ABSTRACT
The study examined the use of social media in the marketing of catfish among marketers in Ikpoba-Okha local government area, Edo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of catfish marketers, determine the awareness of catfish marketers on the benefits of using social media platforms, identify the factors influencing the adoption of social media in catfish marketing among marketers and identify the constraints faced by catfish marketers in using social media for marketing in the study area. Three stage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 74 respondents for the study. Primary and secondary data were collected, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage, mean, table and standard deviation while the hypotheses were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The findings revealed that majority (86.5%) of the catfish marketers were male with a mean age of 40 years. Most (66.2%) of the catfish marketers operated on small scale catfish marketing and had a mean marketing experience of 7 years. Further findings revealed that majority (56.8%) and (62.2%) of the catfish marketers had no access to extension agent and trainings on social media respectively. Also, majority (43.2%) of the marketers were not aware of social media benefits while the major factors influencing their adoption were access to market information, access to technology, cost effectiveness and digital literacy (10.8%). However, they were constrained by insufficient time (𝑥̅= 4.50), lack of electricity to power their devices (𝑥̅= 4.33) and unreliable internet connection for easy online marketing (𝑥̅= 4.00). Furthermore, age, household size, contact with extension agents, training on social media, membership of social organization, number of ponds and average income per cycle had significant relationship with the usage of social media in catfish marketing. In addition, household size, contact with extension agents, training on social media, years of experience in catfish marketing and average income per cycle had significant relationship with the awareness of the benefits of social media in marketing catfish. It was therefore recommended that extension agents should have frequent visitations with catfish marketers.
