Companies could hold competitive advantages by improving individual and collective knowledge of their staff i.e. through using e-Learning, social media and participation in social communities. In this paper, firstly the learning practices in SMEs have been discussed with the starting of an assessment on companies' readiness for e-Learning, supporting knowledge development. Then social communities like Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been depicted as an approach to support learning, sharing, transfer and development of knowledge suitable for SMEs. Examples and some conclusions are presented in this paper.