Social Media Marketing and Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria
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Abstract
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sapele are facing reduced competitiveness and struggling to keep pace with larger companies and other SMEs that effectively use social media. These businesses are also encountering challenges in expanding their customer base, leading to stagnant sales and limited revenue growth. As a result, this research was conducted to examine the impact of social media as a marketing tool on the performance of SMEs in Sapele, Delta State. The study adopted a survey research design and focused on SMEs based in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria. The study population comprised 397 registered SMEs in the area. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources and analysed using simple linear regression with the aid of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. The findings revealed that Facebook has a positive and significant effect (r = 5.354, p = 0.000 < 0.05) on the performance of SMEs in Sapele, Delta State, while Twitter also has a positive and significant impact (r = 7.199, p = 0.000 < 0.05) on SME performance in the region. The study recommends that SMEs allocate a substantial portion of their marketing budgets to social media and that business owners, along with their employees, regularly engage in training sessions to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in social media marketing.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Aniekan Rupert Inwang, Dr. Francis Ikechukwu Ogosi, Nfawa Erasmus Usani, Dr. Francis Etim Andem, Loveth Precious Chukwuyem (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Aniekan Rupert Inwang, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Dr. Francis Ikechukwu Ogosi, Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State.
Department of Business Administration,
College of Social and Management Sciences,
Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State.
Nfawa Erasmus Usani, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Department of Marketing,
Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Uyo, Nigeria.
Dr. Francis Etim Andem, Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osura, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.
Department of Business Management,
Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osura, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State.
Loveth Precious Chukwuyem, Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State.
Department of Business Administration,
College of Social and Management Sciences,
Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State.
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