BALOYI KUDZAI R128575F - University of Zimbabwe

AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL

MEDIA MARKETING IN ENHANCING SALES

PERFORMANCE IN THE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION

INDUSTRY. A CASE OF ECONET WIRELESS ZIMBABWE

(2010-2014).

KUDZAI BALOYI

(R128575F)

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

2014

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

SUPERVISOR: DR. D. MARAVANYIKA

DECLARATION

I , Kudzai Baloyi, do hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigation and

research, except to the extent indicated in the Acknowledgements, References and by comments

included in the body of the report, and that it has not been submitted in part or in full for any other

degree to any other university.

10 February 2015

Student’s Signature Date

_____________ 10 February 2015

Supervisor’s Signature Date

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly I would like to give glory to the Almighty God for all the strength He gave me

to complete this dissertation. I also want to thank my family for all the support and

understanding during my MBA programme.

My sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor Dr Maravanyika for his patience,

guidance and leadership during the time I was working on this dissertation. Many

thanks to Econet staff and fellow classmates for all the support and

encouragements.

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ABSTRACT

Social media marketing a new phenomenon in marketing that came about as a result

of the growing popularity of social media. The research focused on the effectiveness

of social media marketing in the telecommunication industry. According to literature,

social media marketing enhances the sales performance of an organisation, among

other things through getting quick feedback from clients, getting to understand the

customer better, easy communication with clients, building a strong relationship with

clients and getting access to a large audience . However, this conclusion was mainly

based on studies carried out in developed countries. Literature was reviewed by

looking at the social media applications, their benefits and limitations. A conceptual

framework was also formulated and all the variables were also discussed.

The qualitative research approach was used in this study. A single case study

approach was applied with the case of Econet being studied. Econet was chosen

because it is a dominant player in the telecommunication industry and is one of the

few local companies that have adopted social media marketing. Data was collected

through semi structured interviews, with purposive sampling used to select the

respondents. The data was also analysed qualitatively using data display tables and

detailed write-ups.

The study found that social media marketing, is to a larger extend, positively

influencing sales performance at Econet through getting quick feedback from clients;

easy and faster communication with clients as well as getting access to a large

audience. However, it was also evident that Econet can improve from the way social

media marketing is being handled in order to get full benefits of social media

marketing. In view of these findings, recommendations were made on policy level

were hardware sharing with other players in the industry should be implemented to

reduce that costs of internet access. At management level, social media must be

transformed into a selling tool were online transactions can be concluded and also

for creating content in order to enjoy the full benefits associated with the use of

social media marketing.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background to the Study ...................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Industry Analysis ............................................................................................... 2 1.2.2Background of Econet Wireless ......................................................................... 2 1.2.3 Econet`s SWOT Analysis in relation to the Subject ........................................... 6 1.3 Statement of the Problem ..................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research Objectives ............................................................................................ 7 1.4.1 Primary Objective .............................................................................................. 7 1.4.2 Secondary Objectives ....................................................................................... 7 1.5 Research Questions ............................................................................................. 7 1.5.1 Main Question ................................................................................................... 7 1.5.2 Sub questions.................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Research Proposition ........................................................................................... 8 1.7 Justification of the Study ...................................................................................... 8 1.8 Structure of the research ...................................................................................... 8 1.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................. 10 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 10 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 10 2.2 Definitions and Key Concepts of the Subject ..................................................... 10 2.2.1 What is Social Media ....................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Social Media Marketing ................................................................................... 11 2.2.3 The Development of Social Media Marketing .................................................. 12 2.2.4 Social Media Marketing Tools ......................................................................... 13 2.2.5 Benefits and Challenges of Social Media Marketing ....................................... 17 2.2.6 Effect of SMM on Marketing ............................................................................ 22 2.2.7 Social Media Marketing and Sales .................................................................. 24 2.2.8 Social Media Marketing and the Selling Process............................................. 25 2.3 Key Factors which affect Social Media Marketing Success ................................ 27 2.3.1 Social Media Knowledge ................................................................................. 27 2.3.2 Social Media Commitment .............................................................................. 28 2.3.3 Social Media Training ...................................................................................... 29 2.3.4 Social Media Application ................................................................................. 29 2.4 Effect of Social Media Marketing on Sales Performance .................................... 29

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2.4.1 Increases Sales Revenue ............................................................................... 30 2.4.2 Increases customer base/market share .......................................................... 30 2.5 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................................... 31 2.5.1 Study Variables ............................................................................................... 31 2.6 Summary of Propositions ................................................................................... 33 2.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................. 34 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................ 34 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 34 3.2 Recap of Statement of the Problem and Research Objectives .......................... 34 3.2.1 Recap of the Research Questions ................................................................... 34 3.2.2 Recap of the Research Propositions ............................................................... 35 3.3 Research Design ................................................................................................ 35 3.3.1 Research Philosophy ...................................................................................... 35 3.3.2 Research Approach ......................................................................................... 37 3.3.3 Research Strategy ........................................................................................... 37 3.3.4 Case Study Strategy ....................................................................................... 38 3.3.5 Unit of Analysis ................................................................................................ 38 3.4 Data Collection ................................................................................................... 39 3.4.1 Population ....................................................................................................... 39 3.4.2 Sampling Procedure ........................................................................................ 39 3.4.3 Purposive Sampling ........................................................................................ 39 3.4.4 Research Instruments ..................................................................................... 40 3.4.5 Interview administration ................................................................................... 41 3.4.6 Research Variables ......................................................................................... 42 3.4.7 Research Assumptions ................................................................................... 42 3.5 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 42 3.6 Research Limitation ............................................................................................ 43 3.7 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................ 43 3.8 Chapter Conclusion ............................................................................................ 43 CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................. 44 RESULTS AND FINDINGS ...................................................................................... 44 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 44 4.2 An overview of the respondents ......................................................................... 44 4.3.1 Section A: Social Media Application ................................................................ 45 4.3.2Section B: Social Media Commitment .............................................................. 50 4.3.3 Section C: Social Media Knowledge ................................................................ 52 4.3.4 Section D: Social Media Training .................................................................... 54 4.3.5 Section E: Level of expertise ........................................................................... 56 4.3.6 Section F: Internet connectivity ....................................................................... 58 4.3.7 Section G: Internet affordability/accessibility ................................................... 60 4.4 Discussion of key findings .................................................................................. 62 4.4.1 Social Media Marketing at Econet ................................................................... 62

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4.4.2 Social Media Application ................................................................................. 62 4.4.3 Benefits of social media marketing .................................................................. 63 4.4.4 Challenges of using social media marketing ................................................... 64 4.4.5 Social Media Marketing Management at Econet ............................................. 64 4.4.6 Effect of social media marketing at Econet ..................................................... 65 4.5 Discussion of propositions .................................................................................. 66 4.6 Emerging Framework from the study ................................................................. 67 4.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 68 CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................. 69 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................ 69 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 69 5.2 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 69 5.3 Evaluation of the research proposition ............................................................... 70 5.4 Recommendations ............................................................................................. 71 5.4.1 Policy Recommendations ................................................................................ 71 5.4.2 Managerial Recommendations ........................................................................ 71 5.5 Research Limitations and areas of further research ........................................... 72 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................ 79

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Market share of the mobile companies in Zimbabwe ................................ 2 Table 1.2: Econet`s SWOT Analysis .......................................................................... 6 Table 4.1: Overview of the respondents ................................................................... 44 Table 4.2: Social Media Applications at Econet ....................................................... 45 Table 4.3: Benefits of using social networks .......................................................... 46 Table 4.4: Challenges of using social in marketing .................................................. 47 Table 4.5: Solution to the challenges being faced .................................................... 48 Table 4.6: Social media platfroms impact on sales performance ............................ 49 Table 4.7: Commitment to social media ................................................................... 50 Table 4.8: Impact of commitment to sales perfromance ........................................... 51 Table 4.9: Importance of social media knowledge ................................................... 52 Table 4.10:Impact of social media knowledge on sales performance ...................... 53 Table 4.11:Importance of social media training ....................................................... 54 Table 4.12:Impact of social media training on sales performance ............................ 55 Table 4.13:Importance of expertise to social media marketing success ................. 56 Table 4.14:Effect of expertise to social media marketing success ........................... 57 Table 4.15:Current state of internet connectivity in Zimbabwe ................................ 58 Table 4.16:Importance of internet connectivity to social media marketing success . 59 Table 4.17:Internet affordability in Zimbabwe ........................................................... 60 Table 4.18:Effect of internet affordability on social media marketing success .......... 61

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Econet Group Chart ................................................................................. 3 Figure 1.2: Econet`s Sales Performance Since 2010 ................................................. 3 Figure 1.3: Econet`s Sales Revenue Mix ................................................................... 4 Figure 1.4: Econet`s Subscriber Performance Since 2010 ......................................... 5 Figure 2.1: Growth of Global Population of Blog Readers Source ........................... 14 Figure 2.2: Blog Articles influence on sales .............................................................. 14 Figure 2.3: Micro blogs influence on sales ............................................................... 15 Figure 2.4: Growing popularity of social networks .................................................... 16 Figure 2.5: Traditional one-to – many marketing communication model .................. 23 Figure 2.6: New Model of Marketing Communication in Hypermedia Computer-

Mediated Environment ............................................................................ 23 Figure 2.7: Process Evolution of Social Media in Sales ........................................... 25 Figure 2.8: Conceptual Framework .......................................................................... 31 Figure 4.1: Research framework for Social Media Marketing at Econet ................... 68

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BBS Bulletin Board System

C Customer

EWZ ECONET WIRELESS ZIMBABWE

F Firm

PORTRAZ Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe

SMM Social Media Marketing

SNS Social Networking Sites

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

UGC User-generated Content

ZSE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

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CHAPTER 1

1.1 Introduction

Social Media Marketing is a promotional activity, whereby a business targets

customers or prospects through social media sites in an effort to increase sales,

strengthen brand loyalty, or achieve other business goals (Wilson, 2010). It involves

the use of online tools that allow friends and colleagues with similar interests to

interact, share information and network in an open process through sites such as

Facebook, Linkedin, twitter and other social network sites. Given sales rests on

exchanging information between buyers and sellers, the process of facilitating

conversations that exists within social media underscores its potentially critical

relationship to sellers and its opportunity for strategic usage by sales organisation

(SCHULTZ et al., 2012).

According to Zimmerman and Ng (2012), Social Media Marketing carries many

benefits which include branding (improves brand recognition, visibility, presence and

top-of-the-mind awareness); building relationships (through steady growth in the

number of your followers on a particular service, the number of people who

recommend your site to others and repeat visits to your sites.); improves business

processes and it saves money since most of the sites are accessed for free. This

shows that ideally, if social media marketing is implemented properly, it will bring

positive impact to the organisation`s sales performance.

However, most of the literature on social media relates to developed countries, there

is no literature that relates to the use of social media marketing in Zimbabwe.

Organisations that have implemented this strategy do not have a local reference of

social media marketing leading to failure to obtain the ideal benefits from the

concept. Therefore, this research aims to fill this gap in literature through carrying out

a case study on the effectiveness of social media marketing at Econet Zimbabwe.

This study was an investigation on the effectiveness of social media marketing

(SMM) in enhancing business performance in the telecommunication industry in

Zimbabwe. The background of the study mainly focused on the background

information of SMM and looked at some of the latest developments on the subject in

other countries as well. The problem statement is a brief explanation of the reasons

behind having an interest to the research area. It focuses on the issues that have led

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to the area being a subject of interest. The research objectives are also outlined as

well as the research questions which mainly indicate the areas the study focused on

in data collection and analysis.

1.2 Background to the Study

1.2.1 Industry Analysis

Mobile telecommunications industry is dominated by three players, that is, Econet,

Telecel and Net One. The table below is illustrating the market share of each of the

three companies according to POTRAZ 2013 report:

Table 1.1 Market share of the mobile companies in Z imbabwe. Source(Potraz, 2013) Company Number of subscribers Market Share

Econet 8,522,941 63%

Telecel 2,544,339 19%

Net One 2,451,607 18%

The total number of mobile subscribers is now 13,518,887 which is 1 million up from

March 2013`s total of 12, 6 million. The industry has seen a lot of competition among

the tree subscribers. Social media marketing is one of the strategies that has been

implemented by the three companies.

1.2.2Background of Econet Wireless

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe`s largest mobile telecommunication service

provider. It started operating on the 10th of July 1998 and is listed on the Zimbabwe

Stock Exchange (ZSE). It is the largest company on the ZSE by market

capitalisation, with many subsidiaries as indicated on the corporate structure below.

The company is growing and has of late introduced innovative offerings that have

changed some business models of many industries, such as, EcoCash, EcoCash

Save and EcoFarmer. As indicated in the table above, it is a market leader and

currently has got 63% market share. The company has also adopted the use of the

social media marketing to promote its brands and products. The company`s flagship

brand is Buddie.

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Econet Wireless Zimbabwe`s Group of Companies

Figure 1.1 Econet Group Chart (Source Econet Financ ial Report 2013).

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s group of companies has seven subsidiaries. For the

purpose of this research the focus will be on the Econet Wireless (Private) Limited

cellular network operator.

Econet`s Sales Performance Since 2010

Figure 1.2 Econet`s Sales Performance Since 2010 (S ource Econet Financial

Report 2013).

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The sales performance of Econet wireless has increased significantly from August

2010 to August 2013 with an average growth rate of 17%. It increased from

US$236m in August 2010 to US$291m in August 2011, US$291m to US$340 in

August 2012 and from US$340m to US$377m in August 2013.

Figure 1.3 Econet`s Sales Revenue Mix (Source Econe t Financial Report 2013).

The airtime revenue is the major revenue contributor to the Econet’s revenue mix

with 60% contribution which decreased insignificantly from 66% August 2012

contribution by 6%. Interconnect and roaming is the second contributor with a total of

16% contribution, followed by the data and sms with a 13% contribution in August

2013 which is the same as August 2012. The other sales increased from 5% in

August 2012 to 7% contribution in August 2013 and the financial services increased

significantly from 0% in August 2012 to 3% in August 2013.

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Figure 1.4 Econet`s Subscriber Performance Since 20 10 (Source: Econet Financial Report 2013).

Econet’s subscriber growth has been very significant in its all three products since

their introduction to market. The voice subscribers increase from 3.5million in

February 2010 to 8.5million. The data subscribers increased from 0.8 million

subscribers in February 2011 to 3.8million subscribers in August 2013. The ecocash

subscribers increased from 1.4million subscribers in February 2012 to 3 million

subscribers in August 2013. However, this growth is just a reflection of the growth of

the industry.

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1.2.3 Econet`s SWOT Analysis in relation to the Sub ject

Table 1.2: Econet`s SWOT Analysis.

Strengths

• Strong brand

• Huge capacity

• High market coverage

• Strong brand network

• High market share

• Innovative operations

Weaknesses

• Perception of high prices

• Not prominent on some social

media sites.

