As many small businesses these days turn to social media to build an online presence, the question of how a small business can best utilize social media to benefit their business arises. In Manhattan’s Chinatown, many businesses face unique challenges including cultural and language barriers and lack the adoption of technology. This gap in research on how social media can benefit small businesses in the Chinatown area can be applicable to other low-income, largely immigrant communities of color. This project aims to identify how Chinatown small businesses use social media, what obstacles they face, and how they can optimize their social media presence to best support their business. In addition to the literature review examining social media usage of small businesses and the unique structure of Chinatown neighborhoods, small businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown will be interviewed on their experiences and opinions of social media. Findings from this research will identify the benefits of social media and specific features that have been found to be the most effective for businesses and how it can be adopted specifically to support Chinatown small businesses. 

In the article “What Chinatown Means to America—and to Me,” author and journalist Bonnie Tsui described Chinatown neighborhoods as “the most American story there is,” elaborating that “The quintessentially American belief that if you work hard enough, you will earn something like success and belonging has always animated Chinatown” (Tsui, 2022). That sentiment is reflected in the neighborhood’s entrepreneurial and business spirit with 94% of downtown Manhattan’s Chinatown businesses being small businesses with under 20 employees (Welcome to Chinatown, 2022, p. 7). Instead of Walgreens or CVS, Chinatown has locally-run pharmacies and herb shops; instead of Trader Joes and Whole Foods, there are Asian supermarkets that sell different products than chain stores and offer multilingual services. However, Chinatown has been hit by many external factors including gentrification, xenophobia, reduced foot traffic from a lack of office workers post-COVID-19, anti-Asian hate crimes, and the building of the mega jail. Many small businesses in Chinatown that have been around for generations and provide unique products and services to the community, are struggling to get by. 

         Social media offers a platform for businesses to engage more customers at a lower cost than traditional media channels used for advertising. On top of businesses utilizing social media, many influencers feature local businesses on their accounts, often with a focus such as restaurants and eateries, to spotlight businesses in hopes to bring them more customers. As Chinatown faces external problems such as gentrification and reduced foot traffic, social media can be harnessed to draw business to local Chinatown businesses. This new area of applying technology and social media to the community is important in attracting customers through online word of mouth and bridging the technology gap for the neighborhood that is largely not technologically advanced. Despite the growth of technology adoption and digital transactions in 2020 across NYC due to the pandemic’s social distancing rules and lockdown, only 3% of transactions in Chinatown were digital that year. (Welcome to Chinatown, 2022, p. 31).

         The goals of this study are to examine how Chinatown small businesses use social media, what obstacles come with the adoption of social media, and how Chinatown small businesses can best equip social media to support themselves in difficult times of gentrification, rising rent, anti-Asian sentiment, among other ongoing problems. Examining the historical and cultural reasonings to the origins of Chinatown will set the foundation for better understanding the neighborhood and its community values. To further support Chinatown small businesses, interviews were conducted with business owners and social media managers to better understand what business owners’ opinions of social media are and how it would most effectively be used.

Small Businesses’ Use of Social Media 

         Social media has been proven helpful to businesses, or firms, of any size. Customers’ social media participation on customer visit frequency and profitability suggest that there are correlations on social media participation that “positively influences customers’ intensity of relationship with the firm in terms of their frequency of visits” and “improves firm profitability” (Rishika et al., 2013, pp. 118-120). Social media provides businesses with the tools to engage customers, receiving direct feedback, engaging in social interaction, and enhancing customer experience, which can enhance customer identification and relationship with a business. (Rishika et al., 2013). Social media also provides small businesses with social networks to observe consumer trends, provide a cost-effective way to market products and services, and increase customers’ brand awareness (Jorgensen et al., 2022). 

