Arab Business Executives' Usage of Social Media

Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011
Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media

A Thesis in Partial Completion of Master of Science in Advanced Technology and Business Administration at Robert Kennedy College
By Aminah Hamam
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Statement of Originality
I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other persons work has been used without due acknowledgement. Some of this material was previously used in the project proposal for this thesis. Other than in the mentioned proposal it has not been presented by me for assessment, in any other course subject at this or any other institution
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge and thank Professor Freddy Nager for his support throughout this project. A big thank you to: 1) All the business executives who took time out of their busy schedules to fill out the survey. 2) All the business executives who took the time to correspond with me and answer the four open ended questions. Without their contributions, there would not have been a qualitative factor to this report. 3) Fouad Jeryes, Director of Marketing at D1G, for all his support and encouraging words. 4) Mohamed Parham Al Awadi, co-founder of Wild Peeta, for taking the time to do a phone interview. I would also like to thank my Father for proofreading and my Mother for encouraging me to complete this initiative when I felt I could no longer go on. A special thank you to Mrs. Mona Younes for your guidance and ideas. I would also like to thank my husband who understood how important this masters degree is to me. I hope this journey would teach my two wonderful children that the pursuit of education can be done at anytime and anywhere. I started my masters journey three years ago when they were at a very young age, 4 and 2. They had to give up some Mommy time so that I could complete my studies. I love you Dahlia and Ramy.
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Contents Page
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 9 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Research Methodology ................................................................................................................ 12 1.3 Terms and Definitions Used ......................................................................................................... 13 1.4 Research Structure ...................................................................................................................... 17 1.5 Recruitment of Participants ......................................................................................................... 18 2.0 Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 21 2.1 Secondary Research Analysis ....................................................................................................... 22 2.2 The Western Social Media Consumer ........................................................................................... 39 2.3 Article Review .............................................................................................................................. 46 3.0 Interview with Director of Marketing at D1G ................................................................................... 55 4.0 Survey Findings ................................................................................................................................ 58 4.1 Demographics .............................................................................................................................. 58 4.2 Company and Budgets ................................................................................................................. 63 4.3 Social Media Usage ...................................................................................................................... 69 4.4 Motivations and Benefits ............................................................................................................. 81 4.5 Perceptions of Arab Business Executives about Social Media vs. Traditional Marketing ................ 84 4.6 Challenges and Barriers................................................................................................................ 89 5.0 Open-Ended Questions .................................................................................................................... 95 Question 1A: Overcoming challenges and barriers faced using social media ...................................... 95 Question 1B: Future social media challenges that may be foreseen ................................................... 98 Question 2: Business executives perception of their consumers as Information Seekers and whether they prefer to have them become influencers ................................................................................... 99 Question 3: Business adaption to catering to the Arabic social media consumer .............................. 100 Question 4: Lessons learned by business executives on the usage of social media ........................... 101 6.0 Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 103 6.1 Who is the Arabic social media consumer and how does s/he differ from the Western social media consumer? ...................................................................................................................................... 103 6.2 An analysis of the social media sites frequented by Arabs .......................................................... 104 6.3 How does the usage of social media sites reflect on traditional media usage?............................ 105
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6.4 An analysis of Arab business executives who use social media in comparison to Western counterparts who use social media.................................................................................................. 105 6.5 How are Arab businesses using social media to cater to Arab social media users? ...................... 106 6.6 Lessons learned by business executives on the usage of social media ........................................ 107 7.0 Further Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 108 8.0 Conclusion and Recommendation .................................................................................................. 110 Appendix A: Quantitative Portion of Research -- Survey Questions ...................................................... 112 Appendix B: Letter of Invitation to Survey ........................................................................................... 116 Appendix C: Qualitative Portion of Research -- Open Ended Questions ................................................ 117 Appendix D: Letter to Business Executives to Respond to the Questions .............................................. 118 Appendix E: Details on Business Executives Who Responded to Open Ended Questions ...................... 119 Appendix F: Demographics at a Glance ................................................................................................ 120 References .......................................................................................................................................... 122
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List of Tables and Figures Tables
