Analysis of Content Creation in Social Media by B2B Companies

Jour nal of Business & Industri al Marketing Marketing Analysis of content creation in social media by B2B companies Lauri Huotari Pauliina Ulkuniemi Saila Saraniemi Minna Mäläskä

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Analysis of content creation in social media by B2B companies Lauri Huotari and Pauliina Ulkuniemi Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland Saila Saraniemi University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, and Minna Mäläskä Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

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Abstract Purpose – The present study aims to examine how business-to-business (B2B) marketers can influence content creation in social media. Social media tools are becoming an interesting component of B2B marketing because of the roles of personal relationships and interactions in these markets. However, research has not approached social media content creation from a B2B marketing perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Social media tools are becoming an interesting component of B2B marketing because of the roles of personal relationships and interactions in these markets. However, research has not approached social media content creation from a B2B marketing perspective. The present study examines how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media. Findings – The paper proposes that B2B firms engaging in social media as part of their marketing efforts should carefully consider the roles and activities of various users, which are directed to and by different internal and external users. B2B companies can influence content creation in social media directly by adding new content, participating in discussions and removing content through corporate user accounts and controlling employee social media behavior or indirectly by training employees to create desired content and performing marketing activities that influence other users to create content that is favorable for the company. Originality/value – The study contributes to the theoretical discussion over B2B marketing communication and the role of social media in it. Keywords Internal communications, Internet marketing, Marketing channels, Communication, Marketing communications, Business-to-business marketing Paper type Research paper

Introduction

and suppliers and, thus, deepen relationships ( Kho, 2008). Social media applications are enabled by the development of Internet-based online technologies, but technology itself is not the reason behind the popularity of applications such as Facebook or Twitter. Instead, social media are popular because individuals desire to be social and share their experiences with other people (Chaffey et al., 2009). Thus, social media tools are becoming an interesting component of B2B marketing because of the roles of personal relationships and interactions in these markets. In traditional marketing, the audience is passive, while interactive marketing communication tools, such as social media, engage their audience to become an active party in content creation (Wade, 2009). According to previous research (Smith et al. , 2012; Lee, 2013; Galea, 2007; Ryan and Jones, 2009), companies experience a loss of control when marketing via social media because the audience participates in content creation. Content created by an audience is better known as user-generated content (UGC) (Farrar, 2010). Even

In the literature, the traditional approach to business-tobusiness (B2B) marketing has highlighted the roles of personal relationships and interactions between sales representatives and customers. This traditional approach describes contact between sales representatives and customers as “the heart of effective customer relationship management” (Ford et al., 1998). More recently, marketing communications and branding have emerged as important areas of management in B2B marketing (Mäläskä et al. , 2011). For example, it has become more common for like-minded professionals within brand communities to share content, which contributes to B2B interactions (Andersen, 2005; Bruhn et al., 2013). Additionally, diverse tools of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare and blogs, have been the subject of increasing interest for B2B marketing because they provide faster and more personalized interactions between customers

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0885-8624.htm

The financial support of Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation is gratefully acknowledged. The research on which this paper is based is part of SHARP – a research group at the Martti Ahtisaari Institute of Oulu Business School.

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 30/6 (2015) 761–770 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] [DOI 10.1108/JBIM-05-2013-0118]

Received 23 May 2013 Revised 5 March 2014 Accepted 28 May 2014

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Content creation in social media by B2B companies

