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E-business through Social Media: A Quantitative Survey (Case Study:

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 International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics
Vol. 4, No. 1, January, 2017
ISSN 2383-2126 (Online)
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E-business through Social Media: A Quantitative

Survey (Case Study: Instagram)

Bahareh Ahmadinejad1
MSc in Management, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Qazvin, Iran

Hadi Najafi Asli

Master Student of IT Management, Islamic Azad University, North Tehran
Branch, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
E-marketing is not only associated with selling products and services. It is the
management process for handling communication between the organization and
the customer. As well as E-marketing process does not just insist on the use of
the internet and take advantage of all the marketing methods. E-marketing has
many facilities that traditional marketing does not have such as one to one
marketing or direct contact with customers. It should be noted that E-marketing
can not completely replace traditional marketing. In fact, traditional marketing
and e-marketing complement each other. Social network marketing is a part of
E-business. It is clear that social media is a place gathering customers and
business owners tend to be in this market. Social media are a huge potential for
companies to reach out to their customers and thereby increase revenue, reduce
costs, and increase productivity. As expected, our findings suggest that social
media innovators among companies to rapidly progress. This study focuses more
on statistical results rather than theoretical subjects. In fact, due to the lack of
proper knowledge about the social media and growing trend for social media, in
this research, we decided to survey behavior of Instagram users towards brands
who are active in the social media or how marketing on Instagram work in order
to reach customer? For this purpose, an online questionnaire distributed
randomly between 80 users of Instagram application. Results were evaluated in
two parts, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics inference. The results of
inferential statistics indicate that people are looking for brand awareness and are
curious about the messages of the brand. The study showed that there is a
significant relationship between commenting on posts and brand awareness.

1
Corresponding author’s email: [email protected]

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Keywords: E-business, Social media, E-marketing, Mobile marketing,

Social network.
Cite this article: Ahmadinejad, B., & Najafi Asli, H. (2017). E-business through Social
Media: a Quantitative Survey (Case Study: Instagram). International Journal of Management,
Accounting and Economics, 4(1), 80-99.

Introduction
The invention of the Internet created new kinds of virtual communications and virtual
communities. Since 1990, the possibility of taking advantage of the Internet became
common and its use due to features such as hypertext and multimedia grew rapidly. Social
media are based on web and mobile technologies. Virtual social networking is part of
social media. Users can connect together away from the limitations of time and place,
culture and social class. Mobile phones are fast tools to join this great community. Mobile
phones are becoming the largest business environment of the world. According to the
International Telecommunications Union in 2010, in 2005, nearly two billion people were
using the mobile phone network and at the end of 2011, the same source said that the
number of subscribers reached six billion, this means that subscribers have tripled. Mobile
phones and its programs offer more features beside of acquiring customers. This
applications enables the customers during purchase or use a product since they can search
for information or exchange ideas. Mobile phone is an available device for the customer
and provides a lifeline for communication between the customer and the seller making it
an ideal accessory for distance selling or physical selling. Industrial study has shown that
half of all mobile users in the United States, 10% of consumers are widely used, and 40%
of them were low. But it means mobile are different rather than computers (PC) and
laptops because they have different keyboards, screens and equipment such as cameras,
scanners and geo-meter position (GPS). This makes the phone a different marketing tool
rather than Internet use on personal computers or traditional marketing. Mobile Marketing
Association, has defined mobile marketing: "A set of practices that enables organizations
that through any mobile or network, communicate interactively with the audience. One
of the biggest effects of the Internet on business is reducing costs to the consumer such
as More variety of products, offers lower prices, empower customers to make better
choices and enhance communication with the brand after purchase" (Ström et al,2014).
Forbes magazine published an article titled social media marketing and stated that the
social networking revolution has been for sharing images rather than shared text (DeMers,
2013). Bilton (2013) suggests that marketing image does not require knowledge of the
language and images are an international language. Instagram is adapted by 67 percent of
the largest brands in the world (Walter, 2013). The results of a survey showed that
Instagram is the social network with the highest return on investment for companies
(Uzunian, 2013). The companies that are active and sharing creative photos and videos,
will have a positive feedback (Knibbs, 2013). A study of 4,400 participants was
conducted by the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) that showed 53% of the
population who are over 18 years old are active on at least one social media platform and
there are 54 million people who are over 18 years old in Iran. With a simple calculation,
we can deduct that 28.5 million people over 18 years old are using social media in Iran.
The most popular social media were as follows: Telegram, Instagram, WhatsApp, Line,

