Insights on the adoption of social media marketing in B2B services

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review extant literature on social media marketing (SMM) in B2B service markets, by scrutinizing and categorizing potential benefits for firms. The study, in particular, empirically investigates the adoption of social media (SM) tools by firms operating in two conservative B2B service industries. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review is carried out driving to a deeper understanding of the current state of knowledge on SM in B2B services. Leading peer-review international journals are scrutinized performing ad-hoc queries on the Scopus database using pre-defined keywords. Moreover, a quantitative research is conducted on 60 firms, i.e. tanker shipping companies and ocean carriers, providing empirical insights on their SM activity on three SM platforms, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Findings: The outcomes from sample firms shed lights on the adoption rate of the most diffused SM tools, the size of the digital networks of stakeholders (number of followers), the intensity of the communication activity (number of posts, shares, photos, videos), and the level of customer engagement (number of likes and shares). Practical implications: Research findings suggest to managers that SMM might be an easy-accessible and low-cost option for keeping the pace of sectorial transformations and creating a competitive advantage even in conservative sectors. Originality/value: The paper, by investigating B2B service sectors, addresses an interesting gap in SMM literature as prior studies mostly focused on B2C industries and manufacturing contexts. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.