
primarily non-technical barriers and challenges (also in line with [20], [40, [41]. In
particular, these include “soft” factors such as management attitude and employee
acceptance, rather than “hard” ones involving cost aspects and technical issues (e.g.,
system integration). Hence, in general, it is important for SMEs to take these “soft”
factors into account when considering a social media adoption. The contribution of
our article is twofold. We contribute to the academic world by providing new and up-
to-date insights into the adoption of social media in SMEs. Based on these findings
other researchers will be able to conduct further investigations on certain aspects we
highlighted. Furthermore, our work has practical implications because managers are
enabled to benchmark their own business and to learn from our results.
One limitation of our study is that we have focused only on German SMEs, which
are mostly based in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. As future research, we will
attempt to validate our findings based on an even larger sample by recruiting more

Adoption and Use of Social Media in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 73
SMEs as well as larger firms to compare our results. Moreover, we seek to conduct a
number of personal interviews to deepen our understanding of the adoption and use of
social media in SMEs, as well as barriers to social media adoption and diffusion on a
larger scale. In addition, we aim to increase the geographical diversity of firms to be
recruited (e.g., SMEs from other European countries and/or the U.S.) in order to
conduct comparative analyses.
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