Developing Activities in Social Media and their Functions Illustrated with an Example of Companies from the ICT Sector

Nowadays, when social media has become a very common communication channel between companies and customers, of particular importance is their proper selection that will allow achieving the company's goals. Companies very rarely focus their attention on the possibilities offered by various, not limited to only the most popular channels and tools of social media. By analysing the activities of companies and consumer behaviour in various social media channels, the authors developed a flowchart based on the 5C categorization proposed by V. Vuori, which constitutes a useful classification of social media functions. For the purpose of this study, a concept was developed, under which the authors connected the above-mentioned 5C categorization of social media with selected fields of marketing activities, while choosing channels and tools appropriate for a given area of such marketing activities. The indicated concept was the basis for the assessment of the method and scope of social media usage in the surveyed companies. The aim of this article is to present the way in which companies from the ICT sector use social media in their marketing activities. Moreover, the objective is to indicate factors that affect the use of social media channels and tools by the surveyed companies. The authors have applied triangulation of research methods within the analysed case studies. This has allowed distinguishing action methods and reasons for improper selection of social media tools used to fulfil the set objectives.