Nawras, Oman’s customer friendly communications provider, supported the recent Muscat Youth Summit 2011 by interacting with the delegates in a pleasingly different way. This innovative company’s presentation focused on illustrating the power and platforms of social media that young people can harness for positive results.

Raed Dawood, Nawras Department Head - Business Development and Nourhan Beyrouti, Nawras Head of Branding, pointed out that each of the participants was a ‘Digital Native’ as not one of them had grown up in a world without the internet. Together, through the Nawras workshop, they showed the students how to create a digital profile using social media accounts while applying creativity, photography and micro blogs.

At the end of the session, students posted their entries on the youth-focused Shababiah Facebook page for judging in terms of the best design, content and application. Gustavo Bomfim submitted the winning entry and was thrilled to win an iPhone 4. Arun Achuth came second, winning a Nawras goody bag and the third prize of autographed CDs went to a young Omani lady.

“This is such an energetic programme and an ideal platform for Nawras to show how technology helps to bridge differences in language, culture and experience,” said Dawood. “The power of social media and the internet in general can be harnessed for positive benefits wherever you may be. We were happy that Nawras could contribute to the rich experience these students have enjoyed. Even in a relatively short time, they have clearly seen how much is possible to attain through the power and reach of the internet.”

This was the second year for Nawras to proudly support this exciting initiative. Muscat Youth Summit 2011 was a four-day event for more than 200 young people aged between 15 and 24. Students from Oman were joined by others from 15 other countries including United States of America, United Kingdom, Sweden, Pakistan and Australia.

Speakers at the event also included Ahmad Al Harthy, Oman’s top racing driver and brand ambassador for Nawras.

Throughout the year, Nawras supports many different community activities. Most recently these have included a variety of sporting events from football, cricket and petanque to tennis and a dive challenge for less able participants.

A recent Dubai School of Government (DSG) report on the growth of social media penetration in the Arab World has prompted some hospitality marketers to refocus their attention on developing attractive and sustainable promotional packages rather than simply adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to social media communications.

Speaking on the sidelines of World Travel Market in London, where Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel, Seven Tides’ flagship property is participating as a part of the Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) exhibit, Michael Scully, Managing Director – Hospitality at Seven Tides said:

“It’s all very well to jump on the social media bandwagon, but if your basic core proposition doesn’t hold water, then all the online marketing support in the world won’t keep it afloat. Indeed this virtual marketing space is becoming crowded with promotions so offers should be relevant, genuine and attractive.”

It is easy to see why hotels have embraced social media marketing so readily. According to the DSG report, the number of Arab Facebook users grew by 50% year-to-date, to reach 32 million in August, with the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon leading the growth. The number of Arab Twitter users has also reached 1.1 million, with more than 22.7 million tweets posted in the first quarter of 2011.

In addition the US-based Hospitality e-Business Strategies released its 5th Annual Benchmark Survey of global hotel chains earlier this year. The survey tracks social media perception and activity, and reported that almost 75% of respondents increased their Internet marketing budget in 2011 with 43% of respondents adamant that social media has the potential to drive higher ROI and results. In 2001, almost 50% of respondents also reported a shift in budget allocation from offline to online.

“These are compelling figures, but are there effective measurement tools in place or are we, as an industry, simply following the Gen-Y pack for fear of being left behind and losing future market share? Online media is multi-layered, and channels such as Facebook and Twitter are designed not only as vehicles through which to push tactical offers, but are there to help companies engage with their target audience, stimulate ongoing discussion and ultimately create brand ambassadors out in the real world,” said Scully.

Supporting Scully’s point of view, a Q1 2011 report from Millward Brown and Dynamic Logic, in co-operation with the World Federation of Advertisers, in which 24 multinationals were surveyed on their social medial strategies, paints a different picture. Half of the respondents said that they were unsure of the return on social media, 27% rating payback as poor to average.

“It is precisely because social media is so much more cost-effective than offline marketing that often the quality of the proposition is poor, something marketers feel can be repeated over and over again until it works.

