If You Know Social Media, You See Opportunities...

Purpose - This study aimed to find out how bloggers perceive the opportunities and obstacles in using blog as a social media tool. In this study we found answers to a research question: Is there a correlation between use of social media and perceived opportunities gained via blogging?Design/methodology/approach - The qualitative and quantitative study was conducted among higher education students in Tampere University of Technology in Finland. Students were on Master level in industrial management, information technology or economics. These students are most likely using different tools of knowledge co-creation in their future professional positions, and therefore are a good sample for the study Numerous statistical calculations were conducted from the survey result in order to find evidence to our conclusions.Originality/value - This methodology puts in evidence that there indeed was a connection between the user's social media attitude and the perceived opportunities in using blog (p = 0,0676). Furthermore, we found that if one sees opportunities in using blog he/she is also potentially willing to use it as a tool.Practical implications - The outcomes of the study convince us that in practice the obstacles of using social media (in this case blog) create a barrier for professional use of social media. If you know social media, you are willing to utilize it and you see business opportunities in this for example. From previous research we know that there is a big gap between generations in social media use and therefore also business opportunities are lost among practitioners.