Use of Social Media as an Effective Marketing Tool for Fashion Startups in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, the social 
media has encouraged and facilitated promotion and creation of various 
business, resulting in the development of many startup fashion businesses on 
platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. However, current literature does not 
offer an in-depth analysis to this topic and the potential of this digital market. Therefore, the 
following research covers the topic of effect of social media fashion marketing 
for startup fashion brands in Saudi Arabia. Utilizing many scientific articles 
on social media marketing and general literature on fashion marketing, this 
research aims to improve the understanding of the benefits of use of social 
media as an effective marketing tool for fashion startups by means of examining 
existing knowledge on social media marketing, and explains how fashion startups 
can use social media to benefit their businesses. It tries to familiarize 
targeted audience, including potential fashion startup entrepreneurs, with many 
concepts and strategies related to social media marketing such as content marketing, 
consumer engagement, impact of influencers, user generated content, consumer purchasing 
behavior of fashion brands.


Introduction
Billions of people around the world use the social media as it has become one of the defining technologies of our time. As of March 31, 2019, Facebook, for instance, was reported to have 2.38 billion monthly users and 1.56 billion daily active users (Facebook, 2019). At the global level, the total number of social media users is estimated to increase by 3.29 billion users in 2022, which will be How to cite this paper: Trad, N., & Al Dabbagh, M. A. (2020) Social media provide a popular place for communication and sharing content between people (Buhalis & Foerste, 2015). Using the social network, consumers are able to communicate more effectively. For instance, via a social network, customers can look for others' experience with products (Berthon et al., 2012;Pitt et al., 2002). Moreover, social media create a new method for companies and brands to search for new methods of obtaining and attracting the customers (Gallaugher & Ransbotham, 2010). The relationship between consumers and social media has been dramatically fostered as the social media became the place for people to share their personal stories about purchase process (Adams, 2011).
Social media provides access to the customers to share their experiences and recommend certain products, so, the purchasing decisions change after using that source of information (Chen et al., 2011). However, nowadays, the increasing speed of new trends and the demand for change is getting faster and this has encouraged the majority, if not all fashion brands, to adopt the social media as a marketing channel. Thus, social media has become the shopping hub for both consumers and fashion brands all over the world.
Consumers' instant use of social media platforms as entertainment has resulted in a high demand of fashion brands on social media and this constant engagement acts as an insurance for brands that higher chances for consumers are likely to view their products. In addition, fashion brands can consider social media as a market research tool because it gives them a deeper understanding of the market situation and help them gain knowledge of the consumers and their requirements (Posner, 2015).
Using social media as a tool to facilitate and create business is a new and growing method of entrepreneurship, with various social media-based platforms allowing brands to launch with minimum capital outlay, display their products in an easily accessible format and interact with their potential customers. In Saudi Arabia, however, the benefits of social media are a little bit different. With the various cultural norms and mindsets, social media is considered not only as a marketing tool for existing brands but also as a motivating factor for new businesses to launch (Al-Maghrabi & Dennis, 2011 Therefore, in this paper, the researcher seeks to improve the understanding of the benefits of use of social media as an effective marketing tool for fashion startups by means of examining existing knowledge on social media marketing, and tries to demonstrate how fashion startups can use social media to benefit their businesses. Utilizing many scientific articles on social media marketing and general literature on fashion marketing, the researcher tries to explain and clarify how the social media can be used as an effective marketing tool for fashion.
The researcher also highlighted many common concept and strategies related to social media marketing including content marketing, consumer engagement, impact of influencers, user generated content, consumer purchasing behavior of fashion brands.

Research Methodology
Researches can be carried out using different approaches, depending on the nature and aim the research. Main sources of information have been utilized in producing this paper, including many scientific articles on social media marketing and general literature on fashion marketing. These sources have provided sufficient information to conduct an analysis of benefits fashion startups can generate when adopting the social media as a marketing tool. The paper applies the qualitative approach as a method to realize the study, as it analyses the work of many authors to reach the objectives of the research.