“Clearly if it didn’t work first time around, it’s unlikely to work, period. All that happens is consumers get irritated by the constant barrage of email and brand ambassadors become brand detractors, potentially losing business instead of generating additional revenue.

“Social media is here to stay, but so is delivering the promise and creating brand loyalty, which is the best form of low cost high impact advertising,” added Scully.

Smartphone and tablets lead to surge in app usage in UAE government and private sector

Dubai, October 11, 2011: Smartphone usage in the MENA region is increasing, with almost 70% of Smartphone users expected to upgrade their phone in the next 12 months, according to the AppsArabia Mobile Report – MENA. The report has stated that 82% of customers without a Smartphone want one, and 54% of them will have their first smart phone in the coming 12 months. The report also indicates that the GCC has the highest incidence of multiple Smartphone at almost 41% of the population (34% having 2 smartphones and 7% having 3 or more). This has led to a commensurate increase in app development and use.

Mohammed Johmani, CEO and Founder of O2 interactive (O2i) said: “Smartphone and tablet usage in the GCC is on the rise, which means many more apps are also being created, downloaded, bought and used by millions of users. 7 out of 10 Smartphone users use an app at least once every day and 35% of smart phone users who download apps frequently have bought at least one app in the last 30 days. This makes it very evident that customer engagement and organizational communication will both soon be occurring extensively through apps accessed through Smartphone and tablet devices in the very near future.”

“Tablets are becoming a trend in the GCC in general and in the UAE in particular. Consumers are bringing their tablets to the workplace and using them for their jobs. Salespeople are using them in pitch presentations, while marketers are formulating their campaigns around them,” he said.

The UAE government has realized this, and public sector entities and departments are increasingly utilizing mobile and social media applications to engage and interact with their customers, improving response times and opening channels of communication. This has also spurred interest in apps development, with recent statistics looking at the first three quarters of 2011 showing that the UAE hosts almost 60 percent of the mobile application development in the Middle East region.

“The widespread use of a new generation of smart phones, the increasing computing time spent daily, and the well-developed ICT infrastructure in the UAE, has been a major factor behind the rise of mobile and social media apps in the country,” said Johmani.“The success of apps in the entertainment, music and games industries has motivated government entities to complement web-based services with mobile apps.”

Currently, almost 30 government mobile applications are available in the UAE, and are proving to be beneficial in providing better services to customers faster. The trend of using mobile apps to transact and engage with businesses will soon overcome desktop computing. In the next 2 years, it is expected that customers in the UAE will be able to pay all their bills and request services such as money transfers through their mobile phones.”

“We have been very active in the last quarter developing unique mobile applications and interactive social media games for our customers”, said Johmani. “Our Interactive arm, O2i is working on many projects for government and private sectors. A good example is the SCAD Census challenge that we launched earlier on Facebook, and the Children’s city’s games that were done for Dubai municipality.”

Yet, while apps are in high demand, and the infrastructure for app development is slowly being created, Johmani believes there is a dearth of investors currently willing to support the new market, which means that opportunities are being missed out on.

“The concept of stores such as App Store and Android Market has been growing very impressively in the GCC region,” added Johmani. “Unfortunately, the investors in the Arab world have not paid much attention to this rising era yet. We have ourselves tried to partner with investors many times, have noticed they are only ready to invest once the market is relatively mature. In the western world, for instance in the US, investors had leapt onboard far earlier in the conceptual stages because of their understanding of the sector’s potential.”

O2i, the interactive arm of O2 Network is a Dubai-based digital marketing solution company that provides one stop solution for digital requirements. The company has partnered with several successful clients indifferent industries with a focus on high quality, rapid delivery and excellent performance. O2i specializes in web design and development, search engine optimization, social media marketing, Facebook and mobile apps, email marketing and online advertising. For more information about O2i, please visit: www.o2i.ae

Jeddah, KSA, 16th July, 2011: Abdul Latif Jameel Co. Ltd. (ALJ), exclusive dealer of Toyota vehicles in Saudi Arabia, has turned to Facebook for the launch of its new TV commercial campaign for Toyota Sequoia 4×4.