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

Lauri Huotari, Pauliina Ulkuniemi, Saila Saraniemi and Minna Mäläskä

Volume 30 · Number 6 · 2015 · 761–770

when a company hires a professional to create and develop content, the audience continues their conversation (Weber, 2007). According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) definition, UGC is published on a Web site that is publicly accessible or available to a select group of people, demonstrates some degree of creativity, is not created for commercial purposes (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61), highlights the perspective of the end-user and is uncontrollable. Control over content creation in social media is a critical issue for marketers because a single online contribution to a blog or forum can have long-term effects on the reputation of their company (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Until now, research has not approached social media content creation from a B2B marketing perspective. A review of the existing literature reveals that this topic has been examined mainly from the perspectives of business-toconsumer (B2C) marketing (Williams et al., 2010; Schultz and Peltier, 2013) or internal corporate communications or recruiting (Frankola, 2009; Leader-Chiveé et al., 2008). UGC creation involves the willingness of customers to engage in activities related to co-creation, community and self-concept (Christodoulides et al., 2012). Additionally, user-generated content creation has been connected to brand equity because, according to research, firm-created social media communication impacts functional brand images, whereas UGC creates hedonic brand images (Bruhn, et al ., 2012). It has been proposed that the optimization of UGC is central to applications of new interactive social media in marketing communication. The increasing adoption of new media channels in marketing communications related to brand and management of customer relationships motivates research in this area. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media. First, we will review existing knowledge about social media in general and content creation in particular. We will focus on identifying different types of users of social media as potential content creators especially in a B2B context. Our theoretical framework presents the different actors relevant to B2B social media marketing and content creation and depicts their mechanisms for influencing B2B content. Second, we conduct an empirical study to elaborate on the theoretical model. Our empirical research method is qualitative because a limited amount of research has been carried out in this area. Empirical data are based on interviews of representatives of B2B firms with experience in the use of social media and the management of content creation for marketing purposes. Four industry experts were interviewed. In the analysis, abductive reasoning was used because knowledge was built on the basis of a theoretical model and empirical data (Dubois and Gadde, 2002).

and reach the top of search engine results (Ryan and Jones, 2009). These elements enable opportunities for B2B marketers, but they also pose challenges and may cause some B2B firms to hesitate to use social media. Indeed, B2B organizations seem to have acknowledged the potential of social media more slowly than B2C companies (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Chaffey et al. (2009) noted that creating a dialogue through interactivity is an important feature of the Internet. For B2B companies, social network sites enable interactions with their customers for creating customer value, as well as building and fostering relationships (Michaelidou et al. , 2011). According to Haeckel (1998), interactivity can be defined as the synchronous exchange of information or the way two or more organisms relate to each other. Interactivity between people may be direct or occur through a medium. Thus, we argue that interactions between users of social media contribute to content creation. In the present study, we define content creation according to Hoffman and Novak (1996) as interactions in hypermedia computer-mediated environments .

Who are the users of social media? Users of social media have been examined extensively in the literature. Li and Bernoff (2008) classify users into six groups based on how they participate in social media: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives. Creators and critics create the content of social media. Creators add new content, generate conversations, publish blogs or online articles, or upload video or audio content to social media channels. Critics react to content, for example, by posting comments on blogs or editing wikis. Collectors organize huge amounts of content created by critics and creators. For example, collectors add tags to Web pages or photos and vote for Web sites that guide users when they seek, visit or join these communities. Joiners maintain their profiles on social networking sites and visit those sites. Spectators are the largest group, and they are consumers of social media. Other researchers have categorized users of social media in similar ways. In Table I, we present a selection of different studies that classify users of social media. We identified roles that are active or influential in content creation in the last column. From the perspective of content creation, the most active and influential users are creators and critics (Li and Bernoff, 2008), celebrities (Golder, 2003), lead members (Pitta and Fowler, 2005) and evangelists (Lee et al. , 2006). According to Li and Bernoff (2008), creators actually upload new content. For example, a company functions as a creator when it shares news about itself via Twitter, publishes a corporate blog or uploads corporate videos to YouTube. Critics are users who react to content uploaded by creators (Li and Bernoff, 2008). Celebrities, lead members and evangelists have relatively large influence over their communities (Golder, 2003; Lee et al., 2006; Pitta and Fowler, 2005). They devote much time and energy to their communities, for example, by uploading numerous posts and involving and expressing themselves (Golder, 2003; Lee et al. , 2006; Pitta and Fowler, 2005). In contrast to celebrities, lead members and evangelists, newbies are newcomers to communities (Golder, 2003; Kozinets, 1998).

