ABSTRACT:
The study focuses on the problem of firms communicating via social networks in the B2B environment and also examines how companies behave on social networks. The goal of the study is to discuss the ways used by selected B2B businesses to make their customers use social networks. The inquiry is based on a case study of a B2B business active in the Czech Republic. To fulfil the goal, the authors researched personal characteristics of B2B customers, their psychological aspects and the corporate culture. This was made with help from the determination of five hypotheses. The study processed data from a survey focused on the company’s customers sent to top managers in an electronic way. The data was assessed with help of non-parametric and correlation tests. The research showed that there was still big space for the improvement of the perception of social networks as a useful tool in B2B business. The majority of factors influencing the use of social networks in B2B were showing a low dependence due to a weak correlation. A strong dependence was shown only by the relation between the use of social networks in private and in a company.
KEY WORDS:
B2B, business-to-business marketing, customer behaviour, online marketing, social media