Social Media and Entrepreneurship Communication Among Women in Port Harcourt

This study examines how women entrepreneurs in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, South South Nigeria use social media platforms for business communication, customer engagement, and brand building. Women entrepreneurs represent a fast-growing segment of Nigeria's informal and micro-business economy, and social media has become an important and low-cost tool for market reach that bypasses many traditional barriers to formal market access. This study uses a descriptive survey design, collecting data from 200 women entrepreneurs operating small and medium businesses in Port Harcourt city centre, Rumuola, and Trans-Amadi through structured questionnaires. Variables include social media platforms used, content strategies employed, perceived business benefits, challenges encountered, and comparison of social media-based sales with other sales channels. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis are applied. Findings reveal that Instagram and WhatsApp Business are the most widely used platforms, with 82 percent of respondents using at least one for daily business communication. Women in food, fashion, and beauty businesses report the highest social media sales conversion, attributing 35 to 60 percent of their monthly revenue to social media-generated orders. Major challenges include managing customer enquiries volume, payment platform insecurity, and content creation skill gaps. Low social media advertising knowledge results in most entrepreneurs relying on organic reach. The study concludes that social media is a significant business enabler for Port Harcourt women entrepreneurs but requires capacity building support. It recommends social media business training programmes tailored to women entrepreneurs in the South South.

Keywords: social media, women entrepreneurs, Port Harcourt, business communication, digital marketing.