Sotsiaalmeedia turundus era- ja ärikliendi suunal Eesti ettevõtetes

Abstract

The aim of the present bachelor thesis “The use of B2B and B2C social media marketing among businesses in Estonia” is to ascertain the reasons and purpose for why B2B and B2C enterprises use social media in Estonia and social media marketing in particular. Additionally, the paper at hand researches the practices Estonian B2B and B2C enterprises employ in the use of social media and marketing and seeks for the answer to how Estonian B2B and B2C enterprises have solved the problem of measuring the social media marketing and how they evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing in particular channels. The paper outlines the following points: how is social media marketing planned, executed and implemented among Estonian B2B and B2C enterprises , how do they use social media, and how does the usage of social media differ and, if any, what creates the differences. 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the fields of digital and social media from companies engaged in internet and digital marketing. Qualitative methods were employed in the analysis of the content. It was found from the interviews that the main reason why Estonian enterprises use social media is to enhance their reputation through communication and to develop the brand. The ultimate goal for using social media both for business and private customers is to boost sales. However, the means how B2B and B2C try to reach the goal differ, B2B is more oriented to relationships and creating an expert image of themselves whereas B2C is more driven to increase the auditorium and sales. Another important difference is the volume of the target audience – it is noticeably larger in the case of B2C social media marketing. The most used social media channel in Estonia is Facebook, specially when it comes to B2C. Blogs and LinkedIn are rather used for business-to-business marketing. Marketing in social media is moving more and more towards inbound marketing, where enterprises do not „push“ their information and messages upon people, but rather share it with those who want it, ask for it or subscribe for it. In addition to that, Estonian enterprises, according to experts have changed their ways in social media marketing and due to that have become more transparent, open, human-centred. Thanks to using social networks in marketing the anonymity has begun to decrease. The most important risks for B2C marketers, according to the interviewees, are unexpected reactions and criticism from the fan-base. Experts, on the other hand, consider leaving the channel without „guard“ and deleting comments the riskiest. Research showed that Estonian enterprises don’t measure social media as much as experts think they should due to the lack of resources, knowledge or interest and those who do measure, usually don’t conduct a needed elaboborate analysis based on the results. In comparison, B2C marketers are more likely to measure social media than B2B and according to the interviews, measuring is mainly conducted during the campaign period. Measuring ROI is considered to of paramount importance. The help and assistance of experts is mainly used by large companies with the necessary resources for the service. In most companies social media activities are mostly carried out by the marketing or communications manager, whereas in B2B marketing a higher level employee is more likely to manage the social media activities than in the case of B2C. Research showed that Estonian enterprises value the influence of social media highly and the expenditure on social media marketing have been increasing over the past few years, yet still biting just a small chunk of the whole marketing budget.