Opportunities

• Growth in internet access

• Acceptability of social media sites

in the Zimbabwean market.

• Unlimited capacity and access to

social media.

• High traffic

Threats

• Commercialisation of the social

media.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

As cited in section 1.1 above, Social Media Marketing carries many benefits which

include brand recognition, visibility, building relationships, referrals and improves

business processes through unlimited engagement with clients. According to

(Stelzner, 2013) Social networks engulf everyday life; they represent a place to

share news, ideas and information of all kinds. Generally, literatures agrees that the

use of Social Media Marketing ideally improves the firm`s sales performance.

However, contrary to literature Econet has been losing its market for the past three

years from its traditional rivals. According to the World bank, Econet`s market share

has fallen from 73% in 2011 to 63% in 2013 even though they were using the Social

Media. The company has also largely depended on the traditional marketing media,

that is, TV, Radio and Press to disseminate their promotional campaigns.

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If the current trend where Social Media Marketing continues to be used as a

complementary tool as opposed to be a focal strategy, it will not reap the benefits

that the literature ideally says accrue from implementing social media marketing.

This study seeks to find out how SMM is being implemented, any benefits,

challenges and effect on sales performance. Literature generally refers to the impact

of SMM in other parts of the world, mainly North America and Europe but this

research aims to fill this gap by assessing the effectiveness of SMM in enhancing

sales performance through a case study of Econet.

1.4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 Primary Objective

To assess the effectiveness of social media marketing in enhancing sales

performance at Econet Zimbabwe.

1.4.2 Secondary Objectives

1. To explore how Social Media Marketing is being applied at Econet.

2. To establish the benefits of using Social Media Marketing.

3. To identify the challenges of using Social Media Marketing.

4. To establish the level of knowledge and commitment to Social Media

Marketing at Econet.

5. To make recommendations to Econet on Social Media Marketing

implementation.

1.5 Research Questions

1.5.1 Main Question

Is social media marketing effective in enhancing sales performance in the

telecommunication industry?

1.5.2 Sub questions

1. How is Social Media Marketing being implemented?

2. What are the benefits of using Social Media Marketing to Econet?

3. What are the limitations and challenges of using the social media marketing in

Zimbabwe in the telecoms sector?

4. What are the platforms used by Econet for Social Media Marketing?

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1.6 Research Proposition

Social Media Marketing will not have the desired impact on sales if applied with

limited knowledge on the use of social media.

1.7 Justification of the Study

The area of Social Media Marketing is a new phenomenon compared to other

traditional marketing methods. The term ‘‘social media’’ appeared in the 1990s,

based on the development of computer and internet technology. It has gained global

popularity since 2008(Zhou and Wang, 2014). It is also referred to as ‘‘new media’’,

to differentiate social media from the other two types of media(Zhou and Wang,

2014). This motivated the researcher to focus on this area and also see how it has

impacted the local business. The study will help the researcher broaden his

knowledge of the subject by getting first hand information of how SMM is being

implemented in Zimbabwe.

The organisation being studied will also immensely benefit from the study through an

in-depth research of how they are currently using social media marketing. The

research will also make recommendations on how this strategy can be implemented

better for the Econet to get the desired benefits.

The research will also present the industry with additional knowledge on Social

Media Marketing and how it can be effectively implemented.

The study will also be used as literature by the academic community. The study will

be accessible to anyone in the academic community who would like to know more

about the subject.

1.8 Structure of the research

1.8.1 Chapter 1

This chapter focuses on the introduction to the subject under study, that is, Social

Media Marketing. It also looks briefly at the background of the case study Econet

with indications of its sales performance for the past three financial years. The

objectives of the study are also highlighted in this chapter.

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1.8.2 Chapter 2

This chapter looks at the critical reviewing of literature. Key concepts in the area of

Social Media Marketing were defined. It also looks at the conceptual

framework/model which the research used in the research.

1.8.3 Chapter 3

The methodology that was used in carrying out the research is outlined in this

chapter. The chapter also confirmed that this was a qualitative research and briefly

looked at how the data collection, presentation and analysis was carried out in the

research.

1.8.4 Chapter 4

This chapter discusses the research findings. All data obtained during the research

is discussed and analysed in this chapter. The theoretical framework which was

introduced in chapter 2 will be used to reconcile the findings and the theory. All the

research questions are answered in this chapter.

1.8.5 Chapter 5

This chapter looks at the conclusion of the research and the key recommendations

to the subject and the case which was being studied. Recommendations in this

chapter are based on the findings and literature which has been reviewed under

chapter 2.

1.9 Conclusion

All the key areas of the background of the subject were discussed as well as the

brief outline of the research. Brief background of the case study was also discussed,

highlighting the current sales performance of Econet. This chapter set the tone of the

research and all the other chapter will be firmly based on the research objectives and

questions which were highlighted in this chapter. The next chapter looks at reviewing

literature based on the key areas of the research highlighted in this chapter.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The purpose of literature review is not to provide a summary of everything that has

been written on your research topic, but to review the most relevant and significant

research on your topic (Saunders et al., 2011). Some of the purpose of carrying out

a critical review of literature is to help you to refine further your research question(s)

and objectives; to help you to avoid simply repeating work that has been done

already and to sample current opinions in newspapers, professional and trade

journals, thereby gaining insights into the aspects of your research question(s) and

objectives that are considered newsworthy (Borg, 2007).

This chapter critically review literature on social media marketing, with particular

reference to its implementation, benefits and challenges, and the effects it has had

on marketing. The review has been done in line with the research questions and

objectives. The main aim was to expose what has been written on the subject and

also justify why studying the topic will add to new literature which is currently

nonexistent. The review is biased on area understudy and is focusing on the impact

of social media marketing on sales performance. Key factors which affect the

successful implementation of social media marketing in an organisation are also

discussed in this chapter as well as the conceptual framework that was used in the

research.

2.2 Definitions and Key Concepts of the Subject

2.2.1 What is Social Media

According to Guy (2012), social media, derived from the social software movement,

are a collection of Internet websites, services, and practices that support

collaboration, community building, participation, and sharing. Kaplan and Haenlein

(2010) defined it in a similar manner, they said it is “a group of internet-based

applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”. It

promotes interaction between different people using the internet. Kapoulas and Mitic

(2012) further noted that what began as an array of platforms for online interactions

with focus on entertainment quickly escalated into a global phenomenon where

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connectedness to the online networks is everything and the aptitude to “follow,” “like”

or “share” means power. This indicate that social media has gained global popularity.

Mayes (2011) also highlighted this growth in social media by noting that it is

developing rapidly and new platforms are developed daily. This according to Mayes

(2011) has made it necessary for companies to not only be familiar with those

platforms, but also know how to reach the consumer through them.

According to Laroche et al. (2013), people spend more than one third of their waking

day consuming content on social media. Levinson and Perry (2011) noted that the

social media is now referred to as ‘‘new new media’’, to differentiate social media

from the other two types of media. As Levinson and Perry (2011) summarizes, ‘‘old

media’’ includes TV, newspapers and magazines. These types of media highlight the

top-down control approach; they are produced and managed by professionals. The

second type is called ‘‘new media’’, which includes email, websites, online message

boards, chat rooms, etc. As a result of internet technology, ‘‘new media’’ transcends

the time and space of ‘‘old media’’(Zhou and Wang, 2014). According to Ruddell

and Jones (2013) ‘‘new new media’’ includes blogs and micro blogs (e.g., Twitter),

Wikis (e.g., Wikipedia), picture sharing sites (e.g., Flicker) and video sharing

websites (e.g., YouTube), BBS (e.g., Tianya in China), SNS (e.g., Facebook,

MySpace) and internet communities (e.g., Maopu in China). Despite this growing

popularity and the general agreement on the influences of social media, a systematic

understanding by organisations and sales managers of how to make use of the

social media to improve sales performance in the local companies still remains

elusive.

2.2.2 Social Media Marketing

Many scholars have come up with definitions of social media marketing that are

similar. (Trattner and Kappe, 2013) defined it as a process of gaining website traffic

or attention through social media sites. However,

(www.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/, 2014) defined it in the context of

advertising, it says, “ social media marketing is a method for advertising products,

services or brands using the internet by attracting the interest of groups of people

who discuss them and make suggestions about them on time. However, Chikandiwa

et al. (2013) defined it as a system which allows marketers to engage, collaborate,

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interact and harness intelligence crowd sourcing for marketing purposes. The above

definition shows that social media marketing is a strategy that can be used to

improve sales performance due to interaction with customers. In contrast, Laing and

Royle (2013) referred to the use of social media for marketing purposes as digital

marketing. According to Wymbs (2011) digital marketing is the use of digital

technologies to create an integrated, targeted and measurable communication which

helps to acquire and retain customers while building deeper relationships with them.

However, on a closer look, these concepts are just the same, they both refer to the

use of modern technologies and social platforms to reach out to the market. An

important point that came out of these definitions is that social media marketing must

be systematic and integrated which shows that it is not supposed to be a knee-jerk

reaction as most of the local companies are doing. This is what the research was

meant to address through studying the effectiveness of social media marketing at

Econet.

2.2.3 The Development of Social Media Marketing

According to Chikandiwa et al. (2013), social media marketing is described as a

system that allows marketers to engage, collaborate, interact, and harness collective

intelligence crowd sourcing for marketing purposes. Many businesses have adopted

this concept of social media marketing as part of their strategy. Wilson (2010) noted

that although most people automatically think of social media through the lens of

sites like Facebook and Twitter, the development of the media is much broader and

has longer history. The internet started out as nothing more than a giant Bulletin

Board System that allowed users to exchange software, data, messages and news

with each other Kaplan and Haenlein (2010). However, Wilson (2010) is of the

opinion that the internet has always been about social interaction. Kaplan and

Haenlein (2010) further noted the late 1990s saw a popularity surge in homepages,

whereby the average Joe could share information about his private life. The era of

corporate web pages and e-commerce started relatively recently with the launch of

Amazon and eBay in 1995, and got a right ticking off only 6 years later when the dot-

com bubble burst in 2001Kaplan and Haenlein (2010). The development of the web

2.0 promoted the development of social media tools, which not only affected every

profession but promoted the research on social media (Zhou and Wang, 2014). Web

2.0 is a term that was first used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software

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developers and end-users started to utilise the World Wide Web; that is, as a

platform whereby content and application are no longer created and published by

individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and

collaborative fashion (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). This has resulted in the definition

of social media stated earlier on as a group of internet-based applications built on

Web 2.0 that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content (Kaplan

and Haenlein, 2010).

2.2.4 Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media tools are many but Zarrella (2009) came up with seven tools that can

be used for social media marketing and are Blogs, Micro blogs, Social Networks,

Media Sharing Sites, Review Sites, Forums and Virtual Worlds.

(i) Blogging

A blog is a discussion or informational site published on the world wide web and

consisting of discrete entries (posts) typically displayed in reverse chronological

order (Miller and Shepherd, 2004). Blogs which represent the earliest form of Social

Media, are special types of websites that usually display date-stamped entries in

reverse chronological order(Vickery and Wunsch-Vincent, 2007). According to Brown

(2009), in the modern day, businesses of all sizes have now started including

blogging in their marketing plans. Brown (2009) also highlighted that blogging in

business enables an organisation to promote its products, answer questions, engage

customers and give out expert advice, tips and suggestions. Blogging gives you a

way to continually grab readers attention with new posts and fresh doses of

information (Cho, 2012). Cho (2012) further highlighted that a company that uses

blogging as part of its online marketing programme will have loyal customers since

they feel like they are getting access to the brain behind the business. However,

these blogs do not come without risks. According Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), firstly

customers who for one reason or another turn out to be dissatisfied with or

disappointed by the company`s offering may decide to engage in virtual complaints

in the form of protest websites or blogs and secondly, once firms encourage

employees to be active on blogs, they may need to live with the consequences of

staff members writing negatively about the firm.

14

Figure 2.1 Growth of Global Population of Blog Read ers Source: Emarketer,

August 2012

Impact of Blogging on Sales

Blogging is a very important strategy in improving sales performance as the graph

below indicate:

Figure 2.2 Blog Articles influence on sales: Source : Jupiter Research, 2008.

15

(ii) Micro blogs

Micro blogging is a smaller version of blogging. According to Kaplan and Haenlein

(2010), its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregated file size and it

allows users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences,

individual images or video links. Micro blogging came into the spotlight through

public platforms such as Twitter and organisations can use these platforms to

broadcast messages to a public audience as part of their social media marketing

activities (Butler et al., 2010). Twitter is a social network that give you the ability to

post messages of 140 characters or less and it is built on the concept of micro

blogging (Lacy, 2011). Micro blogging plays a very important role in influencing

purchasing decisions as the graph below indicate.

Figure 2.3 Micro blogs influence on sales Source: E dison Research, 2010.

(iii) Social Networks

A social network is a cluster of people connected for a specific reason and today`s

social network is web based and provide incredibly rich communication, for example

Facebook (Ryan, 2011). Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) gave an almost similar

definition, they defined social networking sites as applications that enable users to

connect by creating personal information profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to

have access to those profiles, and sending e-mails and instant messages between

each other. According to Peacock (2011) social networks are now one of the most

16

widely used aspects of the Web and have really taken off over the past years.

Peacock (2011) further acknowledged that many businesses, organisations,

communities and families are using social networking to promote themselves, to

communicate better with others and to engage with their audience. Face is the most

popular social networking site. The graph below indicates the growing popularity of

the most popular social network site, Facebook.

Figure 2.4 Growing popularity of social networks, S ource: Comscore, August 2011.

(iv) Media sharing sites

According to Ferelli (2011) media sharing site allow marketers to share photos,

videos and podcast but are however limited in scope in how companies interact with

customers. Ryan and Jones (2012) identified sites such as flicker, Picasa Web

Albums, YouTube, Blip.tv and Yimeo as the most common media sharing sites.

However, YouTube is the most common of these sites.

(v) Reviews and Rating Sites

These sites do exactly what the name suggests: they allow users to review and rate

companies, products, services, books, music, hotels and restaurants(Ryan and

Jones, 2012).

(vi) Discussion Forums

According to Evans (2012) , discussion forums can be used as support tool, linking

customers with each other. He went further and highlighted that through discussion

17

forums, existing customers can exchange best practices and tips that both increase

satisfaction among current customers and encourage and support potential

customers as they evaluate your product versus competitive offers. In support of

Evans` remarks, Ryan and Jones (2012) also stated that the main discussion forums

are Yahoo Groups and Google Groups, where anyone can sign up and start their

own online or email discussion community on any topic under the sun.

