Social Media And SME's Promotion Strategies In Botswana

Science and technology change the way traditional marketing use to be conducted.The shift in paradigm and strategies is a result of technological transformation.Among the most important transformation is the booming of using social media for business.Social media is currently used as marketing tools among large companies as well as small and medium enterprises.The integration of traditional marketing system into integrated marketing communication provides a new approach in market especially as a result of social media adoption in business among many businesses.Social media is still a hot topic among many researches due to its wide covering of being used in various disciplines such as economics,trade,media relations and marketing.Many researches concentrated on researching on the benefits of social media in the marketing discipline but neglecting the important part of how those benefit can be achieved.Many past researches show recognition of social media benefits such as widening new market,increasing customer interaction as well as impacting consumer purchase behavior and increasing desire and interest.However,strategies on how to achieve these have not been articulated.This study aims at unveiling the promotion strategies of Botswana SMEs based on social media.The study focuses on analysis effective strategies to be used in social media for promotional purposes.It also deals on identifying challenges facing adoption of the strategies and its impacts.Many past researches based on dealing with individual or large business,neglecting the perspective of small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs).This research deals with identifying strategies of promotions in social media by considering SMEs approach rather than individual or customer-oriented approach.Due to lack of insufficient literature with deep explanation and empirical data on appropriate strategies needed for SME promotion in Botswana,this study is empirically done to close the gap.By considering the environments of developing country,the study base on Botswana taking a considerable focus on Botswana SMEs environment.The results however based on data from Botswana,but could be used as a reference to other developing countries with similar environments.Primary data were collected through questionnaire,interview and observation.In order to gain a detailed understanding of the research title,secondary data were collected from various sources including academic journals,books,websites,relevant reports from authority bodies especially in Botswana.For the purpose of analysis,all data collected were analyzed using,SPSS version 21 and smart PLS were used to carry analysis.Descriptive analysis was performed to analyze sample features,mean and standard deviation using SPSS.Evaluation of the model measurements was performed by doing normality test,validity measurements,and reliability test using smart PLS 3.0.Structure modeling was performed to evaluate the goodness of the model fit,to evaluate coefficient of determination(R2)and also to test the study hypothesis.Lastly,the discussion of hypothesis testing was conducted too.The study findings revealed that nature of social media(social media characteristics)has significantly positive influence on selection of promotion strategies to be used for SME promotion in social media.Moreover,promotion cost found to have a significant effect on promotion strategies which can be interpreted that promotion budget affect type of strategy to be used.If the budget is low,this means a low-cost strategy must be selected and not a high cost strategy.Furthermore,the skills a SME promoter affects significantly the behavior of the social media customer,this means that when a promoter is skilled enough,he/she knows how to interact and engage with online customers and thus will choose a strategy that fits particular consumer behavior.Lastly but not least,top management support found to have significant influence on promotion strategies,this means that administration of the SMEs has a great influence in making decision and budgeting and thus determines the type of strategy to be used for SME promotion on social media.