Resumo

Social Media Marketing (SMM) use has been investigated regarding advantages, barriers and various benefits. Thus, the works by Alsaleh et al. (2019) and Patma et al. (2020) showed that there had been a growing interest, by academics and practitioners, in companies in recent years, whether due to their ease, agility, usefulness or even low cost. In this sense, the most various companies' use of SMM as a marketing tool is increasingly evident. The literature suggests the advantages and the benefits and that despite the existing barriers, it is understood that using SMM brings positive results.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has been a topic of interest for researchers, signalling factors that precede the use of this tool. However, concerning micro and small enterprises, despite the amount of work, only some focus on the impacts in terms of market performance due to the use of SMM. Given the above, the present work proposes to analyse the relationship between the attitude of entrepreneurs with market performance, with the serial mediation model of technical knowledge and the level of use.

SMM has gained attention in the business domain as it allows for an increase in enterprise value, profitability and competitive advantage (Patma et al., 2020). The marketing performance from the use of Social Media Marketing by micro and small enterprises is a topic of growing interest by academics and practitioners, especially regarding the impacts it brings to companies that use social networks to promote products and services and interact with their customers (Alalwan et al., 2017; Turan & Kara, 2018).

From the quantitative study of descriptive cross-sectional character, the adopted method was the survey made available online questionnaires for a database of micro and small entrepreneurs of Sebrae. Some criteria were established for the selection of respondents, namely: respondents aged 18 or over is a micro or small entrepreneurs; operate in the trade sector; make use of social media for communication, sales and/or marketing purposes.

From the collection and analysis of data from micro and small entrepreneurs, it was understood that the entrepreneur's attitude is positively related to marketing performance, as well as evidence that the level of use of Social Media Marketing by entrepreneurs mediates the direct relationship between attitude and marketing performance, as well as showing that technical knowledge and level of use play a mediating role in the direct relationship between attitude and marketing performance.

The results hold implications for scholars and practitioners. This means that, empirically, the relevance of the work is that taking courses, workshops, and acquiring technologies, among others, is not enough, as it is necessary to put the acquired knowledge into practice; that is, effectively using the tool will generate an impact on performance marketing, in other words, will achieve more expressive results in marketing performance.

Alsaleh, D. A., Elliott, M. T., Fu, F. Q., & Thakur, R. (2019). Cross-cultural differences in the adoption of social media. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 13(1), 119-140 - March. Retrived from https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-10-2017-0092 Patma, T. S., Wardana, L. W., Wibowo, A., & Narmaditya, B. S. (2020). The Shifting of Business Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Social Media Marketing Matter? Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(12), 283–292. https://doi.org/10.13106/JAFEB.2020.VOL7.NO12.283