APPLICATION, CONFIGURATION AND GRATIFICATIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Abstract

The study investigated application, configuration and gratifications in social media advertising. The main objective was to examine how businesses use social media for advertising and the gratifications derived. The study was guided by the uses and gratifications theory. Using a quantitative methodology, the survey method was adopted. The population of the study comprised 5,069 registered businesses registered in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Delta States, and 18,092,300 residents of the States. The sample comprised 371 registered businesses in the states, and 391 residents of the States. The researcher used the multistage cluster sampling technique to identify the respondents that provided information for the study. The instrument used in collecting data was questionnaire. Data collected were presented using frequency distribution tables and analysed using simple percentage and weighted mean score (WMS).  Findings of the study showed that the gratifications derived from social media advertising by small and medium scale businesses are that it increases business visibility, improves brand awareness, improves audience engagement, improves relationship-building, and get customer insights of product. The study concluded that social media platforms used for advertising by the businesses in South-South, Nigeria offers effective interactive tools useful to interface with customers using innovative techniques to connect businesses to consumers. The study recommended that business owners should of the leverage the advantages and peculiarities of the different social media platforms and create engaging advertising content to keep their followers interested.