Engage Your Customers During the Pandemic: The Impact of Social Media-Instagram Usage to Micro-Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit many enterprises in Indonesia, especially on the micro-small medium scale. Various kinds of Indonesian government policies in reducing the spread of the covid-19 virus are often followed by the impact of business continuity on MSMEs. Along with the implementation of that policy, many MSMEs are competing to digitalize its businesses in their buying and selling transactions. Optimization of the use of social media is used to retain old buyers and attract new markets. This study aims to determine whether optimizing and utilizing the use of social media, which focus on Instagram, maximally can help MSME in maintaining their business in the pandemic era. A qualitative approach with a 45-day observation method for selected MSMEs in Indonesia is carried out in forming some unique themes related to strengths and weaknesses that arise from Instagram utilization activity. The effectiveness of using Instagram could be obtained through several activities, such as customer engagement optimization, content highlight, and popular brand benchmarking.