Influences of Social Media Marketing Tools Towards Online Purchases: Nuances from Undergraduate Students in Nigeria Public Universities

Abstract

The study investigates the influence of social media (SM) marketing tools on online purchases (OP) of undergraduates in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The qualitative multi-methods (focus groups and secondary data) were employed for data collection and the study involved 17 respondents from undergraduate studies in selected public universities in Nigeria. The researchers’ employed thematic and content analysis techniques with the use of NVivo 12 software for critical and rigorous analysis. Among the findings are that undergraduate students from selected public Universities in Port Harcourt spend much time on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube than other SM platforms; seven themes emerged as basic frameworks that could be leveraged by online businesses in order to enhance positive OP behaviour. The study contributes to technology adoption model.

Keywords

Social media marketing tools online purchases Nigeria qualitative multi-methods NVivo 12 public universities

Introduction

The use of internet and other social media (SM) technological tools for customer-business transactions are increasingly becoming unavoidable for positioning businesses for competitiveness. New media wave today has led to the presence of combined communication technologies which are used for the transfer of information about the product offerings between businesses and their customers thereby reducing the time and distance from the point of transaction initiation through its fulfilment (Ikpa & Olisa, 2010). The advent of internet has gradually turned millions of people into making purchase of goods and services through the use of internet-enabled systems and tools. This is because it has removed the barriers of geographical location and distance challenges between business and their stakeholders thereby, making the world a community.

Studies from eMarketer (2013) posit that the number of SM internet users will reach over 2.55 billion people in 2017 given the fact that over a quarter of the total world population already utilizes social networking sites. Observably, fast internet embracement experienced by the world today did not just stop in the developed nations alone as it has cut across both developing nations and lots of businesses are experiencing boom for its usage all over the world. Evidently, studies have shown that Facebook as SM platform records over 1.79 billion active subscribers since its inception (Statista, 2016). Ogunyombo et al. (2017) opined that over 30 million persons within their child and youth age go online each year to make inquiries about the world and to find answers to academic assignments. Conducted a study on SM and students’ behaviour in universities. Findings show that interaction with friends, enhanced academic knowledge and meeting new friends were among key benefits that motivate their uses of SM. Adaja and Tokunbo (2013) noted that among the breakthroughs in information and communication technology (ICT) in the twenty-first century is the unearthing and materialization of the new media which have aided the creation of the different platforms for social interaction. The potentials of the new media are seamless and unlimited in terms of interactions, interrelationships, information sharing and exchanges. The adoption of SM as a platform for diverse kind of activities in business, politics, religious and social meetings are some evidences of the emerging realities of Web 2.0. Lilleker and Jackson (2010) stated that Web 2.0 and rapid growth of social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn consequently revealed more opportunities for communication among businesses, political participants and citizens and several industry players. Web 2.0 brought about increased rate of website interactivity that paved more ways for SM marketing activities around the globe. Spurgeon (2008) opined that interactivity is among the most important element in the digital spaced which could also be used as a mark of difference between the old and new digital media activities. The interactivity of internet media entails the level of communication exchanged in a system.

Furthermore, Akpan and Nwankpa (2015) reported that there was no much significant margin or difference between students who patronize advertised products online and those who do not at percentage of 54.8 per cent and 45.2 per cent, respectively. This result tells that there are more of those who do not buy online as a result of Facebook adverts and also more of those who buy. They recommended for agencies and advert makers places adverts on Facebook to make it more captivating and effective noted that lack of checks and balances on the internet and increased level of unethical practices have resulted into avoidance of SM adverts like Facebook advertisements. Also, that Facebook users may be afraid to consider adverts placed on the platform giving the rise of trust issues. One will need to answer the question of how do undergraduate students in Nigerian public universities become aware of adverts placed on SM platforms. Given the above scenario, we intend to understand the nature of influence of social media marketing tools (SMMTs) specifically page boost, chatbot and referral programmes via Facebook and Instagram on online purchase (OP) behaviour. Hence, the aim of this study is to understand the influence of SMMTs on OP of undergraduate students in Nigerian public universities.

