Development of a Social Media Maturity Model -- A Grounded Theory Approach

Social media has become part of everyday lives. Discussions about whether social media is relevant to organizations no longer exist, instead, discussions on how to successfully adopt social media prevail. With much uncertainty on what it takes to reach excellence in social media use, companies often start with an uncoordinated approach, not taking into account all potential threats. However, little research is done on the diverse components of an organization that are influenced by the use of social media. Furthermore, a common understanding on when a company is "ready" for social media application is missing. Thus, this work seeks to describe a generic approach on assessing social media maturity. Applying grounded theory, a first version for a maturity model is developed which will serve as a tool for introducing and assessing organizational social media activities, including a set of relevant demographic information, organizational prerequisites, as well as dimensions of maturity.

1. Introduction

The construct “social media” incorporates two different worlds. Social refers to the participation of users, communication, and their relationships. Media focuses on the underlying technical and organizational preconditions like dynamics, interaction, and decentralization [1]. Web 2.0, which is the set of functionalities provided via Internet technology, can be seen as the platform that enables the existence of social media. Therefore, one can define social media as Internet-based applications allowing for creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC) [2]. This interaction with communities has the potential to add value to the organization, if it is well designed and aligned with the company's business [3]. Organizational application cannot solely be found for primary activities, but also in product development, marketing, sales, product support [3], employer branding, or customer support [4]. Examples for benefits of using social media are customer-aligned product development, improved brand loyalty, increased traffic, reduced costs for product support, [3] and improved knowledge of the market and the market situation [4]–[7].