Digital Marketing
The opportunity is to connect the different pieces of the customer journey. Social media can bring people to the door. A website can give them somewhere useful to go. Search can help new customers find the business. A consistent digital identity can reassure them they have found the right place. A domain can provide a memorable digital address around which the business can build.
Digital Marketing
Ashley Muratha
Your Business Is On Social Media. But Does It Own Its Digital Home?
Walk into almost any Kenyan business today and you will find a digital footprint. A fashion boutique in Nairobi may showcase new arrivals on Instagram. A farm-input supplier in Eldoret may use WhatsApp to serve customers. A restaurant in Mombasa may rely on TikTok to attract attention, while a professional services firm may use LinkedIn to demonstrate expertise.
This is progress. But it raises a more important question: If your business disappears from social media tomorrow, could your customers still find you, verify you and do business with you? For many businesses, the uncomfortable answer may be no.
Social media has transformed how businesses attract attention and engage customers. But discovery is not the same as trust, and attention is not the same as conversion. A business can have thousands of followers and still leave a potential customer asking basic questions: Who are you? What do you offer? Where are you located? How do I contact you? How do I buy?
That is why websites and social media are better understood not as competing choices, but as different parts of the same digital ecosystem.
Kenya ' s customers are already online
The scale of Kenya ' s digital shift makes this difficult to ignore. According to the Media Council of Kenya ' s State of the Media 2025 Survey, social media has overtaken televi-
sion as the main source of news for Kenyans. Thirty-nine per cent of respondents identified social media as their primary source, compared with 31 per cent for television. Overall, 74 per cent of Kenyans use social or digital platforms to access content and information.
WhatsApp accounted for 19.8 per cent of respondents ' main platforms for accessing news and information, followed by Facebook at 18.2 per cent, TikTok at 14.9 per cent and YouTube at 12.3 per cent.
The implication is straightforward: customers are already online. The more important question is what happens after they find you.
A customer may discover a business through TikTok, see a product on Instagram or receive a recommendation through WhatsApp. But curiosity rarely closes a sale. At some point, the customer starts checking: searching for the business online,- looking for its location, catalogue, pricing or portfolio, or simply trying to establish whether the business is legitimate and reliable. That is where a digital destination matters.
Social media is powerful- but it is not everything
Social media is exceptionally effective at discovery. It allows businesses to showcase products, respond to customers, join conversations and reach audiences they might never have reached through traditional channels.
But businesses do not control the platforms on which that attention is generated. Algorithms change. Policies change. Features disappear. Accounts can be compromised. Organic reach fluctuates. Content that was
The opportunity is to connect the different pieces of the customer journey. Social media can bring people to the door. A website can give them somewhere useful to go. Search can help new customers find the business. A consistent digital identity can reassure them they have found the right place. A domain can provide a memorable digital address around which the business can build.
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