The TV advertisement was filmed in Dubai in April, with the Toyota team travelling to the UAE to choose the best actors participating in a performance test.

Adel Ezzat, marketing executive director, ALJ, said: “It is a new idea that we adopted to communicate with the target audience through a creative commercial campaign, targeting not just Saudi Arabia but entire Arab world. Awards and prizes will be given each week for people who comment or interact with images or video clips on the social media website.”

He added: “After we introduced Sequoia 4×4 and FJ Cruiser vehicles at the final match of Crown Prince Cup, in front of over 30,000 spectators and millions of television viewers, we managed to be the first in achieving leadership through Toyota’s 4×4 stands located at the playground track. More projects are being finalized and we will announce the details soon.”

Toyota Sequoia 2011 is a 4×4 family car which comes with latest features that appeal to Toyota customers in Saudi Arabia. It offers big storage space as well as excellent safety and control systems. It is a luxury car that provides comfort and entertainment for all family members. More than 2,000 members joined the website campaign within a few days of its launch. The number has now crossed 53, 000 subscribers. People can take part in the campaign, by registering on the official site of Abdul Latif Jameel Company.

To participate in the campaign, please register on the official site of Abdul Latif Jameel Company - Toyota on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ToyotaALJ

Eurocom Worldwide Survey shows that more firms are involved in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn than blogging

July 9, 2011

Nidal AbouZaki

The latest international survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, the global PR network, in association with Orient Planet PR and Marketing Communications,  has revealed that 38 per cent of technology companies check out potential employees’ profiles on social media sites such as Facebook.

“Job seekers may be happy for their LinkedIn profile to be viewed by a prospective employer but are they comfortable with what’s posted on their Facebook profile?” commented Nidal Abou Zaki, Managing Director, Orient Planet. “They may be comfortable that their own privacy settings are locked down tight but what about the career suitability and accessibility of photos or other personal information posted on friends’ sites?” 

The Eurocom Worldwide survey found that 38 per cent of technology firms examine social media profiles to determine potential employees’ suitability for a job. “Social media is a great way to network and build career opportunities but it is becoming more difficult to differentiate between your professional and personal persona on the web,” added Abou Zaki.

The survey of over 660 senior level executives in technology companies, which was conducted during January and February 2011, also highlights corporate usage of social media.
Only just over a third (36 per cent) of technology firms have any formal process in place, other than a Google alert, for listening to what is said about their company on the web.

“The first phase of implementing a social media campaign is to listen to and monitor what is being said about your company and its service or product online,” commented Mads Christensen, network director, Eurocom Worldwide. “The majority of firms are either failing to do this or are not doing it in a very rigorous manner.”

There appears to have been no growth in corporate blogging over the last two years with the proportion of technology companies surveyed having a blog remaining flat at around one third. The main reason cited for corporate blogging is to improve interaction with public/customers, followed by raising profile/thought leadership and boosting search engine optimisation (SEO).

The Eurocom Worldwide survey found that the main barriers to corporate blogging are that “it is too time consuming”, cited by 33 per cent, followed by “don’t see the value of it” (29 per cent) and “never thought about it” (18 per cent).

“Such is the value of corporate blogging from a search perspective alone that it is a little surprising that only a third of technology firms do it,” commented Abou Zaki. “However, blogging does require a significant time commitment so companies are better not to do it at all than do it badly or infrequently.”

Despite a mixed reaction to blogging, half (51 per cent) of firms surveyed have a Facebook page, 46 per cent have a corporate Twitter account, 43 per cent are on LinkedIn and just over a third (36 per cent) of companies have a YouTube presence. Of the total, 38 per cent expect to increase their spend on Social Media over the next 12 months.   

