The Differences in the Usage of Social Media between SMEs operating in the Iron and Mining Industries

mining industries are significant contributors not only for Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) and labour creation of countries but also
export volumes of nations, they have also crucial roles to reduce
unemployment rates, and increase amount of exports. But
comparing to their larger counterparts, SMEs encounter more
financing obstacles that might make them to become noncompetitive. Within this context, their usage of social media
platforms might increase their competitiveness because these digital
marketing channels provide less costly solutions for their activities.
But depending on their characteristics, their willingness and
propensity to implement social media channels in their marketing
operations can show differences. In this regard, this paper intends to
examine whether the usage of social media channels by SMEs in
iron and mining industries differ depending on their size and length
of doing business. To hit this target, the researchers have created a
questionnaire survey and have directed it to the randomly selected
respondents from Cribis database. 702 SMEs that operate iron and
mining industries of Slovakia and Hungary have fulfilled the
survey. Independent Sample T test is applied to explore differences
in the selected variables. While the usage of social media platforms
by smaller and larger SMEs does not differ, older SMEs apply
social media channels more than younger SMEs. These results are
consistent for both Slovak and Hungarian SMEs. The reason of
similarities in both nations’ SMEs might be related with similar
social-economic conditions of these nations, education level and
experience of firm executives. The cooperation of policymakers
with SMEs, universities, industrial zones, and unions to encourage
the effective usage of social media channels might increase SMEs
operating in mining and iron industries and their executives’
competencies and competitive postures to contest with their largersized counterparts.