Table 1: User disposition with regard to companies using the Internet to communicate their message . 23 Table 2: User disposition with regard to companies using social media to communicate their message . 23 Table 3: Facebook population increase over a 30-day period ................................................................. 28 Table 4: Age distribution in Egypt .......................................................................................................... 29 Table 5: Gender divide in Egypt ............................................................................................................. 30 Table 6: Languagedistribution in Egypt .................................................................................................. 30 Table 7: Social Media Ranking according to Egypt .................................................................................. 30 Table 8: Age distributions in KSA ........................................................................................................... 31 Table 9: Gender divide in KSA ................................................................................................................ 32 Table 10: Language Preference in KSA ................................................................................................... 32 Table 11: Social Media rankings in KSA .................................................................................................. 33 Table 12: Age distributions in Morocco.................................................................................................. 34 Table 13: Gender divide in Morocco ...................................................................................................... 34 Table 14: Language Preference in Morocco ........................................................................................... 34 Table 15: Social media rankings in Morocco .......................................................................................... 35 Table 16: Age distributions in UAE ......................................................................................................... 36 Table 17: Gender divide in UAE ............................................................................................................. 36 Table 18: Language preference in UAE................................................................................................... 36 Table 19: Social media ranking in UAE ................................................................................................... 37 Table 20: Age distributions in Jordan ..................................................................................................... 38 Table 21: Gender divide in Jordan.......................................................................................................... 38 Table 22: Language preference in Jordan ............................................................................................... 38 Table 23: Social media ranking in Jordan ............................................................................................... 39 Table 24: Age distributions in USA ......................................................................................................... 40 Table 25: Gender divide in USA.............................................................................................................. 41 Table 26: Social media ranking in USA ................................................................................................... 41 Table 27: Age distribution in the UK ...................................................................................................... 42 Table 28: Gender divide in the UK.......................................................................................................... 43 Table 29: Social media rankings in the UK .............................................................................................. 43 Table 30: Age distributions in France ..................................................................................................... 44 Table 31: Gender divide in France.......................................................................................................... 44 Table 32: Social media ranking in France ............................................................................................... 45 Table 33: Age distribution for D1G users................................................................................................ 56 Table 34: Gender divide for D1G users................................................................................................... 56 Table 35: Weight of questions ............................................................................................................... 92 Table 36: Ranking of top questions that business executive would like answered .................................. 92
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Table 37: Open-ended respondents ..................................................................................................... 119 Table 38: Age distributions of MENA countries and top 3 Western countries ....................................... 120 Table 39: Gender divides of MENA countries and top 3 Western countries .......................................... 120 Table 40: Language preferences of MENA countries ............................................................................ 121 Table 41: Social media ranking per country.......................................................................................... 121 Table 42: Facebook ranking according to Facebakers.com ................................................................... 121
Figures
Figure 1: Age of Business Executives ...................................................................................................... 59 Figure 2: Gender divide for Survey participants ..................................................................................... 60 Figure 3: Education qualifications of survey respondents ....................................................................... 61 Figure 4: Country of work ...................................................................................................................... 61 Figure 5: Preferred language of respondents ......................................................................................... 62 Figure 6: Preferred language against country of work ............................................................................ 63 Figure 7: Size of Businesses ................................................................................................................... 64 Figure 8: Size of business against Country .............................................................................................. 65 Figure 9: Company budget for Marketing .............................................................................................. 66 Figure 10: Budget allocation .................................................................................................................. 67 Figure 11: Budget allocation against budget .......................................................................................... 67 Figure 12: Budget allocation against company ....................................................................................... 68 Figure 13: Budget allocation against strategy......................................................................................... 69 Figure 14: Experience with social media usage ...................................................................................... 70 Figure 15: Hours of usage per week ....................................................................................................... 71 Figure 16: Hours of usage against experience of usage .......................................................................... 