UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY ONLINE ENTREPRENEURS FOR SUCCESSFUL CUSTOMER AWARENESS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the extent social media are utilized by online entrepreneurs for successful customer awareness in Anambra State Nigeria. These new media and attendant tools have been resorted to by online entrepreneurs to reach their customers who are widely dispersed. The concern of the study was that the extent online entrepreneurs utilized social media tools for marketing purpose was not known. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and the population for the study was 1450 entrepreneurs out of which 10 percent sample size was taken. Two research questions guided the study and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. A structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while z test was used to test the null hypothesis. Findings made from the study showed that online entrepreneurs in Anambra State utilized social media to a great extent in creating customer awareness. Findings also revealed that online entrepreneurs were active on social media between 13 – 16hrs everyday which gave them round the clock access to their customers. The study recommended among others that entrepreneurs who are not using social media in Anambra State should make effective use of social media sites and utilize the attendant potentials in creating successful customer awareness in order to broaden the scope of their businesses and generate more income.