INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The evolution of Internet-based social media has made it possible for an individual and organization to advertise and communicate with people all over the world about product or service. Social media has been around for a very long time. Social Media is a system of communication and interaction. It is a platform which enable people create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media differ from traditional media in different ways such as the quality, reach, frequency, accessibility, usability, immediacy and performance(Ogbonnaya,2013).
Social media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, internet forum, weblogs, social blogs, social networking, pictures, video and social bookmarking. Social media marketing in terms of it use for advertisement help gains attention or website traffic through social media sites. It usually creates content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks(Ngozi and Mustapha,2014). It brings about opportunity for marketers to get direct feedback from consumers and has the ability to customize individual messages.Hence, making it very vital to assess the influence social media advertisement has on users.
The history of advertising can be traced to ancient civilizations. It became a major force in capitalist economies in the mid-19th century, based primarily on newspapers and magazines. In the 20th century, advertising grew rapidly with new technologies such as direct mail, radio, television, the Internet and smart phones. On the other hand, Social media came into existence in the 1990s. Boyd and Ellison, (2007) documented that the first recognizable social network site called “Six degrees” was launched in 1997 on sixdegrees.com. It allowed users to create profiles, list and surf friends lists. While Six Degrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service came to an end. In 2002, social media received a great boost with the launch of Friendster. Within a year of its launch, Friendster recorded more than three million registered users and a ton of investment interests. In 2003, my space, LinkedIn, Last FM, Tribe net, Hi5 among others sprang up. In 2004, popular names like Facebook Harvard, Dogster and Mixi evolved. From 2005 till date a lot more of social media sites have been launched for example twitter, 2go,watsapp, google plus, badoo. Nowadays, most marketer nowadopted the strategies of social media in advertising and over 90% of marketing executives utilize social media as part of their marketing strategies, and successful businesses utilize social media advertisement for branding, lead generation and customer. It’sagainst this background that this study sought to examine the influence of social media advertisement on users.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Social media advertisement such as facebook has thebenefits ofhelping businesses to reach customer all over the world, so that customers can select, survey, and purchase products and services from businesses around the world (Al Kailani& Kumar, 2011). An important agent of consumer socialization is the fact that facebook, provide a virtual space for people to communicate through the Internet by using social networking platform. Social Media encourages users involvement which can be as simple as posting comments or giving votes or as complex as recommending content to other user on the basis of preferences of people with similar interests and lifestyle. The increasing dependence on Facebook as social media technology for basic communication highlights the importance of analysing how these networking sites areaffecting users on a daily basis.Most importantly, social networks such as Facebook is extremely capable of informing and influencing purchase decisions of many users as most usersnow trust their peer opinions of using social media platform for advertisement more than thetraditional marketing strategy. Customers who are equally known as users of social media now have the power to talk back at the brand and broadcast their opinions of the brand. However, there’s only a small number of study and lack of detailed information on social media advertising and it influence on user specifically in Nigeria. Thus this has created a huge literature gap on this issue. It is againstthis backdrop that this study is aimed at investigating the influence of social media advertisement on users.
- Objective of the Study
The main objective of the study is to investigate the influence of Facebooksocial media advertisement on users. Other specific objectives are.
- To ascertain the level atwhich Facebook is used by the respondent.
- To ascertain the extent respondents are exposure to Facebook social media as platform of advertisement.
- To ascertain whether the use of Facebook for adverts influences the respondents buying decision.
1.4 Research Question
The following research question are posed to guide the conduct of the study as follows;
- To what level is Facebook used by users?.
- To what extent are users of Facebook social media exposed tosocial media advertisement?
- Do the use of Facebook for adverts influences the users buying decision?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study will be ofbenefitto business advertisers, users of social media,government and to fellow researcher.
For business advertisers, the study will enable them to know the effect of social media on users. It will also enable them see how social media is effective for advertisement. Other users of social media will also come to understand that social media has influence on them and at the same note the kind of influence itwill have on them. Government will also realize from the findings of the study the benefit of making policy that will support theuse of social media. To fellow researchers, the study will serve as source of material and reference for related study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study covers the influence of social media advertisement on users. In terms of geographical location, the study will be carried out in Awka South and North Local Government area of Anambra State.
1.7 Definition of Terms
For the purpose of clarity, the following words use in the study are defined accordingly as used in the study.
Social media:This refers to online internet platform used for sharing content and messages between users.
Social media users: persons who utilizes the service of social media for sharing content and message among social media users.
Advertisement:This the creation of product or service awareness by marketers using different advertising channels.
Evolution of social media:The appearance of social media sites.
Influence: This refers the impact of social media have on users
