Social Network Marketing: An examination of marketing behavior of small businesses

Nowadays social networks are a worldwide phenomenon. With the coming of new technologies and mediators of sale, marketing is changed and shaped so as to make it possible to reach more prospective customers. Businesses had to adapt to this digital age and to reassess their marketing strategies. It was necessary to transfer their experiences and practices into a new modem,form. The advantage of the Internet is a global presence which is without any fees, unlike the marketing in other media. On the Internet you can use multiple media to attract users. Internet advertising is still the cheapest way and thanks to social networks businesses can create their ad for free. The use of social networking as a marketing tool still dominates in large corporations, but also smaller companies are already starting to take advantage of social networks. The aim of the work is focused on area of social networks from the perspective of users who are creators of the content on these networks. The research proves the benefits of usage of social networks for smaller companies not only for the promotion their own websites. In order to obtain the information about the behaviour of potential customer in Vysoeina region, we used a survey and collected data from 128 respondents who have taken part in social networking. The second part of the research analyses the place and the efficiency of social media, especially Facebook, in selected small company marketing practices. Results indicate that social networks can enable businesses to increase prospective clients and also offer current consumers a closer relationship to the company, but should be taken only as one of the possible marketing tool.