Empowering Muhammadiyah Community in Malaysia through Social Media and Marketplace Optimization for Market Engagement

Abstract

This community engagement program aims to empower the Muhammadiyah community in Malaysia by optimizing social media and marketplace platforms for business marketing. The initiative was motivated by the limited use of digital technology, as most entrepreneurs still relied on conventional marketing methods within their internal networks. The program adopted an action-based community engagement approach consisting of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), interactive training, mentoring, and evaluation. The results revealed a significant improvement in participants’ understanding and skills in utilizing business-oriented social media, developing digital content, and implementing marketing strategies through online marketplaces. Participants successfully applied these skills to their businesses, demonstrating enhanced digital literacy and readiness to adapt to technology-driven economic challenges. Beyond individual capacity building, the program also strengthened the collective economic independence of the Muhammadiyah community in Malaysia. These findings highlight that structured digital literacy training can serve as an effective strategy to ensure the sustainability of small enterprises and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly goals 4 and 8.