Page 1 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 406
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Key Challenges
and innovative approach for using social media
marketing (SMM)
Dr. Kanchan Pranay Patil ; Dr.Priti Puri,
Associate Professor, Mktg. Management, Symbiosis Center for Information Technology, Hinjewadi
Phase 1, Pune, Maharashtra State, India,
Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Center for Information Technology, Hinjewadi Phase 1, Pune,
Maharashtra State, India,
E-Mail: patilkanchan2003@yahoo.com ; priti@scit.edu
Abstract
Social Media has revolutionized personal,
professional, and commercial cross- communication and interaction, force
marketers to revise their policies on
product development, pricing, distribution,
and branding.
The author explored current practices, the
benefits, limitations and the risks
involved in social media marketing
(SMM) adopted by Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs).
This paper concentrates on the challenges
that organizations (SMEs) face to
implement a Social Media Marketing
(SMM) strategy and concludes by
discussing innovative strategies of social
media marketing for SMEs.
Keywords: Social Media marketing
strategies (SMMs), Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs), Risks and
limitations.
Introduction
The speed at which social media has taken
off has been unprecedented in the history
of technological change.
According to Ernst and Young report 90%
of Indian companies, spend up to 15% of
their annual marketing budget exclusively
on social media. 23% of brands stated
their social media budgets were INR1
million (INR10 lakhs) or less.[1]
This massive take-up is having a profound
effect on the way in which customers seek
information and make purchase decisions.
So how can companies take advantage of
the opportunities presented by social
media to make their mark on this vast
audience.
White, 2010 came up with the social
media marketing mix relevant in the
digital era for Netizen. According to the
author social media marketing mix
consists of 6 Ps. [2]
a. People: People are the most important
element of the customer experience.
Experiences are altered to meet the
individual needs of the person
consuming it.
b. Personal: Interpersonal
communication that social media
fosters
c. Publish: Value of content marketing
d. Promote: Various social media
platform used to get your message to
the market.
e. Presence: In social media your
message is present 24X7
f. Proximity: Increased value of
location-based marketing.
Hollowell, 2015 suggested Six C's of
Successful Social Marketing to ensure
SMEs get the optimum results from Social
Media. [3]
Page 2 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 407
Construct: Your page must be easy to
find, impactful, memorable and enabling.
Collection: Contacts: Your page is a
community. Use your contacts personal
and professional to get started.
Content creation: Speak to and with the
community. Invite them and embrace
them, appreciate their involvement,
prioritize community needs. The needs and
desires of the community should power
your contents.
Conversation: Focus on social part of
conversation.
Collection: Customer: Focus on collecting
customers i.e. consumers, subscribers,
listeners, readers, buyers.
Conversion: Conversion is the ultimate
objective. It means different to different
business owners.
Researcher in this paper has used Primary
and secondary research to understand how
small and Medium Enterprises are
integrating Social Media and Marketing
activities. Researcher reached out to
employee of Marketing department and PR
department of 36 Small and Medium
Enterprises in Pune city to explore how
social media is shaping the activities of
marketers. This paper also tells about what
are the benefits and the risk SMEs have,
when using social media marketing.
At last the author has suggested the
strategies which SMEs need to work upon
so as to accelerate the social
transformation process within their
organizations.
Literature Review
Author reviewed number of the existing
works with a view to assess the social
media and marketing activities done by
SMEs.
Paradiso, 2014[4] mentioned business
cannot survive without Social media. He
stated that social media is powerful
platform where a client can socially
approves of you and your agency. Social
proof is one of those quiet ways that your
agency can turn in ROI on it social media
marketing very quickly.
Larivie`re et al., 2013[5] Social media
can create value fusion, in which value is
created for a whole network including both
customers and companies.
Lagrosen and Grunden, 2014[6]
concluded in their research that social
media marketing activities consist of four
main categories, they are:
Management: This dimension concerns
how the social media marketing activities
are organized and managed.
Media: This dimension concerns the
choice of social media for the marketing
communication.
Content: In this dimension, the substance
of the communication of the companies on
the social media is contained.
Effects: This dimension regards the effects
that the companies see from their social
media marketing activities.
Aim and Objectives
The objectives of this study are informed
by the gaps found in the literature review:
1. To explore how SMEs use Social Media
in their marketing strategy
2. To explore their perception of the
benefits of Social Media as a marketing
tool.
3. To review limitations and risks involved
in social media marketing.
4. To suggest innovative strategies of
social media marketing (SMM) by SMEs.
Research Gap: The literature survey done
by the researcher indicates that most of the
research done is from customer
perspective about their interaction with
social media to follow SMEs. Author is
found that not much work has done on
SMEs perspective.
Page 3 of 12
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 408
Research Methodology
Author used quantitative descriptive
research methodology to examine various
channels of social media to understand
SMEs current practices and the benefits
offered to the SMEs using a structured
questionnaire. Purposive sampling was
used to select 36 Small and Medium
Enterprises in Pune city. Respondents
were the employees from the
marketing/PR departments of each
company. Secondary research was used to
explore the risks, limitations and
Innovative strategies for Social Media
marketing. Author reviewed Internet
articles and online blogs, existing social
media marketing literature and industry
practices.
Data Analysis
Researcher asked 11 questions to
PR/Marketing managers of SMEs through
online questionnaire. The responses to
each question were collected, were
quantified and represented in the form of
Charts.
1. Which are the platforms you used for
your social media marketing efforts?
Table I
Social Media
Platform
% Company
Facebook 89.6%
Twitter 56.3%
YouTube 29.2%
Linked in 29%
Blog 22.3%
Google Plus 2.6%
Pin interest 3%
Foursquare 0.1%
Figure 1.
2. Have you run a campaign using social
media as the leading component?
Table II
Yes 87.5%
No 12.5%
Figure 2.
3. Have you organized any online
exclusive deals/promotions for online
fans?
Table III
Yes 64.2%
No 14.6%
May be in Future. 20.2%
Figure3.
0.00%
50.00%
100.00%
Face...
YouT...
Pinte...
Pinin...
% Small Medium Enterprises
% Company
87.50%
12.50%
Yes
No
64.20%
15.60%
20.20% Yes
No
May be in
Future.
