Social Media In Azorean Organizations: Policies, Strategies And Perceptions

Social media have brought new opportunities, and also new challenges, for organizations. With them came the rise of a new context of action, largely influenced by the changing habits and the behavior of the consumer. The purpose of the following research is to analyze the views and strategies embraced by Azorean organizations, as well as the perceptions arising from the use of social media.For this study, a quantitative type of research, of a descriptive nature, was chosen, using an online survey. A total of 232 valid surveys obtained led to a range of perceptions about the use of social media. The study hypotheses were verified using the Kruskal-Wallis analysis.The results demonstrate that the majority of organizations involved in the study already use social media and that almost all of them use Facebook. The main reasons are to reach a wider audience, to increase notoriety and to communicate with customers. The most relevant difficulty felt after joining the social media is the lack of resources and availability. Marketing initiatives and content creation are the most-used activities. Remarkably, more than half don't have a defined strategy, nor use measuring instruments to assess their presence. However, they consider that social media enhance their performance.Social media is a widely studied topic from the consumer's point of view, but there is still little investigation from an organizational perspective. This work sought to contribute to the knowledge about the use and involvement of organizations in social media, especially in the peripheral context.