Theoretical Foundations

Technology adoption model (TAM) is selected for understanding how the use of SMMT influences students’ online purchasing behaviour (Davis et al., 1989). Venkatesh and Davis (2000) argue that TAM supports perceived-ease-of-use (PEOU) and perceived-usefulness (PU) which is responsible for the determination of customers’ behavioural intention to adopt an innovative item, goods and services. PEOU is the belief that an item will be flexible and easy to use, whereas PU is the belief that an item will be more valuable in solving the users’ problem at a specific time. However, in this study, customer PEOU and PU are implicitly discussed within selected constructs for understanding SMMT. More so, the theory exposes the likely reasons student would want to engage in OP including why firms would adopt SM as a tool to engage and influence consumers’ behaviour. Ward (2013) stated that TAM theoretically explains the consumers’ decision-making processes when it comes to adoption of a technology. Study noted that various theories and models have been used to explain variables behind acceptance of technology including the diffusion of innovation theory propounded by Rogers (1962); hence, our choice of TAM for guiding the purpose of this study.

Review of Literature

SMMTs

SM refers to meeting and interaction between two or more persons usually in an online arrangement. Rodman (2010) opined that SM platforms are like places where one could what they feel like, catch fun with friends and at the same thing getting updates about what is going on the life of their friends. The author opined that like persons residing in a hunting society play with bows and arrows, people living in an information society play around with information and social networks. Lampe et al. (2006) observed that Facebook users spend more time in searching for people with whom they have offline relationships with than those they do not. This study shows that people tend to extend their physical or offline relationships on SM platforms in order to get in touch in a more commitment way. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) referred SM sites as group of internet-based applications that are created on the basis and technological foundations of Web 2.0 which enables to allow the provision and exchange of contents created by individual SM users. Mcquail (2005) observed that the reforms in ICT in terms of generation, processing, storage and dissemination of information experienced in the business community today has largely opened-up new media platforms for connectivity, unknown in history which functions such as interaction and accessibility.

SMMTs are elements used to enhance interaction and communication between individuals and organizations in an internet-enabled SM platform. SMMTs include devices, soft and hardware that facilitate the communication and relationship between individuals, groups, organizations or institutions with the aid of internet. These tools range from chatbots, applications, websites, contents and codes (web instructions) that allow humans and computer to exchange values, interact and transmit data in order to conduct one transaction or the other. Similarly, Jenkins (2006) opined that communication has two major features such as participation and interactivity. The interactivity component entails non-human actors and technical possibilities, while the participation entails human actors and communication in the social context. Paxson (2010) identified various digital and online media that have the ability to enhance participation such as Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Video Games, Mobile Telephones, Short Message Systems, Global Positioning Systems devices and YouTube. Abubakar (2011) stated that SM platforms encourage the sharing of audios, images and videos based on its openness and conversational appeals. The author averred that SM are internet and mobile-based tools that enable people in quickly and easily sharing information. Further, Hossain and Rahman (2017) stated that online related marketing activities are growing daily with rapid growth in customers buying behaviour which calls for marketers to intensify their marketing tools in order to meet up the trends. These authors conducted a study on the use of online marketing tools and observed that online marketing has become the most significant matter of discussion; yet, there is lack in studies focussing on tools of internet marketing. Studies have shown that among the biggest challenges faced in harnessing the high potentials of SM tools is the issue of literacy in aspect of uses, hardware and software know-how (Adaja & Tokunbo, 2013).

Post Boost

Post boost is a way of paying SM service provider to make your content more visible. It is a tool used to increase the number of SM users that see a particular post over a period of time. Post boost is an SM feature that is adopted by different SM networking sites such as Facebook page boost, Instagram post boost and Twitter post boost. Vahl (2014) stated that boosting a post is very easy to do and available for any post on your page’s timeline; one needs to just click ‘Boost Post’ button that is located around the corner of the post. Kowalski (2016) opined that boosting your post is a good method of reaching more people. When one boosts one’s post it will appear higher in your audience’s news feed and be seen by users who have yet followed or liked your business page. In boosting a post, the service provider shows how much it takes to boost a particular post over a period of time including an estimate of how many persons that will view the content that was boosted. The author also reported that post boosting features in SM allows SM marketers to target online consumers by personal characteristics such as location, age, gender and interest which can be saved and used at intervals.

