Social Media Platforms and Communication

Situational Analysis

Maersk Line: B2B Social Media: "It's Communication, Not Marketing" defines the presentation of a social media platform by the biggest container shipping company in the world. Nina Skyum-Nielsen is the current coordinator. When they launched, they became active on other social media platforms, including Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, and YouTube. They created a social media home base for Maersk Line that was called Maersk Line Social. In that line, they were able to publish stories casually about their company.

In this case, there are organized aspects of how the program was launched but also the pressures faced by the marketing department to better mix the social media operations into the company's more basic marketing efforts.

Strengths

There were many strengths and advantages in this case. For instance, using B2B in social media can lead to potential consumers, brand awareness, established leadership, and multiple demographics. Nina's predecessor, Wichmann, had different plans and strategies for the social media platform. He wanted to have his audience be more engaged, whether the posts were positive or negative. With a budget of 10,000, Maersk got approximately four times the amount of feedback on Facebook compared to its competitor. With B2B marketing, you can connect businesses with their consumers and improve business-to-business distributors.

Weakness

On the other hand, Nina Skyum-Nielsen did face challenges. Having a goal in mind before launching into strategies is what helps in the future. Many B2B companies gamble into social media without a strategy and then get unsatisfied with their results. Some business-to-business companies can see social media as just an attachment. Low volume can be another weakness. The struggle in the transportation and logistics area has grown a lot in the last decade, so the volumes of business have decreased significantly. Also, high costs of operations. With an increasing network, the costs of operations of the company position a serious challenge to the business.

Opportunities

Opportunities could still occur. Authenticity and transparency are significant when implementing a B2B social media strategy. You can possibly outsource certain things, such as developing your social media strategy. You can also create graphics and shoot videos, but make sure the voices come from internal subject experts. If you do more yourself, it's better. Maersk was more about sharing themes than knowledge. Also, the growth in logistics can be another opportunity. In the logistics area, there are many new technologies. These technologies can help customers reduce their costs and help logistics companies rationalize their operations.

Threats

There's always some sort of risk in any business-to-business area. Maersk faces competition such as Gati China Ocean Shipping Company and United Parcel Service. Emerging countries can have more growth. There can be more risk, though, such as hitting the marine life in their line of work. They could hurt the animals, then their business faces an outage from the public and be impacted in a negative way.

Assumptions & Missing Information

The social media and adverting team must remain in constant communication with their employees, customers, fans, and experts. If the social media team is increased and mixed, it can widen the company's marketing efforts. Wichmann learned this when he was selling his containers through social media. He started with Facebook, then expanded. Facebook caught the eyes of customers. Instagram also emerged, along with Twitter and LinkedIn, as news outlets, visual communication, and updates. These social media platforms helped the customers be more active and helped improve any products or services, which was the goal. YouTube was also a main video platform. With an increase in budget and power, they can stay ahead of social media trends and continue to apply their communication with clients, and increase revenues.

Problem Definition

A main concern with Maersk is hurting marine life. It's a bad look for their business and publicity. What will happen if they see their profits decline or lose tons of money because of an accident? Also, how effective social media platforms can be a problem. LinkedIn was more effective than Facebook and Twitter.

Development of Alternatives

• There can be more attention to those weaker social media platforms.
• Facebook could interact with its participants since it wasn't as effective.
• Look at the concept of organizational listening in order to determine Maersk Line's ability to include their customers in their communication on Facebook.
•  Use Instagram's filters for brand recognition.
• Use direct marketing techniques through social media.

Evaluation of Alternatives & Recommendations

These social media platforms provided better answers for the company and quick customer service. The customers were able to answer other customer service questions. Wichmann thought their numbers were normal and referred to that numbers were his method. He also compared Facebook to other brands such as Disney, Ford, Mcdonald's, and Legos.

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