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FaceBook, Twitter, WeChat, Tango and Google Plus. As we can see, Instagram is second
among Iranian users (Techrasa, 2016). Studies in the world are as follows:

Popularity
120 99
100 76
80 67
53 49
60 44 40
40
12 12 11 7 5 5
20 3
0 popularity

Figure 1 Social media popularity

As shown in figure 1, in terms of popularity, Instagram has ranked sixth in the world
(Stelzner, 2016). Due to the growing trend of social media and users, marketers can use
this space to improve products. The report states that marketers can use e-business for
expanding their business.

E-Business
Internet in the international business environment is considered as an important
innovation and has become a very important tool in the conduct of international business
in the 21st century. In recent years, new business models are emerging, one of the new
trends and pioneer in the field of E-business, using business-based social network (Singh,
1998). E-business concept includes all aspects of the use of information technology in
business involving the purchase and sale. E-business will be affected on all resources,
including money, knowledge, facilities, equipment, competencies, skills, individuals,
markets and even sell and deliver a product and may even be creating new resources such
as software and protocols. These resources seek harmony and control the activities of a
business model work (Hedman, 2002). As a result, generating activities and changes in
organizational processes and in the delivery of product and service will be different. It
can be said that e-business is part of the business model that can be used in different parts
of the business model (Laudon et al, 2006).

The benefits of E-business:

➢ Increase in sales volume

➢ Trust

➢ Brand awareness

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➢ The continued and improved services

➢ Updated information

➢ Business development

➢ Ongoing relationships with stakeholders (Auramo, 2005)

According to Vladimir Zhu E-business means the sharing of information, maintain

business relationships and conduct commercial transactions by the communication
network (Goldman, 2007). In terms of sustainability, sustainable businesses include the
economic outlook, business planning, monitoring, evaluation and communication with
customers and a wide range of other stakeholders. (Kondoh, 2011). The researchers
suggest that social network members use similar techniques and influence each other's
work (Newman, 2004). Therefore, the mission of the business is not a single Internet
connection. It is the foundation and strengthen trade relations and sustain that this kind of
business like other businesses is influenced by various factors (Lee, 2008). Finally,
establishing and strengthening cooperation between the customer and its continuous
improvement and providing business ideas among each business based on competitive
advantage, is the key issue of community businesses that improve the business case in
cyberspace. Also, the relationships such as relationship management, strengthening or
weakening it and no relationship is an essential skill for creating any business and
establish E-businesses, associated with relationship between customer and their severity
(Hagedoorn, 2006). Looking at the experiences of developed countries in the field of
Internet-based business and the growth of Internet services, the evolving needs and
increasing trend in Iran could be predicted. Access to information and Internet companies
is not possible, many owners of these companies refuse to present financial information
and investment firms. Obstacles to the development of E-business are:

➢ Lack of social communications

➢ lack of public awareness about the capabilities and limitations of E-business

➢ lack of useful information in the business information network

➢ lack of cooperation from related institutions

➢ lack of hardware and software

➢ Telecommunications infrastructure

➢ Not spread culture of buying and selling online (azizi.2013)

➢ Distrust

Iranian consumers of companies whose offer products or services through the Internet,
do not trust enough to communicate with them and to exchange their personal and
financial information with these companies when they decide to buy (Moensted, 2007).

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Figure 1 E-commerce application (Turban, 2006)

Mobile marketing

According to Varnali and et al (2011), "Mobile marketing is: Create, communicate,

and achieve customer value via mobile environment. Mobile marketing literature is
constantly expanding and in order to increase acceptance of mobile advertising by
marketers, becomes more widespread. Researchers have made significant efforts to
mobile marketing and especially factors that customer use of mobile services and mobile
marketing are affected (Goneos-Malka, 2014). One of the special features of mobile
phones is that they allow companies to do advertising directly to customers and allow
customers to various activities such as search, assessment, and selection on the phone.

