Instagram: its roles in management of Islamic banks

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore Instagram’s role in management practices of Islamic banks, particularly in Indonesia. The facts that presently Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms globally and Indonesia has the fourth highest number of Instagram users make this study increasingly relevant to observe how Instagram assists businesses in training trust by engaging users through visual content.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparison and an analysis of nine Indonesian Islamic banks’ use of Instagram was conducted, considering whether Instagram can potentially serve as a low-cost channel to promote the products and services of Islamic banks to a broader audience, including strategies that work/do not work well to be applied in managing the banks’ Instagram accounts. This aim also aligns with Islamic banks’ desire to boost market share, particularly in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population globally.

Findings

In the course of qualitative research, this study finds that the nine Islamic banks use Instagram for marketing and promotional activities, which boosts engagement with current and potential customers, provides better information access and promotes the banks’ brand identity publicly. Despite these achievements, most Indonesian Islamic banks still tend to use Instagram as a one-way rather than a two-way communication channel, reflecting the findings of previous studies.

Originality/value

There is little guidance about social media’s role in management practices of financial institutions in general and even less for Islamic banks; hence, we summarize how Islamic banking practitioners and business leaders use Instagram to enhance public engagement. Furthermore, because Islamic banks have unique characteristics that distinguish them from their conventional counterparts, we also review aspects of Sharia-related compliance related to social media use (particularly Instagram) at Islamic banks.

Citation

Rahmawati, T.Y., Dewi, M.K. and Ferdian, I.R. (2020), "Instagram: its roles in management of Islamic banks", Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 841-861. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-11-2018-0213