The challenges faced by MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) during the Covid-19 pandemic were the decline in income because buyers did not do much outside activities and marketing products did not reach markets outside the city, it was difficult to find loan capital and promotional activities were hampered.
Lecturers and students at the Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia had the opportunity to help Marning MSMEs to develop their businesses by providing knowledge about digital marketing using e-commerce applications and social media to help promote East Mesuji’s typical marning products, so that the use of e-commerce and social media applications can be a solution for cheap and easy promotions to increase sales of marning products.
This activity is a form of support from the Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia Best PTS Sumatra in achieving the Tridharma of lecturers, especially community service in the form of community service with the assisted village schemes.
The PKM activity in Margojadi Village, East Mesuji District, Mesuji Regency, was held on Saturday 27/11/2021 and was attended by 15 people of marning MSMEs.
The UTI PKM team that was deployed in this activity is a collaboration of two study programs where the leader of this service team is a Lecturer at the Indonesian Technocrat University by Lulud Oktaviani, M.Pd. from the English Education study program and several lecturers, namely Ahmad Ari Aldino, M.Sc., Suaidah, M.Kom., and Jupriyadi, M.T. from the Informatics study program.
In addition, Indonesian Technocrat University students are also involved in this assisted village service activity which also consists of two study programs, namely two Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia students from the English Education S1 Study Program named Yuni Tri Lestari and Nabila Arra Putriani as well as one student from the English Education Program. S1 Informatics Study, namely Deo Mardianto.
The purpose of collaboration in this team also aims to support each other in their respective scientific fields so that the impact of this activity will be wider. In this PKM activity, digital marketing training was carried out which was a follow-up activity from the packaging and labeling training which was carried out the previous day.
Suparlan as a representative of the marning business, thanked the UTI PKM team. We feel very helped by this digital marketing training, hopefully the community can use this knowledge to carry out wider promotions and can generate more profits so that residents can be more prosperous,” said Suparlan.
Chairman of the Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM) Ahmad Ari Aldino, S.Si., M.Sc. explained that the lecturers and students who were assigned to each community service were the best students.
Aldino said, before going to the community, all were provided with adequate knowledge and information regarding the situation and conditions at the PKM locations in order to get maximum results in the implementation of PKM.
Aldino said that business actors must be able to see opportunities for marketing because more and more people are selling through e-commerce and social media so that special strategies are needed to promote their products to a wider market.
Vice Chancellor of the Indonesian Technocrat University Dr. H. Mahathir Muhammad, SE., MM. said that the fostered village is one of the flagship programs of the Universitas Teknokrat Indonesia in the field of community service.
Dengan pengabdian ini, dosen dan mahasiswa dapat berbuat nyata untuk masyarakat dan lingkungan. Khususnya memberikan pendampingan dan pemberian pengetahuan terkait penerapan dan pemanfaatan suatu teknologi untuk menunjang penjualan supaya mendapatkan hasil yang lebih baik lagi. (teknokrat)
