Instagram is no longer an application only to share selfies, breakfast images, and travel destinations.
With over 1 billion monthly active users, it has turned into one of the biggest marketing and promotion platforms, and a majority of individuals — including influencers — are turning to it to start their journey in the business world.
Indeed, several firms have achieved global fame and huge profits due to their launch working through only Instagram.
According to e-marketing and digital media expert Fady Ramzi, social-media platforms have become a mainstay for selling and promoting products and services, mainly since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Instagram is now one of the most powerful platforms for small and medium businesses and brands.
It is also attempting to improve marketing and sales by introducing features that let entrepreneurs advertise their brands better.
Ramzi said studying the audience and providing constantly renewed and engaging content in various, continuous, and regular formats — posts, stories, or reels — is one of the essential pillars of successful marketing and the spread of brands on Instagram.
He said now is the perfect time to launch any brand online because today’s social media applications, particularly Instagram, support content creators in various ways and tools. So, all entrepreneurs need right now is the focus, time and effort to gain followers’ trust in what they have to offer and launch their brand.
Ramzi claimed that brands can be built and sustained today in the virtual world without the need for physical stores, especially in the post-pandemic era.
The best evidence for this is the numerous brands that have recently appeared on Instagram or have completely transformed online.
“Instagram can promote the brand on a large scale and enhance its spread through paid advertising and marketing through collaboration with influencers, and the intelligence lies in its success by providing high-quality content in a quick and short time,” he added.
Arab brands on Instagram
With the spread of the “influencers” phenomenon on social media and their access to millions of followers and interactions, many of them monetized their blogging and branding success.
Many Arab influencers were successful in developing pages with their brands and breaking into the business world due to a successful Instagram marketing plan. Some of them achieved global reach or changed their pages into stores and businesses on the ground.
Here are a few examples:
Huda Beauty
Huda Kattan is the most famous Middle-Eastern social media influencer. She was born to Iraqi parents in Oklahoma City. After moving to Dubai, she gained a huge popularity on social media for her makeup tutorials and how-to videos.
Since then, she has won several awards, and her popularity has risen dramatically, which prompted her to establish her own cosmetics brand called Huda Beauty. Today the brand has more than 49 million followers from all over the world.
Karen Wazen
Karen Wazen is a Lebanese Instagram influencer with more than 6.5 million followers. She launched her trendy sunglasses brand bykarenwazen last year.
It was a tremendous hit with other influencers and her followers. On Instagram, the brand now has 135,000 followers from all around the world.
L’Armoire de Lana
Lana El Sahli is a Lebanese blogger-turned-global entrepreneur. Her strong social media profile has enabled her to open a store that she started from the L’Armoire de Lana Instagram page.
The store collaborates with several noted brands and designers, currently has over 11,000 followers, and is well-liked by many fashion enthusiasts.
Jude Benhalim jewelry
Jude Benhalim founded her jewelry line 10 years ago. However, she went beyond the typical idea and began her business using social media when Egyptians favored online retailers. She opened her third store in North Cairo in 2018.
The jewelry has been worn by international celebrities such as models Chrissy Teigen and Kendall Jenner, and the brand has around 67,000 Instagram followers.
Lady Fozaza
Saudi fashion designer Alanoud Badr, also known as Lady Fozaza, is the “Fashion Girl” of Saudi Arabia.
As a lifestyle, beauty, and fashion influencer with over a million followers on Instagram, Badr started her own jewelry brand, ladyfozazaofficial, which now has over 75,000 followers.