Twitter is on the fast track of growth, reaching around 200 Million users globally, there are more than 1 billion tweets each week! That’s some massive exposure & a lot of eyeballs!
Our region is part of Twitter explosive growth, with 1,382% growth rate last year! Twitter is almost parallel to Facebook usage!! with UAE leading the trend, Saudi Arabia and Egypt follows. MENA region is adapting the micro-blogging platform quickly.
With its easy-to-use platform; there are no boundaries for a tweet in the galaxy of Twitter! A Tweet could connect you with the whole world!
As Twitter expands, it will be a place for companies to build brands. Brands can leverage Twitter for business growth in various ways: it can share information quickly with people, increase visibility, engagement and interest in brands, most importantly; it can serve as a social intelligence tool where invaluable information, real-time feedback and insights can be gathered about people.
Are Arab brands using Twitter in the right ways for their businesses? Is it leveraging their communication to people? Are they hopping in the conversation?
Below, I have listed some active brands on the Twitter, under different main categories :
1. Customer service:
Twitter proved to be a great way to deliver customer service through helpful conversation. Most of telecom brands in the region use this approach; we can mention STC, Mobily, Du, Eitasalat. Any customer can communicate any issue with the service and they will find someone to actually solve their problem… Through a tweet!
2. Brand building and awareness:
Twitter could serve as another fantastic way to build your brand awareness, engage with prospects and start building relationships with people. GrosperDubai, the first group buying website in Dubai opened recently; they interacted with me and opened a conversation. I was happy to mention them in my profile.
3. Marketing and promotion:
Some brands are using Twitter channel to give last-minute promotions or market their offers to people in regular basis. Dubai mall surprises followers with instant promos from time to time, additionally; FlyNas the low-fare airline is doing a brilliant job in engaging people under this category
4. Instant updates:
Content companies (media) can fall under this category, where they would add another tool to inform people who follow them about new releases of content whether articles, videos…etc. MBC group and Yahoo Maktoob are both active on this front.
In my look out for cool brands practices on Twitter in the Middle East, I have noticed some issues that need to be addressed:
– Brands should follow back followers, I was amazed to see some brands with thousands of followers and only a very few numbers of follows back! These followers are loyalists who want to engage with the brand! Not the time to act cool at all, follow back your fans.
– Don’t use Twitter to build on traditional broadcasting one-way-messages! Twitter is all about having a dialogue! Participate in the conversation.
– Don’t tweet for Tweet’s sake! Tweet stuff that attract and engage people.
– Have a clear strategy for your Twitter account, whether it’s one of the above or any that fits your brand social media strategy.
Please add below any brands in the region that are using Twitter in the right way or… just Tweet this!
Amer is the founder of Hashtag, a new social media agency that specializes in humanizing brands on the web in the Middle East.
website: www.hashtag-me.com
Good point on issues that need to be addressed. Regarding points 2 (dialogue) & 3 (content), it seems that "Arab brands" do not yet inspire much dialogue or content.
Either that, or our MENA Twitter usage more closely resembles the individual play of a 1 year old than the group play of a 3 year old.