The Effects of Social Media on Small Business
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
This study aimed at examining the positive effects of social media on small business growth.
- To determine the effect of social media on customer loyalty of small businesses in Nigeria
- To find out how social media affects sale volume of small business in Nigeria
- To assess the effect of social media on Brand awareness of small businesses in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
ntroduction
This chapter presented a review of existing literature on the role of social media as a new way of advertising to influence growth; the literature reviewed theories of social media and examined previous empirical works on the effect of social media on customer loyalty and awareness. The chapter also discussed the ways social media could be improved as a communication strategy.
Theories on the role of social media social media scholars (Kilduf & Tsai; Duhe; 2007; Ange & Smith 2010) suggested that the role of social media drew from two major theoretical frameworks. These are social network theory and social capital theory.
Introduction to Social Media
Scholars have defined social media as a group of internet based applications founded on technological concepts of web 2.0 and that permitted the creation and exchange of user generated content ( Cho & Kim 2011). It allowed users to interact and collaborate with each other in dialog platform as creators of content in a virtual community in contrast to websites where users are limited to passive viewing of the content created for them (Cherviot 2011). According to Kwanya, Stilwell and Underwood (2012), social media champions the rationale that humans are each other’s teachers; that knowledge originates from interactions such as meetings, conversation dialogue and mentorship and that even experts have something to learn from their audience.
Chum and Kim (20 11), positioned that social media encompasses a variety of online information sharing formats including social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster, creativity works sharing sites such as YouTube, Flickr and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter. A review by Perrigot, Kacker, Basset and Clique (2012), suggested that Facebook is the most widely used social media available in 70 different languages. Launched in the year 2004, Facebook reached more than 750 million active users in 2011 and half of them logged on a daily basis (Chu, 2011). Face book and such other social networking sites allow individuals who sign up to be members, to construct a public profile with a bounded system available to other members with who they share connectional din view or traverse their list of connection and those of other systems (Charlejee,2011). People with no or very little technical skills can use these outlooks of social media to share their ideas, opinions, experiences and observations (Fleming 2010).
According to Dyrod (2011), the number of social networking sites among users is quickly approaching the half population of the planet. Huton & Fosdick (2004), have shown that social networks have now surpassed all other means of keeping in touch with the people, even outstripping face to face contact in 2009. Although most social media services are in Europe and North America, Asian markets in general are leading in terms of penetration, participation and in creating more content than any other region (Mutual. 2012). For example, it was reported that Philippines had a penetration of 83% Hungary 80% Poland 77% and Mexico 76%.
The explosion of mobile phones also brought ubiquitous access to social media and pushed the adoption curve (Edwards 2012). In the recent years, the emergence of internet access on mobile devices has fostered new opportunities to bridge the digital divided and to close the internet participation gap between and within countries (Market and social research association 2012).
In Africa mobile phone are ubiquitous, resulting to social media being accessible on a much broader scale than before (Fleming, 2010). Mobile social media are changing the way people interact with each other and their favorite brands and how they access information (Rao, 2012) Mutual (2012), noted that Africans are incorporating their already extensive use of cellphones with a more recent and massive interest in social media, for example statistics reported by Kemibaro (2009), showed that there were 415 million mobile users and 115 million internet users in Africa and that the next 1 billion mobile users will come from Africa. The report also indicated that 57% of internet users in Africa are now members of a social network.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
Prewit (1974; 2) defines research methodology as systematic research procedures and techniques which help the researcher to avoid self-deception. This chapter lays out the procedures and methods that the researcher used to obtain the required data needed for the research. Also in this chapter are procedures that were used in data analysis and interpretation to obtain answers to the research questions through hypothesis testing. These include: defining the scope of the study, describing the population interest, sampling procedures, data collection instruments, evaluation instruments used and the framework of analysis adopted for the research.
Research Design
This was the strategy employed by the researcher to obtain solutions to the research questions. It also stipulated guidelines of what and how the information was collected. To conduct this research, the researcher used exploratory research method; Explanatory research is research conducted in order to explain any behavior in the market. It could be done using questionnaires, group discussions, interviews, random sampling uses technical questionnaires so as to get information required (answers.com)
The method was used to help the researcher assess the role of social media in small businesses growth. This is in consideration that social media has a part to play in business growth as communication tool if well utilized. Explorative research is hence a quantitative research used to investigate populations by selecting samples to analyze and discover occurrences where population is too large to observe directly.
The Study Population
This refers to the number of items or people in a given field of research. The study assessed the role of social media on business growth a case of WakaNow Nigeria. The study included customers and employees of WakaNow Nigeria. The researcher selected the population randomly through purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is a non- probability sampling which involves the sample being drawn from that part of the population with the required information.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter contains the findings of the data collected. To examine effects of social media on the growth of small businesses in Nigeria: the research studied WakaNow Nigeria as a case study. The research adopted a sample size of 30 respondents. All data was entered in excel, cleaning was done, open ended questions coded and exported to SPSS for analysis.
This chapter contains the findings of the data collected. To examine effects of social media on the growth of small businesses in Nigeria: the research studied WakaNow Nigeria as a case study. The research adopted a sample size of 30 respondents. All data was entered in excel, cleaning was done, open ended questions coded and exported to SPSS for analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
The study was based on four major objectives: to determine the effects of social media on customer loyalty of small business in Nigeria, to find out how social media affects sale volume of small business in Nigeria, to assess the effects of social media on brand awareness of small businesses in Nigeria and to determine the effect of social media on customer service of small business in Nigeria.
Summary of Findings
The study targeted respondent above 18 years of age who had legal right to make decision on whether or not purchase product or seek services. Most respondents have social media account(s) with face book or twitter handle account. Social media account holders visit these sites more often; daily and on weekly basis to seek information. Majority of social media account holders had seen WakaNow Nigeria on social media and sought the services of the company. Majority of respondent would share information with friend especially when they are happy about their services.
Traditional methods of advertising are equally importance in creating product awareness since some of the market segment had not acquired knowledge about social media. Websites and social media sites advertising are preferable to TV advertisement when it comes to customer purchasing decisions.
Finally we noted that success of social media business page in any company depends on how the company manages it customers. Quality content open a great opportunity for business Social media is used to monitor customer experience.
Conclusion
Social media profiles often rank high on search results. Creating these business profiles allow company updates and messages to be found by a particular audience naturally. Quality content opens up great opportunities for businesses to get noticed by a lot of social and online buyers. In additional to quality of content, success of business social media advertising large depends on how they manage their customers. Unlike in the past social media and website are replacing traditional methods of advertising such as television and newspapers.
This study reveals a general positive effect of social medical on business growth. Most respondents pointed out of the crucial role that social media played in product awareness and other details of WakaNow Nigeria. It was also clear that social media is a powerful tool as far as customer loyalty is concerned as it helps in creating customer relation due to its interactive nature. Consequently, product awareness is improved since of the information is shared very fast by social media users. Social media is therefore an effective tool for businesses since the information reaching many potential customers very fast in short span.
Recommendations
The researcher came up with the following recommendation that could play important role to revolutionize WakaNow Nigeria and small business management.
- There is need for WakaNowNigeria to realize its presence in social media especially twitter because twitter has very many potential customer.
- WakaNowNigeria should make it easy for customers to buy product or/pay for services from social media channels.
- WakaNowNigeria should perform a regular analysis to monitor traffic on social sites to discover how and where customers are sharing information about them business and their competitors.
- Comparative study should be done to compare social media and tradition methods of advertising.
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