Extended Abstract Introduction In the 21st century, the face of marketing has dramatically changed as new media channels are surfacing all the time (Bruhn, Coulter, Schoenmueller& Schäfer, 2022). The past few years have witnessed the rise of new media channels such as mobile televisions, iPads, iPods, Blackberries, mobile phones, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Twitter, et cetera and these social media have not only threatened long established traditional marketing and corporate communication strategies, but also provide ample opportunities for growth (Elisa, Fakhri &Pradana, 2022).To maintain customer engagement and ensure smooth communication during platform upgrades, banks have increasingly utilized social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, along with messaging services, to inform customers about developments and address potential inconveniences. Therefore, the goal of this study is to determine how social media influences customer engagement in OPAY digital services, Ilaro, Ogun State. Materialsand methods/Methodology. This study employed descriptive research design to investigate the impact of social media on customer engagement in Opay digital services. The population of this study consists of all customers of Opay digital service in Ilaro, Ogun State. This number is infinite, therefore Cochran’s sample determination formula was applied to derive a total of 384 respondents whom were selected using convenience sample technique. The questionnaire used in this study was split into three parts. It comprises of five sections: demographic information, Social Media, blog, community forums, social networks, content marketing and customer engagement were made available for respondents to tick appropriately. The questionnaire was validated using content validity while the reliability was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha test. The collected data were analysed using regression method of analysis with the aid of SPSS version 25 software. Resultsanddiscussion The findings revealed that online community forums have a strong positive and significant influence on customer engagement (t=1.103; p<0.05), Blog also has a strong positive and significant relationship with customer engagement (t=0.774; p<0.05). Similarly, the findings show that social network has a positive and significant influence on customer engagement (t=0.744; p>0.05) while content marketing also has a strong positive and significant influence on customer engagement (t=1.429; p<0.05). Conclusions The study concludes that there is positive and significant relationship between social media and customer engagement. It was recommended that OPAY digital services and other similar firms should continuously surpass customer expectations in order to enjoy a sustained competitive advantage. Keywords: Blogs, Customer, Customer Engagement, Social Media, Social Network.
AKINLEKE Yetunde Omolara, JEGEDE Oluwatosin Wuraola