ABSTRACT

This study determined the utilization of social media platforms by small scale business entrepreneurs for successful online marketing in Abia State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A sample of 462 respondents (305 male and 157) female drawn from a population of 4,620 registered small scale entrepreneurs in Abia State. The instrument for data collection was a 52-item researcher-developed questionnaire titled “Social Media Platforms Utilization for Successful Online Marketing Questionnaire (SMPUSONQ)”. The instrument was validated by three experts two from Business Education in the Department of Educational Management and one from Measurement and Evaluation in Department of Science Education, all in the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Pearson product moment correlation to test the stability of the instrument which yielded coefficient of .81. Three research assistants helped in data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Eleven related studies on the use of social media for successful marketing in business were also reviewed, compared and contrasted. The findings showed among others that small scale business entrepreneurs moderately utilize Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram platforms for successful online marketing. It also showed that small scale business entrepreneurs rarely utilize Google Plus and twitter platforms for successful online marketing. Based on these findings, it was concluded that small scale business entrepreneurs moderately utilize Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram platforms and rarely utilize google plus and twitter to carry out their online business activities successfully. It was recommended among others that small scale business entrepreneurs should develop keen interest in utilizing the various social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Google plus, Twitter, Blog and Instagram to enable them carryout their businesses online and as well develop their business outfits to compete with their counterparts globally.