Social media marketing : a case study of small enterprises retailing in the fashion accessories sector in Chekka, Lebanon

Abstract

Our modern society calls 21st century "The Century of Globalization, Technology and Information". A revolutionary shift in all lifes aspects is forged, mainly in the entrepreneurial field where many businesses are forced to create contemporary marketing strategies, seeing that the structure of competition and performance of businesses are altered. The current thesis goes over one of the utmost technological discoveries "Social Media" from a business perspective and discusses its influence on small enterprises, as it became a key aspect of public relations for businesses in Lebanon which has constructed a reputation for a dynamic entrepreneurial expedition and a firm base of SMEs contributing strongly to its economic status (Lebanese Ministry of Economy, 2016). I will be looking at the Lebanese fashion industry smaller enterprises, as a frame of reference. Elliss famous quote "A picture is worth a thousand words" (Ellis, 1991) strongly applies in todays fashion industry where marketers deploy social media networks that allow them to communicate and emotionally connect with costumers through visual images. Promoting a business personality via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter has allowed farreaching fashion SMEs to communicate audiences, create a brand and penetrate into international markets. This research represents the relation between social media marketing and SMEs retailing in the fashion accessories industry in Chekka, Lebanon. Such a study adds strength to what is already known through previous international research and investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context. Beneficial to acquire progressive results, sources of information utilized throughout the research are issued from online academic articles, journals and books. The methodological approaches chosen are in-depth interviews with the selected SMEs, followed by an analysis of their social media timelines and ending with a presentation and interpretation of the results learned from the study. Interviews were examined, coded, conducted and revealed within themes; in accordance with online contents observation.