2.2.5 Benefits and Challenges of Social Media Marke ting

(a) Benefits

Social media marketing has become a new and growing phenomenon in marketing

and many organisations across the globe have embraced it. This is largely due to the

benefits that are associated with it. Remarks made by Narayanan et al. (2012)

confirms that social media is now dominating the global scene,” It is a new world - a

world where everyone has the ability to influence opinion; a world where everyone

has the ability to influence purchase; a world where distances are down to zero; a

world where voice has speed greater than light; a world that pushes away any

attempt to regulate it, except through mechanisms of self-regulation; the world that is

today, is a world shaped by social media and the free flow of conversations that the

phenomenon enables and endorses.”

(i) Helps to understand customers better

According to Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), social media are becoming integral part of

consumers’ lives and can enhance understanding of consumer needs and

preferences based on the information shared in Web 2.0 channels. Trust and

commitment are the two fundamental components of improving the relationship that

leads to cooperation among partners (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Trust is often

developed on individual contact, recurrent exchanges of information, and

socialization among groups and individuals (Swain and Cao, 2014). Social media,

social networking sites in particular, can strengthen weakening ties and promote

collective action based on common interest, activities, and goals (Kenski and Stroud,

2006).

18

(ii) Helps in getting feedback from clients

Interactive platforms are used to share information about offers and products quickly

and efficiently, and offering customers the ability to give feedback to the

organizations and engage in a discussion with the community (Stone, 2009).

However, Ståhlbröst (2012) noted that it is important to analyse and interpret what

the users are saying in their feedback. This benefit can only be enjoyed if the

organisation is monitoring its social media sites vigilantly in order not to miss some of

the feedback that will be coming from the customers. Social media, specifically

several social networking sites can help create personal identity by providing multiple

channels for relational feedback and peer acceptance (Valenzuela et al., 2009).

(iii) Social Media Marketing encourages communicati on with customers

It is argued that customers are responsive to this form of online communications as

Web 2.0 is essentially “people’s internet,” designed to facilitate communication

through friendly interfaces and networking platforms (Mitic and Kapoulas (2012)).

Laroche et al. (2012) went further and explained that social media support

involvement of customers in different stages of the product life cycle. However,

Ståhlbröst (2012) noted that it is important to have open discussions and

engagement among the users to stimulate communication among the customers. In

as much as social media marketing encourages communication, what has been

highlighted by the different scholars shows that it is important for an organisation to

ensure that its media is accessible and encourages discussions among customers.

(iv) It helps in building relationships with custom ers

According to Kietzmann et al. (2011), the users in any community build relationships

and groups through their use of social media. The existence of the two way

communication in these sites can enhance commitment and trust which benefit all

parties (Briones et al., 2011). They further noted that engaging in social media is

beneficial for an organisation as it can enhance relationships between organisations

and stakeholders. Customers are participating in social networks, creating and

sharing content, communicating and building relationships with each other (Libai et

al., 2010). These customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions are extremely powerful

marketing tools, if tapped into in the right way.

19

(v) There is high traffic on the different social m edia platforms

According to See Pui Ng et al. (2002) as of December 2012, on a monthly basis

Facebook had more than 800million users, Twitter had 500million and YouTube had

over 800 million. According to Hoffman and Novak (2012), “Every day, Facebook

users generate 2.7 billion likes or comments and upload 250 million photos”(p.

69).This is an indication of the traffic volumes which can be found on the social

media. This has resulted in many companies advertising on these sites by utilising

their tailored demographic features and offering highly personalised messages

(Michaelidou et al., 2011). According to Thackeray et al. (2012), “Practitioners can

realize social media’s untapped potential by incorporating it as part of the larger

social marketing strategy. Social media may help organizations increase their

capacity for putting the consumer at the focus of the social marketing process” p.

165-166).”

(vi) It is a cheaper way of reaching customers

The cost of advertising can be reduced by using social networks instead of

conventional media such as magazines, newspapers and television (Bruhn et al.,

2012). Haridakis and Hanson (2009) highlighted that social media has increased as

a marketing channel, and Facebook is the biggest social media company globally

reaching millions of people. The company can reach more people at a relatively

lower cost by using social networks and the main advantage of social media

marketing is cost related. According to Nadaraja and Yazdanifard (2012) the

financial barriers to social media marketing are quite low compared to others since

the majority of the social media sites are free to access, create profile and post

information.

(vii) It helps on segmentation

In order to serve its market well the organization, through well-crafted marketing

strategies, must know who they want to satisfy as it is clearly impossible to satisfy

everyone profitably (Armstrong and Kotler, 2007). According to Payne and Frow

(2005), conventional ways of segmenting can be less relevant in the social media

space. They further stated that there now Social Media Segmentation which involves

analysing lifestyle characteristics, attitudes and personality online and classifying

customers based on these dimensions. The availability of information on the profiles

of users of social media also makes it easier for the segmentation process.

20

(b) Challenges

However, while some companies are getting benefits that are influencing business

performance from the social media, such as driving consumer purchase (Goh et al.,

2013), others experience negative repercussions, such as harmful customer

comments on their fan page (Dabbagh and Kitsantas, 2012). (Palmer and Koenig-

Lewis, 2009) warned that the transparency of the web makes online information

available to all audiences, and reinforces the need for consistency in the planning,

design, implementation and control of online marketing communication.

(i) It lacks privacy

According to Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), Information on competitive offers became

readily available on the internet to everyone and opened the gates to “cherry picking”

behaviour among customers. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), explained that using

social media to promote one`s brand, products, or services can also implicate trust,

privacy and data security issues, hence, it is important for companies to be aware of

these issues and takes appropriate measures to minimise their exposure to liability

related to personal data collection, use and maintenance. Companies that administer

their own blogs or other social media platforms should also maintain comprehensive

policies that disclose the company`s data collection, use and storage practices, and

any responsibilities that third parties have regarding privacy and data security

(Steinman and Hawkins, 2010).

(ii) It lacks deeper interactions with customers

It was argued that while the adoption of online technologies offered invaluable

advantages for transactional services, it left little room for “deeper” interactions with

customers (Durkin et al., 2013). Johns and Perrott (2008) in their study of the

financial sector have noted excessive automation and “digitization” of financial

services gradually distanced customers away from their service providers. However,

as noted above, some authors have argued that through the two way communication

on the social media, a firm can build stronger relationships with customers (Rust et

al., 2010). From the theory, it can be concluded that the adoption of social media

alone cannot result in strong relationships being developed. It must therefore be

complemented with real-time communication with clients in order to establish

grounds for relationships (Liang et al., 2008).

21

(iii) Difficult to measure its effectiveness

Critics argue that metrics measuring the effectiveness of social media engagement

and its impact on customer relationships are still vague, as there is no hard evidence

proving the benefits of social media for the RM (Mitic and Kapoulas, 2012).

According to Blanchard (2011) there is still no clear evidence to prove that 10,000

new followers/fans on the firm’s social media account will lead to 8,000 new

customers, and $2 million increase in firm’s sales revenue. Literature has mixed

results on measuring the effectiveness on social media marketing. Vaynerchuk

(2011) argues that there is no hard formula to calculate SMM Return on Investment,

because SMM mostly involve human interactions, which cannot be calculated using

mathematical calculation.

(iv) The organisation lacks control of the Social M edia

Organisations lose control of messages disseminated when utilising social media

(Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Oftentimes marketing strategies involving social

networking sites or other social media incorporate user-generated content (UGC)

into the field, for example, UGC allows internet users to make comments in various

forms, such as photos, videos, podcast, ratings, reviews, articles and blogs(Akar and

Topçu, 2011). Cheung and Thadani (2010) noted that one aspect of social

networking that is especially damaging to marketing campaigns is negative post

responses were unhappy customers or industry competitors are able to post

disparaging or offensive pictures, posts or videos and there is not much a marketer

can do to prevent these occurrences social networks must be managed efficiently

enough to immediately respond and neutralise harmful posts (Hennig‐Thurau et al.,

2004).

(v) Time intensive

As the name implies, social media is interactive and successful, two-way exchanges

take commitment, hence somebody has to be responsible to monitor each network,

respond to comments, answer questions and post product information the customer

deem valuable (Barefoot and Szabo, 2010). Barefoot and Szabo (2010) further noted

that as a general rule, simply dabbling in a few social media resources and hoping to

realise enormous returns is fanciful but a company must realise the necessary time

commitment and either accept or reject that commitment as plausible for its

operation.

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2.2.6 Effect of SMM on Marketing

The adoption of social media marketing has led to a paradigm shift in the way

marketing used to be practiced. Habibi et al. (2014) noted that social media have led

to the emergence of User Generation Content (UGC) and the use of Web 2.0

technology in marketing. The Web 2.0 technological core refers to a mixed

technological and media core that allows instantaneous, real-time communication

with relatively low cost and utilizes various formats (e.g., text, video, audio, or

photos), global reach and different delivery plat-forms (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).

The use of these Web 2.0 technologies has made it easier to have multimedia, one-

on-one communication throughout the world 24/7.

Habibi et al. (2014) Further noted that the technological advancement has

augmented the ideology of social media, which refers to the fact that consumers do

not passively consume content, but they actively participate in creating, sharing, and

consuming the content. This is opposed to the traditional marketing process were

consumers used to passively consume marketing content. The coming in of social

media marketing has therefore changed the role of the consumer in the marketing

process from being passive consumers to being creators of the marketing content.

The content created by users(or UGC) contains a certain level of creativity, is

created unprofessionally, and is publicly available on the Internet (Vickery and

Wunsch-Vincent, 2007). Fournier and Avery (2012), warned that as the result of this

shift in roles of the consumers, the voice of consumers is strong to the extent that

marketers now need to focus on brand protection rather than brand building. In

support of this argument, Gillin and Schwartzman (2010) noted that one consumer

may post brand dissatisfaction to 10 million people. The figures below illustrate the

traditional marketing communication model:

23

Figure 2.5 Traditional one-to – many marketing comm unication model, Source:

Hoffman & Novak, (1996:5).

Figure 2.6 New Model of Marketing Communication in Hypermedia Computer-

Mediated Environment: Source: Hoffman and Novak, (1 996:7).

According to Swain and Cao (2014), traditional media provides one way

communication between organisations and customers. He further noted that the lack

of interaction and participation during the communication is a barrier to this

24

marketing. The coming in of social media marketing has eliminated this barrier as

customers and organisations can now interact as earlier on noted by Habibi et al.

(2014).

The other unique result stemming from social media is the high transparency of

brand activities, that is, brands can no longer keep anything secret; everything

should be clear; the age of social media is one of transparency (Fournier and Avery,

2012).

2.2.7 Social Media Marketing and Sales

As discussed above, the past few years have been witness to a fundamental shift

toward user-driven technologies such as blogs, social networks, and video-sharing

platforms (Lenhart et al., 2010).Social media has been found to be positively

associated with sales processes and relationship sales performance (Rodriguez et

al., 2012). As earlier noted, with the advent of social media, consumers are rapidly

adopting social networking sites, engaging in micro-blogging, and downloading

applications for smart phones and computer tablets to enhance their social lives and

promote sharing and communication with friends and family (Andzulis et al., 2012).

Andzulis et al. (2012) further noted that among the functional areas of firms that have

witnessed the potential impact of social media, the sales function has the potential to

be one of the most dramatically changed by these technological advancements and

virtually all aspects of personal selling and sales management could be inherently

affected by these technologies. Salespeople who participate on social media should

be able to improve business by helping build customer loyalty, reducing support

costs, fostering additional sales opportunities, and providing an additional customer

feedback loop (Bertot et al., 2012). SMM has presented a lot of opportunities to the

sellers that were absent in the traditional selling approach. Given sales rests on

exchanging information between buyers and sellers, the process of facilitating

conversations that exists within social media underscores its potentially critical

relationship to sellers and its opportunity for strategic usage by the sales

organization(SCHULTZ et al., 2012). Safko and Brake (2009) concurred with this

sentiment and explained that social media offers more one-to-one methods to meet

and interact with prospects and customers. Andzulis et al. (2012) suggested that

25

social media has revolutionised the sales management discipline through the

following four phases illustrated in the figure below:

Figure 2.7 Process Evolution of Social Media in Sal es: Source: Andzulis et al.

(2012).

While salespeople need to become adept at successfully navigating the first few

critical phases of the sales process (i.e., investigating and qualifying prospects), it

appears social networking might save considerable time during this aspect of the

sales cycle (Seley and Holloway, 2008).

Business social networking tools such as Linkedin, Facebook, Hootsuite, Foursquare

and Twitter could be used to maintain relationships with customers and identify

potential leads (Safko and Brake, 2009).

2.2.8 Social Media Marketing and the Selling Proces s

According to Andzulis et al. (2012), the sales process involves key stages such as

understanding the customer, approach, needs discovery, presentation, close, and

follow‑up. As anyone in sales can attest to the value of his or her social network, the

ability to leverage the different configurations of personal and work-related networks

has now become paramount (Üstüner and Godes, 2006). Andzulis et al. (2012)

argued that no matter how an organization views the sales process or sales funnel,

social media has the potential to dramatically affect every step in the process to

better leverage a salesperson’s network. In support of this argument, Panagopoulos

and Avlonitis (2010) also highlighted that every stage in the sales cycle, every tactic,

26

and every strategic plan has the potential to be affected by the organization’s

adoption of a social media presence or strategy.

(a) Understanding the customer

The primary responsibilities in this first step are to gather knowledge, generate leads

through prospecting, determine communication styles, and calculate potential buying

risks in the buying situation (Andzulis et al., 2012). While definitive conclusions

remain unclear about specific usage, the literature about social media usage

indicates that it may be used in early stages of a customer relationship where

awareness, lead building and prospecting take place (Curtis and Giamanco, 2010).

Firstly, salespeople in this stage need to join and participate in the social networking

sites, to access and view others’ information as easily as a prospect can view theirs

for lead generation (Andzulis et al., 2012). Secondly, they need to gather recent

news and relevant information about prospects and companies by looking at social

media for the sales/competitive intelligence needed to drive the conversation

(Greenberg, 2010).Andzulis et al. (2012) further noted that on this stage

organizations now have the ability to “listen” to customers by simply monitoring the

issues, questions, concerns, and even experiences shared by existing customers

that are discussed in the various social media forums. All this makes an organisation

understand the customer batter leading to the next stage of the process, which is

approaching the prospect.

(b) Approach

The initial approach to the customer provides an opportunity for salespeople to build

rapport, gain the prospect’s undivided attention, introduce themselves while

establishing credibility, and qualify the prospect, among other things(Andzulis et al.,

2012). They further acknowledged that just as there are almost infinite ways to

approach the customer and build rapport in person, there are as many, if not more,

ways to do the same thing virtually via social media.

(c) Needs Discovery

Once the salesperson has successfully started the sales interaction, he or she needs

to uncover the specific needs and wants of the prospect through effective

questioning, listen carefully to question responses to identify latent needs, and

27

understand the prospect’s motivation(Andzulis et al., 2012). Social media expedites

and enhances the process in ways that were only possible with numerous phone

calls and inquiries years ago.

