The use of social media in sales: individual organizational antecedents and the role of customer engagement / Azra Hannani Adni

Social media usage among customers has greatly increased. With an average daily time spent on social media sites of 121.18 minutes in 2012—an increase of 37% from the year before—people spent more time there than on any other type of website. Researchers are driven by this tendency to learn how to use social media to sway consumer preferences, purchases, and word-of-mouth recommendations. Additionally, academics have researched how to use social media to interact with customers and enhance their experience as well as the essential components of a social media marketing strategy. However, additional study is required to fully understand how social media is used in business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales in particular. It is acknowledged that contemporary selling calls for the application of technological capabilities, such as social media platforms, and how it impacts salesperson roles, buyer-seller relationships, and the sales organisation. In reality, however, B2B companies are just beginning to investigate the use of social media and still know very little about its primary forces and effects.