Role of social media interactions in content creation The major implications of the development of Internet technology for marketing communications are interactivity, transparency and memory (Gura˘u, 2008). With respect to memory and transparency, companies are concerned that Internet-based information, especially negative online conversations about a company, can extend to bad publicity

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Table I Different classifications of users of social media Author

Roles suggested

Description

Relation to content creation

Golder (2003)

Newbies

Newbies have made their first online postings but do not have strong commitment to social networks Celebrities contribute much time and energy to a community Free-riders only “lurk” in online communities Newbies are newcomers to a community Evangelists are leading members of a network Creators invent new content and upload it to social media Critics react to original content, for example, by commenting and criticizing it Collectors share and organize content Joiners belong to social networks and maintain their profiles Spectators consume what others produce. They are the biggest group of users Inactives do not participate in online communities Lurkers belong to a specific online culture before actively participating Lead members are highly involved in a community at all levels and upload the most content

Low

Celebrities Kollock and Smith (1996) Kozinets (1998) Lee et al. (2006) Li and Bernoff (2008, pp. 41-45)

Free-riders Newbies Evangelists Creators Critics Collectors Joiners


Spectators

Nonnecke and Preese (2001)

Inactives Lurkers

Pitta and Fowler (2005)

Lead members

Because newbies, celebrities, lead users and evangelists are active participants in their communities (Golder, 2003; Kozinets, 1998; Lee et al., 2006; Pitta and Fowler, 2005), they can be either creators or critics. Collectors do not create content, but they have the important role of spreading content in social media (Li and Bernoff, 2008). Thus, collectors may be defined as creators or critics because they share content that can be interpreted as a new contribution to the community. For example, sharing a YouTube video as new content in a different community can generate new conversation about that video.

Very influential user Passive Low Very influential user Actively creates new content Actively comments (Actively shares content) Passive Passive Passive Passive Very active user

specific employees. A corporate user can be the company itself or its B2B marketers. An employee user, on the other hand, can be identified and connected to her or his employer. An employee user has a human personality and, thus, can communicate in a personal way in social media. From the marketer’s perspective, it is important to define the employees who create and control the professional content for a company (Lee et al., 2006). This subject can be addressed by viewing corporate blogging as an example of social media (Lee et al., 2006; Ryan and Jones, 2009). Corporate blogs offer a much more personal level of communication and interaction with customers than, for example, a static corporate Web site (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Of course, the level of controllability depends upon a company’s social media tactics Brennan and Croft (2012). Those authors identified two basic tactics used by B2B companies: 1 tighter corporate control over content to ensure a coherent message; and 2 empowerment of the staff to more openly engage with wider social media audiences.

Users of social media in the B2B context Although most of the previous research on users of social media has focused on consumer context, the same roles are also applicable in the B2B context. In social media, creators and critics actually create content. In terms of UGC creation, especially in B2B marketing, a marketer must consider the broad range of external stakeholders (Bruhn et al., 2013) and internal employees (Brennan and Croft, 2012) of their firm. Internal users In this study, the term “internal user” refers to a user who is on the payroll of a company. From the perspective of a B2B marketer, internal users are colleagues. According to Lee et al. (2006), it is important to pay attention to employees of a company who can create company-related content in social media. We divide internal users of social media into two sub-user groups: corporate users and employee users, who use social media not only to communicate on a personal level (Ryan and Jones, 2009) but also as a traditional mass communication medium (Lee et al., 2006). Corporate users represent the voice of the company and cannot be identified as

Additionally, two strategies are discussed in Lee et al.’s (2006) study on blogging: 1 company-wide blogging, i.e. a “bottom-up” strategy allowing grassroots employees to blog; and 2 a “top-down” blogging strategy where bloggers include specific professional, a group of professionals or even a company executive. According to Lee et al. (2006), a top–down blog can enhance corporate credibility and trust by sharing well-considered opinions about a company and give outsiders new insight

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Influence of marketing activities on content creation

about the corporate culture. On the other hand, Brennan and Croft (2012, p. 112) argued that this “protectiveness over the brand” may indicate social media “laggards”. In contrast, “leaders” multiply their presence and impact across social media, although not always as planned. However, Lee et al. (2006) stress that the authenticity rather than the number of bloggers is necessary for success. An authentic human voice is important element of blogging because it separates corporate blogging from traditional marketing channels.


