Undergraduate entrepreneurs' use of social media for marketing: a study of Fountain university, Osogbo, Nigeria

Abstract

The efficacy of the social media as a tool of socialisation has never been in doubt. This is even more so as the biggest patrons of the media are the youths and the young at heart. This category of individuals has exploited the social media to their advantage for both positive and negative ends, a trend that knows no limit yet. One of the positive purposes that the social media has been put to is for entrepreneurial use as a good number of the young people now engage in buying and selling to augment their pocket money. In view of their relationship with the social media, it has come in handy as a veritable marketing communication tool that is capable and has been found useful to boost sales. This paper seeks to know hove efficiently the social media are being deployed for this purpose. The Uses and Gratification theory was used to drive the study to be able to probe the use of the social media for entrepreneurial purposes and to know the success level of the use, that is, to know how they use the social media for that purpose and what they gain from using them for entrepreneurship. Further, a qualitative method was adopted where the In-Depth Interview was used as the data gathering instrument. The study found that students use a wide range of social media platforms from WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter to Pinterest suggesting a heavy reliance on the social media to grow their businesses. It was also found that their use of the social media extends beyond socialisation and they in fact engage in promotional activities to win and retain the interest of their customers. In addition, the study also found that the social media aid and help greatly in the improvement of their sales. The paper recommends the adoption of the various social media platforms to achieve their commercial and economic gain.