Chatbot

The term ‘Bot’ was derived from ‘robot’. Bots have been popularly known as automated agents that perform different roles in an online platform (Franklin & Graesser, 1996). Chatbot is a software device or application that facilitates the interaction between a web user and web service provider. It is a computerized system that acts like a human, begins a chat, ends a chat, attend to clients, ask questions, answer questions and do most of other roles played by a receptionist. Shawar and Atwell (2007) opined that a chatbot is among the most known kind of a social bot. They added that chatbot is a software system, which can interact with human users in everyday language like English. Grimme et al. (2017) stated that chatbots are designed to communicate in dialogues with specific users or customers, a multitude of chat platforms are conceivable, for example, private chats of SM pages, as well as other online media like email or help sections on private company websites. The bots partly replace human interaction and are often used to do simple preprocessing tasks, for example, figuring out the right contact person for a specific service issue. The author identified different forms of bots that are functional in Twitter as an SM platform, such as collection actuator which pays attention to Twitter streams and stores users’ name to follow back later. Also, the follow actuator ensures a sustained management of following those who follow a twitter users’ account, while the post actuator allows re-tweets for users on Twitter. Studies have reported that chatbots are programmes that run continuously, formulate decisions, act upon those decisions without human intervention and are flexible enough to work under different environment (Tsvetkov et al., 2017).

Referral Programmes

Referral programmes are SM strategies used to gain more patronage or buyers through the act of recommendation (Wali & Andy-Wali, 2018). It involves encouraging individuals that have more social authority known as opinion leader to influence other individuals’ purchasing behaviour online. Referral programmes are SM tools that leverage on influencers’ power to increase sales, preference or support from potential and actual consumers. Jade (2019) opined use of influencers as a marketing tool increases each day given the fact that there is increase in consumers’ love for recommendations especially in the digital environment.

OP

The concept of OP explains an act of buying goods and services through internet means or use of internet-enabled devices such as mobile phones, personal laptops, tablets, etc. OP is the modern way of buying items from a cloud store as against the tradition means of purchasing items from stores that have physical presence. Further, Dost et al. (2015) noted that OP or shopping is among the widely accepted channel for buying at buyers’ convenience as it covers purchase of shoes, pets, food items, electronics and many more. In accordance, Farber (2016) maintained that today’s consumers now make constant purchases online than in the traditional store. The study shows that more than 5,000 consumers make at least two times purchases online in every 3 months and there are indicators that buyers now make over 51 per cent of their buying using internet or online devices.

Empirical Review of SM and OP

Studies have revealed that businesses have continuously utilized SM as a means of reaching their target markets. Moriarty et al. (2009) maintained that the reason these social networking sites are so eye-catching to marketers is because of the engagement and relationships avenues they provide. These relationships and networks are capable of integrating messages and advertisements in a social context which could be influential in consumer decision-making online. Roberts (2010) found that students’ response to SM advertising and other marketing activities is not as clear as expected and that SM user gave divergent perceptions about SM influences on product advertisements as some see it as a disturbance. Chaney (2009) opined that some people believe that Facebook advertisements do not work because SM visitors do not visit to come in contact with advertising but to relate with a group of people. These reasons have informed today’s global SM advertisers towards placing emphasis on creating interactive advertising platforms. Klassen (2008) in Roberts (2010) revealed that over 43 per cent of online purchasers mentioned social network surfing as one aspect that influences their OP decision. Swedowsky (2009) supports that SM platforms like Facebook have transformed purchase consideration phase of online considers and created avenues for customers to become firms’ favourite advocates. Nyekwere et al. (2013) revealed that SM is a better tool in reaching out for consumers despite its shortcoming and that consumers largely purchase goods and services advertised using SM tools based on recommendations from trusted friends based on their product need. Web 2.0 created a set of tools that enable people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate in order to accomplish tasks online. SM tools serve as cost-effective methods of implementing marketing campaigns that could affect consumers’ OP behaviour (Corruthers, 2010). In attunement with most the previous study, Moriarty et al. (2009) argued that relationships with people affect how they react to product placements on SM platforms. The authors explained that peoples’ authority tends to affect how they make others react to firms’ product online. Zarrella and Zarrella (2011) found that most businesses gain much SM page followers via paid advertising, word of mouth, trade fares, seminars, etc., on their business pages to attract fans. Shawar and Atwell (2007) posited that chatbots are used as effective communication tool which aids in automatic telephone pick up system, and in business and e-commerce. Kowalski (2016) stated that post boosting is an SM tool used to reach out to more users. In other words, post boost makes it possible for a business organization to get its content seen and information transmitted to the knowledge of more online consumers than in its ordinary form. Wali and Andy-Wali (2018) found that students were interested in their universities commitment towards relating with them using SM platforms, especially since some of their social relationships evolve around these platforms. This justifies why the use of SMMTs is becoming fast strategic for business competitiveness.

