Instagram as a New Marketing Platform for the Informal Traders in Tanzania

Social networks for marketing is unavoidable for an enterprise that needs competitive advantages. Little is known regarding how informal traders in Tanzania use Instagram as a marketing tool as most of the available literature focuses on small businesses, which do not share the same limitations as those encountered by informal traders. Screenshots of 189 Instagram accounts were taken, downloaded for data collection and triangulated with 22 interviews from informal traders. The findings show that informal traders obtain new customers on Instagram through creating their own accounts, hiring space on agents' accounts and interfering with the flow of comments in celebrities' posts. Informal traders promote their businesses by posting their products, posting testimonials from satisfied customers, and aligning the advertising messages with attractive images/photos that draw the traffic attention. The findings imply a need for social media marketing training and awareness for informal traders.