         However, small businesses can face obstacles when adopting social media. The main limitation identified was lacking additional time to be consistent with communication technologies as small business owners have many other responsibilities (Jorgensen et al., 2022). In addition, there are limited resources including financial constraints and the lack of ability or knowledge to use these technologies to manage and disseminate engaging content. Jorgensen et al. (2022) used a combined model of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) — which encompasses perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness when looking at how people adopt new technologies — and Diffusion of Innovation, which identifies how, why, and at what rate ideas and technologies are adopted, to assess the use and acceptance of technology by small, family-owned businesses. The results of the study found that small businesses in America that are newer, located in urban areas, and owned or managed by younger people were more likely to use communication technologies. Although 18% of the sample did not use social media for their business, 71.6% used Facebook, 49.7% used Instagram, and 40.3% used X, formerly known as Twitter. 

       Jorgensen et al. (2022) cited that because of social media’s perceived usefulness to a businesses’ sales, there is pressure to join. Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014) cited similar factors of social media popularity and competitors on social media as a reason to join, in hopes it will provide an advantage. Perceived usefulness was valued more than perceived ease of use because even if business owners found the technology easy to use, they did not necessarily find it useful. However, the more business owners found communication technologies useful, the higher their perceived level of business. Although simply using social media was not considered directly linked to the business’ success (Jorgensen et al., 2022). A possible reason for why perceived ease of use was not valued is due to how many small business owners express a lack of understanding in how to use social media metrics, thereby not finding value in those technologies. These hesitancies and obstacles can prevent small businesses from utilizing social media, especially in an effective manner.

RQ1: Why do small businesses use social media?

Small Businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown

        Manhattan’s Chinatown started to develop as a conglomeration of businesses on Mott, Pell, and Doyer street (“Chinatown and Little Italy,” 2020). Due to racism and fear of Chinese immigrants taking jobs from white workers, Chinese immigrants “concentrated in Chinatowns to find shelter and help each other, living under the same family name and bound by cultural obligations to those subgroups” (Xu, 2013). In the earliest years, the neighborhood was mostly made up of Taishanese-speaking Chinese immigrants. After the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which overturned the immigration quota, a wave of immigrants from Hong Kong and Guangdong arrived, sizably expanding the neighborhood to an estimated 55-block area with Cantonese becoming the dominant language (“History of Chinatown,” 2014). 

         Chinatown is a unique neighborhood that operates differently compared to many other New York City neighborhoods given the different needs of the ethnic enclave. Chinatown businesses are unique for specializing in the needs of Asian clientele by providing Asian products and groceries to offering multilingual services. In the Avenues NYC Commercial District Needs Assessment (2022), “The mixed-use diversity of Chinatown’s built environment is exemplified by buildings that house family, regional, or business associations, along with retail, restaurants, services, communal meeting spaces, ancestral halls, and affordable housing all under one roof” (p. 2). Of the local businesses, 80% serve the Chinese community with some businesses being passed down generations within the family. Chinatown’s median household income of $35,805 is quite stark compared to Manhattan’s median household income of $86,553 and New York City’s median household income of $63,998 (“Commercial District Needs Assessment,” 2022).

         Today, Chinatown is faced with several issues that threaten the livelihood of the local businesses and the shrinking of the neighborhood. In the post-COVID world of working from home, there are three key perspectives: reduced travel behavior, characteristics of those who have the option to work from home, and the societal implications that come from the shift to working from home, including how “benefits will largely be for those who are highly educated and well paid” (Kong et al., 2022, p. 1120). In the lens of Chinatown, working from home meant that less people commuted to work, reducing the foot traffic and business from office workers. Chinatown also faces struggles from gentrification and increasing rent as well as anti-Asian sentiment and hate crimes — especially after COVID-19. When identifying challenges the neighborhood faces for the Commercial District Needs Assessment (2022), topics of language and cultural barriers and limited technology skills were included. These also demonstrate obstacles Chinatown business owners would face in adopting social media, which could serve as a useful tool in raising awareness and attracting more New Yorkers and tourists to visit and support Chinatown businesses. 

RQ2: What challenges do Chinatown small businesses face?

Chinatown Small Businesses’ Social Media Strategies

One of the largest importances of social media usage for businesses is the ability for individuals and businesses to engage in social interaction. In research conducted by Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014), the two most common and important social media activities cited by managers were creating competitions with prizes and communicating daily with users. The following significant activities were introducing new products or services and unintentionally providing customer service or complaint handling. These activities align with the businesses’ expected benefits from social media, including gaining brand awareness and creating positive word of mouth, which is effective through competitions, prizes, and encouraging the brand message to spread through social media functions like X’s re-Tweets and Facebook’s “Like” button. 

