Branding and Social Media in B2B

Running head: BRANDING AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN B2B
BRANDING AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN B2B
Name of the student
Name of the university
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1. Introduction
The B2B branding activities through social media platforms enable an organization in
improving client relations. However, significant issues like information security and targeting
content to inappropriate audience might reflect on the potentiality of an organization in
improving their scope for branding the propositions. The report will focus on recognizing the
different concerns that are being encountered by AGCO and the manner in which the issues
might be mitigated.
2. Brief description of AGCO Corporation
The concerned organization, AGCO Corporation is an American organization that is
aimed at manufacturing agricultural equipment. The organization was established in the year
1990 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia (Agcocorp.com 2020). The diverse range of
agricultural propositions is grounded on the effective functioning of the different systems in
accordance with the sustainable strategies of the business. The company has taken the initiative
of developing the social media strategy for boosting their B2B sales. The collaborated promotion
made by the organization through social media platforms enabled the venture in attracting the
attention of its target clients while operating in accordance to the sustainable strategies of the
business. The business reported around 180,000 fans on Facebook, 3,000 subscribers in
YouTube, and 10,000 followers on Twitter (Agcocorp.com 2020).Therefore, the company has
been chosen with the purpose of assessing the efficiency of positioning the B2B brand through
the different social media platforms.

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3. Identification and Discussion of Key Theoretical Issues in relation to the company
The social media utilization for B2B branding in the concerned business might result to
different risks. The risks might reflect on the potentiality of the organization in increasing the
efficiency of the business operations while increasing the rate of promotions. In this relation, the
section will identify the different business risks while operating on B2B branding through social
media platforms.
Security threats:
Security threats relating to the information that is being forwarded is one of the biggest
challenges that are faced by the organizations while branding their B2B activities. Information
thefts and leakage to third parties might create an increasing concern towards the brand image of
an organization. In this relation, the concerned organization encounter an increased threat of data
safety due to their proactive presence in the social media platforms. The loss of client
information might reflect on the potentiality of the concerned organization in upholding the
value of trust and commitment of the clients. Moreover, the loss of client relations might
incapacitate the organization in improving their sales volume in the different markets.
While discussing on the theory of FLOW- the psychology of Optimal experience
Graham and Mudambi (2016) opined that the human needs of safety and security are the major
aspects that might be considered. In this relation, the information breach or theft might pose a
severe impact on the sense of security and safety of the clients, resulting to diminishing trust and
confidence of the same on the different organizational operations. According to Österle, Kuhn
and Henseler (2018), the lack of effective monitoring and controlling activities from the side of
an organization in upholding the security of information might result to diminished client
experience. It has been observed that most of the clients in the B2B are business owners and are

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thereby speculative about their security and confidentiality of information. Upholding the
anonymity of the clients is an essential function that the organization is required to concentrate
on while improving their social media coverage and branding.
Tarnovskaya and Biedenbach (2016) stated that the advent of technological platforms, the
security codes and their relevant breakthroughs reflect on the potentiality of an organization in
upholding the efficiency of the business operations while operating in accordance to the
sustainable strategies of the business. In this relation, the growing threat of technological
developments might create an adverse situation for the concerned business organization while
resolving issues relating to managing the information and securing the same against data thefts.
Therefore, the concerned organization face significant amount of risks relating to the safety and
security of the confidential information of the business through exposure to different social
media platforms.
User experience:
User experience while using the different platforms play an important role in improving
the quality of the B2B branding activities. According to Koporcic et al. (2018), the user
experience plays a central role in empowering the engagement of the clients. The social media
platforms holds a series of pros and cons that might reflect on the potentiality of the
organizations in developing content in accordance to the client interests. For an example, it has
been observed that YouTube provides the clients with little opportunity of holding one-on- one
conversation with the concerned business (Andersson, Vierimaa and Sundkvist 2018). The
limited interaction with the clients, while using YouTube as a platform, might reflect on the
capabilities of the organization in demonstrating their chief deliverables.

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The absence of appropriate positioning of the contents or information in the different
social media platforms might reduce awareness among the target audience. According to Cassia
and Magno (2019), the business clients have several queries which is resolved through the use of
different social media interactional strategies that are initiated by the B2B companies. However,
the choice of the media vehicles and the content for communication reflect ons the experience of
the clients while demonstrating the benefits of the offerings. The concerned organization might
encounter significant challenges in upholding the client relationships. Pyper and Gounaris (2016)
stated that the client relationships are maintained by an entity through effective interactions with
the same on the propositions.
The lack of effective communication or interaction with the clients might restrict the
potentiality of the organization in retaining the trust and loyalty of the clients. Therefore,
choosing the most suitable platform is again an important consideration that might be made by
an organization while facilitating B2B branding activities. The concerned organization
encounters significant challenges in improving their interaction with the clients over the different
social media platforms (Bamm, Helbling and Joukanen 2018). The lack of interactions from the
side of the company reflect oned the commitment and trust of the clients on the different
organizational propositions. Insufficient interactions reflect oned the potentiality of the
organization in upholding steady relation with the clients while marketing their propositions to
the same. Moreover, the absence of product knowledge among the clients has also increased the
chances of falling sales volume due to lack of effective interaction between the concerned
organization and the same.
Challenges in recognizing the preferred clients and positioning the content:

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The major challenge that might be faced by a B2B organization while marketing their
propositions through different social media platforms is related to the identification of their
prospective clients. According to Anees-ur-Rehman et al. (2017), the assessment of the
preferences of the potential clients and positioning effective content are the specific challenges
that are faced by a b2b firm. Posing the content to a wrong target audience might reflect on the
brand image of the organization. While assessing the different aspects of human needs, the
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory might be applied. The application of the hierarchy of
needs in the marketing context of the b2b firms would help in assessing the different preferences
and needs of the target clients and differentiate between the same.
Fig: Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory
(Source: Anees-ur-Rehman et al. 2017)
Zierke and Young (2017) stated that while making a market assessment an organization
aims at recognizing the associated behavior between the clients towards a single criteria

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grounded on their offerings. It supports the organizations in recognizing the most potential client
base for their entity. However, misinterpretation of the needs of the clients while positioning
their content might reflect on the capabilities of the organizations in producing the desired effect.
According to Nunan et al. (2018), the organizations take the initiative of developing the different
contents with the purpose of drawing the attention of their respective clients towards the
offerings. The different social media platforms are utilized by the organizations with the purpose
of widening their scope of marketing the propositions.
However, inappropriate targeting of the customers through social media platforms might
reduce the optimized potential of creating awareness and sales among the organizations. The
theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs specifically outlines the different needs of the individuals
starting from basic to psychological. However, Wang et al. (2017) opined that the assessment of
the needs of the clients are specifically grounded on assumptions which might reflect on the
potentiality of the organizations in recognizing the correct nature of their needs or demands. The
misinterpretation of the information grounded needs of the clients might reflect on the quality of
the content and the purpose of the overall marketing campaign. The concerned organization
faced significant issues in recognizing the true nature of information grounded needs of the
clients which reflect oned their potentiality of developing the marketing content (Tajvidi et al.
2018). On the other hand, the concerned organization also encountered a significant challenge of
positioning their content to the potential clients which again reflect oned their scope of marketing
their propositions.
Legal implications:
The legal implications are important considerations that might be made by an
organization while making use of the social media for circulating information. Data grounded

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legislations relating to information safety acts and regulations might pose a serious threat to the
organizational operations, specifically in case if the organization failed to secure the third party
information. The theft of company information might result to copyright and patent grounded
regulations, whereas the loss of client information from the data base of an organization might
result to the application of stringent legislative activities relating to lockdown or heavy
penalization. According to Itani, Agnihotri and Dingus (2017), the absence of adherence to the
stringent legislation and regulations might result to different penalizations, disrupting the overall
operations of the business.
Therefore, in this relation, the concerned organization faced significant challenges in
improving the efficiency of the business operations in accordance with the sustainable strategies
of the business. The stringent legislations and regulations reflect on the capabilities of the
organization in upholding the efficiency of the business operations while minimizing the
efficiency. The absence of securing the customer information plays an important role in
tarnishing the overall brand image of the venture. According to Krings, Palmer and Inversini
(2019), the customers’ sense of security is disturbed through the absence of different procedures
for screening and protecting their information in the organizations. Therefore, the concerned
organization encountered significant concerns in upholding the efficiency of the business
operations while operating in accordance with the sustainable strategies of the business.
4. Recommendations for practice
The different recommended activities that might be conducted by the concerned
organization are being enumerated in this section of the research:
Developing security protection systems for the information:

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The development of the security protection systems, while limiting the availability of the
information to the authorized personnel, would allow the organization in minimizing the threat of
data theft. Moreover, the organization might also take the initiative of implementing different
firewall software in their systems through taking support from IT solutions. The firewall systems
would prevent data breach of client centric and business confidential information. The
implementation of effective monitoring and controlling activities would allow the organization in
minimizing data thefts. The series of activities that were discussed for securing data would assist
the organization in improving their potentiality of retaining the commitment and trust of the
clients.
Recognizing the potential target audience for the social media campaigning:
The identification of the potential target audience would allow the organization in
widening the scope of social media ‘branding and positioning their propositions. The branding
activity through different social media vehicles to inappropriate audience would not only limit
the scope of marketing for the organization but also taint the brand image of the same. Therefore,
the concerned organization might take the initiative of conducting market surveys and interact
with their clients for understanding their specific needs of while positioning their branding
content to the same.
Choosing the best suited media vehicle while developing effective content:
The choice of the content and the media vehicle plays an important role in improving the
reach of the social media campaigning. The choice of the content and the best suited media
vehicle would assist the organization in holding effective interaction with the clients and
addressing their queries at the same time. Moreover, the assistance and information that is

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provided by the organization to the clients would enable the business in improving the
commitment and loyalty of the same towards the propositions.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis it might be stated that the concerned B2B business,
AGCO, encounters different issues while conducting their branding grounded operations through
the utilization of social media platforms. The report identified the different concerns that might
be encountered by the organization and the probable recommended activities that might be
considered by the same for empowering their overall branding activities.

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References
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