72 Figure 17: Facebook usage by country ................................................................................................... 73 Figure 18: Twitter usage by country ....................................................................................................... 74 Figure 19: Blogs usage by country .......................................................................................................... 75 Figure 20: LinkedIn usage by country ..................................................................................................... 76 Figure 21: Type of consumer ................................................................................................................. 78 Figure 22: Type of consumer according to respondent country .............................................................. 80 Figure 23: Generating Exposure to Business .......................................................................................... 81 Figure 24: Better understanding of the consumer.................................................................................. 82 Figure 25: Generation of more conversations ........................................................................................ 82 Figure 26: Lower costs ........................................................................................................................... 83 Figure 27: Perceptions if social media will be used instead of traditional media ..................................... 84 Figure 28: Perceptions against statement it costs too much ............................................................... 85 Figure 29: Perceptions against opinion that Traditional media is not that effective anymore .............. 86 Figure 30: Perceptions against the statement "I have no knowledge of what the consumer wants " ...... 86 Figure 31: Perceptions against Both social and traditional forms of media will complement each other .............................................................................................................................................................. 87
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Figure 32: Perceptions against "Traditional marketing is more artistic" .................................................. 88 Figure 33: Perceptions against "consumers enjoy having a say" ............................................................. 88 Figure 34: Perceptions of business executives on why others do not join social media .......................... 94
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Executive Summary
This paper explores the Arab business executives usage and perceptions of social media in the MENA region through literature review, a survey and a series of open ended questions. The study has indicated that there is a social media awakening in the MENA region and it is estimated to be worth USD 3.3 billion by the year 2014. As more and more people connect, it is vital to see how the social web is affecting their behavior and purchasing decisions. This report attempts to understand the Arabic social media user as well investigate usage of social media by Arab business executives. The research also relates these items to the Western social media user and business executive. The study concluded the following: 1. Social media usage is growing worldwide and the study shows that the MENA region is no exception. Even though social media usage is still in its initial stages (up to 2010), there is an extensive margin of growth forecasted in the next few years (As seen recently during demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt January / February 2011). 2. A wide range of social media is used by business executives. In order to make social media work for an Arab business, it is recommended that business executives put time and effort into the following platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and D1G. Moreover, they should be also willing to explore new platforms such as Kooora, Jeeran and Maktoob. 3. With time and dedication, and by providing transparency, Arab business executives can use social media to improve their businesses.
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1.0 Introduction
According to a Booz Allen report titled Winning in MENAs New Media Scene, the shift of the Arab world to new media is on the rise despite the worldwide economic slowdown (Chahine, Bhargava, Smayra and Belcaid). Businesses in the Arab world have only begun to take advantage of social media to reach potential customers. The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the fabric of the Arabic social media user from the point of view of the marketing executive, compared with the West, and to analyze mostly frequented social media and compare usage between the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the West. Five countries have been selected to be part of this research: 1) Egypt 2) Morocco 3) Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 4) United Arab Emirates 5) Jordan There were several reasons these countries were selected over others. 1) These countries are the top users of Facebook and Twitter in the MENA region. 2) Jordan is one of the leading companies creating Arabic social media platforms. It has created D1G, Watwet, Jeeran and Maktoob. The social media platforms that will be the focus of this research are: 1) Facebook is one of the top sites used in the MENA region. It is ranked the second most popular online destination in Morocco, Jordan and Egypt; third most popular in UAE and fifth most popular in KSA.
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2) Twitter is in the top 100 sites visited in five selected MENA countries; moreover, it is a popular site amongst the West and has statistics available. 3) LinkedIn is one of the most popular sites amongst professionals. 4) D1G. The author managed to secure an interview with the marketing director of this platform; moreover, the site is well ranked amongst the five selected MENA countries.
1.1 Research Questions
The research is designed to explore the Arab business executives usage and perceptions of social media in the MENA region. The research is conducted in two parts: The first part concentrates on the average Arabic social media user and The second and main part is focused on the Arab business executive
Comparisons will be made between MENA and Western users. The research questions are as follows: First Part: The Arab social media consumer, the sites frequented and a comparison with the West. This section will be analyzed and documented from available research. 1) Who is the Arabic social media consumer and how does s/he differ from the Western social media consumer? a. Demographics b. Motivations and Influences c. How does their use differs from Western users 2) An analysis of social media sites frequented by Arabs 3) How does the usage of social media sites reflect on traditional media usage? Page 11
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Second Part: An Analysis of the Arab business executive The second section of the research is where the mass of the study delves. This portion of the survey includes a series of four open-ended questions. 1) An analysis of Arab marketing executives who use social media in comparison to Western counterparts who use social media: a) Where do they find challenges? b) Where do they find benefits? c) What are their motivations and influences? 2) Their understanding of social media and their consumers interaction with it. 3) How are Arab businesses using social media to cater to Arab social media users? 4) What are the lessons learned and best practices of social media use that can be applied to business models which would help Arab business executives?
