Social Media in a B2B Context (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of Cologne (Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät), course: Marketing, language: English, abstract: Social media has now been around for a decade and it is commonly used for private pur- poses and in consumer brand companies. But even though it offers great potential, the usage in the business-to-business sector is still less frequent in comparison to the busi- ness-to-consumer markets. Industrial managers seem to have limited understanding and struggle with implementation of strategies and successful use of social media in their corporation. Also in the literature, social media cases regarding the business-to-business context have only received little attention.

Therefore, this thesis will show the concept of social media in this specific context by investigating factors that determine the adoption of social media in business-to-business organizations. The thesis points out how social media is used and what content is shared in the organization's innovation process, in collaboration and communication with customers and partners, and in the marketing and sales department. The analysis shows that social media in the business-to-business sector is rather used for relationship building and as an information exchange platform.

The thesis also shows what outcomes can result from social media usage and that it is benefi- cial for industrial firms to be active on social media. To eliminate barriers and realize social media's potential, we identify managerial implications to successfully implement social media in the business-to-business sector.