Social media utilization in industrial B2B relations presented at WSKS 2012 conference

1. Social Media Utilization
in Industrial B2B Relations
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Jari Jussila
Tampere University of Technology
Hannu Kärkkäinen
Tampere University of Technology
Heli Aramo-Immonen
Tampere University of Technology
Jani Multasuo
Tampere University of Technology

2. Outline
• Definitions of social media and the related
concept web 2.0
• Research motivations, aims, and design
• Results of empirical study of 125 Finnish
business-to-business companies
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3. Definition of Social Media and Web 2.0
• Not only Facebook!
• Web 2.0 means technologies that enable users to
communicate, create content and share it with each other
via communities, social networks and virtual worlds,
making it easier than before.
• Such tools and technologies emphasize the power of users
to select, filter, publish and edit information (Tredinnick,
2006), as well as to participate in the creation of content in
social media.
• Web 2.0 applications support the creation of informal
users’ networks facilitating the flow of ideas and
knowledge by allowing the efficient generation,
dissemination, sharing and editing / refining of
informational content.
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4. Focus on B2B
(Business-to-Business) sector
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• Important starting points: large part of B2B’s consider social
media as “something that is out there but is not for us” (Finnish
and international studies; conferences, seminars, etc.); lack of
suitable cases major factor hindering adoption in B2B’s
• B2C (business-to-consumer) social media already has much
research. However, B2B social media research is scarce and
B2B differs significantly from B2C context considering the use
and usefulness of social media.
• Key factors (both challenges and opportunities for social media)
affecting B2B interaction
• fewer customers and more in depth customer relationships in B2B’s
• gatekeeper persons between customers and B2B’s
• IPR and information security issues also affect B2B interaction
between customers and partners

5. Research motivation
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• The literature survey revealed that the knowledge about social media
use in business-to-business relations is currently fragmented into studies
of individual tools and technologies with little focus on the big picture,
and it is mainly based on individual cases.
• The very few studies combining social media and B2B standpoint
have been mainly studied from a marketing perspective, and less
attention placed on knowledge management.
• Moreover, empirical research is scarce in the area where social
media, B2B relations and knowledge management intersect.
B2B
Customers
B2B
Partners /
Suppliers
B2B
Company

6. Research aims
• We wanted to study how industrial B2B companies perceive the
potential, opportunities and challenges in using social media
with customers and partners
• In addition, we also wanted to gain further understanding from
the technological and organizational points of view of how
business-to-business organizations currently utilize social
media.
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7. Research design
• A questionnaire was designed to study social media potential
and use in the above mentioned context utilizing found
social media related literature, survey- type empirical social
media studies, as well as several social media expert
interviews.
• A sample of 2488 Finnish decision makers from the Federation of
Finnish Technology Industries were surveyed. The survey was
sent to managing directors of small and medium sized
businesses and to business development, product development
and communication managers in large companies
• A total of 151 responses were received to the Internet-based
survey, of which 143 were from unique companies. The duplicate
answers form same company were removed based on the
completeness of the answers. The effective response rate was
thus 6% (143/2488). From the answers of 143 unique
companies, 125 companies represented fully (100%) business-
to-business markets, which were chosen as the focus of this
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8. Functions of social media in customer
interface of B2B companies
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1. Most actively used in marketing, communication and branding (~40 %)
2. Improving customer service (21 %) and customer participation in R&D (9 %) less common, but
developing ways of using social media in B2B companies
* percentages represent at least some use in the above functions or practices
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Customer participation in R&D
Gathering customer leads
Building thought leadership
Improving customer service
Discovering customer needs
Product demos
Sales support
Employer branding and recruitment
Communications
Marketing

9. Social tools used in customer interface
of business-to-business companies
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0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Blogs
Microblogs
Wikis
Discussion forums
Social office tools
Open or private communities
Social networking sites
e.g. Facebook,
LinkedIn
e.g. customer
support forums
e.g. Twitter,
Yammer

10. Partner use of social media in B2B
companies
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0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Induction
Transfer of tacit knowledge
Network management
Preserving information in networks
Change management and communication
Improving the efficiency of project work
Utilize expert know-how and reduce workload
Sharing best practices
Project communication
General communication
Communication and collaboration
1. Social media use in communicating and collaborating with partners (¼ of B2B companies), but
2. less than 15 % of the survey B2B companies use social media in knowledge management with their
partners

11. Perceived potential of social media use
with customer and partners
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0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Gathering customer leads
Building thought leadership
Customer participation in R&D
Discovering customer needs
Improving customer service
Product demos
Sales support
Marketing
Communications
Employer branding and
recruitment
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Transfer of tacit knowledge
Change management and communication
Induction
Preserving information in networks
Network management
Utilize expert know-how and reduce
workload
Improving the efficiency of project work
Sharing best practices
Project communication
Communication and collaboration
General communication

12. Conclusions
• Concerning the experienced potential in the customer interface, six studied items
out of ten had a perceived potential of more than 20%. The studied B2B’s
seemed to perceive clearly a larger potential in the customer interface than in the
partner interface, while none of the studied eleven partner-related items were
perceived very important by more than 20%
• Currently, only a very minor part of studied B2B’s social media used social
media very actively. The partner-oriented use was even less active. Both the
current use and the seen potential seemed to be clearly higher in the customer
interface than in partner use.
• Our study discovered several potential factors at least partly explaining the
limited use: the most common reasons for not using social media were: a) other
projects being more important, b) and the companies not being able to measure
or assess the benefits for business, c) lack of good case studies, d) lack of
understanding the possibilities, and e) lack of resources
• To increase social media use in B2B context, at least the above-mentioned most
important social media adoption barriers should be addressed in companies, and
academic research should be carried out to produce a more systematically
organized, more holistic and less fragmented picture of the above issues.
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