Internal activities influencing content creation – direct and indirect Social media involve many-to-many communication, which provides an opportunity for marketers to engage in conversations about corporate issues (Ryan and Jones, 2009). According to Ryan and Jones (2009), social media marketing consists of two basic elements: 1 raising the online profile of the business, products and services by contributing positively to the online community; and 2 managing the reputation of the company by monitoring, assessing, responding to and influencing online conversations.

External users In this study, the term “external user” refers to all users of social media other than internal users. External users are divided into groups: corporate users, customer users, professional users and civilian users. Corporate users are enterprises that use their company voice for content creation. The term “customer users” describes individuals who are employees of current or potential customers of B2B marketers. As potential decision-makers for customers, they are the most interesting audience for B2B marketers. “Professional users” are other business-related stakeholders. “Civilian users” are individuals who are interested in the company but are not connected professionally to the company. Because social media communities are formed by individuals who share common interests (Alavi et al. , 2011; Kietzmann et al. , 2011), the stakeholders of a company may be interconnected through social media. Thus, B2B marketers should consider all stakeholders as possible users and content creators of social media. Potential stakeholders include not only buyers but also investors, media representatives and potential employees (Brennan and Croft, 2012). In fact, Brennan and Croft (2012, p. 111) argued that B2B-related discussions on Facebook or Twitter are often endorsements from trusted, known sources rather than comments from “random strangers” as in consumer markets. Table II summarizes internal and external users of social media from the perspective of B2B marketers. Different users can act as a creator or a critic in social media, but her or his activity and influence over the community depends on that individual.

Kietzmann et al. (2011) discussed how companies can benefit from social media by starting or manipulating conversations. Descriptions proposed by Ryan and Jones (2009) and Kietzmann et al. (2011) are consistent with those of different roles for users in content creation (Li and Bernoff, 2008). A creator is a community member who contributes by starting a conversation. A critic responds to conversations and, thus, she or he influences content creation. Thus, a company can influence content creation by adopting the role of a creator or a critic and interacting with other members of communities. This is a direct way to influence content creation, and it is only activity that is controlled completely by B2B marketers. Online communities are potential media that companies can use to interact and build relationships with their customers (Alavi et al., 2011; Bruhn et al., 2013). For example, a blog can be a medium for generating conversations with customers, ask their opinions and gauge their reactions to changes in the company and the industry (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Conversations in social media can have a positive tone, but certain discussion may damage the reputation of a company (Ryan and Jones, 2009; Szmigin et al. , 2005). Employees can engage actively in content creation for their company by participating in online conversations. However, employee participation in conversations can provide indirect influence from the perspective of marketers. As

Table II Users of social media from the perspective of B2B marketers Users

Description

Internal users

Corporate user Employee user

User can be identified as an enterprise. Content created or added by a company is treated as a voice of the company. Corporate user can be the B2B marketer itself Employee user can be identified as an ambassador representing their company. Employee user has an occupational identity. Some employee users are more influential than others

External users

Corporate user Customer user Professional user Civilian user

User can be identified as an enterprise. Content created or added by a company is treated as a voice of the company Customer users are individuals who are customers or potential customers of the company. They are the most attractive audience for marketing activities. Some customer users are more influential than others Professional users are all stakeholders of the company other than customers or potential customers. They have professional connections to the business where the company operates Civilian user represents him- or herself in social media and not their employer. Civilian users are not connected professionally to the business

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Bruhn et al. (2013) noted, interactions in B2B brand communities are driven mainly by professional objectives. It would be ideal to allow employees to perform as online evangelists. However, their participation in social media raises issues related to control. For example, use of corporate blogs involves balancing control over employees with their autonomy to act as online evangelists. (Lee et al. , 2006). It is an internal corporate responsibility to brief employees about participating in social media.