(d) Presentation

According to Andzulis et al. (2012) the explosion of social media and user-generated

content, particularly over the past three years, has really changed the presentation

step of the sales process. By using social media, both salespeople and customers

can now take an active role in determining the appropriate solution and developing

new sales drivers and value propositions, sometimes referred to as “customer co-

creation of value.” Marketing strategists and salespeople are beginning to witness

how existing social media assets offer an opportunity to begin listening to and

embracing their customers for this purpose (Williams et al., 2010). As social media

enhances engagement and collaboration, the presentation process becomes much

richer and its contents become the shared work of both sides of the transaction.

(e) Closing

The final portion of the sales call entails asking for the sale, or the close. Indeed,

social media has the ability to simplify or expedite the close by enriching and adding

value to earlier stages of the sales funnel (Andzulis et al., 2012).

(f) Follow-up

The sales follow-up and customer service components of the sales interaction are

often the most overlooked pieces of a successful sales process, and a place where

social media can be incredibly useful—specifically the two-way communication

offered by social media applications (Andzulis et al., 2012). Firms can also develop

inter-organizational social media applications to communicate internally with other

members of the sales organization to determine the best solutions for service

requests and to determine how to leverage current relationships.

2.3 Key Factors which affect Social Media Marketing Success

2.3.1 Social Media Knowledge

Social Media Knowledge refers to the qualifications, experience and skills acquired

in the field of social media marketing. According to zu Kiel et al. (2013) social media

marketing emphasize audience contribution and relinquishes control over large parts

28

of the content and thus makes knowledge of social media important. They further

alluded to the fact that social media marketing is a developing field but identified two

key traits of a successful social media marketer and these are as follows:

(i) The Technical Skills

This involves basic computer skills, profiency with search engines and navigating the

web and these are generally not beyond the grasp of most people.

(ii) The Personal Attributes

These are arguably more important than technical abilities and these include being a

personable character and able to make conversation and establish a connection with

any one regardless of their location or background.

These skills and knowledge helps one compete against others in the growing field of

social media marketing and to rise to the top in this dynamic area.

2.3.2 Social Media Commitment

Social Media Commitment refers to the level of commitment shown by the

organisation to social media marketing in terms of the financial resources, human

resources and time. According to Lamsfus et al. (2013), spending on advertisements

on social networking has increased from $1.4billion in 2009 to $3billion in 2011, a

nearly 50% increase. This is a reflection that more and more companies are

committing themselves to social media marketing. However, notwithstanding the

growing levels of advertising dollars invested in social media, it is important to

recognise that money is only a small part of the investment required for successful

social marketing. social media marketing requires a holistic approach and requires a

significant amount of effort to be invested in brand-building activities through blogs,

podcasts and tweets(Liebowitz, 2010). A social media marketing Industry Report

(2010) found that 86% of marketers spend at least 6 hours or more each week with

12.5% of marketers spending more than 20 hours each week on social

media(Liebowitz, 2011). This is an indication that social media marketing requires

commitment of time and resources from the organisation for it to be successful.

29

2.3.3 Social Media Training

Social Media Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies

through training and development programmes initiated by the organisation.

According to Tamar Weinberg, in social media marketing it is important to focus on

training the individuals within the company so that they represent the company`s

missions and goals in a factual light with honesty and transparency. (Singh and

Diamond (2012)) agreed with this notion and further stated that the training may

need to be just a series of webinars or online classes, periodic electronic

communication or in-person “lunch and lean’s can be more helpful. Human

Resources Departments of some companies have awakened to the importance of

providing social media training for all new recruits because they expect employees to

be literate on social media, not just to prevent fiascos where workers badmouth their

company in public on online forums, but because they believe knowing how to

navigate social networks will increase their employees’ productivity and job

performance(Vescia, 2013). Therefore employees training on social media will

improve the quality of social media marketing programmes.

2.3.4 Social Media Application

In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth in number and popularity of online

social networks (Furht, 2010). The organisation`s choice of social media should be

heavily influenced by how clearly it can illustrate the company`s value proposition to

customers(Wilson, 2010). The key to choosing these media according to Wilson

should be based on the understanding of the customer. These social media

platforms have been explained above and they from an organisation`s social media

strategy. Identification of the relevant social media platforms lead to successful

social media marketing.

2.4 Effect of Social Media Marketing on Sales Perfo rmance

Blakeman and Brown (2010) identified several benefits of using social media for

marketing, branding and awareness, such as acquiring new customers, gathering

feedback from customers or community, raising awareness of community efforts and

connections, building community network, and fund raising. Vance et al. (2009) also

alluded to these benefits, he explained that social media can also be used to

increase traffic to the corporate website, disseminate significant information, attract

30

new customers, gain feedback, fostering customer relationships, and establish a

two-way conversation, which provide the marketers some help with getting insight in

the preferences and the loyalty of the buyers and promoting the brand identity

(Vance et al., 2009).

2.4.1 Increases Sales Revenue

According to the Ogilvy Chatthreads Integrated Social Media Sales Impact study

(2011), “Social media exposure is directly linked with increases in sales(Stauffer,

2012). Integrated social media (social content + one or more of the channels) exposure

is linked with significant increases in spend and consumption.” However, there have

been some conflicting reports on the impact of social media on sales. According to

the Edison Research, 24% of social network users listed Facebook as an influence

on their buying decision. However, evidence from Forrester Research suggested that

less than 1% of website sales are driven by direct clicks from social networks.

Senecal and Nantel (2004) recognized that the ability for companies and consumers

to form strong relationships is one of the Internet’s biggest strengths and that giving

the consumer access to online recommendations and reviews was a promising way

to forge such relationships. The strong relationships between customers and

companies will lead to an increase in expenditure of organisation’s products.

2.4.2 Increases customer base/market share

Market share refers to the portion of the market being controlled by a company.

According to NAIR and SIDHU (2009) social media can play a role in identifying and

gaining new leads for organizations. With the help of social media, businesses have

the ability to monitor online conversations which can help them to identify trends and

needs and subsequently, organizations can then early discover some business

opportunities before the competitors do Busscher and Von Raesfeld-Meijer

(2013).Due to social media, organizations get to know their customers better by

means of collecting more information on their customer. In addition, organizations

are now able to have an own back office or customer relationship management

system where all the data and information of the customers are stored (Prahalad and

Ramaswamy, 2004). The wide access of customer information has led to better and

improved target marketing, thus widening the company market share.

2.5 Conceptual Framework

Figure 2.8 : Conceptual Framework. Source: Adapted from Kumar (2011)

2.5.1 Study Variables

(a) Independent Variables

The study identified four independent variables that

success and these include

social media, the training that the user frequently go through and the social media

applications adopted.

(i) Social Media Knowledge has an effect on sales performance. As cited i

above knowledge helps one compete against others in the growing field of

social media marketing and to rise to the top in this dynamic area

(ii) Social Media Commitment of the organisation has a positive effect to sales

performance. As highlighted in 2

fundamental components of improving the relationship that leads to

cooperation among partners

Conceptual Framework

: Conceptual Framework. Source: Adapted from Kumar (2011)

(a) Independent Variables

independent variables that affect social media marketing

success and these include social media knowledge, organisation`s commitment to


Social Media Knowledge has an effect on sales performance. As cited i

knowledge helps one compete against others in the growing field of


Social Media Commitment of the organisation has a positive effect to sales

performance. As highlighted in 2.2.5 above commitment is one of the


cooperation among partners (Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

31

: Conceptual Framework. Source: Adapted from Kumar (2011).

ocial media marketing

social media knowledge, organisation`s commitment to


Social Media Knowledge has an effect on sales performance. As cited in 2.4.2

knowledge helps one compete against others in the growing field of


Social Media Commitment of the organisation has a positive effect to sales

commitment is one of the


32

(iii) Social media marketing training has a positive impact on sales performance of

the organisation. As cited in 2.3.3 above training employees on social media

does not just prevent fiascos where workers badmouth their company in

public on online forums, but also equip them with the knowledge on how to

navigate social networks which will increase their productivity and

performance(Vescia, 2013) is still a new concept but it is always changing,

with new platforms being introduced.

(iv) Social media applications according to literature have an effect on sales

growth and market share. As cited in 2.2.4 these applications have a positive

influence on sales and market share. As indicated in 2.2.4 Zarrella (2009)

identified seven of these social media application tools as Blogs, Microblogs,

Social Networks, Media Sharing Sites, Review Sites, Forums and Virtual

Worlds.

(b) Dependent Variables

(i) Social media marketing has a positive influence on sales growth. As cited in

2.2.7 above. Safko and Brake (2009) concluded that social media offers more

one-to-one methods to meet and interact with prospects and customers, thus

presenting growth opportunities. Thus as highlighted in 2.4.1 Social media

exposure is directly linked with increases in sales(Stauffer, 2012)

(ii) Social media marketing has a positive influence on market share. As indicated

in 2.4.2 social media has led to easy access of customer information, which

has also led to better and improved target marketing, thus widening the

company market share.

(c) Extraneous Variable

(i) Levels of expertise refer to the level of skill and know how employees have on

social media. It affects the how the organisation`s sales growth and market

share is going to be influenced by social media marketing. Lack of the right

expertise will negatively affect social media marketing`s influence on sales

growth and market share.

(ii) Internet accessibility refers to the ability of the targeted audience to access

the internet in order to be on the social media. Accessibility is mainly

influenced by affordability by the customers. Their failure to access the

33

internet affects the relationship between the independent and dependent

variables.

(iii) Internet connectivity refers to the speed of connection and presence of the

internet network. Slow connectivity affect the effectiveness of social media

marketing and hence will affect SMM effect on sales growth and market

share.

2.6 Summary of Propositions

• Proposition 1: The ineffectiveness of the social media marketing at Econet is

partly due to the limited access to the Internet by the general public.

• Proposition 2: The ineffectiveness of social media at Econet is primarily due

to poor Internet connectivity in Zimbabwe.

• Proposition 3: The social media is ineffective as a marketing communications

tool because the company lacks the required expertise.

2.7 Conclusion

This chapter reviewed all the relevant literature in line with the effect of social media

marketing to sales performance. The key factors which affect social media marketing

success were discussed. However, most of the literature reviewed has its roots in

developed economies especially United States and Western Europe and lacks the

Zimbabwean perspective, which is what this research sought to establish. The

literature did not directly address the key objectives of this study as outlined in

chapter 1 thus making this study which sought to establish the effectiveness of SMM

in the Zimbabwean context relevant. Key relationships between the dependent and

the independent variables of the study were highlighted in the conceptual framework

and it provided a guide on the discussion of findings later in the 4th chapter. The

critical reviewing of the literature formed the basis of the discussion of the next

chapter which looks at the methodology, which provide an insight on how the study

was carried out.

34

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter covers the methodology which was applied in carrying out the study.

The statement of the problem, research objectives, research questions and research

propositions is also briefly looked in order to recap the background of the research.

This chapter also looks at the research approach, research instruments used to

collect data, the interviews administered and sampling techniques. It also identifies

the data analysis techniques used in the research as well as the ethical

considerations.

3.2 Recap of Statement of the Problem and Research Objectives

As highlighted in Chapter 1, social media marketing is a relatively new phenomenon

as compared to other forms of marketing. The research seeks to study how effective

Econet has been implementing this new marketing approach. The study`s

methodology sought to achieve the research objectives of the study. The primary

objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of social media marketing in

enhancing sales performance at Econet Zimbabwe while the secondary objectives of

the study as highlighted in chapter 1 are as follows:

1. To explore how Social Media Marketing is being applied at Econet.

2. To establish the benefits of using Social Media Marketing.

3. To identify the challenges of using Social Media Marketing.

4. To establish the level of knowledge and commitment to Social Media


5. Make recommendations to Econet on Social Media Marketing implementation.

3.2.1 Recap of the Research Questions

The research methodology also sought to answer the key questions of the research

as outlined in Chapter 1. According to Saunders et al. (2011) your research question

will subsequently inform your choice of research strategy, your choices of collection

techniques and analysis procedures, and the time horizon over which you undertake

your research project. Just to recap, the key research questions of the study are as

follows:

35

1. How is Social Media Marketing being implemented?

2. What are the benefits of using Social Media Marketing to Econet?

3. What are the limitations and challenges of using the social media marketing in

Zimbabwe in the telecoms sector?

4. What are the platforms used by Econet for Social Media Marketing?

3.2.2 Recap of the Research Propositions

Proposition 1 : The ineffectiveness of the social media marketing in the

telecommunications sector is due to the limited access to the Internet by the general

public.

Proposition 2 : The ineffectiveness of social media is primarily due to poor Internet

connectivity in Zimbabwe.

Proposition 3 : The social media is ineffective as a marketing communications tool

because the sector lacks the required expertise /skills.

3.3 Research Design

The research design is the logical sequence that connects the empirical data to the

study’s initial research questions and ultimately to its conclusions (Yin, 2003). It also

guides the researcher in the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting

observations, allowing them to draw inferences concerning causal relations among

the variables under investigation (Yin, 2003). The research design will be the general

plan of how you will go about answering your research question(s) (Saunders et al.,

2011) . The elements of the research design of this study are discussed in the

paragraphs below.

3.3.1 Research Philosophy

According to White (2003) research can be carried out by either using the qualitative

or quantitative approach.

Quantitative Research

Leedy and Ormrod (2001) alleged that quantitative research is specific in its

surveying and experimentation, as it builds upon existing theories. The aim of the

quantitative approach is to test pre-determined hypotheses and produce

generalizable results. Such studies are useful for answering more mechanistic

36

'what?' questions (Marshall, 1996). Quantitative research is an iterative process

through which evidence is evaluated, and theories and hypothesis are refined and

tested (White, 2003).

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a holistic approach that involves discovery. Qualitative

research is also described as an unfolding model that occurs in a natural setting that

enables the researcher to develop a level of detail from high involvement in the

actual experiences (Creswell, 1999). Qualitative studies aim to provide illumination

and understanding of complex psychosocial issues and are most useful for

answering humanistic 'why?' and 'how?' questions (Marshall, 1996). Wilson (2006)

defines the qualitative approach as an unstructured research methodology that is

carried out using a small number of carefully selected individuals to produce non

quantifiable insights into behaviour, motivations and attitudes. Qualitative methods

use open-ended interviews to explore opinions, behaviours and attitudes of

individuals or groups of individuals (White, 2003). This research adopted a

qualitative research philosophy.

Justification of Qualitative Research Philosophy

The advantage of this approach is that it provides a deeper understanding of social

phenomena than would be obtained from purely quantitative data (Silverman, 2013).

