Abstract: This study investigated determinants of the implementation of social media strategies in devolved governments. It focuses on Nairobi City County. This study adopted two theoretical foundations, namely: diffusion of innovation theory; information theory; the resource dependency and; perceptual control theories. The study conceptualized that volatility in social media innovativeness; scarcity of resources; communication policy and; ICT literacy (independent variables) effect of determine the level to which social media strategies are implemented in devolved governments (depended variable). The study used the descriptive research design. Data was collected using questionnaires from 92 workers drawn from 12 county government ministries and 28 departments of Nairobi City County sampled using stratified proportionate sampling. These were directors, departmental heads and other senior workers. It was hoped that these could contribute significantly to the study. The collected data was cleaned and coded and analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The following statistical tests and procedures were used to analyze the data. These included: descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and means) and; inferential statistics (Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis). Inferential statistics were used for showing the relationship between the study variables. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that dynamism in social media innovativeness affects the implementation of social media strategies in devolved governments. This emanates from the fact that successful social media strategy is naturally challenged by constant changes in global use trends of emergent social media platforms. In addition, the emergency of new forms of social media came into place and constant changes in the technological landscape means that new social media are competing for space over the internet and that this makes it hard for the organization to plans for the use of social media successfully. Further, the use of social media as a communication tool is challenged by the dynamism of the technological backbone it relies on. It can also be concluded that competition for resources affects the implementation of social media strategies in devolved governments. As such, it is evident that the use of social networking is challenged by lack of enough resources such as power failures, poor connectivity, and high cost of accessing the internet as well as lack of the right personnel, lack of the right equipment and lack of enough budgetary allocations. Communication policy was also seen to be a major factor affecting the implementation of social media strategies in devolved governments. It was thus clear that the absence of the enabling legal and policy environment may thwart the use of social media platforms in the government. As such, the level to which the implementation of social media strategies would succeed was depended on an enabling communication policy. The level of ICT Literacy influenced the implementation of social media strategies in devolved governments. This literacy was dependent on efforts to enhance literacy on how to use social media; provision of ICT skills in schools and the level to which the government promoted the use of social media in government processes since employees could learn on the job. Based on the study findings, it is vital to have follow up studies on the same subject in other counties in Kenya for comparative purposes. It is necessarily to undertake in-depth studies using mixed research methods so as to unearth more information on the study subject. Lastly, studies that attempt to develop a model for the implementation of social media strategies in public institutions based on the findings of this study as well as other similar studies would benefit academia immensely.
Keywords: Nairobi City County, Competitive edge, media strategies.
Title: Determinants of the Implementation of Social Media Strategies in Devolved Governments: A Case of Nairobi City County
Author: Brian Mairura Mung’ei, Dr. Kepha Ombui, Dr. Mike Iravo
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
Research Publish Journals
