SOCIAL MEDIA ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

Social media is a new phenomenon that has changed how the business environment operates. Businesses are able to gain access to resources that were otherwise not available to them. It has also helped businesses to increase their worthiness, cultivate strategic partnerships and increase their contact with customers and suppliers. It has become important for business owners and marketers to understand how social media work as a communication and marketing tool and how they can significantly grow their businesses. The study focused on establishing the effect of social media on the growth of SMEs in Nigeria.

      CHAPTER ONE

                                       INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and has the potential to be one of the prime drivers of development on the continent. Nevertheless, the country’s development is constrained by the weak environment for broad-based economic growth. Achieving sustainable long-term change requires a significant strengthening of policy formulation and implementation processes. At its core, this involves the supply of, and demand for, improvements in the business environment.

Social media entrepreneurship is a new phenomenon that has changed how the business environment operates. Businesses are able to gain access to resources and online exposure that were otherwise not available to them. It has also helped businesses to increase their worthiness, cultivate strategic partnerships and increase their contact with customers and suppliers. It has become important for business owners and marketers to register their presence on the social media which also work as a communication and marketing tool which significantly grow their businesses. A business that understands the advantage of social media is well aware that social media is essential in developing new business in the current competitive and online driven marketplace.

Marketing is an important aspect for any company involved in business. As such, it is a competitive world out there, and social media marketing is the ‘new kid in town’ and it can reach out to the people accessing these social media platform regularly. Communication is essential for any corporation and business, therefore either they change the way information is conveyed or be prepared to lose some of the audience. It is imperative for marketing managers to continuously find a solution to appeal, keep new and current consumers (Schneider, 2009). Social network is the ideal platform for communication that applies perfectly with marketing in the virtual world. Social networks are groups of individuals who prefer to communicate with one another through a preferred site based on the profile created for themselves (Laudon and Traver, 2007).

The entrepreneurs on social media have the ability of sharing their business ideas and encounters. This assists in creativity, open communication and sharing of knowledge among users. Facebook, Skype and discussion forums are examples of social media tools where large numbers of entrepreneurs participate (Tapscott and Williams, 2008). The sky is the limit with social media. Owing to of the flexibility of social networking tools, businesses can realize different benefits. These according to Simon (2012) are greater access to different audiences, increased patronage, improved customer service, improved products and services, job creation and adoption of favorable pricing practices. The 21st century has seen a shift in the way businesses operates. Smith and Taylor (2004) reveal that companies are presently experiencing several new unanticipated events and the development of the Internet as a communication channel is almost certainly one of the most influential factors. The internet has brought about several new elements – it has made consumers more accessible, it has emerged with a completely new set of communication tools that make the process of exchanging information much easier and faster, and it has compelled companies to rethink how they are communicating with their customers (Jaokar, Jacobs, Moore and Ahvenainen, 2009).Entrepreneurs, marketers and consumers are witness the appearance of virtual social media. As of January 2012, there were more than 800 million active Facebook users, with over 250 million of them logging in every day. In addition, the average Facebook user has 130 friends and likes 80 pages but this figure is expected to expand with time. Additionally, over 3.5 billion pieces of contents such as blog posts, web links and news stories are shared on this social network (Digital Buzz, 2012). The Internet and the online social networks allow individuals to connect with one another. It is important for entrepreneurs and marketer to grasp how the Internet functions and the expectations of its users.

Mangold and Faulds (2009) recognize that social media allows an enterprise to connect with both existing and potential customers as the number of businesses that fully operates online only continues to increase all over the world. This has greatly reduced unemployment thereby contributing to economic growth all over the world. Social networking has led to the introduction of social media entrepreneurship and presented new ways of communicating to expanse audiences on various Internet platforms. Different kinds of organizations render various services through the social media all over the world e.g. health, news, sports, education etc. (Kotler and Armstrong, 2011).

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There are many reasons why individuals become entrepreneurs; it could be to earn money, to make a difference to community / environment or simply passionate about it or to fulfill a lifelong dream. Whatever the reason maybe, it is not a joke or a simple task in just becoming an entrepreneur or to start a business, the individual needs lots of resources such as capital, labor, technology/ technical know-how, and many other things. Location of this business and visibility and increased patronage is another factor to consider. Entrepreneurs extensively use the social networks to obtain access to a large population of people all over the world through the internet and also use contacts in decision making and sharing ideas. Social media Entrepreneurs operates their business online, this has greatly reduced unemployment all over the world (Greve and Salaff 2003). However, the researcher is examining social media entrepreneurship as a tool for national development.

 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are the objectives of this study:

The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of social media entrepreneurship on national development. Social media is relatively young and the objective for corporations to invest and participate in social media platform is to offer an alternative mode of communication and also it helps to cultivate long term relationships with their guests; Such as promotional campaigns and new information can be pushed through social media channels. Also, to give a descriptive overview of the state of social media in the hospitality industry, the following sub-objectives will guide the study;

1. To examine social media entrepreneurship as a tool for national development.
2. To examine the advantage so social media entrepreneurship.

• To identify the factors militating against social media entrepreneurship.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Can social media entrepreneurship be used as a tool for national development?
2. What are the factors militating against social media entrepreneurship?
3. What is the advantage so social media entrepreneurship?
4. Can the social media be a source of advertisement off you industry to the people?

1.5   RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H₀: Social media entrepreneurship cannot be used as a tool for national development

H₁: Social media entrepreneurship can be used as a tool for national development.

H₀: there are no significant factors militating against social media entrepreneurship

H₂: there are significant factors militating against social media entrepreneurship

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The following are the significance of this study:

Presently, the hype surrounding social media strategies for marketing is on the increase, but hotel industry is still trying to cope and see the advantage from the latest trends on the internet. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter is growing daily. Challenges faced by hotels is the ‘how to’ engage the consumers and to lead them towards becoming a guest or share their experience for the hotel within their virtual network. For the past decades, the Internet has gradually changed to a stage where the search engines takes control of website traffic .Therefore, businesses that jumped onto the social media wagon earlier see the pay off , as they have established their relationships and viral networks (Walsh, 2010). The research conducted in this manuscript will attempt to give an insight to the effects of social media on national development, furthermore to establish if social media is effective and recommended, and if so, provide an insight and proposition for adopting social media as a platform for development purpose. The results of this study will throw light on approaches to social media entrepreneurship and how it can be used as a tool for national development. This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic.

1.7   SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study on the social media entrepreneurship as a tool for national development will cover the activities of the entrepreneurs on the social media and the profitability with a view of determining its effect on national development. In the cause of the study, the researcher encounters some limitations which limited the scope of the study;

Staff Reluctance: In most cases the owners of some social media sites and web developers often feels reluctance over providing required information required by the researcher. This result in finding information where the structured questionnaires could not point out.

Researcher’s Commitment: The researcher, being of full time student spent most of her time on other academic activities such as test, class work, assignment, examination etc which takes average focus from this study.

Inadequate Materials: Scarcity of material is also another hindrance. The researcher finds it difficult to long hands in several required material which could contribute immensely to the success of this research work.

Financial constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Social Media: Social media is a social instrument of communication that encompasses a media with a social component (Commoncraft, 2008).

Entrepreneurship: The capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.

National development: National Development Plan (NDP, Irish: Plean Forbartha Náisiúnta) was the title given by the Irish Government to a scheme of organized large-scale expenditure on (mainly) national infrastructure.

Bloggers: Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was developed by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Blogs can also be hosted in the registered custom domain of the blogger (like www.example.com).

1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlight the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

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