SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING AND ABIA AUDIENCE BUYING BEHAVIOR

Abstract Advertising is one form of communication that creates awareness about a particular product or service through the media by an identified sponsor. Prior to the current technological breakthrough, advertising seem to be a one-way communication. Consumers did not have the opportunity to react to advertisements directly. The only available responses to messages then were measured through the level of patronage of advertised products and services. However, the emergence of the social media advertising has helped to foster transactional communication and to a reasonable extent, advertising. The interactive nature of social media communication enables consumers to assess and compare message contents as well as present their perceptions in form of likes, comments, shares, etc. This innovation in turn assists advertisers in the creation of marketing campaigns by building on the reactionary inputs. This study is focused on ascertaining consumers' exposure to social media advertising vis a vis the perceived influence of the advertisements on their buying behaviors. The social interaction theory and the diffusion of innovation theory served as framework for the study. The researchers surveyed a sample of 384 social media users in Abia State. In the end, it was found that Abia audiences were highly exposed to social media advertising. It was also found that social media advertising messages influenced the buying behaviour of Abia users. it was therefore concluded that consumer’s buying behaviour is influenced positively through constant exposure to advertisements on social media. The researchers, therefore, recommend that advertisers should constantly employ the affordances of social media innovation to promote products and services. Keywords: Social-Media, Advertising, Audience, Buying Behaviour