Social Media as an Advertising Tool: Reaching and Persuading Audience Through Instagram

Social media is a new kind of media that day by day becomes more important and takes irreplaceable place in peoples‟ everyday lives. As time passes usage purposes of social media gets wider and covers many different purposes. One of those purposes is being used by companies as advertising tool, as companies can advertise their products/services directly to their target audiences. Today while surfing in his/her homepages, one can see many advertisements directly targeted on his/her, and even not understanding advertising content of that post. This thesis focuses on one of the recent but at the same time very popular and widely used Social Media channel, Instagram. The study evaluates effectiveness and credibility of Instagram advertisements, people‟s approaches about Instagram advertisements, tactics used in Instagram advertisements in attracting audiences and generally effectiveness of Social Media advertisements. The total number of the participants attended in this study is 300 (F=166). The main characteristic needed from participants was to be Social Media and Instagram user. Participants were distributed questionnaires which included 30 questions, in different parts of Eastern Mediterranean University campus and Famagusta city of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The results of the study indicate that people accept Instagram advertisements as credible, they like seeing advertisement contented posts by celebrities and are willing to purchase products that advertised in Instagram and Social Media advertisements have persuasive effects on audience. Keywords: Social Media (SM), Social Media advertisement, Instagram advertisement, Uses and Gratification, Persuasion