Contributors: Karim Ahmad, Razane Hani, Sara Kaddoura, Mohanad Rifai, Wassim Radwan, Ghida Raydan

Social media is defined by its interactivity, connectedness, and user-generated content. In today’s society, the use of social media has become a necessary daily activity. It is typically used for social interaction and is a valuable communication tool with others locally and worldwide, as well as to share, create, and spread information. It can influence consumers’ purchase decisions through reviews, marketing tactics, and advertising. Essentially, social media vastly impacts our ability to communicate, form relationships, access, and spread information, and arrive at the best decision.

Startups & E-commerce:

For an e-commerce startup, social media campaigns are the heart and soul of the business. Identifying what sort of marketing campaigns and what platforms to use can make or break the company. Most startups are going fully digital since it’s more profitable due to cost reduction and the absence of a physical location. Also, it’s more appealing to the younger generation to shop online due to their busy lifestyles and high usage of social media. With a solid online presence, it will be feasible for any company to expand globally.

Digital marketing campaigns should serve several purposes, for instance, engagement campaigns don’t focus on generating sales, it’s leaning toward generating interactivity on the content posted, while a conversion campaign is focused on turning potential customers into buyers. Those campaigns should be delivered using the right channels, deciding on which platform to use and the type of content to post on a certain platform will play a huge role in increasing audience engagement and enhancing the image of the brand.

Analysis and Insights:

In our case, we analyzed social media marketing campaigns that were implemented by a Lebanese e-commerce company. They launched multiple campaigns with different goals and used several platforms but the best-performing ones were Instagram and Facebook. The performance differed among the campaigns and platforms, Facebook had higher numbers when it comes to reach, impressions, and link clicks, however, Instagram generated more unique purchases. This can be linked to the demographics of Instagram users, the majority of them are millennials that make impulsive purchases and enjoy trying out new products.

In addition to measuring performance, data can act as a starting point for expansion plans. Google Trends offer data related to searches in different countries, analyzing this data will generate insights that will unleash new perspectives into what markets and which countries will have great potential if the company decided to expand.