Social Media Marketing and Its Impact on SMEs' Business Performance

Social media plays an essential role in marketing communications. This study aimed to investigate the impact of social media marketing on SMEs’ business performance. Quantitative methods were used and data analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Samples were selected using the accidental sampling method. Data collection technique was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 42 SME owners in Palembang, South Sumatera. Our findings indicated that 76 percent of respondents used social media for marketing activities. Social media marketing had an impact on annual sales performance ranging from 10 to 30 percent. There are several limitations to this study. First, analysis techniques only use quantitative descriptive analysis, and the sample number was limited to only 42 SMEs in Palembang. This study contributes to the digital marketing literature, especially in the SME sector, by providing an initial empirical description of SMEs’ Social Media Marketing. Keywords: social media marketing, business performance, SMEs