Abstract Title: Social Media Content to Build B2B Relationships – An Exploratory Study of Customers to SMEs on the Californian Business Market for Financial Services Faculty: School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University Program: The Business Administration and Economics Programme Course: 4FE63E – Degree Project in Marketing, The Business Administration and Economics Programme, 30 credits, spring 2017 Author: Emma Lickhammer Mentor: Åsa Lindström Examiner: Professor Bertil Hultén Research question: How is social media content engaging for customers on the financial services business market while building relationships? Purpose: This study aims to interpret how social media content is engaging for business-to-business customers on the SME, financial services market, in terms of relationship building. It also intends to assist Xennial BZ Solution with advice to a basis of decision-making while executing their relationship marketing strategy on social media. Methods: This thesis has been conducted as a qualitative cross-sectional study with an exploratory purpose and an inductive approach. The data has been collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a qualitative data analysis. Result and conclusions: I conclude that social media presence engages customers on the financial services business market in relationship building if right content is created on right platforms to right customers. It appeared in the result that customers use social media in the information-seeking process and in the interaction process and that successful integration and understanding of the platforms contribute to higher response rates, which promotes relationship building. Delimitations: This study aims to focus on customers on the Californian market for financial services, which delimits the scope of this study. It is also delimited to only cover SMEs and might therefore not be relevant for larger organizations. This thesis is also delimited to just focus on selected social media platforms and might therefore not be applicable to all situations. Theoretical and practical contributions: The theoretical contribution from this thesis fills the knowledge gap concerning how social media content engages customers on the financial iv services business market to build relationships. The practical contribution is given by this thesis to provide Xennial BZ Solution with recommendations regarding how they should implement social media content in their relationship marketing strategy. Key words: business-to-business, financial services, financial services marketing, SMEs, social media, social media marketing, content marketing, customer engagement.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-69070 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Lickhammer, Emma |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring (MF) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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