An Assessment of the Use of Social Media as Advertising Vehicles in Nigeria: A Study of Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are potent tools in modern communication and marketing. Considering Social media’s growing popularity, particularly Facebook and Twitter, this study assessed the use of social media as advertising vehicles in Nigeria. In order to generate data for this study, the survey research method was employed and the questionnaire was used as the instruments for data collection. The study revealed that 70% of business organisations in Nigeria are embracing social media to communicate with their customers while 30% are yet to see the promises that these new media hold. Of these 70%, the study revealed that the use of social media in advertising has been successful for 35% of business organisations using them to place advertisement. Others (65%) leverage on their social media presence to get their fans/followers informed about their products/services. The work recommended among other things that more Nigerian organisations should embrace social media advertising since it has the potential of reaching their target market and should see them as good avenues to market their products, counter negative perception about their organisation’s products/services and attend to their customers and potential customers online.

Key Words: Social media, Facebook, Twitter, Advertising, Nigeria