The researcher sought to engage the practitioners in order to gain knowledge of how

social media marketing is being practiced at Econet and its effect on sales

performance. Using the qualitative research approach also presented an opportunity

to the researcher to study the current situations in the field of marketing by engaging

with practitioners, considering phenomena in their specific macro and micro, social,

institutional, political, economic and technological contexts. Qualitative research

methods offer multiple perspectives of the world, all of which incrementally add to

our understanding of its operation and its implicit meanings (Denzin and Lincoln,

2000). Many of the methods employed attempt to capture the perceptions and

understandings of the actors ‘from the inside’ so as to better understand how they

make sense of, act in and manage their daily work and situations (Miles and

Huberman, 1994). They also use open ended questions giving respondents an

37

opportunity to respond in their own words, leading to detailed and rich information

being obtained.

3.3.2 Research Approach

Saunders et al. (2011) Identify two research approaches in business research,

deductive and inductive approaches. This research adopted an inductive approach

were data was collected and converted into theory through data analysis. Deduction

owes much to what we would think of as scientific research and it is the dominant

research approach in the natural sciences, where laws present the basis of

explanation, allow the anticipation of phenomena, predict their occurrence and

therefore permit them to be controlled (Collis et al., 2003).Inductive approach looks

at the focus of the research and through investigation by various research methods,

aims to generate theory from the research (Greener, 2008).

Justification of the use of the Inductive Approach

The researcher opted for this approach in order to gain insight on the context in

which social media marketing is being applied here in Zimbabwe. This approach

presented an opportunity to gain insight and knowledge from the way practitioners

interpreted the subject under study in the context of the local environment.

3.3.3 Research Strategy

According to Yin (Yin, 2009) there are several ways of doing research which include

case studies, experiments, surveys, histories and the analysis of archival

information. Yin also further highlighted that any of these research strategies has its

strengths and weaknesses depending on three conditions :1)The type of research

question 2)The control the investigator has over actual behavioural events 3)The

focus on contemporary as opposed to historical phenomena.

The research involves ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about a contemporary set of events,

over which the researcher has little or no control (Yin, 2009), hence the application of

a case study in this research. A single case study approach was applied with the

case of Econet being studied. Econet was chosen because it is a dominant player in

the telecommunication industry and is one of the few local companies that have

adopted social media marketing. It is also the only mobile telecommunication

company which is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, has the largest number

38

of subscribers and is the market leader in the sector, making it an ideal case in the

telecommunication sector for this study. According to Yin (2009) one rationale for

using a single case is the representative or typical case were the objective is to

capture the circumstances and conditions of an everyday or commonplace situation.

Econet is one good example of a typical case in the telecommunications industry.

3.3.4 Case Study Strategy

According to Yin (2009) a case study is an empirical enquiry about a contemporary

phenomenon (e.g., a case), set within its real world context, especially when the

boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. Robson (as

cited in Saunders at al., 2011) defines case study as ‘a strategy for doing research

which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon

within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence’. Yin (2009) further

highlighted that the case study answers “how” and “why” questions about a

contemporary set of events, over which the investigator has little or no control.

Justification of the Case Study

This research also sought to answer ”how “and “why” questions about social media

marketing in Econet. According to Yin (2009) the case study answers “how” and

“why” questions about a contemporary set of events, over which the investigator has

little or no control. Saunders et al. (2011) also noted that the case study strategy has

considerable ability to generate answers to the question ‘why?’ as well as the ‘what?’

and ‘how?’ questions. This approach was suitable for the study because the

researcher wanted to get an in-depth understanding (Yin, 2009) of how social media

is being applied at Econet and how it has impacted on sales performance.

According to Morris and Wood (as cited in Saunders at al.,2011), “The case study

strategy will be of particular interest to you if you wish to gain a rich understanding of

the context of the research and the processes being enacted.”

3.3.5 Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis is the main level in the organisation the study focused on in the

collection and organisation of data. The unit of analysis for the study is the

management level since it is responsible for the adoption and implementation of the

subject of social media marketing.

39

3.4 Data Collection

3.4.1 Population

According to Peters and Gray (1994), population is sometimes referred to as a

universe and is the entire set of people or objects of interest. In the study the

population included all employees at Econet. According to Saunders et al. (2011)

occasionally, it may be possible to collect and analyse data from every possible case

or group member; this is termed a census. However, due to the nature of the study it

is no possible to carry out a census since the subject being studied requires

marketing people who have been practicing social media marketing. A sample was

therefore chosen to represent the population. Sampling techniques provide a range

of methods that enable you to reduce the amount of data you need to collect by

considering only data from a sub-group rather than all possible cases or

elements(Saunders et al., 2011).

3.4.2 Sampling Procedure

Sampling is a process of selecting a subset of individuals from within a population to

estimate characteristics of the whole population(Collis et al., 2003). Sampling

procedure can either be probability or non probability sampling. Probability sampling

(or representative sampling) is most commonly associated with survey-based

research strategies where you need to make inferences from your sample about a

population to answer your research question(s) or to meet your objectives(Saunders

et al., 2011). In probability sampling every unit in the population has an equal chance

of being selected in the sample and can be accurately calculated. Non-probability

sampling (or non-random sampling) provides a range of alternative techniques to

select samples based on your subjective judgement (Saunders et al., 2011). The

sampling procedure adopted was to ensure that the right sample for the study was

chosen. This study used the non-probability sampling technique known as purposive

sampling which is in line with the research approach and the research objectives of

the study.

3.4.3 Purposive Sampling

According to Saunders et al. (2011) purposive or judgemental sampling enables you

to use your judgement to select cases that will best enable you to answer your

research question(s) and to meet your objectives. Purposive sampling was used to

select managers at Econet who are involved in the day to day management of social

40

media marketing and also sales managers. These are the people who were best

placed to answer the research question.

Justification of using Purposive Sampling

The benefits of using this sampling technique are as follows (Saunders et al., 2011):

• Respondents with knowledge of the subject under study were selected and

they were familiar with the issues which were being studied.

• It is less costly and less time consuming. Since the sampling units are easily

identified, the cost of carrying out a sampling process is low and the time

taken to identify them is also low.

• It prevents irrelevant and unnecessary items from entering into the sample.

• It gives better results if the interviewer is not biased and has capacity for keen

observation. The results of this sampling technique are usually more accurate

than those achieved with an alternative form of sampling.

3.4.4 Research Instruments

(a) Interview Guide

This is a list of topics that you intend to cover in the interview along with initial

question and probes that may be used to follow up initial responses and obtain

greater detail from the participants (King 2004).It was prepared based on the key

topic areas that were to be covered during the interviews. The interview guide was

meant to prepare the interviewee on key areas they were going to respond to in

interviews.

Justification of the Interview Guide

An interview guide assists in developing and exploring research themes through the

non-standardised interviews that you conduct to see whether you can identify and

test relationships between them (Saunders et al., 2011). It presents an opportunity

for the research to get in-depth knowledge on issues under study as it gives the

respondent enough time to look at key topic of interests and prepare on how to

articulate them during the interview.

41

(b) Semi structured Personal Interviews

Semi structured interviewing is a qualitative research technique that involves

conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to

explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation (King, 2004).

Interviews were used to collect primary data from the respondents. And it involved

the researcher asking open ended questions orally and recording the respondent’s

answers. This was all done face to face. These interviews were also recorded and

transcribed and the interviewees were notified of the recordings before the interviews

were carried out.

Justification for using semi structured Interviews

Interviews were chosen for this study for the following reasons (Saunders et al.,

2011):

• They provide an opportunity to obtain rich data due to the open-endedness of

the responses.

• They gave the researcher an opportunity to probe some answers and getting

clarity on some of the responses.

• They usually achieve a high response rate.

• They are highly flexible in designing and refining the interview guide and there

is also high flexibility when conducting them

• Interviews also presented the interviewees with a high degree of freedom to

explain and express their minds.

• The interviewer also has more control over who answers the questions’ in

comparison with a questionnaire, which may be passed from one person to

another without the knowledge of the researcher.

3.4.5 Interview administration

In order to get a high response rate, interview guide (see attachment in the

appendix) were sent to the respondents before the actual interview to allow

respondents to be familiar with issues which were sought by the study. Appointments

were placed well in advance in order for the interviewee and the interviewer to have

adequate time to prepare. Faces to face, semi structured interviews were held for 15

42

respondents and rich qualitative data was obtained. Interviews were recorded with

the interviewee`s consent and prescribed (see attachment in appendix).

3.4.6 Research Variables

The study had four independent variables namely social media knowledge, social

media commitment, social media training and social media applications. Two

dependent variables were measured and these are sales growth and market share.

There were three extraneous variables which included level of expertise in the

organisation, internet accessibility and internet connectivity.

3.4.7 Research Assumptions

In determining the market share, the study considered the three major mobile

telecommunication companies which are Econet, Telecel and Net One.

3.5 Data Analysis

Schensul et al. (1999) define data analysis as the process a researcher uses to

reduce data to a story and its interpretation. There is no standard format in data

analysis in qualitative research (Neuman, 2004). Data collection, data analysis and

the development and verification of propositions are very much an interrelated and

interactive set of processes(Saunders et al., 2011). This interactive nature allowed

the researcher to recognise important themes, patterns and relationships found

through data collection. All the data collected was analysed against the theory cited

in literature review and appropriate inferences were made. This study used data

display tables and detailed write-ups for data analysis.

The study adopted the qualitative data analysis procedure suggested by Miles and

Huberman (1994) and the following tools were used in analysing data:

(a) Data Display Tables

Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that a good display of data, in the form of table

format is essential. Tables were used to show key themes that came out of the

interviews during data collection.

(b) Detailed Write-ups

This was a key part of the analysis as it involved making inferences and generating

theory from the data obtained (Merriam, 1998). The detailed write-up was done

43

through moving back and forth between the details and carrying out a landscape

view of concepts as described by Miles and Huberman (1994).

3.6 Research Limitation

The research focused on only one industry, the telecommunication industry with only

one company, Econet being studied. This may not be sufficient for the purposes of

generalisation (Yin, 2009).

3.7 Ethical Considerations

According to Blumberg (2008) ethics are defined as the ‘norms or standards of

behaviour that guide moral choices about our behaviour and our relationships with

others. The research adhered to high ethical standards in order to promote trust,

accountability and mutual respect, which are key values in dealing with different

people from different institutions. Ethical practices were followed to avoid damaging

the reputation of the researcher, respondents, Econet and the University of

Zimbabwe. To avoid causing any harm to the key listed stakeholders of this

research, the researcher followed the ethical guidelines indicated below:

(i) Honesty during all stages of the research.

(ii) Objectivity through avoidance of bias

(iii) Integrity through keeping of promises and agreements.

(iv) Carefulness through avoiding careless errors and critically examining my work.

(v) Openness through sharing of data, results, ideas, resources and tools with key

stakeholders. The researcher was also open to criticism and new ideas.

(vi) The information gathered was considered for academic use only.

(vii) The research did not contain any offensive or confidential information.

(viii) Confidentiality of data was maintained to ensure respondents’ anonymity

(ix) Names of individuals were not disclosed in the research.

3.8 Chapter Conclusion

The chapter outlined how the study was carried out in terms of the methodology. It

was also highlighted that the study followed a qualitative research approach with a

case study as a research approach. The key variables of the study were also

identified and these formed the basis of the interview guide. In depth interviews were

used to collect data for the period from 2009 to 2013. This also formed the basis of

data analysis outlined in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the results of the study and provide a detailed discussion on

them. It looks at the social media applications being used at Econet, effect of social

media knowledge, training and commitment to the social media marketing. The

chapter also looks at the emerging concepts from the study as well as the

framework.

4.2 An overview of the respondents

The Table 4.1 below shows main characteristics of the respondents who were part of

study. All the respondents were mature and well experienced in marketing as well as

social media marketing. They all represented different levels of management and all

respondents are either involved in strategy formulation or implementation of social

media marketing.

Table 4.1: Overview of the respondents

Respondent Level of Management

Years in SMM Qualifications Area of work

Respondent 1 Middle 5 years B.Comm Marketing Brand Mgt Respondent 2 Middle 4 years Masters in Mktg Brand Mgt Respondent 3 Senior 5 years MBA Value Added Respondent 4 Lower 3 years B.Comm Marketing Sales Mgt Respondent 5 Middle 5 years Chartered Marketer Sales Mgt Respondent 6 Middle 8 years B.Comm Marketing Digital Mktg Respondent 7 Middle 7 years Chartered Marketer Social Media Respondent 8 Senior 5 years Chartered Marketer Customer Relations Respondent 9 Middle 3 years MBA Sales Management Respondent 10 Lower 3 years B.Comm Marketing Sales Management Respondent 11 Middle 4 years Masters in Mktg Brand Management Respondent 12 Middle 4 years Chartered Marketer Brand Management Respondent 13 Middle 3 years Chartered Marketer Customer Relations Respondent 14 Senior 8 years M. in Comp Science Executive Respondent 15 Middle 4 years MBA Retail Operations

45

4.3.1 Section A: Social Media Application

Background of current social media application bein g used

Table 4.2 Social Media Applications at Econet Respondent Response

1

In order for it to be implemented better, it was put under the digital marketing department, which is responsible for interacting with clients on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and you tube.

2

We are channelling all our promotions and adverts for new products and services through the social media marketing such as Facebook, Twitter, You tube and Yokoos, but the mainly used are Facebook and Twitter

3

We actually have a schedule for transmitting the message that we want to portray, if we want to portray the effectiveness of a product we post it on Facebook, if we want to generate a post or talk about our service or product we post a twit on the Twitter platform where we have got a lot of followers that are interacting with us.

4 In our territory we mainly use Facebook and Twitter, as well as Linkedin to interact with end users, agents, wholesalers and retailers.

5 The main one are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

6

Our mandate is to use as many sites as possible but at the moment the market is receptive to Facebook and Twitter and to a lesser extend YouTube. We also use blogs to interact and get feedback from our customers.

7 Basically we are using Facebook, Twitter, Yookos, Google+ and blogging to enhance our brand visibility and awareness.

8 We took a strategy to use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

9 In our department we are using Twitter and Facebook to interact with the market.

10 Generally, we use Facebook mainly, with Twitter and linked in complimenting.

11 In my portfolio we are using Facebook, but YouTube is also proving to be popular and we are getting many views on adverts. We also use Twitter.

12 Twitter is proving to be popular especially when we wand instant feedback. We use Facebook to introduce new services and blogs to initiate debates.

13 Twitter and Facebook mainly.

14

We have a social media marketing strategy policy guide. This guides us on our activities on social media. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yookos, YouTube, Google+ and blogs are used to market different products.

15 Facebook is proving to be popular but we also use Twitter for customer engagement.

All the respondents confirmed that they are using social media tools in their different

departments. All the 15 respondents interviewed stated that they are currently using

Facebook and Twitter platforms as part of their social media marketing. Five

respondents stated that they are using blogging within their departments. Seven of

the respondents are using YouTube platform. According to respondent 14, Econet

46

has a social media marketing policy guide which is an indication that social media

usage is taken seriously. Facebook and Twitter are the most commonly used tools at

Econet. From the study other social media applications such as blogging, Yookos,

YouTube and Google+ are used at Econet. Econet is using different social media

platforms, with departments using platforms that are relevant to them.

