Title Image: Digital Trends

Social media has always been a great platform to market brands and products. However when thinking of Doha or the GCC specifically, Instagram is one of the most popular and successful methods of marketing your company or business. If you look at the Doha-based accounts on Instagram, most are fashion, beauty, event, and food-related companies. It’s kind of like Doha’s alternative to online shopping as these accounts invite users to order from their page or to contact them directly via WhatsApp, email, or direct messages on Instagram itself. For new businesses related to the previously mentioned industries, Instagram is a useful platform to promote and market, and also allows startups to obtain an upward trajectory in terms of exposure.

Ease of Access

Instagram is a great way to reach out to audiences because of its efficient layout and feature of being able to share attractive quality photos with captivating captions and searchable hashtags. The ability to customize and make photos more appealing is also another feature that most users, such as myself, are a fan of. Hence the reason why the beauty, fashion, and food industries are flourishing both in Doha and globally.

Wide Audience Outreach

Instagram has over 400 million active users worldwide. According to a media survey conducted by Northwestern University in Qatar, last year Qatar had the most Instagram users in the Arab world. This just shows the potential amount of exposure that businesses and companies can receive.

Opportunity to Grow

Based on personal knowledge, I know that Instagram businesses have branched out from the digital world to the real world. At Doha's Magical Festival Village and the Qatar International Food Festival 2016, many companies present that had booths were Instagram based. Because of the fact that they were popular on Instagram they managed to acquire vendor statuses at these festivals and received even more exposure from different audiences.


Advice for New Entrepreneurs

If you have a startup business and are looking to promote your company, create an Instagram account, generate a large following, and share awesome content that appeals to people. This isn't as hard as it sounds. Like Facebook, most of your friends probably have an account on IG. You can just get them to follow you and spread the word to their followers, who can then spread it to theirs, it's kind of like a chain reaction. As mentioned previously, hashtags play a huge role as well. Pick out trending hashtags to get more exposure on your posts. If your content and product are what people want, your company will kick off on its own.

What are your favorite Instagram startups in Doha? Do you have any advice you'd like to share? Comment below!

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AngelPolacco

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