SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESSS STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE (SMEs) IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of social media business strategy and performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Edo State, Nigeria.  The study is specifically aimed to investigate the extent to which customer engagement increases information accessibility; business accessibility improves financial performance and business interaction influences cost reduction. Relevant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures were reviewed. The study was anchored on Social Exchange Theory. Survey research design was adopted. The study was carried out in Edo State, Nigeria. The population of the study is 2,995 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) Auchi, Abudu, Benin City and Ekpoma in Edo State. The statistical formula devised by Borg and Gall was employed to determine the sample size of 584. The instrument used for the study was questionnaires. Face and content validity were adopted, while test retest and Cronbach Alpha method was carried out to achieve the reliability of the instrument. Simple percentage analysis was employed to analyse the research questions and the study employed Linear multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 was employed to run the test. Results showed that customer engagement has a significant positive effect on information accessibility of SMEs in Edo State of Nigeria.(t =16.431, p<0.05). Business accessibility has a significant positive effect on financial performance of SMEs in Edo State, Nigeria. (t =22.613, p<0.05). Business interaction has a significant positive effect on cost reduction of SMEs in Edo State, Nigeria. (t =17.959, p<0.05). The study concluded that social media business strategy had a significant positive effect on the performance of small and medium enterprises in Edo State, Nigeria. The study recommended among others that small and medium enterprises should deploy information accessibility that focuses on the customer needs, to ensure customer engagement in order to increase their performance