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Strategic use of social media within business-to-business (B2B) marketing: a systematic literature review

Strategic use of social media within business-to-business (B2B) marketing: a systematic literature review
Strategic use of social media within business-to-business (B2B) marketing: a systematic literature review
Social media are increasingly becoming a valuable tool for Business-to-Business (B2B) organizations. However, social media research in B2B lacks a comprehensive overview from a strategic perspective, with most research to date having been focused on the tactical use of social media platforms, that is to say, in describing specific tools to implement a strategy. In the present systematic literature review we address this deficiency. Our findings reveal that prior B2B research predominately investigated social media as short-term tactics with context-specific limitations. Our thematic analysis extends beyond these boundaries and extracts from the literature three relationship-orientated themes in social media, namely their use as a tool for: 1) sales-facilitation, 2) integrated communication, and 3) employee engagement. These three themes are distinct yet interdependent and are each necessary if organizations are to develop a competitive advantage within the social media environment. The descriptive statistics and thematic analysis in the study present a set of five key findings that reflect the research gaps presently in the literature and thus highlight significant future research directions. The study also highlights the utility for organizations to employ social media in a strategic manner rather than simply as a tactical tool.
Business-to-business (B2B) marketin, Digital marketing, Social media, Strategic marketing
0019-8501
35-58
Cartwright, Severina
b9a4cf34-169c-4001-adcc-e4c1c16fefa6
Liu, Hongfei
7d65edcf-20c9-452a-83c2-8b545b12f68c
Raddats, Chris
a85d90d5-9899-45d0-9e04-90172ae6d859
Cartwright, Severina
b9a4cf34-169c-4001-adcc-e4c1c16fefa6
Liu, Hongfei
7d65edcf-20c9-452a-83c2-8b545b12f68c
Raddats, Chris
a85d90d5-9899-45d0-9e04-90172ae6d859

Cartwright, Severina, Liu, Hongfei and Raddats, Chris (2021) Strategic use of social media within business-to-business (B2B) marketing: a systematic literature review. Industrial Marketing Management, 97, 35-58. (doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.06.005).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Social media are increasingly becoming a valuable tool for Business-to-Business (B2B) organizations. However, social media research in B2B lacks a comprehensive overview from a strategic perspective, with most research to date having been focused on the tactical use of social media platforms, that is to say, in describing specific tools to implement a strategy. In the present systematic literature review we address this deficiency. Our findings reveal that prior B2B research predominately investigated social media as short-term tactics with context-specific limitations. Our thematic analysis extends beyond these boundaries and extracts from the literature three relationship-orientated themes in social media, namely their use as a tool for: 1) sales-facilitation, 2) integrated communication, and 3) employee engagement. These three themes are distinct yet interdependent and are each necessary if organizations are to develop a competitive advantage within the social media environment. The descriptive statistics and thematic analysis in the study present a set of five key findings that reflect the research gaps presently in the literature and thus highlight significant future research directions. The study also highlights the utility for organizations to employ social media in a strategic manner rather than simply as a tactical tool.

Text
SLR_social media_B2B_FINAL updated - Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 6 July 2024.
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 11 June 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 July 2021
Published date: August 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Grant number: SRG1920\100433 Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords: Business-to-business (B2B) marketin, Digital marketing, Social media, Strategic marketing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 450452
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/450452
ISSN: 0019-8501
PURE UUID: 04daf79c-6353-4684-82cd-9e708006dd38
ORCID for Hongfei Liu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8539-9054

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 28 Jul 2021 16:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:01

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Contributors

Author: Severina Cartwright
Author: Hongfei Liu ORCID iD
Author: Chris Raddats

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