Youths’ Willingness to Exploit Social Media Platforms for Poultry Eggs Marketing in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the growing demand for poultry eggs and the expanding use of social media among youths in South-East Nigeria, limited youth participation in digital agricultural marketing raises concerns about the sustainability and efficiency of poultry egg distribution systems. The study analyzed youths’ willingness to exploit social media platforms for poultry eggs marketing in South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to analyze the willingness to exploit social media platforms by the youths in the marketing of poultry eggs, determine the factors influencing the willingness to exploit social media platforms among the youths in the marketing of poultry eggs, and examine youths’ perception of the effect of social media platforms on poultry egg sales in the South-East of Nigeria.  Primary data was collected from 120 respondents using well-structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, willingness to exploit the model, and a regression model. The results of willingness to utilize social media platforms for marketing eggs showed a willingness to exploit (WTE) index of 1.35, a low willingness to exploit social media category (80.00%), a high willingness category (15.00%), and a medium willingness category (5.00%). Only Facebook (Mean = 3.78) and WhatsApp (Mean = 3.38) were highly exploited. The results of the determinants of factors influencing the willingness to exploit social media platforms among the youths showed that the coefficient of multiple determination (R2) showed that 73.2% of the variation in the factors influencing the willingness to exploit social media platforms among the youths in the study area was accounted for by the explanatory variables in the model. Variables such as age (p < 0.01), gender (p < 0.1), and usefulness of social media (P <0.01) were significant. The results of youths’ perception of the effect of social media platforms on poultry egg sales showed that Facebook (mean effect 3.23) and WhatsApp (mean effect 3.10) have the most serious effect on the quantity of eggs sold among the youths. The study recommends that awareness and education should be intensified to show the usefulness of social media platforms as a reliable tool for marketing, stakeholders in the digital marketing should regulate the social media space, and the cost should be reduced to encourage more youths and older people in the use of social media to market their products.