In terms of activity, just over a quarter (26 per cent) of respondents’ companies Tweet daily and just over one in five (21 per cent) update their Facebook page each day.
The Eurocom Worldwide Technology Market Survey 2011 was conducted by the network and its member agencies during January and February 2011, and surveyed 664 senior level executives in technology based businesses across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Facebook could fade away after ten years, just like MySpace and Geocities, says Mo Elzubeir

Mo Elzubeir_Mediastow

Dubai, UAE, 6th July, 2011: Mediastow, the leading media intelligence company in the Middle East, anticipates that leading social media website Facebook will lose its popularity in 10 to 15 years.

Mo Elzubeir, Founder & Managing Director of Mediastow, says: “When it comes to the Internet, everything is cyclical. The fate of MySpace demonstrates how a strong player can quickly fade into oblivion. Looking further back, Geocities represents another similar example.”

GeoCities was originally founded in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet (BHI). In its original form, site users selected a “city” in which to place their web pages. The “cities” were named after real cities or regions according to their content.

Ten years after Yahoo bought GeoCities, the company announced that it would shut down the United States GeoCities service on October 26, 2009, and GeoCities websites actually became unavailable from next day. There were at least 38 million user-built pages on GeoCities before it was shut down.

Elzubeir added: “Currently, there is already a debate on whether Facebook is bleeding users from its launch countries in North America. While it is possible to blame seasonality or even saturation, I believe there are other more important factors at play here.”

According to Inside Facebook’s data service, Facebook lost 6 million users in USA. last month, dropping from 155.2 million to 149.4 million. That is the first time U.S. numbers dropped in more than a year. It also lost 1.52 million users in Canada, dropping to 16.6 million — an 8% drop — and 100,000 each in the U.K., Norway and Russia.

Total Facebook users were still up 1.7% thanks to growth in countries where the service got popular later, like Mexico and Brazil. But huge drops in the countries where Facebook first became popular can’t be good news. It suggests that there is a saturation point where people begin to burn out on the service, according to the same source.

Facebook will continue to “grow” overall in numbers, because of “new countries”. In other words, its growth is powered by the periphery of the market, while its core market is weakening.

Elzubeir added: “Newer entrants, such as Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram amongst others are offering better subsets of what Facebook offers and doing a better job at it. As a result, I think we will continue to see more people moving away from Facebook.”

Elzubeir pointed out that privacy concerns and content ownership are other issues facing Facebook.

He added: “Privacy concerns will continue to be an issue, but I think Facebook is failing to learn from the mistakes of Geocities/Yahoo. Owning all your users’ content is eventually going to backfire.”
 
Elzubeir concludes that Facebook will stop being relevant in 10-15 year time at the latest.

SocialNetworking

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – July 4th , 2011 – The last year has seen half of companies in the Gulf successfully use social networks, blogs, microblogs and forums to win new business, says a new global survey from Regus. Regus found that 50% of firms in the Gulf were successfully winning new customers through business social networking activity. The research also reveals that globally more firms are also using social media to connect and engage with existing customers than a year ago.

• Globally there has been a rise of 7% in the proportion of businesses successfully recruiting new customers through social networks such as Facebook
• 52% of businesses globally and 62% in the Gulf use websites such as Twitter and Weibo to engage, connect with and inform existing customers
• In the Gulf 59% of firms encourage their employees to join social networks such as Linkedin, Xing and Video, compared to 53% globally.
• Two fifths (39%) of companies globally and nearly a third in the Gulf (32%) devote up to 20% of their marketing budget to business social networking activity.

Social networking has fully evolved from a nice-to-have to a necessity as the majority of businesses in the Gulf (69%), and internationally (74%) agree that without social media activity marketing strategies cannot hope to be successful.  Nevertheless, firms in the Gulf (82%) and global firms (61%) are also emphasizing the need for a balance of marketing media, confirming their belief that without a combination of traditional and digital techniques marketing campaigns will not work.[1]

The global Regus survey findings are based on the responses of over 17,000 managers and business owners across 80 countries.

