PERCEPTIONS OF SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING

People are now witnessing a world in which cross-national trade and money flows have

increased to the point where globalization of the global economy becomes a reality. Over the last

several years, fundamental shifts in the global economy have been obvious from all sides.

Enterprises have grown significantly more sophisticated and complicated environments as a

result of multiple cycles of innovation that have occurred over time, responding nearly instantly

to the company's needs. Because of their unique skills, abilities, and ability to evolve and adapt

to the digitalization and technology period, new generations began to participate more actively as

time passed and changes occurred.

Moreover, the work style is characterized by a desire to contribute to the company's

success through novel materials and ideas, as well as a reliance on a constant connection to the

internet via cutting-edge technology. These new qualities are beginning to show themselves in

the entrepreneurial world as well. Many firms have begun to use technology and the internet to

increase productivity, reduce operating expenses, and improve their ability to share real-time

data and information with partners around the world. In congruence with this, novel materials

and ideas such as innovation and modern technology has been seen as a great tool in establishing

and developing businesses. As a matter of fact, Juniarti & Omar (2021) articulated that the

utilization and diffusion of modern technology significantly impacted the sectors in the country

including the economic growth and development. The business owners involve and integrate the

modern technologies in establishing and operating businesses. Hence, technology is viewed and

interpreted as an investment in a business in order to achieve a competitive edge among other

businesses. Additionally, the utilization and adoption of technology in the development and

operation of the business gives enterprises the competitive advantages over their competitors.

Corollary to this, Wilburn & Wilburn (2018) emphasized that technology is accelerating

its ability to help businesses do more with less and provide better results. Businesses' efficiency

and profitability are greatly enhanced by modern technologies. Modern technology

breakthroughs bring new technologies and innovations to enterprises. This greatly enhances the

people's business (Adil, 2022).

On the other hand, Reis (2021) reiterated that many academics have characterized social

media over the years. Social media are internet-based, disentangled, and persistent channels of

mass personal communication facilitating perceptions of interactions among users, deriving

value primarily from user-generated content. Moreover, it allows users to opportunistically

interact and selectively self-present, either in real-time or asynchronously.

As a marketing strategy, social media is crucial for small business owners that want to

build relationships with their clients, create branding initiatives, and boost sales. Business

owners that successfully employ social media as a marketing tactic to build, nurture, and

maintain a relationship with clients can increase their company's revenue (Ramos., 2021). The

ability to maintain an effective social media marketing strategy, however, varies among small

business owners, which affects their capacity to generate income (Appel et al., 2020).

With all the statements presented, the researchers decided to conceptualize this

qualitative-phenomenological study in order to explore the perceptions of the small business

enterprises in San Fernando, Pampanga regarding the utilization of social media as a marketing

strategy or platform.
Review of Related Literature

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important for the country. SMEs are one

of the significant factors of socio-economic growth and play an essential role in the development

of a nation (Tadesse & Pettersson, 2019). However, there are differences in the parameters used

to classify small firms across industries, regions, and international borders. The impact of the

small company sector is, however, depicted more clearly. Small and medium-sized businesses

(SMEs) employ more than 70% of the working population and make up 99% of all businesses in

the European Union. About two-thirds of all new jobs in the United States are created by SMEs,

which also account for 39% of the nation's gross domestic product. a U.S. report released in 2018

(Chinen-Moore, 2020).

Additionally, social media has billions of users, so there are sure to be marketing chances

out there. Due to this, businesses are now using social media advertising as a tactic to boost their

visibility, sales, value, and customer relations (Arora & Sanni, 2019). So much so, social media

technology has altered the norms of marketing and market dynamics, resulting in a plethora of

new business options. Social media not only provides less expensive tools for marketing research

to get customer input, but it also makes it simpler to communicate with users (Reis, 2021).

Meanwhile, social media as a marketing strategy can improve brand recognition for the

company. Three of the main purposes of social media for businesses are brand recognition,

connectivity, and engagement. According to Ramos (2021), social media is a crucial tool for

business executives to interact with customers and build brand recognition. With branding

serving as the best use of social media leaders, social media is effective for brand recognition,

customer relationship management, sales, research, and service.

 The impact that successful social media posts have on their audiences is a common trait.

Engagement is a crucial factor in determining whether a social media post is effective since it

determines how frequently the post will appear in users' aggregated timelines. The more people

who see the post, the more probable it is that they will interact with it. Following the accepted

practice, Li and Xie (2020) divide social media participation into two categories: direct reaction

and sharing. Likes and comments are direct responses to original postings, while sharing of

original posts enables audience members to promote material to their followers.

