Social network addiction and advertising on social networks: A case study of rural students in South Africa

Abstract

Background: There is growing evidence that social media addiction is an enduring problem among students. This information can be used by marketers to create specific advertisement campaigns for students to promote organisational branding.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the mediating role of psychological dependence between social networking sites (SNSs) addiction and attitude towards social networking advertising among a sample of rural students in South Africa.

Method: This research adopted a positivist paradigm with a quantitative approach and a descriptive research design. Data were collected using questionnaires, which were distributed to 289 respondents residing within a rural community in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

Results: This study found a relationship between: (1) perceived ease of use and habit, (2) perceived ease of use and psychological dependence, and (3) psychological dependence and attitude towards SNSs advertisement.

Conclusion: Social media advertising should offer precise location-based targeting and data-driven users’ profiling, segmenting the target market according to preferences, likes and hobbies, through data mining and analytical interpretation of results as these are attributes that are not offered by traditional media.