Twitter: a Viable Marketing Tool for SMEs?

Purpose - The present research aims to explore whether Twitter is a tool that should be taken seriously by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in their marketing strategies, taking the stance of SMEs – how they perceive, use and see the future of Twitter for their businesses. The research has three objectives: firstly, to explore how SMEs use Twitter in their marketing strategies; secondly, to explore their perception of Twitter’s benefits/limitations as a marketing tool, compared to other social networks; and thirdly, to explore their plans for improvement/future use of Twitter in their marketing strategies. Design/methodology/approach - Because the micro-blogging area is underexplored, especially from a business perspective, a qualitative-interpretivist-exploratory methodology has been chosen. The research method which will be utilized in the project is semi-structured one-to-one online synchronous interviews, conducted on a homogenous sample comprising 4-5 Romanian and British SMEs with around 2 employees from the marketing/PR departments of each company. The present paper comprises stage one of the project, which has been a pilot in-depth interview with a British SME, aimed to explore initial insights while testing the validity, reliability and trustworthiness of the research. Findings - The present report only discusses the pilot findings, which are not definite conclusions but just provide guidance for further research, indicating whether the methodology/method/questions were suitable/useful and thus identifying new areas for further exploration. The interviewee’s conclusion, also supported by the research findings, is that, although Twitter should not be viewed as “the be all and end all for our communications”, it is still a critical platform to embark on, especially if companies want a chance to listen to/influence consumers’ opinions. Practical implications - In general, it is agreed that social media and Twitter can have as much benefits for the business in terms of networking, relationship and online branding opportunities as irreparable and costly damages caused by the negative electronic Word of Mouth (e-WOM). Consequently, the present project takes initiative towards a more clear understanding of how and what should be done, if anything, with models like Twitter as marketing tools. Originality/value - Using social media and especially Twitter for marketing purposes is only a recent phenomenon, as it is mainly since 2008 that social networking sites exploded in user numbers and marketing applications. Therefore, there is limited academic research into this area and much of it is focused on the user side, with little known from the companies’ perspective. Most information regarding Twitter has been based on best practice, industry trial and error, and a few research papers looking into how consumers perceive the micro-blogging tool. The business stance has been acknowledged as a significant gap in the literature, consequently demonstrating the value and originality of the present paper. Because social networking and especially micro=blogging is multi-faceted, the focus of this project has been Twitter as a word of mouth/ electronic word of mouth (WOM/ e-WOM) marketing tool, utilizing research proving the benefits/limitations of WOM/e-WOM for businesses.