SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIES AND BUSINESS SURVIVAL: A SURVEY OF SME’S IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

 The study examined social media marketing strategies adopted by SMEs for their business survival in Delta State, Nigeria. The research population consists of all 3,976 registered SMEs with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Delta State office (SMEDAN). Three hundred and ninety-eight (398) registered Small and Medium Enterprises in Delta State were used as sample which represents ten percent (10%) of the total number of registered SMEs which is in line with keilinger recommendation of sample study. A self structured questionnaire was used for data collection titled "Social Media and SMEs Questionnaire" (SMAPSMEQ). Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. The simple percentage, frequency count, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data received via research questions. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the three hypotheses. Findings shows that there exists a significant relationship between the impact of cause marketing strategy and customer’s loyalty among Small and Medium Enterprises, as an increase in the cause marketing strategy of SMES also leads to a corresponding increase in their customer’s loyalty and vice versa. A statistically significant relationship exist between the adoption of relationship marketing as social media marketing strategy and customer’s patronage among Small and Medium Enterprises in Delta State, which implies that maintaining a good relationship with its customers will have positive influence on  the customer’s patronage, encourage mutual relationship, cheaper customer acquisition of Small and Medium Enterprises. Findings also shows that there exist a significant relationship between the adoption of scarcity marketing as social media marketing strategy and the volume of sales among Small and Medium Enterprises in Delta State, which means that if a good scarcity marketing strategy is maintained by a Small and Medium Enterprises, their volume of sales would also be positively affected. Based on the findings, it was recommended that small and Medium Scale Enterprises should give adequate attention to improving their cause, relationship and scarcity marketing strategies by setting up unit committees in their organization to see that these objectives are achieved. Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Delta State office (SMEDAN) should continually encourage Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to uphold the use of these business strategies by using them as benchmark for raising the standard of their Enterprises across Delta State.
 Keywords: Social Media Marketing, SMEDAN, SMAPSMEQ, SMES, Strategies and Survival.