Question 2: How is social media marketing benefitti ng Econet?

Table 4.3: Benefits of using social networks

Respondent Response

1

The main benefit is that you tend to communicate with some of the audience in real time and the attention and feedback you will be getting is instant and enormous in terms of volume.

2 It’s an excellent tool to get feedback from clients.

3

Social media has given us access to areas that were traditional not reachable using the traditional marketing tools such as Binga, Malipati, Tsholotsho and many other areas. It’s a good publicity tool and it’s a good too for interacting with current and potential customers.

4 These are platforms where we are able to gain more insight about our customers

5 A strong social media presence promotes customer loyalty through engaging and taking into account clients` contribution

6 It promotes daily engagement with clients.

7 These are platforms where we are able to gain more insight about our customers

8

It is cost efficient as compared to other marketing tools. There are also great opportunities for referrals from other users, thereby enhancing your market reach.

9 Social media has got a very large audience 10 It establishes trust between you and your fans/followers 11 It helps to get input on content of advertising from the clients

12 The social media has definitely assisted us to launch our new offerings, it helps in communicating new offerings to the market faster.

13 You get to understand your customers better.

14 Social media sites help to improve communication with clients, that is, both current and potential.

15

On Facebook, there is no limitation of the amount of text you post and you can just choose to chat with any of your clients.

All the respondents acknowledged that the use of social media marketing has got

benefits which Econet is currently enjoying. Most of the benefits revolve around

communication with customers. To illustrate that communication is the key benefit,

respondent 1 indicated this when he said, “The main benefit is that you tend to

47

communicate with some of the audience in real time and the attention and feedback

you will be getting is instant and enormous in terms of volume.” However, this is only

one of many benefit identified by literature. According to the literature highlighted in

chapter 2, social media marketing helps to understand the customers better; helps in

getting feedback from the clients; encourages communication with customers; helps

in building relationships with customers; there is high traffic on the different social

media platforms; it is cheaper way of reaching customers and helps in segmentation.

Question 3: What are the challenges Econet is exper iencing in social media marketing? Table 4.4: Challenges of using social in marketing

Respondent Response

1 The major challenge on these social networking sites is that you cannot control what your audience are posting on your Facebook page or Twitter account.

2 The challenge is that in Zimbabwe, affordability of the internet is still a challenge for many clients.

3

The social media marketing is a complex area and there is still a certain level of stigma against this kind of platform.

4 Some people associate Facebook with playing and it is not taken seriously.

5 It is very difficult to prove that you have turned followers into customers.

6 You are not sure whether the information has been read by all your fans who follow your social media site.

7 Affordability of the internet is still a challenge for many clients. 8 It requires a great amount of time.

9 Some comments you get on social media can be damaging to the reputation of the brand.

10 Competition can easily track your performance and easily copy your social media strategy.

11 It can only be effective with other marketing strategies; it cannot be used in isolation.

12 It is easier for a competitor to quickly copy what you are doing. 13 You can spend your efforts on the wrong target market.

14

The social media has not reached a point where everyone accept that it can be used for commercial purposes and hence some of the people who like your pages will not be doing it for business sense.

15

It is difficult to track the effectiveness of social media since it’s difficult to trace whether followers are converted in buyers.

All the respondents acknowledged that the use of the social media has its

weaknesses. The major challenges raised in the study are lack of general

appreciation of the social media as a business tool that can be used for marketing

purposes in the Zimbabwean market. The other key theme coming out of these

48

challenges is that security, safety, confidentiality and limited control are the major

threats to the use of the social media at Econet. Most of the challenges highlighted

are in line with literature except for the one highlighted by respondent 2 and 7 of

affordability, which is reflective of the Zimbabwe`s economic environment.

Question 4: How has these challenges been overcome?

Table 4.5: Solution to the challenges being faced

Respondent Response 1 We have dedicated staff who are monitoring our media platforms all the time.

2 Econet has introduced social media bundles which assists clients to access some of the social media sites at affordable rates.

3

The company has taken a deliberate strategy to have its founder, Strive Masiiwa, to participate on the social media platforms to inspire confidence on social media use to the public.

4 Econet is always carrying out minor promotions where clients win something in order to show the public that social media is a business platform.

5 At the moment it is very difficult to prove whether a follower or a Facebook friend has been turned into a customer.

6 We always ensure that we are honest in our engagement with clients on these forums.

7

The organisation`s focus at the moment is to make internet affordable to our customers and we have introduced different promotions on data bundles which makes internet accessibility affordable.

8 Dedicated staff for social media. 9 Sites are monitored and damaging comments are quickly erased. 10 We always strive to be ahead of competition. 11 It is used as part of the marketing strategy.

12 You cannot control what your competition is doing, but Econet is always ahead of the game in terms of innovative social media marketing coverage.

13 We always try to check the profile of our followers and Facebook friends

14

We are trying to build a positive perception of consumers that these platforms can be used for business engagements hence we are honest on these platforms and we always meet our promises.

15 We always log any feedback and complaints that come through these sites and ensure that they are attended to.

From the evidence obtained, it shows that Econet is investing time and money to try

and counter the challenges involved with using social media marketing. However,

not all the challenges that have been stated in table 4.4 are being adressed. Econet

is focusing on both the internal and external environment in trying to addressing

these challenges. Internally, it is commiting more resources and trying to reduce its

prices of accessing the internet as highlighted by respondent 7,” The organisation`s

49

focus at the moment is to make internet affordable to our customers and we have

introduced different promotions on data bundles which makes internet accessibility

affordable.” Externally, Econet is trying to change the attitude and perceptins of the

public on social media by psoting positive news and having its founder member, Dr

Strive Masiiwa participating on the social media platform.

Question 5: How are these social media platforms im pacting on sales growth

and market share at Econet?

Table 4.6 Social media platfroms impact on sales pe rformance

Respondent Response

1 The use of the social media has hugely assisted in marketing of new products and is partly responsible for their success.

2 We have been using our social media platforms to introduce new handsets to the market leading to increased sales being generated.

3

Engagement with clients frequently has boosted Econet especially on product usage.

4 Social media can take away the selling time of the sales rep, leading to poor sales.

5 Social media has expanded Econet`s area of influence in terms of market reach and this has definitely has led to increased sales performance.

6 Feedback we have been on social media has helped us to serve the clients better and hence affecting sales positively.

7 Use of social media has led to improvement in communication with clients which also lead to loyalty and repeat purchases.

8 You can easily get profiles of key clients which helps you to serve them better leading to improved purchases from them

9 Competition can easily imitate your strategy and eat away your market.

10 Social media has led to an improvement in relations with clients, leading to loyalty.

11 By using social media, Econet has gained access to huge audience to market its products.

12 Social media has given Econet access to markets which were traditional not reachable and this has improved sales.

13 You can get negative comments which affect sales performance. 14 It is difficult to close a sale on the social media.

15 Daily interactions with clients have also led to high loyalty which positively affects sales.

According to the 11 respondents, social media platfroms have positively influenced

sales performance. Respondent 4,9,13&14 highlighted the negatives that are

associated with the social media platforms and these include spending too much

time on these platforms, easily imitated by competition, getting negative comments

from other customers and the difficult in closing a sale. Respondent 1&2 mentioned

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that th socail media platforms have assisted in introducing new products to the

market. Respondent 3,6&7 have noted that these platfroms have improved

communication through engagement and getting feedback from clients.

4.3.2Section B: Social Media Commitment

Question 1: Can you explain how committed is the or ganisation to social media marketing?

Table 4.7 Commitment to social media Respondent Response

1 We have a digital marketing department and this is where social media marketing is implemented.

2 Our founding member participates in social media marketing and all the companies in the group they participate.

3 There is a strong buy in from top management.

4 The sales team also have profiles on the social media sites which they always monitor.

5 Any query which came through these sites is given maximum attention. 6 There is a budget set aside for social media marketing

7 The presence of the social media marketing department is enough testimony of Econet`s commitment

8 There is a department and a fully-fledged manager working in social media marketing.

9 Sales people are encouraged to set aside time to engage clients on the social media.

10 Social media marketing forms part of our portfolio`s marketing budget. 11 It’s a percentage of the budget allocated to promotions. 12 We have committed a significant amount of financial and human resources.

13 Issues which come through these sites are given the necessary attention and the priority remains customer satisfaction

14

We have come up with an internal social media marketing strategy policy which governs how staff uses these sites, to avoid any staff action from damaging company reputation.

15 There is also the issue of time that is spent by some personnel looking after these platforms.

All respondents have indicated that Econet is committed to social media marketing.

Respondent 1,3,9&15 indicated that there are dedicated people who are always

looking after the social media as a sign of Econet`s commitment to socail media.

The main commitment is reflected on response from respondent 14, “We have

come up with an internal social media marketing strategy policy which governs how

staff use these sites, to avoid staff action on these sites from damaging company

reputation.” The other commitment is through financial budgets which were raised

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by respondent 11 who alluded that part of their budget on promotions is allocated to

social media marketing. There is also a fully-fledged social media marketing

department which works with other departments on issues related to marketing via

the social media.

Question 2: How has this commitment on social media affected sales

performance at Econet?

Table 4.8 Impact of commitment to sales perfromance .

Respondent Response 1 There is constant interaction with clients which promotes repeat purchases.

2 Presence of fulltime personnel has led to quick handling of customer concerns.

3 Being on social media has led to enquiries coming through these platforms.

4

Having people working on social media in the organisation has given the organisation capacity to serve more people there by improving sales performance.

5 Social media commitment has made it possible to engage different level of clients.

6 Having people working on social media has made it possible to attend to customer clients which come through these platforms quickly.

7 Dedicated people on social media made communication with clients quicker. 8 There has been an improvement in customer engagement 9 Fulltime personnel may end up playing on social media. 10 It has become easy to give feedback to clients on promotions. 11 Social media department has improved the efficiency of customer handling.

12 Having a department has made it easier to co-ordinate effort in a way that improves sales performance.

13 The commitment has led to a lot of time spent on social media, with results not quantifiable.

14 It is difficult to close a sale on the social media.

15 There is a dedicated team which is always communicating with clients, improving satisfaction and loyalty.

Out of the 15 people interviewed, 12 people acknowldged that commitment to social

media has positively affected sales performence. The commitment, according to the

interviewees has led to better engagement with clients and improved

communication, key ingredients which lead to customer satisfaction and retention.

However, there are 3 respondents who believe that this commitment has negatively

affected sales perfromance through time being lost on the social media where it is

difficult to close sales deals. As respondent 2,3,6&7 expressed, the social media

commitment has led quick handling of customer concerns, getting enquiries through

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the social media, quick attention given to clients and easy to give updates and get

feedback from clients.

4.3.3 Section C: Social Media Knowledge

Question 1: Why is social media knowledge important in ensuring successful

implementation of social media marketing at Econet?

Table 4.9 Importance of social media knowledge

Respondent Response

1 Social media knowledge makes it easier to align social media marketing with the strategic thrust of the organisation.

2 Knowledge assists in optimizing on the best media platforms that are relevant to our market.

3 It helps us to serve the market better and improve the efficiency of reaching out to clients

4

The social medial marketing has become more significant in the marketing discipline, having people with the knowledge helps to develop sound and creative social media marketing ideas that attract the market.

5 With the right knowledge, you are assured of doing the right thing.

6 Knowledge is important because it makes aware of the current trends in the social media.

7 It is critical to have social media knowledge in order to ensure that you use the right platforms for your social media campaigns.

8 Knowledge of social media is critical in planning all the activities that need to be carried out to market the company`s products effectively.

9 Having the knowledge makes you comfortable when dealing with clients on the social media.

10 Without knowledge you cannot handle social media marketing properly.

11 Knowledge definitely ensures that you are on the correct path and you will not be lost in just giving updates which do not excite the market.

12 Social media knowledge helps you to be creative on these platforms. 13 With the right social media knowledge, you make the right choices of platforms.

14 The knowledge is critical because it helps you to recruit the right personnel who will be responsible for handling the social media.

15 Success of social media marketing sometimes depends on how much knowledge you have on the subject.

All the respondents acknowledged the importance of knowledge of social media in

ensuring successful implementation of social media marketing. According to

respondent 1 and 2, social media knowledge makes it easy to plan and align social

media marketing with organisation`s vision. From the respondents, knowledge

ensures that social media marketing is correctly implemented internally and

delivered well to the market. Respondent 8 pointed the importance of this

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knowledge to the organisation, “Knowledge of social media is critical in planning all

the activities that need to be carried out to market the company`s products

effectively.”

Question 2: How has this knowledge impacted on sale s performance?

Table 4.10 Impact of social media knowledge on sale s performance.

Respondent Response

1 Social media knowledge has helped serve the market better on the social media platforms, leading to customer satisfaction.

2 Knowledge has improved the effectiveness of social media marketing, leading to improved sales performance.

3

Social media knowledge has made us to get on the right platforms were we are getting a lot of enquiries

4 Knowledge of the social market has given us access to wider market.

5 Through knowledge we have managed to improve our level of creativity on the social networks, leading to creation of loyalty.

6 Working with knowledgeable people improves team performance as well as overall sales performance.

7 Customer handling on the social media platforms always increase due to knowledge

8 Knowledge has led to sound social media campaigns being implemented.

9 Knowledge of social media can be self destructive as people tend to be over elaborate.

10 Knowledge also improves the quality of engagement with the clients. 11 With knowledge you can quickly identify opportunities.

12 If you have the knowledge, you can quickly identify the threats on the social network platforms and address them

13 Knowledge leads to arrogance which may lead to failure to connect with clients.

14 The market does not require too much knowledge to improve sales since hard selling is the one that closes the sale.

15 It easy to anticipate changes in the social media when you are knowledgeable.

Respondent 9,13&14 cited that social media knowledge can lead to marketing

people being overelaborate and arrogant which may affect social media marketing`s

effect on sales growth and market share. However, the other 12 respondents

acknowledged that social media knowledge has led to an increase is sales

performance, with respondent 2 citing the creation of customer loyalty as one

source of improved sales perfromance.

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4.3.4 Section D: Social Media Training

Question 1: Why is social media training important in ensuring successful

implementation of social media marketing at Econet?

Table 4.11 Importance of social media training

Respondent Response

1 Training is always an important exercise as it gives us the chance to do things better and differently.

2

The social media marketing is an ever changing phenomenon therefore a

continuous training for our team involved in social media marketing helps them

to constantly have an understanding and knowledge of the social media

marketing.

3

Regularly we do update our top management with hands on training in using social media and we give them enough exposure in these conferences and workshops conducted around the country on social media.

4 Training helps to develop a positive attitude towards the whole process of social media marketing.

5 It builds confidence to do the job better.

6

Training aid to the competence level, leading to better implementation of social media marketing.