Additionally, social media use for business opens up fresh possibilities for expansion.

The entrepreneurial orientation, innovation 17 orientation, and market orientation categories can

be used to define the social media marketing environment (Wu, Martinez & Martin, 2020). A

person who has an entrepreneurial mentality looks for possibilities to launch new goods or start

new businesses. It comprises of risk-taking and proactive activities. Innovation orientation is the

desire to pursue novel ideas and is defined as the process of developing new ideas through

creative product development methods. Understanding client wants and staying current with

rivals are the main goals of market orientation. In the world of social media marketing, each of

these three orientations is essential.

To draw further distinctions, Chwialkowska (2019) delved deeper into social media

strategy. First, they discovered that the plan consists of content strategies focused on the brand

and the client. Functional appeals, which refers to content that details a product's uses and

advantages, are a part of brand-centric strategies. It also consists of emotional appeals that

emphasize the feelings that particular products arouse. Deal appeals also include details about

sales, limited-time specials, and price reductions. Informative content is one of the components

of customer-centric strategies. This is content that is not directly tied to a brand, does not
mention the brand or its products, but instead gives the user helpful information. Philanthropic

appeal refers to content that describes the brand in the context of its social campaigns or

corporate social responsibility initiatives. Finally, entertaining content refers to humorous

content and content that is fun to watch.

In recent years, social media marketing has started to become a significant part of how

firms interact with consumers.  The conventional techniques of marketing have been replaced by

social media, which now has about 3.5 billion users annually (Emarsys, 2019; Bradley, 2021). If

used properly, social media users could serve as a conduit for businesses to communicate with

and attract potential new clients/customers (Bradley, 2021).

Corollary to the aforementioned, due to the rate of social media acceptance and global

penetration, the idea of social media marketing has expanded significantly in recent years. The

rising use of social media has fundamentally altered how many businesses and individuals

communicate. The traditional methods of decision-making used by consumers and corporations

have been revived by social media. According to earlier studies, businesses embrace social

media as a marketing technique since it makes them more accessible to customers. As a result,

social media has emerged as a key instrument for promoting small businesses, their services, and

the public (Moyo, 2018).

As the internet continues to advance, new marketing tactics have emerged, particularly

social media marketing tactics (McNeil, 2021). Social media marketing is described as a set of

strategies that use social networks and their users to promote a specific brand or product (Kraus

et al., 2019).According to Ibrahim & Ganeshbabu (2018), social media marketing is the practice

of using websites and social media networks to advertise a good or service. Social media

marketing is growing in popularity among both practitioners and researchers, despite the fact that
e-marketing and digital marketing are still the most used terminology in academia. The majority

of social media networks include data analytics tools that let businesses monitor the

development, success, and engagement of marketing efforts.

In addition, social media marketing also makes marketing more efficient and facilitates

connections with the audience that conventional marketing cannot (Sherman, 2019). According

to recent studies, global spending on social media marketing has increased (Kumar, et al., 2016;

Bradley, 2021). Businesses can lower their marketing expenses, boost sales, and improve their

overall financial performance when they make social media marketing a fundamental component

of their strategic plan.

Meanwhile, many company people and marketers are still rather new to social media

marketing. Exploring the application and effects of social media marketing in small businesses is

a pertinent and urgent subject given that it is still a relatively new idea in the world of business.

Social media offers opportunities for connection between communities, groups, and individuals.

These platforms include, to name a few, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter (Patricios &

Goldstuck, 2018).

Moreover, there are potential strengths to be leveraged as competitive advantages by

adopting the use of social media (Emanuela, 2018). Customers and small business brands can

interact to influence costs, sales, branding segmentation, and market research of small business

owners, all of which can be utilized as competitive advantages. Similar to this, Ahmad et al.

(2018) found that small business owners are becoming more aware of social media and its

advantages for their enterprises. Additional benefits for small business owners have the capacity

to have worldwide reach due to an increase in clients via the use of social media (Pourkhani et

al., 2019). According to Arrigo (2018), companies can increase customer involvement because
data is disclosed on public social networks rather than in proprietary sources, which gives them

another competitive edge. The benefit of using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter,

and Instagram as a marketing tool is that company owners may convey their brand's messaging

through pictures and videos (Alfian & Nilowardono, 2019).

