Strategic Direction

Getting the most out of Facebook and WhatsApp: social media strategies by female entrepreneurs in the
UAE
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(2019) "Getting the most out of Facebook and WhatsApp: social media strategies by female entrepreneurs in the UAE",
Strategic Direction, https://doi.org/10.1108/SD-01-2019-0008
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 Getting the most out of Facebook
and WhatsApp
Social media strategies by female entrepreneurs in the UAE

Review
When organizations conduct research around product testing or new marketing strategies,
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they will often turn to academic studies to help them verify any courses of action. With good
reason, academic studies are seen as trustworthy, and can be used to validate any specific
approach. Whether it is choosing materials for a new product because of their proven
qualities in a university laboratory, or looking at how certain marketing strategies performed
during a given study in a specific market, firms will feel confident that any evidence
presented to them can be used secure in the knowledge that it has already been validated.
However, sometimes academic studies are completely useless.
Take, for example, any academic study on the success of social media channel MySpace.
In 2006, it was the most visited website in the USA, with more visits than Google. When this
news broke in 2007, let us say an academic researcher thought they should do some
research on this phenomenon, so they applied for funding, planned some time in their
schedule, enlisted some fellow researchers, and completed the research by 2008; wrote a
paper and got it accepted at a conference later that year; worked on it further and
submitted it to a journal in early 2009; after a couple of rejections got it accepted before the
end of the year, and saw it published in 2010 – by which time Myspace membership had
plummeted and they were losing half their visitors year-on-year. If an article was published
about the success of Myspace, no matter how good the research had been, it would be of
no use to businesses seeking to validate their social media strategy.

Social media focus

Nevertheless, the social media landscape does seem to have become less volatile, with the
major players seeing somewhat of a plateau in user numbers, but with that some stability,
and for firms this means that they can plan their social media strategies with a little more
certainty. This planning process is the starting point for some research completed by Jose
(2018) in the article “Strategic use of digital promotion strategies among female emigrant
entrepreneurs in UAE”. By focusing on the use of just two social media channels –
Facebook and WhatsApp – and its use by a small community of women entrepreneurs in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for microbusinesses, the author is able to present some
timely and relevant research on social media marketing that should have learning points for
organizations for years to come.
The key research questions for the author were as follows:
RQ1. Why do female entrepreneurs choose social media rather than traditional marketing
channels in the UAE?

DOI 10.1108/SD-01-2019-0008 © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 0258-0543 j STRATEGIC DIRECTION j

 RQ2. How are Facebook and WhatsApp configured for customer communication?
RQ3. How do female entrepreneurs use social media to develop their brands?
RQ4. What are the unique applications of social media tools such as Facebook and
WhatsApp in the context described?

Playing catch-up
For academic studies, as very little has been published when it comes to recent social
media trends in business, then it makes it harder for current researchers to build their case
for new studies, based as they are on previous ones. In the context of the use of social
media by female entrepreneurs for microbusinesses in the UAE, we have a number of novel
factors at play that Jose seeks to explore.
First, while Facebook is a relatively established medium, WhatsApp and chat functions are a
much more recent trend as small businesses exploit this communication channel for marketing
purposes. Then there is the phenomenon of mostly expatriate female entrepreneurs in the UAE
who have created microbusinesses to create a niche sector in the economy. Added to this,
you have the changing use of mobile phones, and how brands are developed through
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engagement with mobile technology. Finally, when you add in the cultural factors at play in the
UAE, you have a unique set of circumstances that, while not uncommon worldwide, have had
very little prior research published about them.

What is not to  like

For the study, the author interviewed 20 female entrepreneurs running small businesses in
the UAE and with active social media accounts that were used to promote their enterprises.
Originally from India and the sub-continent, these business owners used Facebook and
WhatsApp, but as we shall see they formed distinct parts of their marketing strategy.
Audiences also reflected these backgrounds, as they focused on the large expatriate
communities from this area, or people whose families were originally from this part of the
world but had settled in other countries before moving to the UAE.
In terms of the first question regarding the choices of social media, the female entrepreneurs
chosen said that they used Facebook and WhatsApp specifically because of their ease of use,
cost effectiveness and accepted use among clients. Communication was also optimized, both
directly with customers and with suppliers. In terms of their differences, while Facebook was
used for brand-building and e-commerce, WhatsApp use more about direct communication.
These are the key integrated strategies employed by the entrepreneurs, relating to the second
research question, and how they are delineated and successful, as per the fourth question.
Perhaps the biggest question for the study was the third question regarding brand
development. What the author found here was that simply, the more likes a Facebook page
has, the bigger and better the brand. Together with insight analytics, these metrices are
used by entrepreneurs to assess the development of their brand in their chosen market.
One external factor for them, however, is the use of trade exhibitions, where entrepreneurs

The social media landscape does seem to have become less

volatile, with the major players seeing somewhat of a
plateau in user numbers.

j STRATEGIC DIRECTION j
 The author is able to present some timely and relevant
research on social media marketing that should have
learning points for organizations for years to come.

can meet customers and make both actual and virtual contacts through follow ups via
Facebook, and ultimately WhatsApp. As such, a clear path can be seen for young female
entrepreneurs in the UAE to follow.

Comment
The article “Strategic use of digital promotion strategies among female emigrant
entrepreneurs in UAE” by Jose (2018) achieves considerable success on two fronts. First, it
is a good research article on modern microbusiness operations taking into account
Keywords:
emerging, important phenomena such as developing markets, gender, nationality, and
United Arab Emirates,
social media marketing. However, it also acts as an effective research masterclass from an Facebook,
academic that any marketer could replicate to understand new opportunities and create Social media marketing,
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evidence to base decisions on for any small business. WhatsApp

Reference
Jose, S. (2018), “Strategic use of digital promotion strategies among female emigrant entrepreneurs in
UAE”, International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 1699-1718, available at: https://doi.
org/10.1108/IJoEM-10-2016-0268

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