Social Media for Small to Medium Enterprises Essay - 2

Social Media for Small to Medium Enterprises - Essay ExampleSmall and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs tackle a crucial role in any national economy. They are a major source of employment and foster socio-economic expansion (Taprial & Kanwar 2012). To foster the effect of their objectives, a majority of these SMEs leverage on IT-based tools to increase information content and creativity (Belo, Castela & Fernandes 2013 Laudon & Traver 2010). With this regard, many SMEs have incorporated societal media strategy in their operations so as to realise the benefits that IT offers in their businesses. Joosten (2012) generally describes social media as technological systems that enhance collaboration and connection by creating personal and corporate profiles, communion of opinions, activities and information and content creation. Among the many social media networks, Schwartz (2010) documents Twitter and Facebook as the most popular. SMEs have established their presence in a majority of the se platforms.Anoto Group AB is an example of an SME that has embraced the use of social media in its operations. This Swedish high-tech company provides solutions for transmitting handwritten text from hard copies to digital media, intelligent camera watch and scanning printed text (Anoto Group AB 2013). To reach out to its customers and all other stakeholders, the company has presence on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube social media sites. With only 103 employees spread crosswise Sweden, UK, US and Japan, the company is an example of modern SMEs that have adopted new IT features as change drivers to enable them gain sustainable competitive advantage all over their rivals. Indeed, just like Anoto AB, many other SMEs have embraced the strategy of using social media to achieve their objectives. Meske and Stieglitz (2013) observe that 24% of small enterprises structurally use social media with another 20% using it informally. For medium-sized organisations, the