Kozinets et al. (2011) describe two principal alternative means for influencing content creation without direct participation by marketers: 1 the beginning of a conversation can be organic; and 2 a company can indirectly influence other parties. When the marketer does not intend to generate a conversation, that conversation is purely organic. In this case, users of social media simply start to discuss a specific subject. A company may not have access to conversations when communities limit access to a particular audience (Gura˘u, 2008; Kietzmann et al ., 2011). An opinion leader can be described as an individual whose WOM opinions, whether online or offline, are influential (Godes and Mayzlin, 2009), and this description parallels one description of online evangelists (Lee et al., 2006). A company should try to engage users who are influential and trusted sources in their communities. We use the term “influential user” to refer to those individuals who exert significant influence over members of a community (Figure 1). According to previous research (Chaffey et al. , 2009; Godes and Mayzlin, 2009; Haywood, 1989; Kozinets et al. , 2011; Lee et al., 2006; Li and Bernoff, 2008), a marketer can encourage and indirectly influence content creation through different marketing activities. Figure 1 illustrates how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media. In Figure 1, solid lines represent direct influence, and dotted lines represent potential indirect influence.

External activities influencing content creation – direct and indirect A marketer can directly influence content creation by adopting the role of a creator or a critic. If a company is not directly participating in content creation, then their influence can be described as indirect . Based on the assumption that communities and networks of social media must have creators and critics (Li and Bernoff, 2008), a company can indirectly influence UGC creation by affecting creators and critics. Generating and influencing conversations indirectly is associated with word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. Word-of-mouth communication is a significant feature of social media because social networking sites afford the possibility to monitor the spreading of WOM (Trusov et al., 2009). Haywood (1989) describes the traditional view of WOM as “getting opinion leaders to spread good words about the company in the marketplace”.

Figure 1 The B2B company influences on content creation in social media

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Empirical research methods


the B2B context, participation in social media conversations depends on the community and its users. B2B companies are willing to participate in conversations in communities where the debaters are professionals and related to the industry. The role of a corporate user is to communicate company or industry related information through corporate accounts in different social media applications. For example:

To elaborate on our theoretical framework, we conducted an empirical study. Data were collected through four semistructured expert interviews of four B2B marketers who use social media in their work. All of these interviewees are involved in designing, coordinating and executing B2B social media marketing. We selected these subjects because they are experts experienced in the influence of UGC creation. We also wanted to involve experts representing different business contexts in terms of company size and nature of the business and customer base (Table III). Interviews were conducted face-to-face and recorded. All recordings were transcribed. Interview themes were based on the theoretical framework and indirect and direct means for companies to influence content creation in social media. The purpose of these interviews was to reveal how these companies attempt to influence content creation in social media. Certain questions concerned different types of users. These questions were intended to determine whether corporate employee and civilian social media users exist in the B2B context. The analysis of these empirical data was initiated by repeatedly reading and browsing the data to obtain an overview. At the beginning of the actual analysis, QSR NVivo 9 software was used to organize the material according to the themes in the theoretical framework.

We use Power Plant Ltd. corporate account for everything we publish in social media. Sure employees can publish as individuals everything they want but we publish everything in the name of the company. It is a corporate identity. We have to consider that everything we publish can be interpreted as company’s comments. Basically if we re-tweet [re-publish a message made by third party] something it can be interpreted as our opinions or comments. Power Engines Ltd (Interviewee).

A corporate user is a “corporate voice” that represents the thoughts of the entire company. Corporate user accounts are an extension for “traditional” communication channels, and the role of a corporate user is to communicate company or industry related information at a companywide level. The administrator of a corporate user account can remove content published by other users. Removing comments is one way to directly influence the content. According to our data, the tone of conversations among professionals is mainly positive, and there is little need to remove negative comments. Only irrelevant and inappropriate comments by civilians are removed. Negative comments are managed by responding directly to their authors:

Empirical analysis

We have answered to them [negative commenting] as best we can. Power Engines Ltd. (Interviewee).

This empirical analysis is organized according to influencing internal activities and influencing external activities. According to our framework, internal activities include corporate user accounts and training and means to control the social media behavior of employees. External activities are direct actions as well as other marketing activities.

