The Impact of Social Media on Business-to-Business Customers' Decision-Making Process
Ali-Tolppa, Eero (2020)
2020
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2020-10-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202010127318
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202010127318
Tiivistelmä
Social media and its many channels have emerged being one of the major online platforms for people across the world. On social media, users can spend time, communicate, consume content, and search information. Also, numerous organizational buyers and decision-makers use social media for such activities. Thus, companies in business-to-business have started to utilize social media, in order to enhance their brand, engage with their customers, and to ultimately increase
sales. However, many of these B2B companies still lack information on how social media impacts their customers’ decision-making process. The case company also has had difficulties finding solutions that effectively connect social media to sales.
This thesis focuses on researching, how the case company’s customers use social media, what types of content elements they prefer, and how the social media itself is involved and impacts the customers’ decision-making process. The social media was studied through five major social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, which are also the main social media channels in the case company. In this thesis, the mining and the aggregates
business areas in Finland, Sweden and Norway were the studied industries.
Based on the results, social media is a daily used platform, which is still mainly used on free time, whereas use for business purposes is lower. The preference regarding the content type and channel varies, depending on the purpose of the use, country, and the organizational role. Social media has impact on the decision-making process on each stage of the process, and it seems that the impact is higher at the awareness stage and at the consideration stage, compared to the
decision stage. The impact of social media was seen by sparking the users’ interest, by being an information source, and by helping the buyer to confirm the purchase. The content in these situations were mainly demonstration or introduction videos, customer cases, and positive reviews. The most impactful channels in the buying process were YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Instagram had small to no impact on decision-making process, but the channel was rather popular on the free time. Twitter on the other hand, was not preferred in either situation.
Based on the literature, and findings, the case company should prioritize informative content on social media in the form of video or customer case, in order to impact the decision-making process, the most. In addition, positive reviews should be used. The communicating on social media was found as a positive factor and thus, pursuing social selling and thought leadership was suggested in order to increase the involvement of sales to social media, and to potentially receive the benefits in terms of sales, brand awareness, and customer engagement. A suggestion for further research in the future would be to study the impact of social selling and thought leadership on sales on business-to-business sector. The future research could also include the lead-generation through social media on business-to-business sector.
sales. However, many of these B2B companies still lack information on how social media impacts their customers’ decision-making process. The case company also has had difficulties finding solutions that effectively connect social media to sales.
This thesis focuses on researching, how the case company’s customers use social media, what types of content elements they prefer, and how the social media itself is involved and impacts the customers’ decision-making process. The social media was studied through five major social media channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter, which are also the main social media channels in the case company. In this thesis, the mining and the aggregates
business areas in Finland, Sweden and Norway were the studied industries.
Based on the results, social media is a daily used platform, which is still mainly used on free time, whereas use for business purposes is lower. The preference regarding the content type and channel varies, depending on the purpose of the use, country, and the organizational role. Social media has impact on the decision-making process on each stage of the process, and it seems that the impact is higher at the awareness stage and at the consideration stage, compared to the
decision stage. The impact of social media was seen by sparking the users’ interest, by being an information source, and by helping the buyer to confirm the purchase. The content in these situations were mainly demonstration or introduction videos, customer cases, and positive reviews. The most impactful channels in the buying process were YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Instagram had small to no impact on decision-making process, but the channel was rather popular on the free time. Twitter on the other hand, was not preferred in either situation.
Based on the literature, and findings, the case company should prioritize informative content on social media in the form of video or customer case, in order to impact the decision-making process, the most. In addition, positive reviews should be used. The communicating on social media was found as a positive factor and thus, pursuing social selling and thought leadership was suggested in order to increase the involvement of sales to social media, and to potentially receive the benefits in terms of sales, brand awareness, and customer engagement. A suggestion for further research in the future would be to study the impact of social selling and thought leadership on sales on business-to-business sector. The future research could also include the lead-generation through social media on business-to-business sector.