Utilization of Social Network Sites for Creating Resource Awareness by Book Retailers in Bauchi and Kano States, Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the utilization of Social Network Sites for creating resource awareness by Book retailers in Bauchi and Kano States of Nigeria. The objectives are to: find out the types of Social Network Sites utilized in creating resource awareness by Book retailers in Bauchi and Kano States; determine the level of awareness of utilizing Social Network Sites; and the factors affecting the utilization of Social Network Sites for creating resource awareness by Book retailers in Bauchi and Kano States. Survey research design was adopted, the population of the study comprised the 220 books retailers in Bauchi and Kano States. 140 books retailers were used as sample of the population. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. Data collected was analysed using frequency count and percentage. The study discovered among other that: Facebook was found to be the highest type of Social Network Sites utilized by books retailers in Bauchi and Kano States in creating resource awareness; the level of awareness of utilization of three SNSs(Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube) was found to be very high for creating resource awareness by the books retailers in Bauchi and Kano States. The study recommends among other that: book retailers should begin to utilize other types of Social Network Sites that are available with unique features of large video capabilities, photo editing and friendly cloud computing such as Instagram, twitter, Myspace, yahoo group etc. which can aid in the creation of resource awareness in Bauchi and Kano States; More awareness of SNSs should be created among the books retailers by the Information and Communication Technology experts and other information professionals. This will help the books retailers to be aware and utilize other SNSs available for creating information resources awareness