Tsimonis and Dimitriadis further mention that most of the brands they interviewed preferred a combination of different social media platforms and “[utilized] each one according to the needs of their social media strategy” (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014, p. 337). A combination of social media and offline marketing activities can create a synergy that will increase a business’ web site or store visitors. Social media provides an online platform for word of mouth, which plays to the potential of virality of information and promotional material. However, another side of this virality or attention can also be the rapid spread of outrage, discontent, and ridicule. Likewise, positive messages can be amplified on social media and inaccuracies can be addressed immediately with social media, which could mitigate potential dangers of negative comments. (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014).

Positive word of mouth through social media provides a strong boost to local small businesses, much like the strategic benefit of online reviews that can build customer loyalty (Aral et al., 2013). For instance, the Instagram and TikTok account, Righteous Eats, creates mostly short form videos that highlight New York City’s local restaurants, often run by immigrants and minority people (“An Influencer With a Mission,” 2023). Righteous Eats spotlighted the restaurant La Dinastia, one of New York City’s last Chino-Latino restaurants. The video of the restaurant captured not only the special cuisine, but also incorporated the history of Chinese immigrants from Latin countries. Following the release of the video on social media, business at La Dinastia tripled (“How Righteous Eats Is Leveling the Food Influencer World,” 2023). Although Righteous Eats has one of the larger followings for a food influencer, many other food and activities-related influencers also showcase businesses in NYC. Their video’s impact is a testament to the sway social media can provide businesses. The popularity of Instagram and TikTok short form videos matched with narrative story telling of businesses’ origins lend itself to creating engaging content that people connect with. Likewise, Chinatown is a neighborhood with many immigrant-run businesses and social media content that highlights the stories of these businesses and their owners can help provide a lifeline to struggling businesses. 

RQ3: What are the most effective marketing strategies on social media for businesses in Chinatown?

The project will be presented as a website to devote separate pages to best represent businesses that were interviewed. It gives viewers the time to look through all the images, videos, links, and other media and accommodates for email interviews better. There will be video footage of interviews with business owners as well as showcasing the scenery and rhythm of Chinatown. Businesses that were contacted are local, small businesses that started in Chinatown and were interviewed about their business, the neighborhood and how it has and is changing, and their opinions and usage of social media. Many of the businesses contacted and interviewed are restaurants, which is inline with how full service restaurants are the top storefront type in Chinatown’s business landscape — excluding vacant storefronts (“Commercial District Needs Assessment,” 2022).

Given the nature of the project, many business owners that were interviewed are comfortable communicating in English, which does not reflect the experiences and language barriers that others in the neighborhood face. Many businesses declined an interview because they did not have the time or were not comfortable speaking in English, obstacles that can also reflect hesitations for joining social media.

This project aims to identify how social media can benefit small businesses in Chinatown and what obstacles these businesses would face in adopting social media. Chinatown has unique challenges including language and technology barriers as well as external challenges like gentrification and the building of the mega jail. However, given the exemplified upsides of social media, many local Chinatown businesses could benefit from having a larger social media presence. Utilizing the community bond of the neighborhood and its rich cultural heritage can develop strong awareness and emotional bonds, with customers becoming “advocates for sellers in interactions with other customers and non-customers” (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014, p. 338). Additionally, those who were interviewed expressed social media has significant benefit, but also cite the lack of time to run it and financial constraints that prevent them from being able to hire someone.

Small business owners also mentioned in their interviews that creating social media accounts without actively using it can defeat the purpose of being on social media as they are very fast paced platforms. Instead of expecting every small businesses to join social media, community organizations like Welcome to Chinatown and Send Chinatown Love can utilize their large social media presence and following to create content that will showcase the products and services and highlight these small businesses, much like some influencers like Righteous Eats are doing for eateries around NYC. This initiative can serve as an online series that introduces these small businesses and attracts new customers. Additionally it can pair tech savvy young adults to help create this content to help minimize financial constraints on the businesses while also providing young adults with experience in social media content creation.