The Power of Instagram in Building Small Businesses
Instagram is a relatively new channel of communication that allows its users to share photos and videos. Since its launch in October 2010, there has been a rapid growth in the number of its users worldwide. In Saudi Arabia women, entrepreneurs in particul
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A-Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia [email protected]
Abstract. Instagram is a relatively new channel of communication that allows its users to share photos and videos. Since its launch in October 2010, there has been a rapid growth in the number of its users worldwide. In Saudi Arabia women, entrepreneurs in particular have discovered new ways to exploit Instagram accounts to start and manage small online businesses. The use of this application allows them to target and reach interested users and customers, especially given the limited involvement of Saudi women in the labor force. Although social media channels such as Instagram offer a significant opportunity to address the high female unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia (SA) by creating new jobs, no research has yet identified the factors affecting the success of Instagram-based small busi‐ nesses. Therefore, the current research explores the uses of Instagram as a selling platform by Saudi women entrepreneurs and presents some of their success stories. Keywords: Social media · Instagram · Saudi women entrepreneurs · Small business
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Introduction
Instagram is a social networking service and mobile application that enables its users to share their life moments through photos and videos, publicly or privately [4]. It was launched in October 2010 and since then the number of active users has increased from 100 million in 2011 to more than 400 million in 2016 [9]. The extraordinary success of Instagram corroborates the recent Pew report, which states that photos and videos have become the key social currencies online [8]. Social media channels such as Instagram now play a dominant role not only as entertainment and interaction tools but also in business [13]. According to AlGhamdi and Reilly [1], 83 % of marketers place a high value on social applications because of their important role in reaching and retaining customers, and most importantly in creating new business opportunities. Social media have made it very easy for entrepreneurs to reach potential customers and tell them about their products. They also provide a solid platform for them to adver‐ tise, promote and deliver their ideas and products. Many studies have explored the effectiveness of social media as business marketing tools e.g. [6, 7, 12]. Their main
© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016 Published by Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. All Rights Reserved Y.K. Dwivedi et al. (Eds.): I3E 2016, LNCS 9844, pp. 59–64, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-45234-0_6
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W. Alkhowaiter
finding is that social media platforms represent a unique interaction channel for busi‐ nesses to advertise their products, maintain relationship with customers, and most importantly identify public needs. Like people in other countries around the world, Saudi citizens now use many different social media channels. Saudi Arabia is ranked 7th in the world for social media users [2]. In fact, the various social applications provide important platforms for inter‐ action between indivi
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