Indirect influence through training employees about social media behavior

Influencing internal activities Direct influence through corporate user accounts Adding content is an obvious way to influence content. According to our data, a B2B company can directly influence content by participating in conversations or removing content , if possible. Participating in conversations is an appropriate way to influence content, especially in the B2B context. However, in

Our study suggests that employers train their employees’ active participation and content creation. Power Engines Ltd. systematically trains its employees to use social media to achieve their daily business objectives. This is an indirect influence over content creation that encourages employees to create certain content. The role of employee users is to participate in conversations related to their company and industry. One of the interviewees summarized his influence on content creation in social media as follows:

We haven’t removed any conversations [from the communities that are administered by Power Plant Ltd.] except spamming. Conversations with businesslike tone we won’t remove, that is the starting point. Power Engines Ltd. (Interviewee).

Table III Description of the interviewees Company

Size of the Position of the interviewee(s) company

Agricultural wholesaler Ltd Lightning Ltd

Entrepreneur

Micro firm

Managing Director Marketing Coordinator

SME

Software Ltd

Director, Administration & Marketing

SME

Power Engines Ltd

Senior Manager of communications and branding

Global firm with 20,000 employees

Social media tools in use

Main area of business

Customers

A wholesale vendor of agricultural products Develops and produces LED lights and related software Develops customized software for business customers

Local farms and businesses Wholesalers and construction companies

Facebook

ICT manufacturers, banking and insurance sectors and technology companies in traditional industries Industrial multinational manufacturers in different industries

Corporate blog, LinkedIn account

Supplies power engine equipment and solutions

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In practice, we try to promote for our employees to participate in conversations if they locate one. Power Engines Ltd. (Interviewee).

The amount of conversations is incredibly huge. Only thing we can do is to communicate to business units that if they perceive conversations they should participate in them because it may be useful. In practice we try to promote to take part in conversations. Power Engines Ltd. (Interviewee).

It is important that all employees who participate in conversations in social media understand the content and “tone of voice” desired by their employer. The nature of social media makes it possible for uncontrolled negative commentary to spread throughout the Internet. Thus, when participating in conversations, the tone of responses is especially critical. Employee participation in social media is also a matter of corporate politics. According to these interviews, employee participation in conversations related to their companies or industries should be guided at some level, but these employers trust the judgment of their employees. Companies vary in their needs to brief their employees about using social media. According to our interviews, some companies do not instruct their employees but plan to begin to provide training: ) T P ( 6 1 0 2 y r a u r b e F 7 2 6 4 : 4 0 t A n o i t a i c o s s A s u l P s i l e n A y b d e d a o l n w o D

According to these interviews, it is appropriate to respond to both positive and negative commentary. However, given the vast amount of social media content, responding to every comment or example of company related content would require extensive resources. Direct influence through controlling content creation by employees

The most extreme way to influence content creation is to deny employees the opportunity to debate certain issues or participate in certain social media platforms or forums. According to the data, this approach can block corporaterelated issues from the public. This gives for a company an opportunity to control corporate communications as desired. Preventing members of an organization from participating in conversations can be interpreted as a direct way to influence content creation. According to these interviews, in terms of controlling its employees’ content creation, the company should consider carefully where to restrict employee participation in social media to control content creation:

No we haven’t [instructions how social media should be used]. In fact it would be topical at this moment (Lightning Ltd.). On other hand, the best instructions would be “be smart” when acting as an employee in spare-time and in conversations [of social media]. I think that our employees have behaved in smart way when they have participated in conversations. If you have lots of instructions and directions it wouldn’t work (Agricultural Wholesaler Ltd.).

A couple of years ago, a CEO of another Finnish LED-lightning manufacturer participated in conversations in social media. For example in [general discussion forum]. I think that it wasn’t a very positive thing. He or she tried to stand up for different issues but other participants tore him or her into pieces [. . .]. That is why we haven’t participated in those conversations [between civilians]. CEO’s and company’s names were public information (Agricultural Wholesaler Ltd.).

