Social media acceptance in B2B marketing : A study exploring the reasons behind the difference in social media usage between B2B and B2C markets

Sammanfattning: Social media is a fast growing platform when it comes to marketing. It is, however, used to a greater extent by business-to-consumer (B2C) companies than by business-to-business (B2B) companies. Because of this there has been considerably less research done concerning marketing on social media for B2B, compared to B2C.  This study explores why social media marketing is less common in B2B than B2C. This was done by conducting eleven one-on-one interviews with people who work at different B2B companies, and who have influence over their respective company’s marketing process. To analyse and evaluate the findings of this study the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used. By identifying the external variables that deter B2B companies from using social media the perceived usefulness and ease of use were analysed in order to explore what affects the difference in social media acceptance for marketing between B2B and B2C companies.  The findings of this study show that the perceived ease of use is the dominant factor that deters B2B companies from using social media for marketing purposes. This is however not the reason for the difference between B2B and B2C. The difference can instead be explained by a more negative perception of the usefulness of marketing on social media. This negative perception is a result of the characteristics of social media, the industry the company is operating within, as well as the company’s products and customers.