Effect of Instagram Utilization as a Social Media Network on Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Kigali City, Rwanda

The Internet has enabled technological developments and also created a dynamic environment for the exchange of information. It has fundamentally altered the way people live, interact, and conduct their business. In Rwanda, branding and market penetration by local enterprises continues to be impeded. Small and medium enterprises have inadequate knowledge of digital marketing. Digital marketing, which has become a global norm, is still in its infancy stage in Rwanda. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the Instagram utilization as a social media network on the performance of small and medium enterprises in Rwanda. The target population consisted of 393 small and medium enterprises operating in the industry sector in Kigali City with a sample size of 198. The research used both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. Results illustrated that Instagram utilization as a social media network had a positive relationship with organizational performance, as shown in Table 4, with a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.527. The R-square obtained was 0.278, indicating that Instagram utilization as a social media network accounted for 27.8 percent of the observed change in performance of SMEs. It was concluded that if the County Government of Turkana consistently utilized Instagram as a social media network then performance of SMEs would improve drastically. Since social media usage is regarded valuable in company yet there is no encouragement towards usage by the owner-mangers, it was recommended that the Government of Rwanda should create more enabling environment to encourage use of social media especially Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by SMEs.This study would be used as reference material by academicians and other researchers who intended to carry out studies in relation to social media network and performance of small and medium enterprises.