OGBEN, C. C.
IBEKWE, F. C.
Department of Marketing
Imo State University
Owerri, Nigeria.
Abstract
This study examined social media marketing and patronage of fabric in Aba, Abia State. The study was carried out to identify the extent facebook and whatsapp enhances sales and customer base of fabric business. The design adopted was survey; questionnaire was distributed online. The population of the study covered the entire 175 registered fabric business owners who are online (that use social media), however 169 respondents’ opinion was sample. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using Mean Statistic and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (at 0.05% level of significance) through SPSS version 21.0. The study discovered that facebook marketing enhanced sales attraction with a correlation value of 0.672; facebook marketing leads to customer acquisition with a correlation value of 0.611; there is significant relationship between whatsapp marketing and sales attraction with the value of 0.791; and there is significant relationship between whatsapp marketing and customer acquisition with the correlation value of 0.785. The study concludes that effective use of social media has the tendency to attract more sales and also help in customer acquisition among the dealers in fabrics. It was recommended that fabric business owners should always have social media visibility by opening facebook/ whatsapp ccounts through which they can effectively communicate with their customers and prospective customers so as to achieve improve sales and customer acquisition. Also, fabric business owners should also explore theuse of such social media outlets like instagram, twitter and youtubeetc as means of expanding their markets.
International Journal of Business and Common Market Studies Vol.14 No. 1&2 © 2023 by The Development Universal Consortia. All Rights Reserved