In same manner, Zilber et al. (2019) researched factors that contributed to the adoption of

social media, and as a result, organizations adopt social media when they feel the media delivers

advantages to their connections with customers. Additionally, ease of use may not be as essential

in terms of businesses adopting social media marketing techniques because social media is not as

technically rigorous as other business technology that requires professional growth and training

(Gavino et al., 2018). (Gavino et al., 2018).

In fact, Venciute (2018) emphasizes that the marketing context of social media includes

customer involvement, improving relationships with customers, information dissemination, and

improved reach and targeting. Similar to this, Paswan (2018) asserts that social media marketing

may be used to include target audiences, increase brand recognition, and forge connections with

clients. Additionally, Iankova et al. (2018) noted that the chance for both business and customer

to engage in discourse is a prevalent element in social media marketing. Additionally, de Vries et

al. (2018) stressed that small company owners can increase online interaction and potentially

increase in-store traffic by using photographs and connecting with customers on a human rather

than a commercial level in their posts. For a small business that lacks the financial resources of a

large company, engaging effectively with consumers is the equivalent of conducting market

research (Kim & Choi, 2019).

However, some of the main obstacles to small business owners using social media are the

challenge of managing online criticism, creating postings, reaction time, which platform to
utilize, and lack of experience (Lepkowska-White, 2017; McNeil, 2021). The speed of feedback,

the timing of posts, maintaining content, and handling negative comments are all difficulties

involved with using social media marketing for businesses (Bae and Zamrudi, 2018). In

agreement with Bae and Zamrudi (2018), Pourkhani et al. (2019) suggested that small business

owners would find it difficult and financially dangerous to attempt to undertake meaningful

analysis due to the volume of data and the structure of social media.

Certainly, the literature and studies presented explained the veracity of information

regarding the social media marketing both in an advantageous and disadvantageous optics.

Despite the studies and literature presented, there are still limited and few researches specifically

qualitative-phenomenological researchers about the perceptions of small business enterprises on

social media marketing especially in a localized context. This opens the gap in literature.

Because of this, the researchers decided to conceptualize this qualitative-

phenomenological research which aims to explore and describe the perceptions of the small

business enterprises in San Fernando, Pampanga regarding social media marketing.

Statement of the Problem

This study mainly focuses on the social media marketing strategy of the small business

enterprises in San Fernando, Pampanga. Furthermore, the study aims to explore and describe the

perceptions of the small business enterprises regarding the social media.

Specifically, this answers the following questions:

 1. What are the perceptions of the participants or small business enterprises on social media

marketing?

2. How do participants or small business enterprises perceive and describe the benefits of

social media marketing?

3. What are the difficulties or challenges of small business enterprises regarding the social

media marketing?

4. Based on the findings of the study, what implications can be deduced?

Significance of the Study

The researchers determined the following stakeholders who will be benefitted in the

study:

Small Business Owners. This study aims to give ideas and information about the

perceptions of the participants in making the business successful in utilizing technology for

growth and development. Through this study, small business owners can consider the findings

and recommendations in which social media can be a great tool in developing a small enterprise.

Future Business Owners. This study will serve as a guide when considering using

technology such as social media marketing in their business. Moreover, the future business

owners specifically in San Fernando, Pampanga will have a lot of knowledge regarding the

utilization and integration of social media as the marketing platform toward achieving the goals

of the business.

Future Researchers. The findings of this study hope to extend support and knowledge to

future researchers as a keystone for their studies which may be, at some point, related to the

subject or focus of this research. The future researchers can conduct a study relative to the
present study which will be primarily interested in the effectiveness of technology and social

media marketing strategy to the small enterprises or business amidst the pandemic.

Scope and Delimitations

This study will focus on the perceptions of Small Business Enterprises on Social Media

Marketing. The researchers bound this study among Small Enterprises Business Owners in the

City of San Fernando, Pampanga wherein participants will be chosen through purposive

sampling.

Moreover, this study does not cover other impacts or any unrelated circumstances with

the use of the social media that was not included in the objectives. Also, this study will not cover

the small business enterprises outside the aforementioned locale.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined operationally for further clarifications.

Perception. This operationally refers on how the participants perceive and view the social media

marketing in the small business. Moreover, perception will be used in the study as one of the

constructs that will be explored in the conduct of the research.

Social Media. This operationally refers to the information and communication platform or

avenue with the use of internet. Moreover, this will be used in the study as the main platform of

the small business enterprises in their small businesses.

Social Media Marketing. This operationally refers to the strategy or approach of the small

business enterprises in selling their products. Moreover, this will also be used as one of the main

constructs in determining the perception of the participants.

Acronyms

SMES- Small Medium Enterprises

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