The examination of the perceptions of SMEs towards social media: A research in the province of Kastamonu

175 SMEs with 10 or more employees participated in the research carried out to determine the reasons for using social media and perceptions of social media in the marketing strategies of SMEs in Kastamonu and its districts. 112 of the 175 SMEs actively use social media in their marketing strategies. 37 participants in the survey are in the service sector, 33 are in the manufacturing sector and the remaining 105 are in the trade sector. Sales and cost factors and communication and sharing factors have emerged in determining social media perceptions in the marketing strategies of SMEs. Statistically significant differences were found between sales and cost factors and demographic variables, education levels of SME representatives, SME operating periods, sector groups and social media use. Likewise, statistically significant differences were found between the communication and sharing factors and the demographic variables, the level of education of SME representatives, the duration of SMEs, the sector groups in which they are involved and the use of social media. The survey found that SMEs had knowledge of social media use but were not sufficiently aware of the importance of social media in marketing strategies. The research data were obtained through face-to-face interviews with SME representatives conducted by the researcher in August and September 2016. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS program. Frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis and one-way Anova tests were applied to the data. Key words: SME, social media, marketing strategies