Social media in the business-to-business context .

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The choice of social media platforms

Most of the branches use Facebook since they are a local business and most of their customers are also present on Facebook. Respondents were asked about their opinion in using other platforms. One respondent noted that YouTube is a good way to market but the company does not use it, Instagram is used mainly for personal use so they don’t use it also, as for LinkedIn, they see it asmore related to job search and cannot be used for marketing“I know that LinkedIn its more work related or job related or if you change your job or looking for eh new field or if you’re looking for personal”. However, they see that with the use of Facebook they are able to target customers based on their interests, so everyone who follows them would be interested in their field. They mostly target contractors and farmers, and with the use of Facebook they are getting more known in the area they operate in. The branches see that Facebook is very important since their customers also use Facebook which are mostly farmers. And even though some of their customers may not be using Facebook that much, but they know it is very common to use social media especially Facebook.
They also noticed that their customer like to watch movies (videos) and see pictures, so they figured that Facebook is the perfect platform for posting such things.Through Facebook, the companies can post a link of their website in order to redirect customers to get more information from the main webpage. Furthermore, if they have a press release they use Facebook to post a link to direct customers and make them read more about it. Having a Facebook page can guarantee that their current and potential customers can have daily updates of what is happening in the company. So if they have an event or something coming up, Facebook will be the first place to publish the upcoming event.

The Advantages and obstacles of using social media in the B2B context.

The advantage of using social media is that it is a very cheap method. Söderberg & Haak AB, the headquarter, is now handling and spending on the traditional way of marketing, therefore, the branches can take advantage of that and focus better on social media and spend more on marketing through using it.
Using social media is useful in targeting the group of people that the company wants. This method makes it even a cheaper way to market rather than the traditional way of marketing that costs too much and has lower returns than social media. Targeting customers through social media also guarantees that people who follow the page are interested in the company otherwise they will not be following it. It is easier to make a post on Facebook, since it only takes a couple of minutes but it is considered an immature way to use social media.
Obstacles that face social media utilization in the branches are the lack of knowledge in how to use it so far. “I would be the first to admit that we are not trained, educated to use social media”. People who are handling the social media platforms in the branches are the same people who are handling sales, and the problem is that they don’t have time to handle both sides. There is no specific expertise that handles social media as a whole which could devote all his time and effort for this purpose. The problem in social media also, is that not everything can be shared, some information may not be suitable for posting, for example when posting a video they have to make sure that it does not contain any information that may be confidential.
Also in this industry face-to-face meetings are important to see the machine and examine it, know how it works or if it works and so on. The age of the employees is an important point to focus on too; since old employees still don’t believe in social media’s effectiveness and refuse to use it for marketing and to publish things on Facebook for example. They still believe in the traditional way, whereas young employees are more willing to adopt social media.
These companies see that it is important to move constantly. They need to keep updating their social media pages so that their customers don’t get bored of what they post since the new media lives shortly and needs to be updated frequently. Updating these pages requires time and effort to ensure nothing with negative consequences are published such as posts that give customers a bad impression about the company.

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1. Introduction
1.1 Justification of the topic
1.2 Problem discussion
1.3 The aim of the research.
1.4 Research questions.
1.5 Delimitation of the research.
1.6 Contributio
1.7 Limitations.
1.8 Dispositions
2. Literature Review .
2.1 Introduction.
2.2 Web 2.0 .
2.3 Social media
2.4 Business-to-Business
2.5 Social media in the business-to-business context .
2.5.1 The consequences of social media on B2B marketing
2.5.1.1 Advantages of social media on B2B marketing
2.5.1.2 Obstacles of social media on B2B marketing
2.6 Synthesis
3. Methodology.
3.1 Research philosophy.
3.2 Research approac
3.3 Research strategy.
3.3.1 Case study.
3.4 Research method.
3.5 Time horizons
3.6 Sample case
3.7 Data collection
3.7.1 Primary data collection
3.7.2 Secondary data collection.
3.8 Data analysis
3.9 Method Evaluation
4. Findings
4.1 Company overvie
4.2 Content analysis
4.3 Interview
5. Analysis.
5.1 The use, benefit and future of social media in Söderberg & Haak AB
5.2 The strategy of marketing agricultural and construction equipment offline/online.
5.3 The choice of social media platforms
5.4 The Advantages and obstacles of using social media in the B2B context
6. Conclusion
7. Discussions.
References