A Dissertation Submittedin a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for Award of Master of Business Administration – Corporate
Management of Mzumbe University
This study examined the role of social media on service promotion in Tanzania focusing
on Vodacom and Tigo communication companies, Dar es Salaam Head Offices. Conduct
of this research was motivated by claims among researchers that many companies not
yet to incorporate social media into promotion strategies despite its potential benefits
(Andersson, 2018) and hence, acquisition of knowledge and in-depth understanding in
this research area was wanted in order to realize three objectives namely; to inform the
popular social media used for service promotion, the reasons making utilization of social
media useful for service promotion and the reasons making social media ease of use in
service promotion. Taro Yamane formula was used to determine a sample of 66
employees (33 from each company) out of 80 populations. The field data was collected
by the means of closed needed questionnaires and interview guide.
The findings showed that among the social media which examined, Faceebook was very
popular social media in service promotion between companies with mean value 5.0 and
4.9 at Vodacom and Tigo respectively. The study found that key reasons behind the
usefulness of the utilization of social media in service promotion included their abilities
to reduce company’s service promotion cost with mean value 4.6 and 3.7 at Vodacom
and Tigo respectively. Also, it was found that the important reasons behind ease of use
of social media in service promotion were due to accessibility of social media during
service promotion process with mean value 4.7 and 4.5 at Vodacom and Tigo
respectively. The conclusion drawn by the researcher is that social media have very
important role in service promotion which should be understood among Tanzanian local
companies. This is because when the popular social media is used for service
promotion, it enhances interactions between service organizations and the multitudes
of potential customers who are online. Also, they facilitate creation and sharing
service information, photos and videos which are easily to circulate and cover the
largest markets without geographical limitations.