1.2 Research Methodology
Several research methods were employed to create a more complete picture of the reality of what is occurring in the Arab countries with regards to social media usage by business executives. In terms of quantitative research, web-based surveys enabled responses to be downloaded into a database for further analysis and respondents to complete the questionnaire at their own pace. The online free survey tool kwiksurveys at www.kwiksurveys.com was used to administer the online survey. It does have one major drawback: it does not cross-tabulate the data received. This has been resolved by using Microsoft Excel pivot tables. The questions were segmented in several areas: 1) Questions about the demographics and education of business executives. 2) Questions about the size of company budget and allocations for business marketing.
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3) Questions about social media usage, challenges and barriers encountered. 4) Questions about motivations and benefits of social media usage. 5) Perceptions about social media marketing versus traditional marketing. The use of this quantitative research tool is limited as it cannot further probe respondents feelings (Bryman and Bell p.242). Hence, in addition to this method of research, the author administered a set of open ended questions that were designed to dig deeper into the thoughts of business executives. This method holds several advantages: it allows the respondents to answer questions on their own terms and explore new areas within the research. Finally secondary research was used to compare Arab social media usage from the vantage point of consumers and business executives and behaviors of the Western users.
1.3 Terms and Definitions Used
The following is a list of terms and definitions that are used throughout this research: Social Media: As defined by Andreas Kaplan from the ESSEC Business School and Sciences Po Paris and Michael Haenlein a specialist in consumer relationship management, Social media is a group of Internet-applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content (Kaplan, and Haenlein 59 - 68). Social media essentially is a category of online media where people establish a social presence on the web. Social media has gained a great deal of popularity because it is engaging. Social media makes it easy to share ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes, with the world at large - and find out what they think of them. You can find friends, business contacts and become part of a community or a bunch of different communities (Ward).
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Social Media Marketing: As opposed to the one way conversation of traditional marketing, social media marketing allows for companies to listen within the Internet medium to conversations being held such as on Twitter and Facebook fan pages, contribute and share with its audience. There are numerous tools that support social media marketing in aiding companies to listen to these conversations. Web 2.0: also named the social web, includes the new wave of dot com companies that now include social features such as Twitter feeds, Facebook like button and regular users can start dialogues with these sites. Blogs: originally web-logs were a personal online journal that is set in reverse chronological order. However, the use of blogs has increased and is now used by businesses and journalists. Users who own a blog post their thoughts about whatever interests them, corporate blogs would discuss their activities and products, journalists blogs discuss current events. Subscribers contribute as commentators to what is written. Facebook: Facebook is a social networking tool that allows users to have a presence on the Internet. Users have the ability to promote their thoughts and activities through their wall postings this is a page by which all friends of a certain user can see, comment and like what their friend is posting. According to Jessy Rider, SEO expert Facebook is becoming the most popular medium for social business networking (Rider). There are several reasons why Facebook is a good medium for businesses namely: 1) Facebook is viral. If friends find what is being posted interesting, they may choose to take an action on what is being posted thus driving traffic beyond ones network into their own. 2) Ease of contributions. Contributing to the community is relatively easy.
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3) Facebook allows for detailed profiles. These profiles allow individuals to search in detailed keywords. 4) Facebook enables conversation starters. Facebook includes birthday reminders, status updates and that allows for easy conversations. 5) There are over 550 million users on Facebook, making it the most widely used social networking tool available. Combined with its ease of use and simple keyword search leads to a large pool of potential customer base. 6) The like button shifted the paradigm of thought from top down hierarchy of productconsumer lines to peer-to-peer which facilitates the thought that everyone is equal and can contribute to their opinions. Twitter: Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to post messages in 140 characters or less. These messages are labeled as tweets and people who tweet are followed by other users who choose to follow them. People mainly use Twitter to share information, collaborate, network with peers and friends, comment positively and complain about products. Twitter is an important medium for businesses by which they can follow their consumers and establish a means of communicating with them about their products. By listening to what others are saying about products, companies know what is being said about their product or service. Some of the benefits of connecting to Twitter are: 1) Building brand awareness. Businesses using Twitter can keep their brands in the forefront of users minds as they are promoting their latest products and/or services. According to Steve Beatty, SEO Strategist states It takes persistence and a little creativity (Beatty). 2) Competitive intelligence. It is one of the easy ways to listen to what other companies in the same field are saying.
