Perceived Links Between Social Media Strategy and Organization Performance Among Mobile Telephony Companies in Kenya

Abstract

The business environment in which firms operate and how people interact has recently experienced a radical change. The introduction of personal computers, internet and E-commerce has had a tremendous impact on how business operate and market. Firms need to establish sustainable competitive advantage to remain in business today, which can only be achieved by been flexible enough to provide what buyers will perceive to be of superior value. Social Media Strategy is among the communications channels that organizations have adopted and started using in order to improve their performance. This study sought to establish the establish influence of Social Media Strategy on organization performance in mobile telephony companies in Kenya. The research design used for this study was descriptive survey design. The cross sectional survey was used. This survey was undertaken to ascertain and describe the characteristics of the variables of interest studied. The study targeted wireless telecommunication providers to get the required information. There are three mobile telephone companies in Kenya namely; Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya (Orange) as at 31st December 2013. Data collection process involved gathering of primary data. Primary data was collected using semi structured questionnaire as the main data collection instrument. The questionnaires were administered through drop and pick later method. The data collected for this study was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools. From the regression model, the study found out that there were factors influencing the organizational performance of the mobile telephony companies in Kenya, which are number of customers reached, number of likes, number of comments on message, number of messages retweeted, number of followers and number of friends in an account. They influenced organizational performance positively. The study found out that the intercept was 0.645 for all years. The study concluded that Social Media Strategy positively and significantly influences the organizational performance of mobile telephony companies in Kenya. The study recommended that mobile telephony companies should relate the social media strategies to their organizational performance.