7 Training enables us to practice social media marketing in an effective way since it is equipped with the right information.

8 Continuous training also ensures that everyone is quite aware of the latest trends in the industry.

9 It improves the quality level of our engagement with customers.

10 Training improves the standard of promotions which are carried out on the social media.

11 Training has changed the mindset of people who used to be stuck in the traditional methods of marketing.

12 It improves our skills on the social media.

13 Training ensures that everyone in the organisation is aware of the company`s policy on social media marketing and how it should be implemented.

14 If everyone is properly trained on social media marketing, it instils a sense of self reliance and reduces unnecessary supervision.

15 Training reduces the cost of making errors

Respondent 2 emphasized the everchanging nature of social media as the main

reason why training is so important, “The social media marketing is an ever

changing phenomenon therefore a continuous training for our team involved in

social media marketing helps them to constantly have an understanding and

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knowledge of the social media marketing.” Respondent 1,5,6,7,8,12&15 highlighted

the importance of training in improving performance related issues. Training of

senior executives at Econet is also done in order to get their buy-in on social media

marketing strategic decisions, according to respondent 3.

Question 2: How has this training affected social m edia marketing`s impact on

sales growth and market share?

4.12 Impact of social media training on sales perfo rmance

Respondent Response

1 Training always improves the level of confidence among the people engaging on social media marketing leading to improved sales performance.

2 Training on social media improves employee selling skills on so the social media platform leading to improved sales performance.

3 It improves employee`s capacity to sell on the social media.

4 Training is a very good motivator and leads to high sales performance.

5 It equips employees with the right skills that enable them to achieve high sales on social media.

6 Training enables employees anticipate changes on the social media, leading to improved sales performance.

7 It improves the quality of work. 8 Training assists in employee development. 9 Training improves the level of engagement with customers.

10 Training has helped improve the quality of decisions which are being made when selling on the social media.

11 Training ensures that social media marketing is properly implemented, leading to improved sales performance.

12 Training reduces the chances of making costly errors.

13 It leads to better organisation within Econet and has led to improvement in sales performance.

14 Training equips employees with current information.

15 Training improves the level of customer service leading improved sales performance.

All the respondents interviewed stated that training in social media marketing leads

to a positive effect on sales growth and market share. Respondent 1,2,3&4

indicated that training improves the skills, confidence and motivation of the people

engaging on social media leading to high sales perfromance from these

individuals.Respondent 10 also highlighted, “Training has helped improve the

quality of decisions which are being made when selling on the social media.” From

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these responses, Econet is beneftting through enhanced sales performance by

training staff on social media marketing.

4.3.5 Section E: Level of expertise

Question 1:Is social media expertise improtant in e nsuring social media

marketing success?

Table 4.13 Importance of expertise to social media marketing success.

Respondent Response

1 It is therefore very important to get someone who is well versed with social media in order to get the desired results.

2 If the level of expertise is high the social media marketing performance will also be high because of the expert way of carrying out social media marketing.

3

Social media marketing is a new thing in my view and It does not require expertise from a person rather you just require accepting that it is a tool that you can use and if you use it appropriately it will yield results.

4 I didn’t start as an expert but i learnt the process through seminars and i am practicing it now. You don’t necessarily need to be an expert.

5 Any marketer who is able to accept change can successfully practise social media marketing.

6 Not really sure if it will help.

7 Expertise is really important especially if you want to compete at the highest level.

8 To be an expert is a plus, but its not a requisite for us to have a successful social media marketing strategy.

9 Don’t think its necessary 10 In sales, you will not need an expert social media marketer

11 Having an expert in the field helps in ensuring that we are always ahead of competition

12 It’s good since you will get the best out of an expert. 13 Maybe it helps, but not in this market.

14 Expertise is not necessarily an issue; you just need open minded people who are ready to accept the concept of social media marketing.

15 It is an area that you can easily be trained.

Respondent 1,2,7,11&12 acknowledged that expertise is necessary to ensure the ,

success of social media marketing. The other 11 respondents stated that social

media expertise is not necessary when carrying out social media marketing since

social media is just a marketing tool. To quote the words of respondent 3, “Social

media marketing is a new thing in my view and It does not require expertise from a

person rather you just require accepting that it is a tool that you can use and if you

use it appropriately it will yield results.” Most of the people interviewed did not get a

qaulification in social media marketing but they just went through inhouse training on

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social media. They reckon that social media expertise is not a necessity for Econet

to effectively benefit from social media marketing.

Question 2: How does expertise affect the success o f social media marketing

at Econet?

Table 4.14 Effect of expertise on social media mark eting success.

Respondent Response

1 Expertise lead to improved quality of social media promotions leading to high sales performance

2 It leads to better execution of social media marketing.

3 Expertise has no effect on social media influence on sales.

4 Lack of expertise can never be an excuse of social media failure to stimulate sales.

5 Social media is only a tool which does not need any expert. 6 It is not necessary; we seem to be copying without the so called experts. 7 Experts have the capability of widening the market on the social media 8 Marketers don’t need to be expertise in social media marketing. 9 Don’t think it’s really necessary 10 Expertise is needed in marketing and not on social media

11 Expertise improves the level of efficiency when handling social media to enhance sales

12 Social media expertise helps improve the level of engagement with clients leading to greater chances of improving customer loyalty

13 Marketers only need to adapt to the new media and not to be expertise. 14 Social media requires training and passion and not expertise.

15 Social media can be learnt by any marketer, you don’t need an expert to influence sales.

From the interviews, most of the respondents indicated that expertise is not really

necessary for social media marketing to be effective. Respondent 1,2,7,11&12

however, indicated expertise is important in ensuring social media marketing

marketing. They highlighted that it improves quality social media promotions, leads

to better exceution of social media marketing, leads to widening of the market on

the social media platfroms and helps improve the level of engagement. The other

10 respondents indicated that expertise is not necessary fro social media marketing

to be successful, with respondent 8,10,13&15 indicating that marketing expertise is

what is necessary.

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4.3.6 Section F: Internet connectivity

Question 1: How do you explain the current level of internet connectivity in

Zimbabwe?

Table 4.15 Current state of internet connectivity i n Zimbabwe

Respondent Response 1 Econet has made strides to ensure that Zimbabweans are connected.

2 The internet connectivity in Zimbabwe is increasing and it has created opportunities for the social media marketing to increase

3 At Econet we are expanding widely and we are giving access to a lot of people.

4 High and improving connectivity in Zimbabwe has led us to reach people who traditionally were not reachable.

5 Currently the level of internet connectivity is promoting the use of social media marketing.

6 The current interconnectivity is very high.

7 The availability of internet capable mobile phones has led to more people being able to access the internet.

8 Developments in the mobile technology industry have led to a lot of people connecting to the internet.

9 About 40% of the Zimbabwean population is on the internet, so it makes social media marketing tempting.

10 Generally the level of internet connectivity is high. 11 Internet is now widely accessible.

12 The response we are getting on the social media is a reflection that internet connectivity is very high.

13 We have had tremendous support on our social media platforms, a clear sign that connectivity is there.

14 By December 2013, the number of internet subscribers in Zimbabwe rose to 5.2 million, an indication that connectivity is high.

15 Interconnectivity in our market is high and a lot more people can access the internet.

Respondent 2,4,5,6,9,10,11,12,13,14&15, which is a total of 11 respondent

indicated that the current level of internet connectivity is high and it is supporting

social media marketing at Econet. Respondent 1&3 also indicated Econet`s efforts

in improving the internet connectivity among its subscribers as a key initiative that

has ensured the improvement of internet connectivity which is supporting social

media marketing in the organisation. Respondent 8&9 raised the availability of

mobile gadgets which are capable of accessing the internet as the other key factor

which has improved internet connectivity on the market.All these respondents were

of the opinion that Zimbabwe`s current internet connectivity is very high, respondent

9 indicated that about 40% of Zimbabweans are connected to the internet.

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According to respondent 14, “By December 2013, the number of internet

subscribers in Zimbabwe rose to 5.2 million, an indication that connectivity is high.”

Question 2: How has the current state of internet c onnectivity affected your success of social media marketing?

Table 4.16 Importance of internet connectivity to s ocial media marketing success. Respondent Response

1 The current level of internet connectivity is high and is promoting social media marketing.

2 High internet activity has boosted popularity of social media marketing.

3

High connectivity among mobile phone users has promoted the use of social media marketing in Zimbabwe.

4 Connectivity has also improved in other parts of the country like rural areas, which traditional had no internet access.

5 Internet is now widely available and this has promoted social media access.

6 Social media marketing has been boosted by the current internet connectivity which is high.

7 Mobile gadgets have made connecting to the internet easy thus promoting the use of social media among mobile subscribers.

8 Use of portable gadgets which can access the intern has made it easy to access social media.

9 High internet connectivity has made it easier to engage clients on the social media.

10 There is high internet connectivity in Zimbabwe.

11 The use of the fibre optic cables for the internet network has made internet connectivity very high.

12 The numbers of responses we are getting on the social media are a reflection that internet connectivity is very high.

13 Econet also provide a highly reliable internet access

14 High internet connectivity is supporting social media marketing strategy at Econet.

15 Internet connectivity has promoted the use of social media in the market

Respondent 1,2,3,6,9,10,11,12,14&15 indicated that the current internet

connectivity is high and has contributed to the popularity of social media marketing.

Respondent 3&4 have also indicated that there has been an improvement in

internet connectivity especially in the rural ares which has also boosted social

media marketing. Respondent 7&8 have cited the intrduction of mobile gardegts

which access the internet also contributing to the popularity of social media

marketing.

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4.3.7 Section G: Internet affordability/accessibili ty

Question 1: How do you explain the current level of internet

accessbility/affordability in Zimbabwe?.

Table 4.17 Internet affordability in Zimbabwe

Respondent Response

1

As the company we have tried to make internet and more so, social media available at affordable rates. I am sure you are aware of our social media bundles were we are encouraging people to be on these social media platforms

2 The current liquidity challenges in the country have not spared the consumers. So internet access has been affected.

3 In as much as we have tried to slash internet access rate through data bundle, consumer purchasing power still remain weak.

4

Installation of infrastructure is expensive, so costs have to be recouped, but with time and more people on the service, you can expect a reduction in costs. But for now, affordability is still a challenge.

5 This has posed a challenge to the whole concept of social media marketing but as a company we have been trying to make it affordable.

6 Affordability still remains an issue for many clients, especially with the prevailing economic environment.

7 As an organisation we are concerned that’s why we have introduced cheaper data bundles to make our clients access the internet.

8 The issue of affordability has affected engagement with some clients who might be offline due tack of airtime.

9 The economic environment has really affected internet affordability of customers.

10 Data bundles have made internet affordable on Econet platform. 11 Just like any other business, liquidity has also affected our operations.

12 Affordability is something out of our control but we try to come up with promotions that make internet accessibility cheaper.

13 The introduction of data bundles and social media bundles has improved affordability.

14

We have tried to make the internet accessible, especially social media to our customers. Out of our subscribers about 1,9 million are registered for broadband services and this number has access to our affordable rates.

15

We have come up with social media bundles which have made it possible for our subscribers to access the internet.

Out of the 15 respondents, 6 were of the opinion that Econet has made internet

highly affordable. Respondent 1,7,10,13,14&15 have cited the availability of data

bundles at Econet as the main source of cheap access to the internet. However, 9

respondents acknowledged that internet affordability is currently an issue which is

affecting the performance of social media marketing. Respondents

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2,3,4,5,6,8,9,11&12 highlighted the current economic performance as the main

factor affecting internet affordability.

Question 2: How has internet accessibity affected t he success of social media

marketing?

Table 4.18 Effect of internet affordability on soci al media marketing success.

Respondent Response 1 The use of data bundles has supported the use of social media

2 Not many people can afford to be on the internet all the time, so this is affecting social media marketing.

3 The cost of social media access is high for many customers

4 Costs of accessing the internet are high and this is negatively affecting social media marketing.

5 Internet access costs are very prohibitive.

6 Current liquidity challenges are affecting customer engagement on the social media.

7 Econet social media bundles have made access cheaper and affordable.

8 The current economic environment has made it impossible for many customers to have unlimited access to the social media

9 The costs of smart phones which can easily access the internet still remain very high.

10 Customers are now using our data bundles to access the internet easily.

11 The depressed economy has really affected customers` ability to access the internet for long periods.

12 Economic challenges are posing a threat to social media marketing. 13 Data bundles are making it cheaper to access the internet.

14 Most of our subscribers are now accessing the internet using data bundles which are affordable.

15 Social media bundles have given unlimited access to the social media for a certain period to customers.

Out of 15 respondents, 10 have indicated that currently internet is not affordable to

most of the people and this is affecting social media marketing at Econet.

Respondent 8 cited the cost of smart phones as high which prohibit people from

getting hold of these gadgets. The other 9 respondents out of the 10 cited internet

costs as generally high. However, respondent 1,7,10&14 have indicated that the

introduction data internet bundles and social media bundles has contributed to social

media marketing success.

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4.4 Discussion of key findings

4.4.1 Social Media Marketing at Econet

According to the research findings, Econet is applying the concept of social media

marketing as part of its marketing strategies. It has been recommended at policy

level in the organisation through a social media marketing policy and each division

and various marketing departments follow this policy when implementing it. All the

respondents interviewed acknowledged that social media marketing is an important

strategy to Econet which is used to promote its goods and services. Another similar

study which was carried out on United States libraries reported similar results where

respondents indicated that their libraries use social media to promote general library

services, market specific adult/ youth/ children programs and services, provide

quick updates and attract new users (Rogers,2009 as cited in (Luo et al., 2013).

However,evidence in the study has shown that Econet is currently using the social

media to communicate with customers on product developments in the company

and getting feedback from them. This shows that the organisation is underutilising

this platform, atleast according to literature. Chikandiwa et al.(2013) referred social

media marketing as a system which allows marketers to engage, collaborate,

interact and harness intelligence crowd sourcing for marketing purposes. There is

no evidence of collaborations and harnessing intelligence from customers. Instead

Econet seems to be using the social media in a way they are using the traditional

marketing media, with instant feedback being the only difference. The concept of

using the social media for the creation and exchange of user-generated content as

cited by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) is still not being applied at Econet.

4.4.2 Social Media Application

All the respondents interviewed acknowledged that they use facebook platform

mainly in social media marketing except one respondent who noted Twitter as the

main platform they use for their social media marketing. It is therefore evident that

social media tools are being used. According to the interviews the tools being used

at Econet are facebook, Twitter, blogging, yookos, youtube and google+, with

facebook and Twitter being the commonly used. The use of social media is in line

with the global trends were many marketers have embraced the ability of these tools

to spread their marketing message, for instance, Ford Motor Company recently

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employed social media to promote the release of their new model Ford Focus

(Andzulis et al., 2012).

Facebook

As highlighted above, this is the most common used social media tool at Econet.