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3) Driving traffic. Twitter helps to drive traffic towards company websites. According to Jeff Bullas, social media consultant states I dont know of many other platforms on the net that can drive traffic so fast and as targeted as Twitter (Bullas). 4) Customer engagement. Twitter allows you to interact with consumers/followers. Moreover companies can initiate conversations by asking questions to their audiences. 5) Online reputation management. Messages once posted to Twitter tend to travel within the Internet (such as the Australian bush fires, Tunisian and Egyptian civil unrest1 and the death of Michael Jackson). Companies can benefit from this by listening to conversations and mending any negative feedback from consumers by addressing the issues presented. Watwet: Arabic-language micro-blogging sites, most of its 25,000 users are based in Jordan. It is based on the Twitter model. D1G: Arabic networking site that is similar to Facebook. LinkedIn: a business-related social networking site by which users can connect, provide their resumes, get quotes from colleagues and management in the means of referrals and share experiences and knowledge, looking for a job and/or business opportunities. MENA: Middle East and North Africa. UAE: United Arab Emirates. KSA: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It is important to note that with the recent incidences of civil unrest in both Tunisia and Egypt, social media played a vital role in
organizing protests and getting the word out to amass the populations into gatherings. This is an important indicator that social media is very recently widely used and depended in the MENA region.
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1.4 Research Structure
This research consists of nine chapters with the following titles: 1) Introduction: this is the current chapter, it introduces the topic and explains the research methods used to accomplish this research. 2) Literature Review: this chapter discusses statistics obtained about the MENA region as well as statistics from the West. Moreover it discusses several other articles that are relevant to this research. 3) Interview with Director of Marketing of D1G: this chapter includes statistical information about the social media site D1G. 4) Survey Findings: an analysis of the 21 question survey will be presented in this chapter. 5) Open-Ended Questions: this chapter includes discussion about the results of the four open-ended questions asked to various business executives. 6) Discussion: a summarization of the findings from Survey Findings and Open-Ended Questions. 7) Further Analysis: this chapter includes research limitations and areas where further analysis should be conducted in order to tap into additional Arabic social networks. 8) Conclusion and Recommendation: this chapter summarizes the conclusions and recommendations that would enhance the Arab business social media experience.
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1.5 Recruitment of Participants
The research required participants in two portions; the survey and open ended questions. Participants were not provided with any monetary incentives to participate except that they will be receiving a copy of this research upon completion. 1.5.1 Survey Candidates There were several methods of recruitment; some were more successful than others. www.Twellow.com is a website that is used as the yellow pages of Twitter. Around forty potential candidates were allocated from Twellow.com. However the site does not include email addresses of the potential candidates, hence an Internet search was conducted to find possible access links, such as a Facebook account, a website, or a blog. However this method was quite time consuming. The second method was to recruit candidates directly from Facebook. The limitation with Facebook is that it is mostly used as a social networking tool for family and friends. Moreover, it was difficult to determine if candidates were in fact business executives. Those candidates were requested to circulate the survey amongst their colleagues. According to Bryman and Bell, this is a form of sampling by which the researcher contacts a small group of participants who are relevant to the research project and then uses these to establish contact with others (Bryman and Bell p.200). Some candidates were contacted through family and friends. LinkedIn was used as the best medium to acquire candidates. According to Bryman, this is defined as convenience sampling (Bryaman and Bell p.197), since LinkedIn members are predominately business executives. Therefore it accommodates the right pool of candidacy to participate in this research. By connecting to relevant groups one may access hundreds of potential candidates. The author became a member in several discussion groups namely:
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1) MENA 2) MENA Networking Group 3) CEO Club MENA 4) Advertising and Communication Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 5) Arab Social Media Forum 6) GCC Investors and Entrepreneurs Forum 7) GCC Lawyers and Legal Counsels 8) Franchising in Middle East and Arabia Executives Club 9) MENA Women Network 10) Morocco (Maroc) Investment Opportunities 11) Saudi Arabia Business and Professional Network 12) Social Marketing in Jordan 13) Strategy Middle East (subgroup) 14) United Arab Emirates Business and Professional Network 15) Egypt Marketeers2 The above mentioned groups do not comprise the complete list. Members of groups initiate discussions that are relevant to the interests of the group. Some topics include discussions on articles, advice in a business issue and recruitment. Not all groups allow for an automatic registration; most groups need the approval from group managers. This led to several groups rejecting the author due to the fact that she was not in the correct geographical location (this is provided by the authors account)3. The idea was to get in contact with potential candidates in the five countries that this research is targeting (Egypt, Jordan, KSA, UAE and Morocco). An introduction to the author was provided as well as a mention about the aim of what this survey is
2 3
In LinkedIn, this group is actually named Marketeers not Marketers. LinkedIn members enter information to their account such as work experience, current residence and education.
