Social media usage: an investigation of B2B salespeople

Purpose - A great deal has been written recently in the practitioner press about the strategic importance and usage of social media. However, as practitioners only release limited information about the internal advantages such a tool provides, research in this emerging field remains extremely limited about its usage in the sales area. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically assess a model of social media usage among business‐to‐business (B2B) salespeople. Design/methodology/approach - A survey of 273 B2B salespeople was conducted and then analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings - Results support the hypothesized model suggesting that age negatively affects social media usage, while social media norms positively affect it. Social media usage positively affects sales performance. Customer‐oriented selling was not found to be positively related to social media usage, but does have a positive effect on sales performance. Research limitations/implications - This study was conducted by e‐mail, and as a result, there might be an existing bias towards respondents who already embrace some usage of an online communication method, indicating overall usage, acceptance, and application of social media may be lower than reported. A potential research agenda offers opportunities for both theoretical development and empirical assessment in social media research. Practical implications - The findings provide an important foundation to advance academic sales research and demonstrate a needed understanding of how to operationally utilize social media to improve outcome performance. Originality/value - This is one of the few studies empirically examining social media usage among B2B salespeople.