Abstract
The inclusion of social media as a communication channel in a vendor's B2B digital marketing strategy is growing in importance. Understanding the effect of such practices upon customer relationships is crucial for firms as they increasingly engage in this way. This paper presents and tests a model that explores the effect of vendor social media communication practices upon trust and loyalty in B2B customer relationships. A study using quantitative data from 196 business customers of a United States life sciences firm is reported. The model indicates that trust and loyalty are influenced by a) the social media shared beliefs between the vendor and the customer; b) the nature of the vendor's social media communication with the customer; and c) the extent to which the vendor's social media communication practices enable effective customer-to-customer communication. Trust is found to have a mediating role between these indicators and loyalty. Managerial implications are discussed.
•The article explores the effect of vendor SM communication practices on trust and loyalty in B2B customer relationships.•A model hypothesised that three social media practices (SMSB, SMV2CC, SMC2CC) are influential upon B2B trust and loyalty.•The study finds all three SM practices have a direct and positive effect upon B2B customer trust.•B2B customer trust mediates the relationship between SM practices and loyalty.•The relevance of SMSB shows that firms should also be known for what they stand for in terms of why and how they use SM.