The role of Social media in Small Business Marketing : A qualitative study on which Social media are used and how the choice of Social Media is consistent with remaining Marketing.

The aim of this study is to increase an understanding of which social media small businesses use and how the work of social media relates to the company’s other marketing activities. The study was conducted using qualitative semi-structured interviews where nine respondents were interviewed. A comfort selection was applied and in total participated four small businesses in the survey, three in Karlstad and one in Gislaved, where the requirement was that the company in some extent used social media. The material was collected through interviews where a semi-structured interview guide was used. The interview guide consisted three main areas: (1) the definition of traditional and modern marketing communication, (2) the definition of social media and (3) the use of social media. The material was analysed by transcribing the sound-recorded interviews and then use thematic analysis in the form of open and focused coding. The result showed that all respondents use social media, but in a different way. All the respondents use Facebook, Instagram, e-mail and website, whereas only half of the respondents combined the webpage with a web-shop. Even if there were several reasons that motivated the deselection, was the loose of the personal contact the one that was most distinguished. Further the result showed that the personal contact towards its customers is what small businesses valued the most. To show their appreciation to their loyal customers, the company arranged events with snacks and gatherings. Even if the primary reason towards the modernization was the fear of falling apart if they chose to resist, there was also other reasons: the ability to measure likes as well as the ability to reach the desired target group. Even if the result further hinted that the respondents more and more values and switch to modern communication tools, showed the result that there also is a reason towards keeping and combining the marketing with traditional communication tools. By doing this, the message is reached by more customers, which in turn gives a maximum effect on the marketing. Finally, the result showed that small business must have an expertise to compete against larger businesses on the market.