Sensitivity to mobile phones shows that customers are able to take all necessary
measures and make purchases in real-time. For example, when a customer is close to a
particular store he is under the influence of store advertising. This advertisement
motivates the customer to check the store's website and read comments about products.
Then the customer can go to the store and examine goods in stores and compare prices
with other stores (by mobile). Finally, with respect to profit or loss, he decide to buy the
product or not. This example shows how mobile phones can be useful tools rather than
personal computers in the online world because of its high-speed connection to the virtual
world (Baik et al, 2014). Customers tend to talk to each other about their different
experiences and the exchange of positive or negative recommendation on a particular
product or service, and reduce possible risk to buy the best and most appropriate choice.
With the development of electronic and digital communication channels such as mobile

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phones and the Internet in recent years and increasing users of the media, physical borders
are long gone. Customers can use this media to search for information about a product or
service and consult with others while shopping (Maher, 2015).

Brands on Instagram

Consumers are involved with the brand on social media by sharing and creating content
about the brand. Marketers use social media to create an intimate relationship with their
client, thereby commit customer and encourage them. Companies must know audience
and send messages that create value for them. Creating emotions on social media have
everything to do with the content. The communication messages must show their
humanitarian aspect.

Companies have some misperceptions regarding why consumers interact with them
via social sites (Johansson, 2014).

Figure 2 Companies have some misperceptions regarding why consumers interact

with them via social sites (Johansson, 2014).

Instagram is a photo sharing network to share photos and short videos with others.
Social networks where images to be shared, including Instagram, is a great way for
companies to market with low cost and in an environment where quality among customers
is very important and also has a considerable profit (Safko et al, 2010). Companies using
Instagram, not only use it as a tool to develop sales but also use it as a position to provide
the brand, showing behind the scenes of their company. Social networks are based on
sharing photos as a tool for search engine optimization (SEO) are expanding day to day
and their popularity is growing (Chan et al, 2011). 65 percent of the world's top brands
have Instagram page and 57% of them are active and share photos or video at least once
a week (Johansson et al, 2014).

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Results

According to Wallén (1996), the first step of a research is to think about what problem
the study will focus on (Johansson et al, 2014). This will set the choice of methodology,
the theory approach and the data collection. In this study we focused on the problem of
how marketing on Instagram works to reach customers. The purpose was to contribute
with more statistical knowledge regarding that subject. In addition to descriptive statistics
this article with detailed diagrams specified have discussed the five variables like
Humanlike, Awareness, Loyalty, Commercial posts, Commenting on posts by using
SPSS software.

Following are the findings from our survey with answers from 80 respondents. The
questions that were not fully answered, were excluded. To get an easy overview, the data
will be presented in diagrams and tablets and all the numbers in these are representing the
amount of responses in digits. At the end of a statistics section are the outcomes from the
statistical program SPSS reported.

In a random survey, questionnaires were given to 80 of Instagram users that 51% of

male respondents and 49% of them were women of which 65% were employed, that with
plenty of problems but used Instagram.

❖ How often do you use Instagram?

How often do you use Instagram?

A couple of
times per week
20%
Several times a
day
35% Several times a day

Less than once a Every day

week Less than once a week
13%
A couple of times per week

Every day
32%

Figure 3 Frequency of Instagram use

As we can see in figure 3, about 35% of the participants, see Instagram page about
several times a day. Therefore, Instagram users spend so much time using them.

The target of Instagram users (about 60%), viewing images and videos were shared.
About 41.3% of the participants view friends and the other people’s profile.

❖ What kind of brands/industry do you follow on Instagram?

