Drivers and Obviations for using Social Media in companies - Insights from an online-survey on Firms in German-speaking Countries

This paper critically reflects predictions that social and mobile media will revolutionize internal and external corporate processes and collaboration approaches by analyzing the current usage of social software and mobile media in various firm’s operational fields in German-speaking countries. It further aims at identifying some of factors that influence the implementation and application of social software and mobile media in SMEs. To serve these aims, this paper present study results from an online survey from 2012 on the usage of social and mobile media in 240 SMEs. Existing studies will be analyzed and compared to the results. The study shows that mobile media and social networks are mainly used for customer relationship management and for the internal communication but not for the partner communication and collaboration. The study indicates that companies lack well-defined implementation strategies and frameworks to successfully embed social and mobile media in the corporate culture and structures.