social media | mediaME

GCC governments ready to embrace social media

Tue, 2012-02-07 11:20 - By

Announcement, Digital Media, Events, Media, Fadi Salem, GCC Government Social Media Summit 2012, GCC governments, Ibrahim El Badawi, social media

Governments in the GCC are preparing for increasing use of social media to interact with citizens, spread government messages and gain feedback on policies.

Most shared stories in January 2012

Tue, 2012-01-31 12:37 - By

editor

Every month, hundreds of news stories and headlines are shared by mediaME users across social media platforms. January 2012 was a particularly active month. The mediaME editor has picked the most shared stories, which provide a summarized look-back at the month.

The most shared news and stories on mediaME.com in January:

The social media influence of Egyptian news, TV news media analyzed

Tue, 2012-01-24 14:37 - By

interactegypt

Digital Media, Report, Media, Al-Qahera Al-Youm, Arabiya, Bassem Youssef, Belal Fadl, CBC, Egyptian news, Fady Ramzy, Interact Egypt, Masr El-Gedida, social media, Twitter, Yosri Fouda, youtube

Interact Egypt, as a regional hub for digital media, is always keen to present to the market latest trends and statistics online. For this reason, Interact launched an interesting report that presents how the TV news media is influencing the online space in Egypt.

Yahoo hosts 'Change Your World' summit on social/digital media

Thu, 2012-01-19 09:28 - By

editor

Digital Media, Events, Electronics & Technology, Media, Public interest, Change Your World! Cairo, Digital Media, Ebele Okobi, social media, Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program, Yahoo! Maktoob

Yahoo’s Business & Human Rights Program and Yahoo Maktoob hosted the first “Change Your World!” summit on women and social/digital media in Cairo on Wednesday. The summit gathered women in leadership roles from across the MENA region. The summit focused on technology, Internet and social media platforms, and their role as tools that can be used to create positive change throughout the region.

“Women across the Middle East and North Africa are using the Internet, technology and social media to learn, to lead, to inspire, to connect and to change the world. We are hosting this summit to shine the light on extraordinary women, to facilitate an ongoing exchange of ideas, and to identify areas where companies can use their technology and platforms to amplify women’s voices,” said Ebele Okobi, director of Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program.

Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program and Yahoo! Maktoob host “Change Your World! Cairo” Summit on Social/Digital media

Thu, 2012-01-19 08:25 - By

editor

Digital Media, Media, Ahmed Nassef, Alyse Nels, Cairo, Change Your World! Summit, Dalia Ziada, Digital Media, Ebele Okobi, Fida Ouri, Lamees Dhaif, Lara Ayoub, Maria Al Masani, media, Mona Eltahawy, Shereen Allam, social media, Yahoo!

Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program, and Yahoo! Maktoob, and in partnership with Vital Voices, hosted the first “Change Your World!” summit on women and social and digital media in Cairo on January 18.

The Dubai School of Government publishes third edition of the Arab Social Media Report

Wed, 2011-12-28 07:43 - By

editor

Announcement, Digital Media, Media Business, Report, Research, Media, ASMR, dsg.ae, social media, the Arab Social Media Report, The Dubai School of Government

The Dubai School of Government has published the third edition of the Arab Social Media Report. The Arab Social Media Report aims to inform people about the impact of social media on development and growth in the Arab region. The research observes internet penetration trends, growth rates, and demographic and gender breakdowns.

The report also observes the factors that affect the adoption of social media in Arab countries, and the impact it has on citizen engagement and social inclusion, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship.

The third edition of this publication specifically focuses on the “virtual” gender gap, and observes the relationship between Arab women and social media.

The report observes usage trends, and the factors that contribute to the low level of social media use among Arab women. The report further investigates the use of social media as a tool for women’s empowerment.

Ahmad Humeid: Companies realizing branding is a specialty, to be dealt with separate from advertising

Tue, 2011-12-27 11:49 - By

editor

Interview & Opinion, Advertising, Media, Ahmad Humeid, branding, Facebook, social media, Social platforms, Syntax, Twitter

mediaME spoke to Ahmad Humeid, CEO of Syntax, a leading branding and innovations company in the region. Ahmad shares his opinions regarding the evolution of branding, how clients view branding as part of their overall marketing strategy, the importance of online presence, the value of branding as a service and how it is digitally integrated and much more.

Q: As a branding specialist, tell us about the evolution in branding services offered in the Middle East and the sophistication of such services compared to other parts of the world.

Branding worldwide has developed rapidly in the past 20 to 25 years. However, our part of the world is lagging behind a little bit when it comes to branding. Branding is something that is usually, or supposedly, performed by advertising agencies, but I think advertisers and companies in general are realizing that branding is a specialty that they need to deal with on its own, and therefore they are hiring specialized consultants to build their brands to define their identities and launch their products and services.

