Rural development and social network sites: a case study in Marche region (Central Italy

Websites, blogs and SNSs are important tools implemented by “active” web users who are willing to build their own “social network”. Many SMEs are seemingly using some of these tools in a “non active” manner that refers to an “adaptive behaviour” instead of a more favourable “proactive behaviour”. The paper investigates the actual use of web tools by private entrepreneurs acting in the rural tourism sector to strengthen marketing and communication programs. The authors analyze collected data in order to enucleate some “proactive behaviour” among local entrepreneurs to design future common and feasible economic choices. The real acting of SMEs in the web seems to be non active and in danger to loose great opportunities coming from enlargement and deepening of markets. Probably, the future best practice will be the building of durable relations with customers in order to achieve their retention and satisfaction by improving SNSs use in conjunction with others Web2.0 tools.