Abstract:
In this era of online communication and the proliferation of social media, traditional messaging and calling by using mobile phones have transformed into different practices. This has changed the lifestyles and communication strategies of many today including market women and introduced new and innovative use of the mobile phone aside from the traditional use of making and receiving calls. Mobile phone usage and the use of social media has become a popular trend among a large population of Ghanaians. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the use of WhatsApp and Viber social media network applications in trading activities among market women in Ghana. This study sought to explore the influence of social media specifically WhatsApp and Viber on the trading activities of the market women. This study employed a mixed –method approach. Data for the quantitative part of this study was gathered through the use of questionnaires, a purposive sampling technique was used to select 317 market women and the qualitative data were gathered through the use of interviews. Major findings indicated that majority of the market women did not use WhatsApp or Viber due to various reasons from lack of education to lack of technological know-how. The study was limited by time constraints and adequate literature on the subject. The scope of the survey was limited to a sample of market women from Sekondi/Takoradi markets. Future studies should broaden the sample size to ascertain the generalizability of the findings.