Methodology

The interpretive qualitative research approach was adopted in this research. The principles of interpretivism is a contrasting ontology to the positivist doctrine and it is of the position that the difference between people, institutions and object under a study requires the interactional involvement of the social actor to comprehend the subjective meaning of the phenomenon (Bryman, 2012; Wali & Nwokah, 2016; Wali et al., 2015). Hence, considering this study’s research instruments, we therefore found the qualitative interpretivist method a good fit. This is because it makes it possible for the social researchers to interact and play an active role in the process of collecting data for understanding the meaning and behaviour of the phenomenon. In addition, the social constructivist focus group (FG) interview method including single interview are adopted in collecting data from undergraduate students which is on the basis that it is more effective and efficient for the collection of quality data from respondents (Bryman, 2012; Wali & Andy-Wali, 2018; Wali & Nwokah, 2016; Wali et al., 2015). The population of the study comprises all undergraduate students of public universities in Port Harcourt. Purposively, the researchers adopted FG approach for students within the ages of 18–30 years and admitted between 2014 and 2018. After initial recruitment process, 23 interviewees were identified as qualified and selected; thereafter, we divided the total number into two groups (Group 1: 13 participants, Group 2: 10 participants). These students were selected given that they are online shoppers with better knowledge about the uses of SM platforms. We sent first round of emails to those selected informing them of their selection and on the same email we proposed dates, time and venue of interviews. After a week, we sent a reminder to the selected interviewees in groups on our proposed date, time and venue of the FG meetings and we received 100 per cent confirmation. Practically, we conducted two key FGs and first held on 3rd September with 10 participants present and three invitees absent and the second FG was held on 9th September with seven participant present and three absent as well.

The researchers started each of the FG meetings with introduction of the interviewers and interviewees with emphasis placed on the confidentiality of the data or information provided by the interviewee and solicited their permission to record the interview discussions using an electronic device which was approved by all interviewees. In addition, the questions asked emanated from the adapted constructs, the study’s objectives and certified by experts in the field related to the constructs under study. Further, the interviewers carefully explained the meaning of the constructs and ensured that the participants (FGs) had good knowledge of the questions before providing answers. The sizes of the FGs were suitable in line with other scholars’ position that a typical FG should be at least 6–12 participants (Bernard, 1995; Johnson & Christensen, 2004). Additionally, FG 1 lasted for duration of 1 h 20 min and 4 s, while FG 2 lasted for 1 h 10 min and 5 s which is in line with the argument other scholars’ position that an FG of 6–12 participants should last between 60 min and 110 min (Livingstone, 2006; Wali & Nwokah, 2016, 2017; Wali & Wright, 2016).

Data Coding and Analysis

We adopted the thematic and content analysis techniques with the aid of NVivo 12 for data coding, thematic weighting and graphing. The process of data analysis consists of the raw audio data transcription into word impression, reading and re-reading for elucidation and elimination of junks and unprofessional use of words during interviews with respondents and thereafter the transcript was imported into NVivo 12 for a rigorous analysis through a process of creating themes, coding on themes and weighting of themes (King & Horrocks, 2010; Wali & Wright, 2016).

