Social media usage among small enterprises during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

When Covid-19 pandemic struck the country and Malaysian government enacted the Movement Control Order, business operations were disrupted. Social media has become an essential platform for merchants to market their products and ensure business survival. Most small businesses have begun to use social media as a marketing tool, mainly since Covid-19 spread throughout the country. Despite this, few studies have been conducted to determine the extent of such consumption among small traders. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the level of social media usage as a marketing tool among small enterprises. Two hundred seventeen questionnaires were collected from entrepreneurs in the service sector throughout Selangor using snowball sampling. Gender and the year of business existence were factors in social media usage. These findings will be of interest to those who are interested in entrepreneur behaviour in relation to social media usage and the continued development of Malaysia's social media usage as a marketing tool.