How Small Food Businesses Can Win Big on Social Media

In the current emergence of Internet culture, social media presents an opportunity to

solve the marketing issue related to the International & African Food Market's lack of visibility,

which adversely affects its profitability. Social media allows businesses to engage with

potential customers, anticipate their needs and wants, and promote products and services with

reduced costs. Its usage in mobile devices makes it a real marketing asset and an important

turnover generator for local small businesses. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative case study

was to identify digital marketing strategies that include social media to increase the visibility of

the International & African Food Market in the community to achieve sales and compete in the

market. It stressed the impact of social media on streamlining marketing activities by applying

marketing segmentation theory and the PESO model. To meet its objective this study used the

qualitative method. Thus, five steps or phases of qualitative analysis were addressed to get

meanings and interpret data to answer the research questions. The primary data collected from

the sample of thirty International & African Food Market stakeholders on their characteristics

and perceptions of social media usage indicated that its customers have a strong presence on

social media that they use daily via their mobile phones or smartphones anytime and anywhere.

Integrating social media such as Facebook in the International & African Food Market website

has a positive impact on the streamlining of its marketing, attracting target customers, and

ensuring a strong presence in the community.