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industry
23.4
education services 6.5
3.9
media(tv/video) 20.8
22.1
charity 0
19.5
electronic or technology 11.7
31.2
Interior 2.6
27.3
Sport 37.7
22.1
Fashion 41.6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

industry

Figure 3. Brand/Industry followed on Instagram

When it comes to what kind of industries the respondents followed brands within, there
were a lot of different answers. Based in the figure 3, the most frequent industry was
Fashion which 41.6 percent of the respondents followed, then sport (37.7 percent) and
music (31.2 percent). Beauty and wellness got 27.3 and 22.1 percent each, Food and drink
with 22.1 percent like wellness after other respond with 23.3 percent on sixth place. Other
answer is visible in this figure. The respondents could choose as many alternatives as they
wanted which makes the sum of the percent more than 100.

❖ What do you consider is the best thing with following a brand on Instagram?

Best thing in instagram

other 25.3
Less updates from brands 2
Brands were more promotional 14.7
Brands were less promotional 5.3
Brands show different sides of themselves… 4
Easy access to brands 12
The format of the content on Instagram… 24
Receiving more updates from brands 28
Only receive updates from brands they had… 30.7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Best thing in instagram

Figure 4 Best thing in Instagram

As figure 4 shows the majority of the respondents (30.7 percent) considered the best
thing with following brands on Instagram to be that they on Instagram only receive
updates from brands they had choose to follow. Then, the respondents considered the best
thing with following a brand on Instagram to be; Receiving more updates from brands
(28 percent), the other reason (25.3 percent), the format of the content on Instagram with

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pictures and videos (24 percent), Brands were more promotional (14 percent) and Easy
access to brands on Instagram (12 percent). A very small amount of respondents
considered the best thing to be that Brands were less promotional (5.3 percent) and Brands
show different sides of themselves on Instagram (4 percent), that they get less updates
from brands (2 percent). According to the data and the above figure, it was observed that,
Instagram is a social media with a friendly atmosphere and available customers, Brands
can affected on available customer through contests or promotions. The respondents
could choose as many alternatives as they wanted regarding what they considered to be
the best with Instagram which makes the sum of the percent exceed 100.

❖ What do you want from brands on Instagram?

What do you want from brands on

Instagram?
Other 13
To be more personal than in other forums 2.6
Information 61
Updates 41.6
Inspiration 26
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

What do you want from brands on Instagram?

Figure 5 Usage of Instagram

As figure 5 indicates, the most requested from brands on Instagram, was information
(61 percent). Followed by the category Updates (41.6 percent), Inspiration (42 percent)
and 13 percent wanted the brands for other reasons. Finally (2.6 percent) of answers to be
more personal than in other forums. The respondents could choose as many answers as
they wanted since there are possible to want more than one thing, this made the sum of
the percent more than 100.

Marketing communication

❖ Which type of communication do you prefer from brands on Instagram?

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Prefered communication

Direct message 18.7

Videos 38.7

Pictures 82.7

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

prefered communication

Figure 6 Type of communication

Most users (82.7 percent) preferred Connection with pictures on Instagram. About
(38.7 percent) user preferred videos and (18.7) user preferred direct message. The
respondents could choose as many answers as they wanted due to the fact that they could
want more than one type of communication, which makes the sum of the percent exceed
100.

❖ How often (in general/average) do you want brands to upload new posts on
Instagram?

Less than once a Share content by Brands

week
8%
A couple of times
Once a week per week
12% 28%
A couple of times per week
Several times Once per day
every day
Several times every day
9%
Once a week
Less than once a week

Once per day

43%

Figure 7 Sharing content by brands

As we can see in figure 7, Most users (43 percent) prefer the brands, share information
or services on Instagram once a day.

❖ What content do you prefer on Instagram?

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Popular contents
Other 25.3
Posts of content not directly related to
20
the brand
Post on the workplace/the
29.3
employees/behind the scenes
Posts on the brands product/service 42.7

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Popular content

Figure 8 Popular contents

Most of the respondents (42.7 percent) wanted Posts on brands product/service and
about (29.3 percent) selected Post on the workplace/the employees/behind the scenes.
Then (25.3) selected other option and (20 percent) user of Instagram wanted post on
content not directly related to the brand. The respondents who did choose the alternative
other wanted more sneak peeks, updates and contests on Instagram. Due to the possibility
of wanting several types of content the respondents could choose multiple answers which
makes the sum of the percent exceed 100.

❖ What content do you not prefer from brands on Instagram?

