The (lack of) use of Facebook by small businesses

ABSTRACT

As social media continue their popularity, they have become an important part of today's business communication. Previous research on business uses of social media primarily focused on large enterprises. It is not clear how small local businesses use these online interactive platforms. This study attempts to address this issue. Using a commercial database, businesses with less than 50 employees were identified in a city in North Texas. Among them, 480 companies were randomly selected and searched on Facebook. Data were collected in both 2014 and 2015. The results show that only about one fifth of local stores and service providers have business fan pages and more than half of those pages are in a dormant state. The results of adoption rate, fan page life span, user activities, and their year-to-year changes are presented and discussed. Overall, data from this sample indicate a lack of enthusiasm in adopting and continuously using Facebook by small businesses.

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Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Enterprise computing