A Fact or an Illusion: Effective Social Media Usage of Female Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand if social media, as frequently stated, provides an opportunity for micro scale entrepreneurs who cannot act on traditional media because of certain financial and structural challenges or it is only useful as a supporting digital tool to traditional media. This research focuses on social media from a more critical perspective in terms of its capacity to reach consumers for not registered businesses but shadow economies. In contrast to the existing literature on large-scale social media campaigns, the originality of this research lies on focusing on micro scale entrepreneurs run by women and their use of social media. In this research it is found most appropriate to apply semi-structured interviews, a qualitative approach since it deals with entrepreneurs' own feelings and perceptions about their use of social media. Besides, the sample consists of only 4 self-employed female entrepreneurs. According to results, interestingly even if Facebook still preserves its function as a primary source of marketing communication, it seems that it has lost the ground to a more recent social networking site, Instagram. Additionally, the data acquired supports the existing literature as frequently claimed that social media is an advantageous tool for businesses thanks to its capability of low-cost information disclosure, instant messaging, and wide networking. However, participants agree upon certain disadvantages of social media as imitation of works, unidentified target audience, unfair competition, more share in the market. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.