Q1.

What was Maersk Line’s key drivers of social media

success
• Social Media: Social media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that
facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other
forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.
• Social Media is immensely growing in the field of B2B marketing.
• In the case of Maersk Line, there were 10 official channels pertaining to social
media.
Contd.
• They had already established various platforms for different purposes. Their goal was clear.
• They were ambitious in the following ways:
• Having a more differentiated, focused approach on the various platforms.
• Focusing more on LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and Instagram
• More focus on content creations, corporate journalism and corporate blogging.
Contd.
Key Drivers for Success:
• Different platforms, different strategies: They deployed different strategies for different
platforms. For example, Facebook had a different strategy than that of LinkedIn. They
used Facebook as
• Pioneered in B2B social media marketing: They were the first shipping company to make
use of social media marketing. They had established various platforms to do so as well.
While all other companies were following the conventional offline marketing approach,
Maersk Line changed its operating style towards social media. Adaptation is the key here.
• They managed to engage the people on their social media posts. For example, they kept
polls wherein they asked users to select the relevant options. They also posted photos as
well wherein their own employees would like the posts too. They would leverage on their
existing employees to get “Likes” for their posts and other people would eventually
engage. They conveyed stories through their posts as well. As Wichmann said, “Social
media is all about communication, not marketing. It’s about engaging, not pushing.
Contd.
• Leveraged the public and users who loved to take photos of Maersk ships around
the world. Whatever photos Wichmann received through e-mails, he would post
it on social media giving credits to the person who mailed it to begin with.
• They were transparent. They told stories, both positive and negative.
• They used Instagram to convey visual stories.
• Maersk Lines’ social media efforts also saved the company money in terms of
customer service. Due to social media fans being able to answer customer service
issues before the customer care team needed to intervene.
• Finally, their engagement was 4 times higher than the average B2B Brand. The
resulting ROI of 1500% was an impressive accomplishment.