Do technology and social media preferences differ with age? A study of the use of social technologies for business purposes in Spain

Abstract

Social technologies have rapidly become part of the workplace culture with companies using social platforms to communicate, for customer service, to gain exposure and create awareness, to gain new customers, to increase revenue and profits, for marketing purposes, to network and build relationships, and for recruiting purposes. This paper reports the results of a study of the usage of social technologies by working women in Spain to determine the purposes for using these platforms in a business environment. Furthermore, statistical analyses of the data reveal whether the age of the respondents make a difference in social media preferences. Based on these results, organizations will have a better grasp of how to optimize the use of social technologies in business and which age groups are better suited for managing specific platforms based on the purposes studied, thus adding to the literature in the field.