USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK SITES ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN HOTELS IN NAKURU TOWN

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. Presently, there are various platforms provided by the social media networks such as Facebook, Google plus,LinkedIn, YouTube, Skype, mysite, whatsApp 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. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of social networking in service delivery in the hotel industry in Kenya. To achieve this objective, stratified proportionate sampling procedure was used to select the hotels; the study used questionnaires to collect data. The collected data was analyzed using statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version 22 and presented in tables, frequencies and figures. A sample size of 190 permanent employees was used. The study showed that a huge percentage of employees used social media. There was also a 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. The outcome of the study showed that 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 which enhanced service delivery. In the context of marketing, a high percentage of the respondents utilized social media for marketing purposes of which the face book and Google plus topped the usage. In marketing, it gave out introduction of new products, product features elaboration and networking with potential customers. The Facebook and twitter formed the highest used platforms for branding. The study recommends that organizations in Kenya should embrace the use of social media networks for marketing and branding. This will raise the brand awareness, brand loyalty, customer services and shall lead to increase in sales and lower operation cost.