CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY OF SMEs IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study is to examine Social media on the development and sustainability using small and medium scale businesses in Ekosodin, Edo state as case study. specifically, the study aims to investigate the impact of the role of social media on small and medium sized business ,  to examine whether social media advertisement add growth to the sale of small and medium sized business and to figure out the extent to which social media usage leads to sustainability of SMEs.

   The study employed the survey descriptive research design. A total of 80 responses were validated from the survey. From the responses obtained and analyzed, the findings revealed that there is significant relationship between social media and small and medium sized business, there's a significant relationship between social media advertisement and the growth of sales of a small and medium sized business and a significant relationship lies between social media and sustainability of SMEs. Findings from the study revealed that social media has open up more business opportunities and reduce the overall coast of business operations.  The study therefore recommends that to better increase business results, small business owners must understand their digital needs or take help from expertise to save time and help achieve success online all start within a small budget also Presence on Facebook, and other social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp etc. The study highly recommended to small business to reduce their overall cost of operations. It was concluded that the use of the social media contributes to the growth of small businesses.