Only several people participate in a real-life conversation, whereas a single person can “shout” their opinions to the whole world through social media. Thus, “the tone of voice” is a very critical issue: I have to think about the content because it is very important to evaluate what kind of associations it could call up in different segment groups. It is very challenging. Basically the content should not insult anyone. But the content is always different. A message to professionals includes professional expressions and it is pointed to professionals (Agricultural Wholesaler Ltd.).

Participating in conversations in communities where civilians are debating is treated with hesitance. Civilians use nicknames, and their comments may be inappropriate in content and tone. Debate among civilians is undesirable because it lacks professional perspective and opinions may be extremely polarized. It is a difficult task to control and monitor employee social media behavior due to the extensiveness of social media. In summary, B2B companies can influence content creation in two manners: 1 direct influence by adding and removing content through corporate user accounts and controlling content creation by employees; and 2 indirect influence through training employees in social media behavior.

It is important for a B2B company to understand that employees have professional and civilian user identities in social media. People act as civilians and as individuals in certain social media platforms, e.g. in their spare-time, but they represent their employer in work-related platforms: Our sales representatives’ participation [in LinkedIn] is related to sales. I think that their purpose is to increase sales and awareness about the company (Lightning Ltd.). Our employee from product development has commented a news report in [local newspaper] but in his own name (Agricultural Wholesaler Ltd.).

According to our data, employees participate in social media to promote their occupational expertise. In the B2B context, users signal their professionalism and create an important and influential status in social media. Certain users are more influential than others. In the B2B context, greater professionalism connotes a more influential user express. Employee participation differs in online and actual conversations with the professionals. The difference is that conversations in social media are available to users other than the original participants. Other users can access the discussion until an administrator removes the content:

However, it is essential to identify clear roles of corporate and employee users. Corporate users should focus on general marketing related to the company, whereas employee users should demonstrate professionalism and interact as individuals.

Influencing external activities According to our data relevant to direct actions that influence content creation by influential professional users, it seems unlikely that a B2B marketer can exert influence over the content creation by influencing specific social media users. Instead of “lobbying” one or two users, the interviewees influence the content of social media by promoting marketing messages through other communication channels. This approach directs the public opinion about the company. Additionally, influencing the audience at a public level is a possible means to influence conversations that have not been identified.

[. . .] [corporate blogging] is a long-term process to create professional image to the writer (Lightning Ltd.).

Extent and number of different conversations in social media are enormous. It would appear unlikely that only a few people could have a significant influence. When an employee locates a conversation concerning his or her business area, he or she should be capable of joining it:

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Civilians may, however, participate in debates among professionals. Debates between civilians may vary from one extreme to another. Their experiences and information is based on public images and publicly available information about companies and industries:

it is critical to integrate external marketing activities and social media behavior of the company.

Summary of the empirical analysis In Figure 2, we summarize the empirical analysis and present an empirically adjusted framework for understanding how a B2B company can influence social media content. In comparison to our theoretical understanding, we have identified three empirically grounded adjustments to our framework. First, instead of emphasizing direct actions to influence external users, we argue, with respect to external marketing activities, that it is more reasonable to use an integrated marketing communication strategy in which the advancement of user-generated content creation is also taken as an objective for actions. Thus, through external marketing activities in general, firms should also aim to engage prospective and current customers to initiate social media content creation. In a B2B setting, this might be related to existing customers giving references or leads for creating content that is relevant to potential sales efforts. Second, in addition to professional community, we have added a second type of community, a civilian community. The civilian community represents the social media communities in which civilians debate about issues related to B2B companies or industries. Professional communities represent a community in which professionals debate and to which civilians most likely do not have access. The empirical data

Our company has been mentioned a few times in conversations in [general discussion forum] or similar sites. We notice it when somebody has linked our website to the conversations (Lightning Ltd.). The conversation is very diverse because non-professionals and people who pretend professionals present false statements about different lightning technologies. In other hand some of them are smart and ventilate different alternatives. In practice then our company is brought out. Lightning Ltd.