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Mark Dixon, CEO of Regus comments: “As businesses emerge from the downturn they are increasingly reconsidering pre-recession working practices and opting for more flexible, competitive strategies.  From supply chain management, to leaner working practices, to cloud computing, to increased use of video communications and mobile working no area of business is being overlooked. The rapid development of social media as a core business tool is clearly part of this transformation as more and more companies are leveraging this channel to increase the loyalty of existing customers, and as a successful acquisition tool.”

Tech Mahindra participates at panel discussion on ‘Social Media in the Middle East’ at the Arab Advisor’s 8th Media & Telecom Convergence Conference

The adoption of social media is rapidly accelerating among businesses in the Middle East region, strategically placing itself as an integral element to today’s marketing mix. This has led to a re-shaping of consumer attitudes and behaviour like never before and has become a key influence in positioning brands and images and influencing consumer perceptions. Krishna Gopal, Vice President-Global Alliance and Sales for Middle East and Africa, Tech Mahindra was one of the lead panellists in a discussion entitled ‘Impact of Social Media in the Middle East and the Government’s support, or lack thereof,’ during the Arab Advisor’s 8th Media & Telecom Convergence Conference held at the Four Season’s Hotel in Amman, Jordan.

According to Krishna Gopal, the increased adoption of social media has stirred in a significant growth trajectory thereby imposing a change in the way brands are formulated and communicated. He further shared that the early years of social media was dominated by the Google-Yahoo-Microsoft (GYM) presence. However, over the last few years, the entry of more powerful and strategic social media platforms like Facebook-YouTube-Twitter (FYT) has created a whole new sense of social activism or social capital. Pronounced as ‘Fight’ or ‘Fit’, FYT has ushered in a more people or WE-centric approach, which removes individualism and replaces it with co-existence with other people.

He also pointed out that companies today have embraced social media not only as a means to promote and talk about their products and services but also to create a collaborative interactive and instantaneous platform that fosters strong peer to peer interaction, engaging communication, devoted involvement and fruitful dialogue. Joining Gopal during the discussion were Marwan Juma, Founder and Co-Owner, dot.jo & Kinz; Amer Sunna, CEO, Wi-Tribe Jordan; Samer Abbas, Sr. Analyst, Arab Advisors Group; and Zaid Al Massari, CEO & Partner, Maysalward.

“Social media continues to play a both crucial and strategic role in the Middle East region’s move towards growth and development. The significance of social media in today’s society makes it a fitting and important issue to be discussed in this year’s edition of the Arab Advisor’s conference,” said Krishna Gopal. “The shift towards a more WE-Centric society demonstrates how people have fully grasped the idea of accomplishing something with the help of emerging technologies and how these newer social platforms can be utilized as a mechanism for delivering concerted results using the power of people.”

The panel also discussed the need for Arab companies to fund start up companies in the region, so as to fully utilize the maximum potential of social commerce and social media through pro-active efforts and initiatives. In line with this, the panellists made the call for the creation of a Pan-Arab platform for e-commerce and application downloads, thereby preventing the need for having to use services coming from outside of the Arab world. The call was made stronger with the fact that leading countries like Jordan and Egypt, which offer strength in education, entrepreneurship and population, can provide the region with an effective Arab alternative to search engines like Google and Yahoo and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

“The Middle East region should now look into the formation of a strategic platform that can help address the needs and requirements of e-commerce and also provide users with a wide range of reliable and effective application downloads. With the emergence of economies in the region boasting of highly skilled IT specialists, we can develop more Arabic based search engines and social networking sites that will allow Arab users to work in more familiar settings,” concluded Gopal.

The Arab Advisor’s Media & Telecom Convergence Conference is an annual event that aims to showcase the latest developments within the telecom and media sectors whilst shedding light on the new landscape that has redefined various aspects between both sectors as a result of telecom and media convergence. This year’s edition of the conference saw the attendance of over 500 senior industry professionals, representing over a 150 companies from 23 different countries within the ICT and media sectors. Sponsors for the event included Qualcomm, Arabsat, Motorola, Umniah, Ericsson, Orange and Oracle.

