A Research Report Submitted to Dar-es-Salaam Campus College in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Business
Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) Degree of Mzumbe
University
Social media marketing has highly been adopted by many small and huge firms
around the world. The key objective of research was to evaluate the impact of social
media marketing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development in Tanzania
a case of Kinondoni District. The study addresses three objectives: To assess the
impact of social media marketing on profitability among SMEs in Kinondoni
Municipal; examine the impact of social media marketing on market growth among
SMEs in Kinondoni Municipal and; find out the impact of social media marketing on
enhancing customer relationship among SMEs in Kinondoni Municipality. The
researcher adopted descriptive study design. It used convenient sampling techniques
to attain the intended samples size of 100 respondents. Questionnaires were used in
data collection. The study conducted an impact analysis of social media marketing
usage by SMEs on profitability, geographical coverage and customers’ relationship.
Before the adoption and usage of these platforms SMEs experienced non increment
on their profitability with limited geographical coverage. On the other hand,
customer relationship management relied on the traditional method in which the
relation among parties relied on physical meeting at the time the buyer visits seller’s
premises. Following the use of social media, the above aspects were analyzed using
the approach suggested in this study. The results indicated no profitability changes in
the SMEs sampled. In terms of geographical coverage SMEs under study were
indifferent to whether there was or no increase in coverage. Customer relationship
experienced some improvements which are resultantly associated with social media
marketing. The study has recommended SME owners to undergo special social
media training to build their capacity to sustainably operate business by using these
platforms with growth prospects.