Q: Do clients in the region understand the difference between branding and advertising? And to what degree is there an appreciation of the strategic value of such services

Clients have definitely realized the difference between advertising and branding in the past five years. Clients now know how important it is to establish a clear brand identity and clear brand values before starting to communicate with the audience, and therefore, our work as a branding company is actually the infrastructure for other marketing and advertising activities that follow, and we are seeing a lot of interest in the region, whether in the Levant or in the Gulf.

Q: Digital media has impacted every aspect of creative industries. Tell us how the requirements and challenges of digital branding differ.

The most important thing that companies have to consider when taking their brands online is to really think what it is they want to sell and to who. The problem with a lot of websites in the Arab World is that they have been dominated by information that is not really relevant to consumers and clients. What we always stress on is the importance realizing the value that is being delivered to the audience when creating a corporate website, mobile application, Facebook presence, or any other engaging platform. The most important aspect of customer service is the actual delivery, which has been quite a challenge over the past ten years, a challenge in getting companies to start thinking in a strategic way about their web presence and about digital branding.

Q: Regarding regional online publishers, are there excellent examples of digital creativity in branding that are a cause for optimism regarding this field in the Middle East?

We are definitely seeing a lot of interesting niche publishers emerging in this region, and after all those generalized web portals have been established, we are now witnessing a shift to e-commerce, one of the main drivers behind today’s innovation in the region, where the new generation of web entrepreneurs really understand web branding and what it involves, leading to better customer focus and more emphasis on usability and user friendliness.

Q: In your opinion, how has the explosive growth in social media affected the field of digital branding services?

I think companies, organizations and governmental bodies today realize they can’t just have a one way communication medium, and therefore do not control the conversation anymore. So I think this has completely changed the field of online, where Twitter and Facebook have become household names that every Arab family and every consumer knows and is familiar with, enabling consumers to express themselves in new ways. It is therefore very important to invest in a company’s online presence in a way that is both strategic and creative and to also pay attention to social media platforms as they play a key role in the way we do business today.

Why we add and remove Facebook friends

Tue, 2011-12-27 09:39 - By

editor

analysis, Facebook, NM Incite, nmincite.com, Research, social media, Twitter

A recent study by NM Incite surveyed 1,865 adult social media users. The study observed Internet forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, as well as other social networking websites from March 31 to April 14th. The study revealed the reasons people add and remove friends from their social networking pages, and what social media sites are used for.

Racha Mourtada: Users aged 15 to 29 are driving force of growth of Facebook and Twitter in our region

Tue, 2011-12-20 12:12 - By

editor

Interview & Opinion, Media, Arab Spring, Dubai School of Government, Facebook, Racha Mourtada, social media, Twitter

mediaME speaks to Racha Mourtada, Research Associate at the Dubai School of Government. Racha shares with us some key findings from the latest and still unpublished Arab Social Media Report (ASMR), with insights regarding the leading social media platforms in the Middle East today, the evolution of user demographics and much more.

Q. Kindly introduce yourself, and briefly tell us about the Dubai School of Government.

I am a research associate with the Dubai School of Government, which is an academic research institution that focuses on public policy in the Arab World. Specifically, I work on the Governance and Innovation Program which focuses on the policy implications of using information and communication technology for social and governmental transformation.

Q. Tell us about the Arab Social Media Report, how and when it started and why it is important.

The aim of the Arab Social Media Report is to observe social media trends in the Arab World, and to focus on what the implications are for civic engagement, social inclusion, entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. We do that by observing penetration trends, and by observing Facebook and Twitter usage. We look at different breakdowns in terms of age, gender and language. We look at the factors that contribute to the uptake of social media use such as Internet freedom, digital access, income and the growth of the youth population. We started at the beginning of last year, and the first issue focused on general usage trends. In the second issue, we took a look at the role of social media during the revolutions. For the upcoming issue we are taking a look at gender and the use of social media.

Q. Where are we seeing the greatest growth geographically, and in terms of platforms in Arab countries?

Our focus is mainly on Facebook and Twitter, so I can speak about that a little bit. If we look at the statistics, Egypt and Saudi Arabia both have the largest number of users on Facebook and Twitter. However, if we look at penetration rate or the percentage of population, the GCC countries tend to dominate.

Q. How big an impact has the ‘Arab Spring’ had on boosting the numbers of social media users and on driving more interactions and ‘Arab buzz’?

The Arab Spring has had quite an impact on Facebook and Twitter usage. If we were to take a look at the first quarter of the year, when the revolutions were at their height, Facebook usage had increased by 30% when compared to the previous year. The year before, it had only grown by 18%. That is quite a significant difference. In countries that actually went through revolutions such as Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, the growth rates have actually doubled or tripled when compared with the previous year. We can definitely see quantitative, as well as qualitative growth. Trending topics at the time all had to do with what was going on so. The top hashtags were '#Bahrain', '#Egypt', '#Libya', '#Protest'. That indicates that the Arab Spring affected the nature of online conversation in the region.

Q. By studying social media habits of Arab populations, can you tell us some specific differences between social media users in the Gulf compared to the Levant and compared to North Africa?

