COMPARISON OF THE ACTIVITIES OF COMMERCIAL AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS ON FACEBOOK

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to examine the differences in Facebook usage practices between social and commercial entrepreneurs. The research is based on the official Facebook pages of six pairs of commercial and social enterprises during a period of two years, giving a total of 1046 posts for analysis. Findings reveal differences in the content and types of Facebook posts between commercial and social entrepreneurs. While commercial entrepreneurs have a clearly expressed market orientation, social enterprises strive to build the legitimacy of philanthropists and initiators of social change. There is no statistically significant difference in the number of reactions per post per follower between the two types of enterprises. However, followers' engagement is stronger among social entrepreneurs than commercial entrepreneurs. What all businesses lack is customer-generated content. Business owners could take the empirical findings into consideration when developing a strategy for managing their presence on social networks.