Building Thought Leadership Through Business-to-Business Social Media Engagement at Infosys

Organizations are increasingly using social media as an important competitive tool that enables them to actively participate with key stakeholders. Recent studies demonstrate how business-to-consumer (B-C) organizations can benefit by engaging with consumers through social media.2 To date, however, there is little guidance on how business-to-business (B-B) organizations can engage with stakeholders through social media to derive strategic benefit. The B-B social media space contains multiple important stakeholders for an organization, including current and potential customers, potential employees, shareholders, competitors, industry thought influencers and casual observers. Meaningful and focused social media conversations on ideas or issues of mutual interest to an organization and its stakeholders form the basis for strategic engagement. Organizations can engage with stakeholders via social media in a way that allows them to manage their brand and influence demand for their products and services, impact overall market directions and guide future strategy.3