Investigating Social Media Marketing’s Influence on Sales Growth for Small to Medium Enterprises
Steven Mohler
Abstract
Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) create jobs, innovations, and products and services for the growth of developing and developed economies. However, more than 50% of the SMEs in the United States will not be in business within six years of starting. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to assess if and to what extent social media marketing as defined by Facebook, Twitter, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) posts predicts sales growth at small to medium enterprises. The study utilized a convenience sample of SMEs employing between 1 and 50 employees in three Midwestern United States. Self-reported sales data was collected from 54 SMEs using a SurveyMonkey® survey. The data obtained from the 54 business to consumer SMEs in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio produced no significant results when processed through SPSS multiple regression and Spearman correlation analyses. All three predictor variables, FGC Facebook posts, FGC Twitter posts, and eWOM posts, failed to provide any significant prediction of the criterion variable, firm sales growth. The small sample size of 54 produced power below .16 increasing the risk of a type II error, failing to reject a false null hypothesis. The three Spearman correlations produced correlation coefficients slightly negative but near zero. Further research is warranted into larger SMEs and specific industry segments to better understand the relationship between SME sales and social media marketing.