ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PROMOTING STUDENT-RUN ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES IN KWARA STATE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Student entrepreneurship is gaining momentum in Nigeria as undergraduates seek income and career opportunities while studying and use social media to reach out to their customers. This study investigated how social media facilitates the promotion of student-run entrepreneurship ventures in Kwara State universities. This study adopted a descriptive survey designed. The population of this study comprised all undergraduates who own and or operate registered entrepreneurial ventures in Kwara state universities while a total of 400 undergraduates constituted a sample of this study. A researcher-designed instrument titled: Role of Social Media in Promoting Student-Run Entrepreneurial Ventures Questionnaire (RSMOSEQ) was used to collect the data from the respondents after validated and subjected to reliability test and has internal consistent of 0.89. The data collected were analysed with mean and standard deviation. Findings revealed that social media promotes student businesses to a very high extent, with WhatsApp (100%), Instagram (81.8%), and TikTok (81.5%) being the most popular platforms. Marketing strategies such as discounts, high-quality visuals, and testimonials were widely adopted, while limited time, high internet costs, and inadequate funds for adverts hindered consistent engagement. The study recommends digital marketing workshops, subsidized data access, and university-supported advertising grants to strengthen students’ online promotional capacity.