Unpopular content

Other 25.3

Posts of content not directly related to the

44
brand
Post on the workplace/the
20
employees/behind the scenes

Posts on the brands product/service 20

0 10 20 30 40 50

Not Popular content

Figure 9 Unpopular contents on Instagram

Figure 9 shows that Most of the respondents (44 percent) did not prefer Posts on
content not directly related to the brand and about (25.3 percent) selected other option.
Equally, (20 percent) respondents did not wanted Post on the workplace/the
employees/behind the scenes and brands product/service. Since the possibility of
respondents not wanting several kinds of content they could choose multiple answers
which make the total percent more than 100.

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❖ What kind of emotions do you want to feel when looking at a post from a brand?

Feelings about the post

Other 13
Surprised 3.9
Enthusiastic 20.8
Motivated 15.6
Curious 62.3
Happy 15.6
Inspired 20.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Feelings about the post

Figure 10 Feelings about the post

Figure 10 shows that Curious is the emotion most wanted by the respondents when
using Instagram, represented by 62.3 percent and 48 persons in the survey. Equally, the
emotions Happy and Enthusiastic came next with 20.8 percent each of the respondents’
votes. Motivated and happy with 15.6 percent came next too. Finally other (13 percent)
and surprised (3.9 percent) selected by Respondents. The respondents were able to choose
as many emotions as they wanted to, which makes the sum of the percent exceed 100

❖ Do you ever comment on a brands post?

Share Information
No, I would never share information… 58.1
Yes, by posting new purchased products. 2.7
Yes, by tag or hashtag brandnames. 6.8
Yes, by tagging the location of a place… 1.4
Yes, if something funny or extraordinary… 27
Yes, if I feel satisfaction regarding a brand. 21.6
Yes, if I feel dissatisfation regarding a brand. 4.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Share Information

Figure 11 Sharing information

According to figure 11, when asking if the respondents would share information
regarding a brand on their own Instagram, about 58.1 percent answered No, I would never
share information regarding a brand. Some answer as follow: Yes, if something funny or
extraordinaire happened related to the brand and if I feel satisfaction regarding a brand
came next with 27 and 21.6 percent each of the respondents’ votes. Rest of answers
showed at above graph. The respondents were able to choose as many emotions as they
wanted to, which makes the sum of the percent exceed 100.

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❖ Which social media are you active on besides Instagram?

❖ Which social media do you prefer for brands to use?

Table 1 Comparison of social media

Which social media are you Which social media do

Social
Brand logo active on besides you prefer for brands to
media
Instagram? use?
Facebook 23.4 % 19.5 %

Twitter 10.4 % 3.9 %

linkein 11.7 % 5.2 %

Google+ 6.5 % 5.2 %

Youtube 11.7 % 11.7 %

Line 14.3 % 5.2 %

Telegram 96.1 % 74 %

Whatsapp 28.6 % 11.7 %

Viber 6.5 % 0%

Other 9.1 % 7.8 %

As Table 1 indicates, telegram is the most popular social media. According to Likert
scale, respondents picked an answer from one to five which suited them most. One
represented “yes, definitely” and five represented “no, never”.

Table 2 Likert Scale

Questions 1 2 3 4 5
Do you ever comment on a brands post? 18.2 11.7 16.9 13 40.3
Have Instagram made you more loyal to a brand? 6.5 13 26 20.8 33.8
Have Instagram made you aware of brands that was
30.3 23.7 35.5 6.6 3.9
unknown to you before?
Do you consider brands on Instagram to be more
6.5 28.6 41.6 13 10.4
human-like than in other forums?

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The question about the respondents feelings about commercial posts/content is a scale
question, were the respondents picked an answer from one to five which suited them most.
One represented “I strongly like it” and five represented “I strongly dislike it”.

Table 3 Feelings about commercial posts/content

Question 1 2 3 4 5
What are your feelings about commercial
11.7 39 42.9 2.6 3.9
post/content from brands on Instagram?

When asking about the respondents feelings towards commercial posts and content
42.3 percent chose the number three on the five grade scale followed by the number two
(39 percent). The number one and five were represented by 11.7 and 3.9 percent of the
respondents and finally 2.6 percent voted four, meaning they almost did not like it.