Facebook has been used to popularise new products such as Ecocash, Ecocash

Save, EcoSolar, Ecoschool and any other new product/service. This is in line with

Peacock (2011) acknowledgement that many businesses, organisations,

communities and families are using social networking to promote themselves, to

communicate better with others and to engage with their audience with facebook

being the most popular social networking site. Haridakis and Hanson (2009) also

highlighted that social media has increased as a marketing channel, and Facebook

is the biggest social media company globally reaching millions of people. This is an

indication that Econet is in line with global trends.

Twitter

From the interviews, this is the second most used tool at Econet. It is mainly used to

update clients on latest developments in the company. One department, Value

Added Services identified it as its most popular tool due to its ability to accommodate

short and precise response from clients. According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010),

its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregated file size and it allows

users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual

images or video links.

Blogsites

This is another platform that is being used at Econet as part of its social media

marketing tool. Those who are using it expressed that blogsites are important in

obtaining feedback and stimulating debates among clients. This is in line with

literature which say that blogging gives you a way to continually grab readers

attention with new posts and fresh doses of information (Cho, 2012).

4.4.3 Benefits of social media marketing

According to the interview response, Econet is enjoying many benefits through social

media marketing. As earlier highlighted, most of the benefits revolve around

customer engagement and communication. It is argued that customers are

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responsive to this form of online communications as Web 2.0 is essentially “people’s

internet,” designed to facilitate communication through friendly interfaces and

networking platforms (Mitic and Kapoulas (2012)). Social media marketing has

made it possible for Econet to get quick feedback from the market and also made

communication of new offerings quicker and faster. This is in line with literature

which states that Interactive platforms are used to share information about offers and

products quickly and efficiently, and offering customers the ability to give feedback to

the organizations and engage in a discussion with the community (Stone, 2009).

However, there are some benefits which literature highlights which are not evident in

this study. According to Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), Social media are becoming

integral part of consumers’ lives and can enhance understanding of consumer needs

and preferences based on the information shared in Web 2.0 channels. This is an

indication that Econet is not currently using the information on social media users’

profile to enhance their target marketing. From the responses obtained it is clear

that Econet is however, getting a lot of benefits through social media marketing.

According to Blakeman and Brown (2010) there are several benefits of using social

media for marketing, branding and awareness, such as acquiring new customers,

gathering feedback from customers or community, raising awareness of community

efforts and connections, building community network, and fund raising. It is evident

from the research findings that Econet is not reaping the full potential from social

media marketing.

4.4.4 Challenges of using social media marketing

The respondents also highlighted the existence of challenges associated with social

media marketing. This is in line with literature which says that most companies

experience negative repercussions of social media marketing, such as harmful

customer comments on their fan page (Dabbagh and Kitsantas, 2012). The major

challenges raised in the study are lack of general appreciation of the social media as

a business tool that can be used for marketing in the Zimbabwean market. Security,

safety, confidentiality and limited control are the major threats to the sue of thesocial

media at Econet. The issue of lack of control and privacy which is highlighted in

literature have also been highlighted by the respondents.

4.4.5 Social Media Marketing Management at Econet

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From the study, social media marketing is a a department that is headed by the

social media manager. It has dedicated staff who also co-ordinate marketing

promotions on social media with other departments. The department falls under the

Digital Marketing function. This is in line with what was highlighted by literature in

chapter 2 where Laing and Royle (2013) referred to the use of social media for

marketing purposes as digital marketing. This is an indication that social media

marketing is being adopted in a systematic manner and has been integrated in the

organisation`s overall strategy.

Evidence has also shown that Econet also embarks on frequent training through in-

house training of its staff and also encouraging its employees to attend seminars on

social media in an effort to motivate the staff and also improve the quality of

engagement with customers. According to Tamar Weinberg, in social media

marketing it is important to focus on training the individuals within the company so

that they represent the company`s missions and goals in a factual light with honesty

and transparency.

There is also evidence that Econet has shown commitment to implementing social

media marketing from the top management. Firstly, the company has go a social

media marketing policy which guides the way social media is supposed to behandled

by those responsible for using it. According to respondent 14, “We have come up

with an internal social media marketing strategy policy which governs how staff uses

these sites, to avoid any staff action from damaging company reputation.” Getting

senior management buy-in for social media marketing always ensures that the

people who are responsible for running with the concept are always getting the

necessary support.

4.4.6 Effect of social media marketing at Econet

(a) Increases in sales

From the empirical evidence, it is evident that Econet has managed to increase sales

through promoting new products via its social media platforms. According to

respondent 12, “The social media has definitely assisted us to launch our new

offerings, it helps in communicating new offerings to the market faster.”

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(b) Increase in market coverage

By using social media, Econet has been able to cover markets that were traditional

not reachable using the traditional marketing tools. This is evident in the study where

respondent highlighted that, “Social media has given us access to areas that were

traditional not reachable using the traditional marketing tools such as Binga, Malipati,

Tsholotsho and many other areas. It’s a good publicity tool and it’s a good too for

interacting with current and potential customers.”

(c) Improvement in customer relations

The study has shown that through the use of social media, Econet has improved its

communication with clients. Communication has befome faster. According to

respondent 1, “The main benefit is that you tend to communicate with some of the

audience in real time and the attention and feedback you will be getting is instant

and enormous in terms of volume.”

4.5 Discussion of propositions

(a) Proposition 1: The ineffectiveness of the socia l media marketing at

Econet is partly due to the limited access to the I nternet by the general

public.

From the responses obtained during the study, most of the respondents highlighted

that social media marketing success is affected by the customer`s ability to afford

internet access. According to the responses from the interviews, the current

economic challenges are affecting the market`s ability to afford the internet services.

It has affacted the amount of time the clients spent on the internet. Failure by some

clients to afford unlimited internet access has led to them missing critical messages

that are transmitted on the social media. Unavailability of some clients has also

affected the level of engagement and has led to the organisation getting feedbck

from those clients who will be omline.This has affected social media marketing

leading to its ineffectiveness. Therefore, this proposition has been upheld by the

study.

(b) Proposition 2: The ineffectiveness of social me dia at Econet is primarily

due to poor Internet connectivity in Zimbabwe.

Most of the respondents were of the opinion that Zimbabwe`s current internet

connectivity is very high with 5.2 million people being able to access the internet.

67

This according to the respondents has encouraged the use of social media

marketing. Econet has been on the forefront of improving internet connectivity

through its sister company Liquid Telecoms as well as through improvement in

internet access on its mobile phone division through broadband services. Currently,

Econet has got 1.9million subscribers who have access to the internet and the

organisation is trying to improve this access through the provision of cheap smart

phones which are able to access the internet. There is therefore sufficient evidence

in the study that internet access is high and therefore is not causing any

ineffectiveness to social media marketing. Therefore, this proposition is rejected.

(c) Proposition 3: The social media is ineffective as a marketing

communications tool because the company lacks the r equired social

media expertise.

From the interviews, most of the respondents indicated that expertise is not really

necessary for social media marketing to be effective. It was highlighted that social

media is a marketing tool which just need to be appreciated and expertise in

social media is not necessary. Some interviewees were of the opinion that social

media marketing requires one to be flexible and have the ability to adapt and

change to new developments. The organisation has fully qualified marketing

people who are always undergoing the necessary training on new developments

in social media and therefore social media expertise has not caused any

ineffectiveness of social media as a marketing tool. Therefore from this study, this

proposition is rejected.

4.6 Emerging Framework from the study

From the interviews carried, it was evident that social media marketing has got an

influence on sales performance at Econet. The nature of the relationship that was

initial shown in chapter two was put into context at Econet. The relationship

between social media marketing and sales performed was uncovered and is

shown in the figure below, which is an illustration of the literature that came out of

the study.

Figure 4.1 : Research framework for Social Media Marketing at EconetAdapted from Kumar (2011)

4.6 Conclusion

This chapter presented and discussed the findings from the interviews carried out at

Econet. The next chapter looks at the conclusions derived from the research,

recommendations, study limitations and areas of furt

: Research framework for Social Media Marketing at EconetAdapted from Kumar (2011)



recommendations, study limitations and areas of further research.

68

: Research framework for Social Media Marketing at Econet Source:



69

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction

This chapter looks at the conclusions on the effectiveness of social media marketing

at Econet based on the research findings discussed in the previous chapter. The

primary objective of this research was to assess the effectiveness of social media

marketing in enhancing sales performance at Econet Zimbabwe. In carrying out this

study, the researcher was guided by the following objectives:

• To explore how Social Media Marketing is being applied at Econet.

• To establish the benefits of using Social Media Marketing.

• To identify the challenges of using Social Media Marketing.

• To establish the level of knowledge and commitment to Social Media


• To make recommendations to Econet on Social Media Marketing

implementation.

Recommendations based on the research findings are also discussed. The area of

further of further research is also discussed based on the shortcomings of this study.

5.2 Conclusions

5.2.1 Social media marketing is a key marketing strategy at Econet. All departments

are currently using social media marketing to market their various products and

services. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the main platforms currently being

used at Econet for social media marketing. This shows that social media marketing

is a relevant strategy at Econet and is being used to improve sales performance of

new and existing products in the organisation.

5.2.2 Social media marketing, has to a larger extend, had a positive influence on

sales performance. According to the study social media marketing has positively

influenced sales performance at Econet through improved customer engagement

with clients, easy and faster communication with clients as well as getting access to

a large audience. However, it is the researcher`s opinion that the organisation is not

70

doing much to track the actual sales which came as a result of social media

marketing.

5.2.3 According to the research, the benefits Econet is getting from social media

marketing are centred on improvement in communication between Econet and the

customers. This shows that the current drive for social media marketing at Econet is

focused on engagement and communication. However, there are other benefits

identified in literature review in chapter such as using it for market segmentation and

identifying unfulfilled needs from clients which Econet can also try to get.

5.2.4 Social media knowledge among Econet employees is very critical for the

success of social media marketing. This implies that knowledge of social media is a

key ingredient of social media marketing success. Limited knowledge on social

media has a negative impact on the process of social media marketing.

5.2.5 Commitment is critical in ensuring that social media marketing is practiced at

Econet in different departments. The commitment must cascade from the top

management to the lowest employee involved in social media marketing.

5.2.6 Due to the ever-changing nature of social media, training is a very important

aspect that determines the success of social media marketing. Training on social

media is an important aspect for social media marketing success. It ensures that

employees are up to date on knowledge about social media leading to an

improvement in performance levels.

5.2.7 Expertise in social media is not necessary for social media marketing to be

successful. Knowledge about the market and marketing expertise is what is critical in

ensuring social media marketing. A qualification in social media is not necessary

when implementing social media marketing.

5.2.8 It is very difficult to guarantee safety, security and confidentiality to clients and

Econet on the social media. Therefore, safety, security and confidentiality issues are

the main challenges associated with social media marketing.

5.3 Evaluation of the research propositions

The main proposition of the research was as follows:

71

Social Media Marketing will not have the desired im pact on sales if applied

with limited knowledge on the use of social media.

This research has confirmed that knowledge is critical in ensuring the successful

implementation of social media marketing.

5.4 Recommendations

5.4.1 Policy Recommendations

There is need for the government, through PORTRAZ to come up with ways that

reduce the costs of accessing the internet. It is evident from the study that internet

affordability is currently an issue which is affecting the success of social media

marketing. Hardware sharing within the same industry can help to reduce the costs

of internet access.

5.4.2 Managerial Recommendations

5.4.2.1 Econet must transform the social media into a selling tool that can be used to

close sales. Individual reps must have their own social media sites where they can

close sales. Indeed, social media has the ability to simplify or expedite the close by

enriching and adding value to earlier stages of the sales funnel (Andzulis et al.,

2012). Exclusive deals on the social media must be offered and made to be

concluded on these platforms in order to encourage social media users to make

purchasing decisions.

5.4.2.2 Econet must migrate from the concept of using social media to communicate

with clients but rather use it to ensure that customers actively participate in creating,

sharing, and consuming the content. The coming in of social media marketing has

changed the role of the consumer in the marketing process from being passive

consumers to being creators of the marketing content. Econet must therefore allow

its social media followers to be able to create content through soliciting for ideas

from consumers on the social media.

5.4.2.3 Introduce social media bundles which cover a wide range of social media

sites. Currently the organisation has got Facebook bundles which they are selling to

customers at affordable rates. Econet must widen this service to other social media

sites such as YouTube and Twitter in order to encourage its customers to access

these sites at affordable rates.

72

5.4.2.4 Use their current platform, Ecocash, to make the social media a trading

platform. The company can use the social media as an online store to sell their

different products with customers using the Ecocash platform for the financial

transaction. This will reduce the cost of selling mobile gadgets and if this reduction

is transferred to the consumer, it will lead to reduced prices thus making them

affordable.

5.4.2.5 Econet must also consider giving access to its social media sites to

customers who are using their network for free. According to the research findings,

affordability is a key factor which is affecting social media marketing success. This

will make it possible for a greater number of audiences to access their marketing

messages and engagements.

5.4.2.6 Econet must popularise other social media sites such as blogging, Yookos,

YouTube and Google+ through actively engaging clients on these sites. These sites

have many advantages that have been cited in chapter 2

5.5 Research Limitations and areas of further resea rch

The study was centred on Econet and this made it impossible to come up with

generalisations for the whole industry.

This research has shown that social media marketing is effective in enhancing social

media marketing at Econet. It has not however failed to explain whether this is the

norm in the mobile telecommunications industry. There is need to carry out a study

which include all the other companies in the mobile telecommunication industry

which examines the effectiveness of social media marketing.

73

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APPENDIX 1

Interview Guide

Section A: Social Media Application

1: Give a background of current social media application being used?

2: How is social media marketing benefitting Econet?

3: What are the challenges Econet is experiencing in social media marketing?

4: How has these challenges been overcome?

5: How are the social media platforms at Econet impacting on sales performance?

Section B: Social Media Commitment

1: Can you explain how committed is the organisation to social media marketing?

2: How has this commitment on social media affected sales perfromance?

Section C: Social Media Knowledge

1: Why is social media knowledge important in ensuring successful implementation

of social media marketing at Econet?

2: How has this knowledge impacted on sales performance?

Section D: Social Media Training

1: Why is social media training important in ensuring successful implementation of

social media marketing at Econet?

2: How has training affected social media marketing`s impact on sales

performance?

Section E: Level of expertise

1:How do you explain the current level of expertise in the organisation?

2: How does expertise affect the success of social media marketing at Econet?

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Section F: Internet connectivity

1: How do you explain the current level of internet connectivity in Zimbabwe?

2: How has the current state of internet connectivity affected your success of social

media marketing?

Section G: Internet affordability/accessibility

1: How do you explain the current level of internet accessbility/affordability in

Zimbabwe?

2: How has internet accessibity affected the success of social media marketing?

BALOYI KUDZAI R128575F - University of Zimbabwe

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