Impact of Social Media Readiness on Social Media Usage and Competitive Advantage

Usage of social media within organizations' value chains has been increasing rapidly. There are several benefits and savings projected due to usage of social media. As a result, there is also a lot of hype that is typical of any new web phenomenon. On the other hand, saner voices are cautioning against excessive hype and point to high failure rate of social media initiatives. Lack of best practices or frameworks and incomplete understanding of how to make best use of social media are some of the reasons cited for this high failure of social media initiatives. In addition, there are several other aspects related to governance, people, and processes that need to be addressed to improve success rate of these initiatives. Therefore, effective implementation of a social media initiative includes addressing all those aspects that relate to governance, people, and processes. The authors use a construct, “Social Media Readiness,” that encapsulates these aspects. This chapter summarizes research that shows how readiness can impact social media use.