SPSS Statistics

This data are made in the statistical program SPSS to get more information about the
numeric answers of the scale questions. A questionnaire based on the Likert scale ratings
have 5 options. The type of data distribution was determined. Data was non-normal
distribution. The different tests that have been done are descriptive analysis, a explored
analysis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Spearman's rho test, Kruskal Wallis Test.
Some questions have been answered by less than the 80 respondents in the sample and
that is shown in Table 4. In order to test the gender question it has been done a transcoding
were “Female=1” and “Male=2”.

Table 4 Descriptive Statistics

N Range Min. Max. Mean SD V Skew Kurtosis
Statistic Stat. Stat. Stat. Stat. SE Stat. Stat. Stat. SE Stat. SE
Gender 79 1 1 2 1.51 .057 .503 .253 -.026 .271 -2.052 .535
Age 72 26 17 43 26.71 .612 5.196 26.998 .765 .283 .823 .559
Occupation 78 3 1 4 1.65 .109 .965 .931 1.019 .272 -.536 .538
Humanlike 77 4 1 5 2.92 .119 1.048 1.099 .370 .274 -.213 .541
Awareness 76 4 1 5 2.30 .126 1.096 1.201 .428 .276 -.387 .545
Loyalty 77 4 1 5 3.62 .143 1.257 1.580 -.471 .274 -.824 .541
Commercial
77 4 1 5 2.48 .101 .883 .779 .532 .274 1.071 .541
posts
Commenting
77 4 1 5 3.45 .177 1.552 2.409 -.433 .274 -1.339 .541
on posts
Valid N (list
67
wise)

Since the answer female has been transcoded into number one and male into number
two, As it stands, most participants are men or the number 2. Minimum age of participants
was 17 years and maximum age was 43 years and most of the participants were
employed. The five last questions in the tablet are five-scale ranking questions where
three is the middle alternative.

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Table 5 Tests of Normality

Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
Gender .359 67 .000 .635 67 .000
age .137 67 .003 .950 67 .010
Occupation .410 67 .000 .661 67 .000
Humanlike .264 67 .000 .879 67 .000
Awareness .196 67 .000 .876 67 .000
Loyalty .192 67 .000 .871 67 .000
Commercial posts .232 67 .000 .851 67 .000
Commenting on posts .260 67 .000 .810 67 .000
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction

According to the normality test, it is found that non-normal distribution. For statistical
analysis, nonparametric methods must be used. For correlation between data, Spearman
test was used. In fact, we examine the relationship between demographic variables and
the dependent variables.

As you can see in the Table 6, According to Sig. (2-tailed), all values below 0.05
indicate a relationship between variables is not significant but all values above 0.05
indicate significance relationship between the variables. For example, there is a
significant relationship between age and Commenting on posts while does not exist a
significant relationship between brand awareness and brand loyalty

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Table 6 Correlations
Commercial Commenting
Gender age Occupation Humanlike Awareness Loyalty
posts on posts
Correlation -
1.000 .221 .152 .201 -.048 .217 -.022
Coefficient .264*
Gender Sig. (2-
. .026 .054 .190 .083 .681 .059 .851
tailed)
N 79 71 77 76 75 76 76 76
Correlation * ** **
-.264 1.000 -.541 -.060 .174 -.054 -.361 .054
Coefficient
age Sig. (2-
.026 . .000 .627 .156 .660 .002 .657
tailed)
N 71 72 70 69 68 69 69 69
Correlation - *
.221 1.000 .148 .068 .062 .291 .023
Coefficient .541**
Occupation Sig. (2-
.054 .000 . .198 .560 .595 .010 .840
tailed)
N 77 70 78 77 76 77 77 77
Correlation
.152 -.060 .148 1.000 .269* .393** .302** .175
Coefficient
Humanlike Sig. (2-
.190 .627 .198 . .019 .000 .008 .129
tailed)
Spearman's N 76 69 77 77 76 77 77 77
rho Correlation
.201 .174 .068 .269* 1.000 .457** .252* .424**
Coefficient
Awareness Sig. (2-
.083 .156 .560 .019 . .000 .028 .000
tailed)
N 75 68 76 76 76 76 76 76
Correlation ** ** **
-.048 -.054 .062 .393 .457 1.000 .406 .392**
Coefficient
Loyalty Sig. (2-
.681 .660 .595 .000 .000 . .000 .000
tailed)
N 76 69 77 77 76 77 77 77
Correlation - * ** * **
.217 .291 .302 .252 .406 1.000 .314**
Coefficient .361**
Commercial
Sig. (2-
posts .059 .002 .010 .008 .028 .000 . .005
tailed)
N 76 69 77 77 76 77 77 77
Correlation
-.022 .054 .023 .175 .424** .392** .314** 1.000
Coefficient
Commenting
Sig. (2-
on posts .851 .657 .840 .129 .000 .000 .005 .
tailed)
N 76 69 77 77 76 77 77 77
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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ISSN 2383-2126 (Online)
© Authors, All Rights Reserved www.ijmae.com