Key Findings

The study found that prospective students between 2014 and 2016 academic sessions use SM for variant purposes. We found that the students were more visible online and they spend much time online watching videos via YouTube and relate with friends on Facebook and Instagram. Also, we found that SMMTs have pressing influence on purchasing decision-making of students which were evidenced in the emerging themes. Importantly, we found that more students were interested in visiting SM platforms to get some fun by hanging out with family and friends who are far away from them, see and react to contents posted by their friends such as videos, pictures and writing words. This implies that the mindset of most students when they visit an SM platform like Facebook and Instagram and their attention is usually geared towards getting updates about recent happenings around their peers, friends and relatives. Further, the study revealed that despite the motive for SM usage which is centred on online interaction and fun with peers, there is an element of influences for OP intention. That is, adverts that are more visible for users to see could command a reasonable attention that could lead to purchase patronage. Apparently, the study indicated that SM users could also be influenced to make purchase when they believe that sponsored posts are credible, useful and meaningful to the user. Similarly, the study showed that online students’ consumers are more interested in security as they affirmed in their responses that they will not click on sponsored post that is coming from unknown sources due to cybercrimes.

These findings are encapsulated in the following themes: Theme 1 = Online Visibility (OV), Theme 2 = Perceived Content Value (PCV), Theme 3 = Perceived Security (PS), Theme 4 = Attention (ATT), Theme 5 = Chatbot Integration (CI), Theme 6 = Online Convenience (OC) and Theme 7 = Online Credibility (OCR).

Figure 1.

Source: NVivo 12 analysis and thematic coding chat comparison.

From the NVivo thematic coding output, it could be observed that PCV, CI and ATT had greater percentage of the thematic coding chat comparison. This could be seen from the fact that the three themes appeared at a wider position than other themes in the chat which could be because the PCV, CI and ATT were most coded; showing that the themes have topical influences on respondents’ experiences with the use of SMMT. Most of the respondents affirmed that PCV affects their perception that a sponsored content has more value to offer than harm and by that they are likely to click on the sponsored post. Additionally, respondents agreed that CI is a considerable factor when they see sponsored post on an SM platform. In other words, integrating artificial intelligent device like chatbot when dealing with people on an SM platform makes it easy for private and instant interaction, and affects their usage experience and purchase decisions. Further, the result shows that ATT also had more influence on the respondents’ experience on SM as sponsored posts that get ATT tends to be clicked and viewed than those that done command ATT. This implies that businesses that want to use SMMTs as a marketing strategy to achieve their business objectives must ensure the sponsor posts that are attractive enough to command more views and clicks. Consequently, the study revealed that other themes like OC, OV, OCR and PS had very low percentage as shown in the analysis and thematic coding chat comparison which also indicated that they did not necessarily have topical influences on respondents’ experiences with the use of SMMT. This is because the themes—OC, OV, OCR and PS were not most mostly coded; as a result, they did not assume more percentage in the chat (see Figure 1). Hence, the relationship among the themes led to the subdivision of themes into two categories such as: potential influencers and active influencers. This enables us to understand the implication of the difference in percentages occupied in the thematic comparison chat (see Figure 1).

Active Influencers

The active influencers are the category of themes that had more percentage in the thematic comparison chat such as PCV, CI and ATT. These themes are currently known to have more impact on consumers’ purchase decision in an SM platform; and require a continuous investment and usage in order to achieve marketing objectives. Business organization that may use SMMTs may not need more adjustment on PCV, CI and ATT as they are already proven to assert more influence on SM uses; they need to make more investment in its continuous usage as an online marketing strategy.

Potential Influencers

The potential influencers like the name implies group of themes that current have minimal impact on usages SM experiences and purchase decisions; the themes include: OC, OV, OCR and PS. The potential influencers stand as an area for more investments and different strategic formulation to ensure they grow to have higher impact on the purchasing decision of consumers. The potential influencers have the ability to become critical factors of SMMTs, especially page boosting or sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram; hence, require new approach to aid its positive effect on SM users.

