Abstract
The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has brought about a remarkable change in executing majority of human and business activities which includes small media firms. The continuous survival of these firms depends to a large extent on the utilization of information made available via various social media to compete favourably with other firms thereby enhancing their growth. Despite recent researches on social networks and media firms, little is known about social network’s influence on media firms’ growth. Hence, this study investigates the influence of social networks on media firm’s growth focusing on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter based on social exchange theory. Three null hypotheses were developed and tested at 95% confidence level. The population frame consists of 100 staffs of the marketing department from 10 registered media organizations in the context. A census based method was used for sample selection due to the small size of the population. Primary data was collected through the survey monkey and analyzed with the descriptive and inferential statistics. The analysis of results reveals that LinkedIn and Twitter contribute statistically positively and significantly to media firms’ growth in Minna, while Facebook does not. It therefore recommends professional short-term courses and training for employees to acquire technological knowledge on the use of social media tools especially LinkedIn and Twitter for organizational productivity and growth.Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Growth, Media Firms, Social Networks, Technology
Highlights
There has been a spate of interest in entrepreneurship as the main force behind growth and sustainable development in market economies (OECD, 2007)
This study focuses on two social networking sites, Facebook and LinkedIn, and a particular form of blogging, namely, microblogging (Twitter), which are the commonly adopted social media tools among firms
Statistics revealed that about 60% of the respondents are below 30years of age, 27.4% are 30 - 39years while 12.6% are 4049years with no respondent up to 50years and above. This implied that media firms in context employed young, energetic and dynamic staff that possess the ability to utilize complex information technology tools more than older counterparts (United States Bureau of Statistics) in order to forestall the challenges of technological advancement, innovation and growth
Summary
There has been a spate of interest in entrepreneurship as the main force behind growth and sustainable development in market economies (OECD, 2007). Social media network comprises of several platforms and channels that enables team building, community building, connecting of potential and existing customers; usage as management tools for advertising, marketing, technology start-ups, Research and Development and so on (Boyd, 2008, Kietzmann et al, 2011, Smith, 2019). Software developers can create Facebook applications to be used by the Facebook user base (Smith, 2019) It is a unique networking and marketing tool for firms and people searching for ways to acquire a product concept or form business relationships virtually or physically. Facebook has an advanced campaign setup that allows companies to select a specific demographic region to target products, services and relationships for specific individuals living in a particular geographic region (Gerard, 2009a) Facebook enables opportunities such as consumer engagement, enhancement of brand reputation and image, business networking, building positive brand attitudes, improving customer relationship management and publicizing new products or services (Schumpeter, 1934; Thirushen, 2011; Adeyeye, 2018).
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