SOCIAL MEDIA: GOALS, CHALLENGES AND VALUE TO SMALL FIRMS.

This paper investigates the value to small businesses of using social media. It takes the cases of two wineries and examines the different goals, technologies used, results achieved and value created through the use of social media. We find that value creation is manifested in the reach, brand building opportunity and bestowing a sense of legitimacy regardless of its size. Implications for practice from this research are that small firm's social media strategies vary for different businesses even within similar industries and they should choose appropriate social media tools that match their goals. Furthermore, the choice must also suit the personality of the person responsible for social media. Although small businesses can see the value in using social media and consider it a valuable part of their marketing activities they do not have a way to quantify their value and offers opportunity for further research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]