Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to examine how small- and medium-sized hospitality organisations engage with social media and how social media data are used by their managers to inform business decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative approach was used in this research in which interviews were conducted with top management, comprising the owners/directors and other key managers from small- and medium-sized organisations based in Penang, Malaysia. Fan and Gordon's (2014) categorisation of the social media data analysis process and Simon's (1995) concept of the interactive and diagnostic usage of data were used in the analysis of data.

Findings

The managers of small- and medium-sized hospitality organisations engage with social media for customer relationship management and the understanding of key main competitors. Social media is used to understand, build and manage relationships with current and potential customers; these activities are also linked to actions taken to protect a company's reputation. Even though, for the companies concerned, data gathering is still at the capture stage with no formal procedures and processes in place, the data are utilised in an interactive way to inform two areas’ major business decisions-making, i.e. those related to pricing and promotion and the strategic formulation and reorientation of the business.

Research limitations/implications

The respondents of this study were mainly from smaller hospitality organisations. Hence, the insights gained are limited to the context of smaller hotels.

Originality/value

A significant number of social media studies within the hospitality sector have focussed on marketing aspects. This study explored the wider use of social media in the case of smaller hospitality organisations and how they compete and position themselves in the competitive hospitality industry.

中文翻译：

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社交媒体在商业决策中的使用：马来西亚小型酒店组织的案例

目的

本文的目的是研究中小型酒店组织如何与社交媒体互动以及其管理者如何使用社交媒体数据来指导业务决策。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用定性方法，与高层管理人员进行了访谈，高层管理人员包括位于马来西亚槟城的中小型组织的所有者/董事和其他主要管理人员。Fan和Gordon（2014）对社交媒体数据分析过程进行了分类，Simon（1995）对数据进行交互和诊断的概念被用于数据分析。

发现

中小型酒店组织的经理与社交媒体互动，以管理客户关系并了解主要竞争对手。社交媒体用于理解，建立和管理与当前和潜在客户的关系；这些活动还与为保护公司声誉而采取的行动有关。即使对于相关公司来说，数据收集仍处于捕获阶段，没有正式的程序和流程，但数据是以交互方式利用的，可以为两个领域的主要业务决策（即与定价和定价相关的业务决策）提供信息。促销以及业务的战略制定和重新定位。

研究局限/意义

这项研究的受访者主要来自较小的酒店组织。因此，所获得的见解仅限于较小酒店的背景。

创意/价值

酒店业的大量社交媒体研究都集中在营销方面。这项研究探讨了在较小的酒店组织中社交媒体的广泛使用以及它们如何在竞争激烈的酒店业中竞争和定位自己。