Social Media and Entrepreneurship Communication Among UNIZIK Students: Opportunities and Challenges

Social media platforms have dramatically lowered the barriers to entrepreneurial communication for young Nigerians, enabling students to build, market, and grow businesses with minimal capital while navigating significant challenges related to digital skills, platform algorithms, and consumer trust. This study examined how Mass Communication students at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, deploy social media for entrepreneurship communication, with attention to both opportunities and challenges encountered. The study was anchored on the Social Capital Theory, which holds that networks and relationships built through social interaction generate resources that individuals can mobilise for economic and entrepreneurial purposes. A survey research design was adopted, targeting a population of 1,100 Mass Communication students at UNIZIK. A sample of 285 respondents was selected through stratified random sampling, and a structured questionnaire was administered. Findings revealed that 68 percent of respondents had engaged in social media-based entrepreneurial activities, primarily in fashion, food, media services, and digital content creation. Instagram and WhatsApp were the most utilised platforms for product promotion and customer engagement. Key challenges included inconsistent internet access, difficulty building initial audience trust, negative customer experiences shared publicly, and limited knowledge of social media analytics tools. Students with formal communication training demonstrated more effective content strategies and higher self-reported sales conversion rates. The study concluded that UNIZIK Mass Communication students leverage social media entrepreneurship as both a livelihood strategy and a practical communication skills laboratory. It was recommended that the university integrate social media entrepreneurship modules into the curriculum and establish an entrepreneurship mentorship programme linking students with successful alumni entrepreneurs.
Keywords: social media, entrepreneurship, UNIZIK students, social capital theory, digital communication