Embracing Social Media Platforms for Advertising of Self-Financed Income Generators

This study utilized a descriptive research design to determine the adoption of social media platforms for advertising among 170 individuals identified as self-financed income generators. Furthermore, the research explored the dynamic landscape of social media platform adoption within this community for advertising, focusing on factors influencing platform use, including relevance, technical skills, marketing strategy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and intention to use, and adoption of social media platforms for advertising. The participants utilized Facebook to showcase their online skills and marketing strategies. Meanwhile, these groups exhibited proficiency in digital advertising, with scores ranging between 4.02 and 4.52, underlining the significance of social media platforms in the adoption process. Literature from scholars such as Ago et al. (2023) and Geng et al. (2021) supports these findings, emphasizing the importance of social media in advertising for self-financed income generators, especially Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME). It found that consumer engagement increases when ads were personally and socially relevant, particularly on platforms with high user trust. This underscores how relevance and trust can drive successful digital marketing efforts. At the same time, MSMEs benefited from online marketing by expanding their customer-based income and boosting loyalty, but success depends on choosing the right platform and approach. Combining relevance, trust, and strategic platform use is key to effective advertising and sustainable growth in the digital space. It is recommended that self-financed income generators strategically utilized trusted social media platforms with personally and socially relevant content to maximize consumer engagement and achieve sustainable growth.