Literature Review
Social media has enabled average consumers to have much more interaction with fashion designers. Social media is a platform that reaches across the globe and has a great impact on how consumers interact with the fashion industry.
Because of its popularity, social media has become an important tool of marketing due to its ease of access for both consumers and brands. It is an element of Web 2.0 whereby content is no longer created and published by individuals, rather continuously modified by all users in a collaborative and participatory fashion (Montecchi & Nobbs, 2017). Therefore, the growth of social networks has created a new generation of empowered consumers who are able to exchange information and influence the behaviors and attitudes of other consumers (Montecchi & Nobbs, 2017).
The following literature highlights the importance of social media as marketing tool and examines key strategies and concepts that potential fashion startups can utilize in the digital market arena. Relevant strategies and concepts such as content marketing, consumer engagement, user generated con- Over the last decade social media has become an effective marketing tool, it has not only created a new dimension of marketing but has also provided many opportunities to the marketers to create brand awareness among consumers.
Social media is a compilation of digital platforms and channels that are used by people to share information, profiles, assumptions, observations, perspicacity, apprehension and media itself, it facilitates communication and interactions between different groups of people from all across the world (Hill & Moran, 2011).
When we talk about social media for the fashion industry it refers to the social networking websites and other online platforms that enable the fashion industry to connect with their customers using the latest social networking technology.
The fashion industry is using social media to study trends and anticipate fashion behaviors. It is embracing social media which has enabled it to emerge in the forefront as a phenomenon.
The development of social networking website such as Facebook and Instagram has created a new muse among the Factionists. From the fashion blogs to the live streaming of catwalk shows, from the main fashion weeks to the social shopping we get diversity of opinions on different places.
Social media in the fashion industry is aiding the development of "social fashion", where expertise are applied to support art. Social media has brought fresh and innovative elements into the online shopping experience and is potentially catalyst for additional profits, giving brands and retailers an opportunity to place their products in front on thousands of potential customers in a familiar and easily reachable surroundings (Ahmad, 2015). The social networking platforms have a wider reach to the potential consumers and target market, the customizable and accommodating interface of the networking sites is introduced to them as a perfect platform to cater a larger no of audience and for expansion of business in an interactive environment (ITworld, 2020). The most important strategy for creating attention to product of consumer is to provide a good content to build consumer brand engagement, it will lead to purchase intention in the future (Vivek et al., 2012). Creating quality content may influence the consumer to engage with brand which companies need to create content that keeps customers visiting website and stimulate them to engage on purchase intention (Puro, 2013). Content marketing is one of the best strategies has used for stimulate online engagement (Hollebeek, 2011). The key to create an effective engagement can be created by creating a persuasive content (Sashi, 2012). During 2-3 years, the content marketing is used widely via online.Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote in an essay in 1996 that "content is King-it" and this means creating the appropriate content brings success (Essayhub, 2020). Content marketing is one of the best strategies has used for stimulate online engagement and has emerged simultaneously with the rise of social media (Hollebeek, 2011). Below, these concepts and strategies are explained to raise awareness on its effect on marketing.

Concepts of content marketing and consumer engagement
Content Marketing (CM) is one of advertising concept to achieve the target market. According to the content marketing institute, content marketing is a marketing technique for creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action. According to Rowley (2008), content marketing can be defined as a management process where a firm can identify, analyze and satisfy customer demand to gain profit with the use of digital content distributed through electronic channels. Effective content includes interesting and relevant messages that provide personal meanings to the consumer (Fill & Turnbull, 2016). Content marketing is creating content which has value to attract and bind consumers (Pulizzi, 2009), not only bind and be attractive but also encourage consumers to trade.
Besides attracting consumer's attention, another aim of content marketing is to create value to customers, encourage trades along with consumers spread, and also involve consumers into the company. Content marketing helps company bind consumers more with valued contents and directly relate to them. It is ex-  The Economist Intelligence Unit defines engagement as the creation of experiences that allow companies to build deeper, more meaningful and sustainable interactions between the company and its customers or external stakeholders.
Forrester Consulting's research, How engaged are your customers? defines Consumer engagement as "creating deep connections with customers that drive purchase decisions, interaction, and participation, over time".
Many other authors have defined customer engagement in several ways as follows: Hollebeek (2011)   to build a strong brand. Fashion startups must recognize the rules that should be followed in order to interact with followers in the right way (Wörfel, 2019).
Consumer engagement tool that features user-generated content (UGC), explained below, is a clever way for businesses to build customer relationships.
User Generated Content; also known as, "user created content" is various on profits than firm-created content (Keegan & Rowley, 2017).
The topic of the UGC can either be brand, product or service-centered or revolve around a topic/issue of interest to the consumer (Montecchi & Nobbs, 2017). The importance of UGC is attributed to the credibility that comes from messages delivered by consumers, which are more authentic, given the higher level of trust between consumers, if compared to messages coming from the brand. UGC-based campaigns basically aim to 1) increase the number of followers; 2) support the campaign; and 3) create brand awareness, exposure and engagement (Montecchi & Nobbs, 2017).
User generated content, sometimes displayed on Saudi fashion brands' Insta-  (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). The reason for this is the consumers' ability to relate to a natural setting or UGC in comparison to a professional photoshoot which is also an incentive to purchases but can create a barrier between a brand and its consumers. Therefore, as literature explains, content can attract and retain customers by creating and curating posts (Fill & Turnbull, 2016).

