The Social Media and Entrepreneurship Growth
(A New Business Communication Paradigm among SMEs in Nairobi)
Social media is a new phenomenon that has changed how the business environment operates. Businesses are able
to gain access to resources that were otherwise not available to them. It has also helped businesses to increase
their worthiness, cultivate strategic partnerships and increase their contact with customers and suppliers. It has
become important for business owners and marketers to understand how social media work as a communication
and marketing tool and how they can significantly grow their businesses. The study focused on establishing the
effect of social media on the growth of SMEs in Nairobi. This was done by determining the effect of social media
on the market access, customer relationship management, innovativeness and pricing of products of SMEs in
Nairobi. The study used descriptive research design. Questionnaires were administered on 246 SMEs in Nairobi,
with the respondents being either the owners or managers. Cluster sampling was used to divide the population of
interest and then simple random probability sampling technique was used to further identify the specific
businesses to be used for the study. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected and then analyzed using
SPSS. The results of the study have been presented in tables and figures for easy interpretation. The study
established that social media tools offer greater market accessibility and CRM which in turn have a significant
impact on the growth of SMEs. On the other hand, the pricing of products and innovativeness aspects offered by
social media have had very little impact to cause any growth in the SMEs. It revealed that geographical barriers
can be broken down by the use of social media tools. Additionally, social media allows businesses to
communicate speedily and cheaply with customers as well as allow them to construct a database that can be used
to generate business leads that may translate to increased sales and thus grow the SMEs. The study recommends
that policy makers such as the government should be keen on the current trends of technological adoption by
SMEs to come up with policies that encourage best practices for the growth of the SME sector. Issues of copyright
and privacy should also be addressed, and training of social media and provision of business solutions that would
bridge the gap and encourage more SMEs to adopt the use of social media tools which would lead to their
growth.