Definition of Emerging Themes

Theme 1: OV: This theme explains how regular consumers stay online to view or use online contents that are sponsored or boosted.

I get to see page boost or sponsored post almost every day because I go through my Facebook every day and I noticed that when I open the app. As you are chatting it keeps popping up and if you also use YouTube, the sponsored ads always pops up too anything you want to view a video. (Respondent 1, FG1)

I see boosted post on Instagram almost every day and it is usually on top of the content you just see it written as sponsored. (Respondent 2, FG1)

I see sponsored contents regularly on YouTube. Most times if you are watching a video of 20 minutes, there is tendency that it will pop up at least 3 times before the video ends and it’s always compulsory that before you watch a video you must see sponsored contents. Also, using UC browsers on websites that does not have ads restrictions, you will always have pop ups. Also, in a site I download movies from; one must always be redirected to a boosted post even though they will apologize to you. (Respondent 1, FG2)

Theme 2: PCV: This theme explains the value respondents or consumers placed on a type of sponsored content. The value determines their interest in clicking and responding to a sponsored/boosted content.

It depends on what content. If it is something that is interested, I will click on it. (Respondent 3, FG2)

I will not because it’s not my thing. But I am a gospel singer so when I see someone like Sinach on such situation I will be surprised and want to click. The kind of content determines if I will click or not. (Respondent 5, FG2)

Depends on what you want. If I actually see ads concerning cake design and wear which I will want to venture into, I will want to click. (Respondent 6, FG2)

If I see brands or contents that are appealing, if I see the contents as something I can get a good knowledge from, I usually click. I am more interested about the relevance of the sponsored content. (Respondent 2, FG1)

Theme 3: PS: This theme explains the level at which respondents are concerned about security. It explains respondents’ fear for online fraud, cheats, cybercrimes and hacks, etc. This theme is associated with Theme 5 ‘Chatbot integration (CI)’ and it showed no association with OC which implies that consumers use chatbot because they perceive it is secure for business–customer interactions, see NVivo 12 thematic comparison in Figure 2.

Most times I click on contents that I have knowledge about. May be companies that I already know about when I see the ones I don’t know, I hardly click on them because of the cases of cybercrimes and security reasons. I skip sponsored ads from companies I don’t know before. (Respondent 4, FG1)

Sometimes, I don’t feel motivated because some fraudsters use this sponsored contents to hack peoples’ account. So I don’t even try to click on anyone I see. (Respondent 4, FG2)

Theme 4: ATT: This theme explains respondents’ opinion about what gets or catchers their ATT. It also explains what SM advert managers need to embed in their sponsored ads to increase visibility and clickability of the content. This theme is strongly linked with Theme 2 ‘Perceived content value’, see Figures 2 and 3 for NVivo 12 thematic comparison.

It’s not about creative or consistency but offering something that is of benefit and can catch my attention that will make me want to patronize them. (Respondent 7, FG1)

Attention is very important, like using a celebrity. For instance, once you see a comedian like AY, seeing his face will make you want to click on the sponsored ads. (Respondent 2, FG1)

Figure 2.

Source: NVIVO 12 data analysis output.

Figure 3.

Source: NVIVO 12 data analysis output.

Theme 5: CI: This theme explains respondents’ opinion about their interactions with chatbots during service delivery processes. It also explains how chatbot can be integrated with services of online business to enhance customer services and customer satisfaction. See Figure 2 for CI association with PS.

Chatbots are mostly what I use to lay complains. There was a time I bought airtime from UBA and it was not delivered. The chats gave me different options. (Respondent 1, FG1)

Sometimes ago, I had issues with my service provides, MTM. For a while I kept calling but they always kept me on hold. Later I discovered that they had their own chatbot in form of a number, when I sent WhatsApp message to that number they responded immediately. I think that was nice because each time I have problem I use the number instead of calling them. (Respondent 4, FG1)

Theme 6: OC: This theme explains respondents’ opinion about their experience with chatbot and how it makes their job or challenges easier to handle. It also explains how fast users are attended to and how comfortable consumers feel when they are attended to by a chatbot. OC was compared with other themes like CI, PS, ATT and PCV but NVivo output showed no association with any of the themes, see Figure 4. However, NVivo 12 comparative outputs indicate that OC is a unique theme which requires more commitment.

