Relationship between social media marketing and performance of small businesses in Kenya: a case of small businesses in Nakuru County, Kenya

The growing popularity of social media has created a shift in the manner in which marketing is undertaken as it has, allowed enterprises to acquire and retain customers, forge strong relationships, engage, share information on their products, efficiently and at a low cost. In Kenya, social media and social networking are still gaining popularity and their understanding as marketing tools are yet to be embraced by small businesses and the effect it has on business performance remains unknown. Therefore the objective of the study was to examine the relationship between social media marketing on performance of small businesses in Kenya with specific reference to Small Businesses in Nakuru County in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study included the effect of customer acquisition and retention, product and service awareness; customer engagement and customer relations management on performance of small businesses in Kenya. The research study used descriptive research design in collecting the data from respondents. The target population was drawn from 590 small businesses located in Nakuru central business and consisted owner managers. The research study used simple random sampling procedure to select a representative sample of 118 respondents. The primary data for the study was collected using the questionnaires and analyzed using correlation and regression statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study established that there is a significant relationship between social customer acquisition and retention, product/service awareness, customer engagement, customer relations management and the performance of small businesses.