The uses of internet services in Tanzania has been increasing for the current years
which has lead into an increase of the uses of social media by both individuals and
organisations. An increase of uses of social media in Tanzania has been taken as an
opportunity by business organisations as well as individual entrepreneurs in marketing of
their products.
Facebook is a social media which has many users in Africa has it occupies 50% of
the users of internet in Africa. Also it is the most used social media in Tanzania. A
researcher took Facebook users in Tanzania as a case study because of the market share
which it have when it is compared with other social media.
The aim of this study was to assess the role which is played by social media in
influencing marketing behaviour. A researcher used the random selection system in
selecting the respondents, and data were collected from users of social media using semistructured
questionnaire as a main tool with closed and open ended questions.
Descriptive analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for data
analysis to assess the role of social media in influencing marketing behaviour.
Objectives for the study were to determine the usage of social media, to explore the
uses of social media between business organizations, to identify challenges facing users
of social media and to identify potential benefits which users of social media are getting
in Tanzania.
Results revealed that most of the users of social media are youth who are at the age
of between 18 to 34 years. Facebook is the major social network following closely with
WhatsApp. It was found that people are influenced a lot with advertisements which are
on social media. As well as people are now attracted to search information about
different products and services through social media. The uses of social media by both
individuals and business organizations results into the growth of closeness between
marketers and their customers and it results into the reduction of promotion costs to the
business organizations and other individual entrepreneurs. It was concluded that Marketers needs not only to communicate with their
customers but also to promote their products as social media can be taken as easy and
non-expensive media of communication as it can compared with other ways such as
Radio, Televisions and printing media. Challenges such as limited internet connectivity,
high costs of using internet services as well as high costs of buying internet devices.
Those challenges are needed to be solved and business organizations needs to create
awareness and build capacity of their marketers on effective uses of social media.