Abstract

This research investigates the role and use of Twitter in business markets and benefits of using open social media channels to crowd source information to support innovation and build relationship in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. This study is based on a combination of methodologies, 52 face-to-face interviews across five countries are compared with a sample of their Tweets using Structural Topic Modelling (STM) which enabled triangulation between stated use of Twitter and respondent’s actual Tweets. The research confirmed that individuals used Twitter as a source of information, ideas and innovation within their industry. Twitter enables the building of relevant business relationships through the exchange of new, expert and high quality information within like-minded communities in real time, between companies and their suppliers, customers and also their peers. This research highlights the business relationship building capacity of Twitter as it enables customer and peer conversations that eventually support the development of product and service innovations.

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