Effects of Social Network on Marketing of Goods and Services: A Study of University of Maiduguri Campus, Nigeria

Abstract

Social networks have grown to be one of the fastest modes of communication both locally and internationally. It is fast becoming one of the sturdiest means of reaching out to the individuals and public. The 21^st century marketing of goods and services has gone beyond the traditional face to face mode. Organisations have come up with several goods and services and the internet is one of the best ways of making them known to the public. With the increasing rate of patronage of social networks, organisations have decided to market their products. However, the outstanding threats are the activities of fraudsters, dishonesty, among others. This paper studies the effect of social networks on the marketing of goods and services among consumers in study area. It particularly looked at the importance of these social networks and the characteristics such as convenience, personalisation and social surveillance. Questionnaire was distributed to gather relevant data and Chi-square analysis was used to analyse the data. It revealed that social networks have significant effect on the online marketing of goods and services. It also revealed that security challenges remain the greatest threats to online marketing to individuals and organisations. The paper recommended that government should assist in ensuring that people can get to internet facilities wherever it is required. Besides obvious threats, organisations are encouraged to use these social networks to access more customers and expand sales beyond geographical locations.

Keywords: Marketing, Internet, Social Networks, Goods and Services