Figure 4.

Source: NVIVO 12 data analysis output.

The way the word is going, chatbots will make social media business easy and quick. (Respondent 7, FG2)

chatbots makes work easier, faster and convenient for customers. (Respondent 8, FG1)

It helps to boost customers’ services as it response fasters. (Respondent 9, FG1)

Theme 7: OCR: This theme explains respondents’ opinion about their concern for online trust and genuinely. It also explains respondents care for quality product and sincerity in their dealings or OPs.

Honesty and genuinely is what Nigeria Nigerians need. (Respondent 3, FG2)

Must times the product they display, when it gets to you could find it to be a low quality and high priced with no refund. This discourages me to buy. (Respondent 10, FG1)

Nigerian online businesses are scam. Recently my roommate bought a bag from online business. When she brought it home, it didn’t reflect what we saw online. (Respondent 8, FG, 1)

Discussion of Findings

The study revealed seven themes—OV, PCV, PS, ATT, CI, OC and OCR. Our findings reveal that students in a single public university spend more time on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube than other SM platforms. They also see more sponsored contents which validate their OV, especially when they login Facebook or when they are clicking to watch videos on YouTube. Further, our findings show that sponsored posts are clicked or viewed when the content has a positive perceived value. The emergence of the theme-CI is in accordance with Moriarty et al. (2009) who opined that SM is capable of integrating messages and advertisements in a social context which could be effect consumer decision-making online. Similarly, Shawar and Atwell (2007) asserted that chatbots are used as effective communication tool which aids in automatic telephone pick up system, and in business and e-commerce. In addition, the emergence of the theme- PS is in harmony with findings of Nyekwere et al. (2013) in a survey study on awareness and use of SM in advertising among the sampled university students. Their findings show that consumers are willing to make purchases online based on recommendations from trusted people; our findings also show that students who view contents online via SM are very mindful the contents they click due to trust and security. Indeed, these show that PS, that is, how secured and trusted they see an SM account affects their OP decision. Also, findings showed that Theme 2: PCV and Theme 4: ATT getter has more strength in correlation than others themes. The correlation implies that creating sponsored ads with elements that can quickly get online users’ ATT and content that is perceived to be valuable by the users’ providers more chances for an ad to be viewed and clicked. Invariably, an ad that is clicked or viewed could likely influence the viewers’ decision-making. This study contributes to TAM (Davis et al., 1989) as the study reveals that SMMTs and OP are influenced by variables such as PCV, ATT getter and PS which are similarly to the PEOU and PU. Further, the study findings validate the TAM theory this is because online consumers are influenced by accessibility, usefulness and value they believe firms service platforms offer them as seen in the emergence of Themes 2 and 6. In consideration for originality, this study is the first to explore and identify key themes like PCV, ATT getter and perceived credibility, including integration chatbot, and page boost for competitive utilization SMMTs in Nigeria.

The practical value of this study stems of the fact that it provides online businesses with more insights on how SMMTs are utilized to assert positive changes. The emerging themes serve as a framework upon which online business can leverage to enhance positive OP decisions. Also, the study provided practical areas of improved which stemmed from the respondents’ perspective about SMMTs, especially on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Therefore, the study recommends that using SM as an online marketing tool should be based on relevant and interesting contents during adverts. This is because the theme correlation analysis shows that PCV and ATT getter had more positive correlation than other themes. More succinctly, online businesses need to realize that consumers care much about security, hence, demand more proof of credibility to click and view their sponsored contents. Additionally, online businesses in Nigeria should improve on integration of chatbots as SMMT for SM businesses. The study is limited to SMMTs and OP of undergraduates in a single University. The study was limited to an FG of 17 participants. Secondly, further research should consider testing the validity of these themes using quantitative survey methods from large population across public universities in Nigeria.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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