Juxtaposing Social Media Influencers and Traditional Media in Business Promotions in Kenya

Abstract

Over the last decade, marketing strategies have been evolving from traditional forms of media marketing to social forms of media marketing. In the wake of influencer marketing in the advertising industry, the traditional forms of media marketing have felt the hit and their significance started to diminish because of the hybrid form of modern-day marketing. Evolution of marketing strategies from traditional media to social media requires comparison to understand the marketing landscape in Kenya. This study, therefore, set out to compare the two forms of business promotion. The study was purely a qualitative study and it yielded a number of realizations. First, it found out that the marketing industry will always be on the lookout for a better and beneficial strategy. Secondly it was found out that higher percentage of consumers, are spending more time behind screens thanks to increased Internet connection, as opposed to the past where people used to rely on television, newspaper and radio advertisement. Higher populations in Kenya today have access to internet thus making it easy for companies to reach them through social media influencers. However, traditional media marketing holds a higher degree of credibility as opposed to social media influencers.