There are definitely some differences in the three regions. In terms of age, we notice that the GCC countries are the most balanced. There is a balance between younger users aged 15 to 29 and adults over 30. Whereas in the Levant and North Africa, there is more gender balance that does not exist in the GCC. So in the Levant and North Africa, the number of male and female users are quite close. Language is probably the most distinctive difference between these three regions. In North Africa (with the exception of Egypt), users prefer to use French on Facebook, whereas Lebanon and the GCC countries (with the exception of Saudi Arabia) prefer to use English.

Q. What would you say are the key findings of the latest Arab Social Media Report? And what, in your opinion, could this mean to marketers and brand managers across the MENA region?

A main focus of the report is the increase of penetration and usage. Facebook and Twitter are growing exponentially. Throughout the year, Facbook has grown by at least 60%. The report focuses on the youth population, and the fact that they are the driving force behind the growth of Facebook and Twitter in the region. About 70% of Facebook users in the Arab World are between the ages of 15 to 29, which is sort of on-par with the global averages. The report also focuses on trends in terms of gender. About one third of Facebook users in the Arab World are women, this is in contrast with the global average of about 60%, and this is what we are looking into at the moment.

Download Racha Mourtada's Presentation at mediaME Forum:2011

Rania Salfiti: Marketing managers must use social media to listen and serve customers

Tue, 2011-12-06 12:03 - By

editor

Interview & Opinion, Advertising, Media, Telecom, Advertising agencies, mediaME, Rania Salfiti, social media, Umniah

mediaME spoke to Rania Salfiti, the head of corporate and marketing communications at Umniah, a leading telecom operator in Jordan. Rania offers us her views regarding online advertising growth, the importance of the client-agency relationship in the digital age, how social media impacts the organization and much more.

Q. Kindly introduce yourself and your company.

I am the Head of Corporate and Marketing Communications at Umniah. Umniah is a leading integrated Telecom operator in Jordan, and the third most popular mobile operator in the country, with a penetration rate of over 32%.

Q. As one of the biggest advertisers in Jordan, what is your view regarding online media options available to you today in terms of reach to your target customers?

I believe that Jordan is still in the discovery phase when it comes to online advertising. And when compared to international standards, we’re still not there yet and we still have a long way to go. I think this comes as a result of online advertising agencies being not very well structured in Jordan, and a big gap exists between the client and the agency regarding online advertising. I believe we need to fix this, and one way to do so is by creating more direct interaction on this topic between the agency and the client.

The Jordanian culture is not a fully oriented online one. Still, we are working on spreading the importance of obtaining Internet service in every house, which in return, is a barrier to the growth and acceptance of online media.

Moreover, measuring the return on investment (ROI) for online advertising is a challenge in itself that is not enabling clients to recognize the exact value behind online advertising.

Q. What are the main challenges or obstacles preventing a bigger percentage of digital media expenditure?

People are still afraid to fully utilize digital media in their budgets. Internationally, some companies are using up to 50% of their budgets on digital advertising, whereas in Jordan, people are still very dependent on print media. This comes as a result of the penetration rate of print compared to online connectivity which is still low when compared to the other international markets.

Q. Some marketing managers think that 'social media is free'. Is it really? If not, what does it cost and what is the money spent on it? If social media is part of an advertising campaign, does it have a 'paid' component?

Social media is not free, and it's cost is calculated as part of the expenditure within the budget.

Furthermore, building any social media activity requires a certain amount of time, which is also costly. The gap between the start of social media activities and the results is considerable, so it clearly requires time, effort and money. It's definitely not free.

Q. What’s your view regarding the currently available social media measurement tools, and how do we determine the success of a social media campaign?

I believe there are two ways to measure or evaluate social media. First, there's the exposure and reach gained from this platform, whereby the number of fans is not necessarily always an indicator, as you may be able to gather as many fans who do not, in the end, contribute or add any value to the organization’s marketing strategy implementation.

Secondly and most importantly is the interactivity and engagement between the company and the customer; this can be measured by the number of questions asked and feedback received.

Q. From your experience as a top telecom operator, what general advice would you like to share with brand managers regarding handling customer interactions through social media?

We cannot ignore social media as a platform for our marketing strategies. It’s something that is growing exponentially. We need to be there and we need to be able to listen to our customers through this medium. We can’t just sit back as if the platform doesn't exist. Social media sites are now the number one platforms for customer feedback. As marketing managers, we must listen to our customers and serve them via all the available mediums.

‘People will talk… The conversation will happen… So you’d better be there and aware’…

Q. In your opinion, where does the responsibility for managing social media channels lie within an organization?

Depending on the industry of the company, there is a debate as to who should be responsible for an organization's social media as there is more than one school for it. For example, as a telecom operator, the debate is whether it should be the customer care or the marketing department’s responsibility. Both departments feel they have a role and should be responsible for handling social media for the company. However I believe both departments need to work together to make it happen.

At the end of the day, the strategy and the positioning of social media should come from the marketing department; however customer care departments have a responsibility to fulfill the requests and inquiries of customers, so it is definitely a combination of both. The tough part is figuring out a way to work together.