Table 7 Test Statistics a,b

Loyalty Commercial posts Commenting on posts

Chi-Square 18.113 6.840 14.690
df 4 4 4
Asymp. Sig. .001 .145 .005
a. Kruskal Wallis Test
b. Grouping Variable: Awareness

According to Table 7, there is no relationship between brand loyalty and brand

awareness so H0 hypothesis is rejected. But in the next Column exist significant
relationship between commercial post and Awareness of brand and H0 hypothesis is
accepted. In other words, if people are aware of the brand, they share commercial post
about that brand. Finally, it was found that there is no significant relationship between
commenting on posts and brand awareness.

Discussion

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of social media on the E-business
with a statistical approach. Since attention to the importance of the social dimension of
businesses, significantly increased, and the sustainability of the current E-business is a
function of the social dimensions, E-business for survival and stability, need to social
conditions. One of the most important aspects of the social, is the social networks. The
significance of social networks as a marketing tool is growing rapidly and includes many
areas. In this study, it was found that social media have an important role in identifying
brands to customers. Social media have been generally well received by customers. Social
media can be a market available at very low cost, in order to achieve the company's
objectives and the organization. As statistics show, Dependence on social networks, and
the availability of corporate marketing will help to attract customers who were not
identified through traditional methods. With changing lifestyles and little time to
investigate and seek market by consumers, customers prefer to receive screening and
abstracted information from their friends and family. Today, with advances in information
technology, social networks are not limited to physical contact and new interface for
Word of Mouth Marketing. Physical borders have been eliminated, and users can search
their required information and also consult with each other when making decisions then
read comments from other users that published as photos or videos on Instagram and
finally decide to purchase them. Small companies or intermediaries without a name, use
Instagram as a means of marketing that has an impact on consumers because they will be
communicating closely to customers. As you see, the more people about 62/2% are
curious and sensitive to messages shared from companies. Also know the name of trade,
is important intangible assets related to the product or service the company. Brand
awareness, is power of brand presence in the customers mind and affected on customers
attitude. Customers’ judgments about brands and products will be based on their
awareness of the brand.

As we can see, about 47% of Instagram users are looking for information from brands
and about 42/7% of users prefer that companies share information about brands and
services. In such circumstances it is essential that companies step up and take this

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ISSN 2383-2126 (Online)
© Authors, All Rights Reserved www.ijmae.com

opportunity to inform people of the benefits and features of their products. In addition to
motivate customers to purchase the desired product, stimulation customers to transfer
their experience to others. In this case, to enhance the reputation of your brand, do not
pay a high price. Compared to traditional marketing methods that are expensive and time
consuming, with modern methods such as social media marketing, that can be considered
as an e-mouth marketing, companies can in a shorter time and with less investment, create
amazing results.

Some strategies for improving e-business:

➢ Reduce administrative and operating costs

➢ Reduce inventory costs

➢ Reduce the cost of procurement

➢ Improve customer service and satisfaction

➢ Streamline procurement procedures

➢ Increase communication efficiency and interaction with employees, vendors,

customers and strategic partners

➢ Increase revenues and profit margins

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