London-based journalist and blogger talks at opening work-shop of Dubai’s Arab Media Forum

Faisal Abbas

Dubai 18 May 2010  - “The notion that there is a competition between traditional media and social media is inaccurate; but if it were true, you would be up against a website like Facebook which has over 500 million users” said Faisal J. Abbas - a London based journalist, blogger and social commentator - at the 10th annual Arab Media Forum which was inaugurated in Dubai this morning.

Abbas, who writes extensively for influential American blog The Huffington Post, that traditional media outlets such as newspapers and television channels should look at social media as an opportunity to strengthen their brand and develop a better understanding of what audiences want, “social media not only allows out to reach out to wider audiences but it also makes content more relevant and engaging”

Speaking at the Forum’s ‘Media Content: More personal… More interactive’ workshop, Abbas said that the surge of user-generated content on social media websites has made each person effectively able to compete with traditional media outlets, especially in the Middle East where the absence of freedom has actually handicapped the development of an actual Arab media industry.

“We have 600 Arab Satellite channels - How many of them are actually making money? In fact how many of them are actually in the business for making money?” he asked while adding that “Under the current state-owned/state-controlled status which dominates the Arab media scene, audience wants aren’t relevant, because the channel’s purpose is to please the owner or the political figure it is affiliated to – thus, advertising comes in for political/affiliation reasons and due to audience ratings”.

The Arab Media Forum is organized every by the Dubai Press Club which also serves as the body overseeing the prestigious Arab Journalism Awards due to take place tomorrow, April 18, as the concluding ceremony of this event.

5 percent of SMEs in the UAE are utilizing social media as a marketing tool to boost business

Zed ayesh Flagship

Dubai, UAE, 5th March, 2011: Less than 5 percent of small and medium businesses in the UAE are utilizing social media regularly as a marketing tool, according to Zed Ayesh, Managing Director of Flagship Consultancy.

Speaking at the 13th TECOM SME Builder workshop, Ayesh called on the Small and Medium Businesses in the UAE to start looking more seriously and sustainably at social media for boosting their sales.

Ayesh added: “Marketing through social media allows small and medium businesses to communicate, educate and share information directly with their current and prospective customers.”

Ayesh said that it is time for SMEs to start building communities on the web which would help them boost their profit and efficiencies in the long run.

Social media collaboration tools like review sites, video sharing sites, blogs, wikis and more allow users to collaborate and potentially serve as an endorser for small businesses. Social media works as a marketing tool because people are more likely to trust peers rather than companies.

Ayesh added: “Social media can be used to build business contacts with those who are more likely to buy a service or a product, but in the UAE the potential has not been tapped.”

He added: “Engaging customers through social media holds the key to retain them and prevent churn in an organisation regardless of its size. However, any SME should make sure it doesn’t cut the conversation half way because social media is like chatting with someone so it is important to keep the conversation going and end it in a mutually satisfying way.”

The event was organised by Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV), the region’s premier destination for human resources management and a member of TECOM Investments’ Education Cluster.

Flagship has supported the TECOM SME Builder initiative as its marketing expert since its early editions.

Ayesh added: “Flagship Consultancy is pleased to support Tecom SME Builder. In this one-day workshop, we have been able to  guide owners of small and medium enterprises to enhance their marketing skills by highlighting latest international techniques as well as tailoring global practices for the local market that is becoming very competitive and results driven.”

The TECOM SME Builder provided an ideal environment for owners of small and medium enterprises to upgrade their business management skills and establish greater synergy within their respective entrepreneurial segments.

The event was organised with the expert involvement of TECOM Investments’ business partners including Flagship Consultancy.
 
It has provided an open forum for industry experts and executives from diverse companies to come together and gain new insights. The initiatives are part of Dubai Knowledge Village’s commitment to developing the human capital base of the UAE and the region by promoting best practices.