Advantages, Disadvantages, and Cultural Influences of Social Media Advertising in Qatar (Essay Sample)

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TOWARDS ADVERTISING IN QATAR
Doha, Qatar
July 16, 2021
Word Count: 5500
Abstract
The topic I choose is social media influence since the online marketplace has over 2.7 billion global online users (Hudson et al., 2016; Vrontis et al., 2021). The region of focus is Katara and Lusail. Lusail is a top attraction site in Qatar. Customers are attracted to Lusail via social media influencer pages and TripAdvisor online reviews (Baek et al., 2020). Instagram and Snapchat also play a major role in influencing the locals. Katara visitors exceeded 15 million by 2019, making it a viable market, and the region is raising awareness to tourists by driving traffic through Facebook and Twitter with the help of social media influencer pages to appeal to the tourists' motivations of enjoying the cultural heritage at coffee shops (Abaalzamat et al., 2021). By 12th May 2020, coffee shops and restaurants in Qatar in prime places like Lusail and Katara were allowed to resume services, although mainly through home delivery to limit the spread (Ben Hassen et al., 2020). Home delivery relied on social media influencers to create awareness and e-commerce sites to book orders and schedule deliveries (Ben Hassen et al., 2020). This systematic review will focus primarily on the role of social media influencers use in social media marketing in Katara and Lusail cities.
The Role of Social Media towards Advertising in Qatar
Social media has evolved as the most prominent and significant digital arena. The medium is utilized not just for networking but also as a substantial tool to advertise companies and products digitally. Essentially, this is because social media can reach out to many individuals within moments of marketing, thus significantly lowering the cost of advertising. Restaurant and coffee shop owners in Qatar's Katara and Lusail districts have harnessed the capacity of social media to such an extent that the regions are consistently remaining top tourist destinations in the country. Notably, online users account for more than 2.7 billion of the global population. This implies that, compared to print and television media advertising, digital advertising is much more likely to reach the greatest number of potential consumers. Therefore, this paper will look at how social media plays a role in advertising with a particular reference to the contribution of social media influencers.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
The systematic literature review will adopt a desktop search using online databases and libraries. Search will use a combination of keywords to generate relevant studies on influencers in social media advertising. The most commonly used keywords for the purposes of this review include; “social media,” “influencers,” “advertising” and “Qatar.” However, in the interest of gathering more focused studies, the search would also include “Lusail” and “Katara” which are the cities of interest. However, even without explicit references to the two cities, some studies especially in other advanced western economies would still be selected for insights on influencers’ practices. The justification for their inclusion is that they would offer a basis for comparative analysis and learn from the successes elsewhere. Articles from Qatar even if not about the two cities would be generally applicable as the use of the two cities is generally representative. Lastly, the articles selected for the systematic include the peer-reviewed studies, published within the last 5 years. The rationale is that, the dynamics on social media marketing change rapidly, thus articles published before this period may not capture the realities of social media marketing precisely.
History of Advertising
Advertising has continually adapted and altered to fit new channels and a progressively knowledgeable audience since its inception. This is how advertising has progressed from the printed medium through TVs and now to the digital media. Ancient Egypt was the birthplace of advertisement prints, with Egyptians utilizing papyrus leaves for advertising slave trades and prizes (Daymette and Montenegro, 2017, 3). As time passed, other parts of the world used similar techniques of advertising. The Gutenberg printing press, which debuted in 1438, marked the beginning of a substantial period in which mass-produced printed materials enabled more individuals to create awareness in their minds, contributing to the early pioneers of modern advertising (Daymette and Montenegro, 2017, 4). Newspapers gradually began to accept advertisements as time progressed. Through the introduction of radios in the early twentieth century, advertising became increasingly complex and technological. This was made feasible in America because the government invested heavily in the War Advertising Committee, which was employed to rally the country for war (Daymette and Montenegro, 2017, 11). Advertising had since spread in the United States and across the world by this point. Radio advertising gave way to television advertising. The commercials included contact information wherein viewers could phone in and purchase the items, which significantly changed the advertising landscape. With the development of technology, social media has become the most popular method of advertising. In today's society, businesses spend a large portion of their marketing budget on social media advertisements. Advertisers participate in a two-way conversation with present and emerging customers through social media and obtain rich, unencumbered consumer insights quicker than before (Hudson et al., 2016, 28). Coffee shops and restaurants in Katara and Lusail have recognized the significance of social media platforms, brand recommendations, and knowledge sharing. This is why they are investing money in digital advertising.
Advantage and Disadvantage of Social Media Advertising
Social media's viral nature has made it an attractive medium for enterprises to advertise their products and services. Through social media, businesses leverage readily available audience and this reduces marketing costs substantially. Via multiple social media influencers, marketers are saved the pain of cultivating their audience, which is both a painstaking and an expensive process. Every social media platform, including Trip Advisor, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, impacts sales. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehend their relative significance and interdependence. With the traction of digital advertising on the increase, numerous businesses, particularly in Qatar, examine how social media might help advertise their products and services to prospective and current consumers. The major benefit of social media is that it reduces expenses while increasing exposure (Arsath, 2018, 153). As formerly established, it is possible to reach billions of individuals in the world with a digital advertisement, which is not possible using a print advertisement or on broadcast on local television channels. For instance, influencers present an opportunity for advertisers to reach the huge online following they command. This simplifies the entire marketing process giving marketers an opportunity to quickly communicate and build a huge following. Social media enables businesses to contact clients that would otherwise be inaccessible because of distribution channel geographical constraints (Arsath, 2018, 153). Furthermore, the cost of a social media advert is generally cheaper than the cost of other advertising channels. On the other hand, the virtual environment provides possibilities, complexities, and obstacles to the social media advertising process. Commitment is required for the two-way conversation, focusing on creating long-term connections that can lead to sales (Arsath, 2018, 155). This implies that someone must be responsible for overseeing each platform utilized, answering queries and responding to comments, and providing product details that the consumer thinks are relevant. All of this takes a significant amount of time. Also, utilizing social media to advertise brand products and services might raise concerns about trustworthiness, confidentiality, and data protection (Arsath, 2018, 155). Companies must be aware of security and data concerns to take necessary steps to reduce corporate vulnerability and liabilities connected to personal data collection, usage, and preservation. Primarily since clients must provide personal information to make transactions, restaurant reservations, or organize vacations. Evidently, besides social media being a modern tool used among advertisers to reach out to target consumers, the platform has drawbacks that show the businesses are still striving to find the appropriate method to use it. In addition to that, blindly following influencers can fuel mistrust and perception of deception for online customers that fail to investigate the products further other than the dependence on the influencers’ views. It is an important question of ethics especially if an influencer sacrifices authenticity and honest communication just to make sales.
Security of Using Social Media for Advertising
Company success needs to secure brands, leadership, personnel, and customers on social media. Social media is a web-based tool that allows people to share information by connecting to different forums. These are the communities that advertisers use to promote products and services. Social media is by far the essential element of the World Wide Web, yet as previously stated, being accessible and sociable raises genuine privacy and security issues (Majid and Kouser, 2019, 37). Notably, this is one...