Impact of influencers
Influencers in social media are people who have made a reputation for themselves as knowledgeable and experienced on a specific topic. They contribute with regular posts on trending topic through their preferred social media platform and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views. Brands are always keen to maintain a relationship with social media influencers because they can develop trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.
The increasing popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, have prompted fashion bloggers to start adopt a multi-channel strategy, which allows them to participate and use a variety of social media applications (Geissinger & Laurell, 2016). This has also resulted in an increase in the number of influencers due to the ease of access to social media platforms (Geissinger & Laurell, 2016). Influencers are trustworthy persons in the eyes of both the brand and consumers and thus, as part of their digital marketing strategies, brands have been collaborating with them to help promote products and services on social media (Bendoni, 2017).
The chart blow shows the most-followed beauty and fashion influencers on   (Sanchez, 2018: p. 4.). In his study, Hauser has stated that there are 500 million users who visit the social media platform on a daily basis and around 800 million users are active per month (Hauser, 2018: p. 10;Sanchez, 2018: p. 6.). An essential part of the Instagram strategy is to interact with the Instagram users. Interacting includes many activities such as comments, like, or share of posts. Interacting with Instagram users is a key factor that would create and increase customer engagement. Interacting with comments and likes will make the Instagram user more valued and recognized (Wörfel, 2019).
Based on a national survey of business women in Saudi Arabia, fashion and jewelry were found to be the most common areas of female owned businesses (Danish & Smith, 2012). The primary motivational factor for startups growth in Saudi Arabia is self-achievement. By virtue of the internet, entrepreneurs and owners of startup are able to own new selling and marketing channels that enable them to tackle traditional difficulties of consumer engagement and in return allow for self-achievement (Danish & Smith, 2012  increase over the previous year. For example, 64% of Saudis now report buying a product or service online every month (Nordeatrade, 2020). The amount of consumer spending in Saudi Arabia together with the current online trading trend represents a promising market for fashion startups to sell and market their products using the various social media platforms.

Conclusion
This paper has examined the effect of using the social media as a fashion marketing tool and how social media has provided great opportunities to marketers to raise consumers' awareness on brands. The paper has also highlighted the factors that have encouraged Saudi fashion startups to adopt the social media as a marketing tool, by virtue of its capability to reach a great number of consumers within a short period of time. The paper has highlighted the importance of Instagram being one of the most popular online platforms where fashion brands startups can market their products easily and smartly. It has also shown that fashion brands in Saudi Arabia have become heavily dependent on this platform to attract new customers, especially as users of the social media marketing platform is constantly increasing.
To raise awareness on the many concepts that are related to marketing on the social media, the researcher has shed lights on strategies such as content marketing and consumer engagement and has outlined the successful elements that ensure a successful content marketing. The searcher has also provided some insight on the role of social media influencers and how brands are keen to maintain a relationship with social media influencers because they can develop trends and encourage their followers to buy products which they promote. The researcher has also highlighted the issue of User Generated Content, and how it can have a greater impact on profits than professionally created content given its potential to attract and retain customers by creating and curating posts.
A full account about Fashion Startups in Saudi Arabia has been given and it has shown how the internet has provided Saudi entrepreneurs, specially females, with a new selling and marketing channel and offered them various platforms to communicate with both retailers and consumers, and how the use of social media has ended the difficulty female entrepreneurs used to have in the past when operating or starting their own business.
The role of social media influencers, as an important factor to promote fashion startups business activities, has been examined. The researcher has concluded that fashion brands are always keen to utilize the service of social media influencers because they can develop trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.
The researcher has also outlined the consumption trends in Saudi Arabia and has clarified that the rising consumer spending in Saudi Arabia, together with the customers' increasing tendency to buy fashion products through the social media, represents a promising market for fashion brands startups to sell and market their products.
Therefore, considering these factors, a fashion brand can aim to start its business through social media with a better awareness of the strategies that best fit the market.

Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.