Social media has become an essential tool for the B2B marketing strategy, platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook or X are increasingly used to improve communication with customers and stakeholders. These offer a new channel to provide information, promote products and services, increase brand awareness and reputation, and ultimately drive business performance through customer acquisition, lead generation, up-selling, and cross-selling. However, for B2B businesses to effectively use social media as a marketing tool, it is imperative to understand and measure customer engagement on these platforms.
This study examined the role of the message source (company or employee-generated) and message content (emojis or information) in determining social media engagement. With the help of four experiments, the authors were able to make some observations about communication strategies on social networks in a B2B context. Here are the main managerial recommendations:
- Use employee-generated content: Employee-generated content (EGC) generates greater trust and engagement on social media than company-generated content (FGC). Specifically, the EGC induces higher engagement intentions and behaviors, for example customers will be more likely to “click here” if the message comes from an employee. It is therefore recommended that managers promote the active participation of employees in the creation and sharing of content on social networks to build trust and authenticity of interactions.
- Incorporate emojis into employee-generated content: Including emojis in employee-generated messages has a positive effect on engagement, as they make the message more personal and engaging. However, emojis can reduce the impact of company-generated messages, as they can be perceived as less professional.
- Avoid overly objective information in employee content: Adding factual or objective information to employee-generated messages can decrease their effectiveness in terms of engagement, as it creates a dissonance with the more personal nature of this type of content. Objective information would work best in company-generated content.
- Establish a social media user guide for employees: In order to minimize the risks associated with posts by the EGC, companies can establish guidelines as well as a protocol for employees to follow when representing their B2B company on social media. Providing guidelines on the tone, language and visuals to be used would allow employees to represent their company in a professional and appropriate manner.
The use of social media by B2B companies is increasingly being used to build trust with customers and partners, support sales, gain insights into customer preferences, generate leads, and drive innovation. By diversifying the source of the message (EGC or FGC) and its content (emotional or factual), companies could improve their customers’ engagement on social networks in a B2B context.
Source:
Balaji, M. S., Behl, A., Jain, K., Baabdullah, A. M., Giannakis, M., Shankar, A. et Dwivedi, Y. K. (2023). Effectiveness of B2B social media marketing: The effect of message source and message content on social media engagement. Industrial Marketing Management, 113, 243-257.