| dc.description.abstract | The importance of social media in enhancing positive relationships between customers and
business cannot be gainsaid. This is because they offer new and innovative ways to communicate
and network via the internet. There are various platforms provided by the social media networks
such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype, mysite, whatzup and Twitter in the strategic
marketing of products and services for the hotel industry. As such, social media networking has
become an effective form of marketing which has raised the brand awareness, brand loyalty,
customer services and has led to increase in sales. As such it has opened tremendous
opportunities for companies to market their products and services using social media. The aim of
this study was to investigate the effects of social networking in service delivery in the hotel
industry in Kenya. It sought to establish how hotels are utilizing social media in marketing so as
to boost awareness amongst its customers. The theoretical background was based on theories of
social media. In order to explore, identify and suggest workable policies and strategies in the
management of the use of social networking, stratified proportionate sampling procedure has
been used to pick the hotels, the study used questionnaires to collect data. Collected data was
analyzed using statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version 22 and presented in tables,
figures and charts form. A sample size of 190 employees was used with the end result expected
to give the effects of social networking in the hotel industry and how this strategic change can be
managed to increase productivity in the industry. The research findings of the study is useful to
hotel industry in using social media as a part of its marketing strategy.
The study showed that a huge percentage of 94.1% used social media. This was attributed to the
high usage of internet enable smartphones. There was also a noted higher usage of the social
media among the younger age groups compared to their old counterparts. Facebook and twitter
usage topped the list of the highly used social media networks in the hotel industry that mirrored
their usage in the social lives. There is different prevalence of the usage of diverse social media
networks for different purposes such as marketing, sales, customer service and giving of
information. In the context of marketing, 82.2% of the respondents utilized social media for
marketing purposes of which the face book and Google plus topped the usage. The social media
was used for marketing to give out new product introduction, product features elaboration and
networking with potential customers. In the context of branding, the social media platforms were
used by hotels to elaborate certain aspects of their service and standards. The face book and
twitter formed the highest used platforms for branding. The hotels used the social media
platforms to a higher degree to elaborate on their location, available facilities, technical
expertise of workers, and hotel menu amongst other factors. | en_US |