Our data indicates that desired outcomes can be obtained by integrating marketing activities, e.g. using traditional marketing communication to influence social media content. For example, a company that does not have access to a specific social media community can have indirect influence through other communication mediums. Indirectly influencing the content of social media through other communication mediums is one approach to controlling large numbers of conversations: Sure we try to influence them through other [communication] mediums [than social media] every time it is possible. It is normal. Conversations concerning the industry are difficult to influence because there is so much of it (Power Engines Ltd. – Interviewee).

In summary, B2B marketers are limited in their ability to directly influence content creation by external users. More importantly, performing marketing activities can be applied to influence external civilian and professional users. In this case,

Figure 2 Empirically adjusted framework of a B2B company influencing social media content creation

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strongly support the diversion between civilian and B2B communities as well as the importance for B2B companies to notice the possible threats of participation in civilian conversations. Importantly, civilian communities are not the types of communities in which the corporate users or employee users should take part, but rather the influence of the company may be conducted indirectly through civilian users. According to the empirical data, debate between civilians can be extremely far-reaching in social media. If a B2B company aims to influence conversations among civilians, its resources allocated to the task should be relatively much higher than those resources allocated to directly influencing B2B communities. Third, the empirical findings of this study are with regard to the attitudes for how to treat social media behaviors of employees. Instead of controlling employees’ social media behaviors, companies should merely focus on training and encouraging employees to use social media. Our data clearly indicate that social media is such a new form of communication that, to use it successfully, employees require training.

rights. However, on the basis of these findings, it is more important to encourage and support the use of social media by training employees rather than focusing on limiting its use. Additionally, Brennan and Croft (2012) pinpoint openness on the part of a company as a means for employees to position themselves as innovative experts in the market. With respect to managerial implications, professional communities are valuable for B2B companies because their employees can promote their occupational professionalism to other professionals. In professional communities, the identities of users and their employers are available to other users. Thus, employees of B2B companies can create personal relationships through social media and promote their products and services to appropriate audiences. It is important to control the choice of social media where employees are allowed to represent their company. Certain civilian communities are inappropriate places to promote professionalism and debate issues concerning the industry. In summary, we acknowledge the limitations of our research. The focus of our research is a phenomenon that has not been researched extensively within the B2B sector. Thus, our findings are exploratory insights that should be investigated further in future research. In terms of our empirical approach, our intention was to learn how informants view channels and methods of influence. However, our examination did not focus on mechanisms of influence at the level of revealing actions and their outcomes. In future studies, this type of examination would contribute to the knowledge required to take a clear strategic stand on the use of social media by B2B firms.

Conclusions The purpose of the present study was to learn how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media. In conclusion, we propose that B2B firms engaging in social media as part of their marketing efforts should carefully consider the roles and activities of various users, which are directed to and by different internal and external users, as depicted in our framework (Figure 2). In a B2B context, the content of social media is created by corporate, employee, professional and civilian users, all of whom play crucial roles in the complex ensemble of social media and content creation. We suggest that a B2B company can influence content creation in social media directly by adding new content, participating in discussions and removing content through corporate user accounts and controlling employee social media behavior or indirectly by training employees to create desired content and performing marketing activities that influence other users to create content that is favorable for the company. We also pinpoint the difference between professional and civilian communities and recommend that companies consider both communities in their social marketing strategies. Our findings support existing theories that B2B marketers can directly influence content through corporate user accounts (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Li and Bernoff, 2008; Ryan and Jones, 2009). Our data concur with the existing theory stating that communicating through a corporate user account is an extension of corporate communications (Brennan and Croft, 2012). According to these data, corporate user accounts are used to communicate company- or industryrelated information to different social media applications, whereas employee users generally participate in discussions in a more interactive manner. According to previous research, a B2B company must communicate to its employees the type of content they should or should not add to social media (Lee et al. , 2006; Ryan and Jones, 2009; Szmigin et al., 2005). Training employees to use social media in a desired manner can be interpreted as an indirect attempt to influence content creation. Existing theories mainly emphasized outlining opportunities for employees to participate in social media and limiting their

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Corresponding author Pauliina Ulkuniemi can be contacted at: pauliina.ulkuniemi@ oulu.fi

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