Abstract:

Nowadays, social media is very important tool for businesses’ promotional activities. Social media can provide significant advantages in time, cost, and communication quality for companies. The aim of this qualitative research was to understand how and why small and medium-sized enterprises in Aegean region/Turkey use social media. Within this aim, the study examined the main promotional activities of small and medium-sized enterprises which operate in Izmir (as an urban part of Aegean Region) and Kusadasi (as a rural part of Aegean Region). In order to analyze the different characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises in rural and urban parts, one rural and one urban city were selected. Fifteen companies from Kusadasi and fifteen companies from Izmir were included to the research to understand how and why they use social media. Maximum variation sampling technique was used in selecting companies. Data were collected via structured interview technique by using face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews. Employees or owners of the companies were interviewed in December, 2017. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed via content analysis. Findings showed that the small and medium-sized enterprises preferred mostly social media for their promotional activities. The main reasons to prefer social media were that social media is easy, fast, convenient, and cheap to advertise. The main activities of the small and medium-sized enterprises in social media were that sharing the photos of the companies’ products and organizing some activities to reach targeted customers. 

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