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set out to research. Only one group manager took a specific interest and she posted the survey as an announcement to all the members. However, business executives are very busy individuals; hence response rates were drastically low. The author then accessed each groups members and sent out the survey with the letter mentioned in Appendix B, and selected participants in the required region (information about members in LinkedIn is shown on their profile page). Some participants are in several of these groups. In conclusion, fifty-eight business executives participated in this survey; of those who did participate, forty-five complete surveys were returned. The survey was started on midnight 29th of August 2010 and expired on midnight 14th of October 2010. Therefore, the survey was open for a total of forty-five complete days. Participants were allowed to take the survey once; participants were then blocked using a cookie to retake the survey4. 1.5.2 Open Ended Questions Participants Some business executives expressed goodwill at the fact that the author is conducting this study and indicated that they will be interested in participating in any further discussions. Fortytwo emails were sent out (Appendices C and D detail the questions and letter sent out to these participants). Of those only eight participants answered the questions sent out. Appendix E provides a table with information about these participants. One of the participants, UAE-MP asked for a telephone interview. UAE-MP is a notable member in the online community and he was asked to be part of the Celebration of Entrepreneurship Conference in Dubai, November 8 and 9, 2010. Out of all the participants, his use of social media is the most innovative.
Once participants take the survey, a cookie is downloaded onto their PC which flags the survey tool.
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1.5.3 Interview with Marketing Director of D1G An interview was conducted with Fouad Jeryes, the Director of Marketing at D1G, as minimal information was found about this site posted on the Internet. The other source of information was provided by a series of articles written in AME INFO.
2.0 Literature Review
The literature review is divided into two portions: 1) Secondary analysis this type of data will be taken from bodies that already performed statistics on the MENA region 2) Documents and articles that are relevant to this thesis Social media usage is still in its infancy in the Arab world there is very limited research that is currently available that documents the usage of social media by business executives or Arab users in general. Documents presented in this research paper that discuss the Arab social media usage scene are all that have been found available up until January 15th 2011. The author decided that it would be beneficial to document what is available and build on it within this research. SPOT ON PR, a company located in the UAE is active in the online community and has published several reports on statistics that lists the behaviors and usage of Arabic users. Some of the published material was done in association with Effective Measure. These reports are titled: Media consumption and habits of MENA Internet Users 101 things brands should know about twitter MENA Twitter demographics and User habits survey
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MENA Facebook Demographics
These reports are the basis of this literature review, in addition to some of what is currently available in the Western countries.
2.1 Secondary Research Analysis
Secondary analysis includes all the statistics available in the MENA region as well as some statistics available for Western users.
2.1.1 MENA Consumption and Habits of MENA Internet Users: This survey was conducted by SPOT ON PR and Effective Measure. The total sample size is 2,587. The statistics reveal that 88% of MENA Internet users use the Internet daily, fifty-one percent of those who use the Internet use if for more than 3 hours per day. Fifty-four percent of MENA Internet users use mobile apps daily. The most common forms of social media usage by respondents are as follow: Facebook 70% Kooora.com 22% NetLog 18% Maktoob 13% Other local sites 11% Twitter 9% LinkedIn 5 % Jeeran 5%
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Watwet 1% Hawaaworld.com 1 % Other International sites 15%
This is important to note that because MENA users use the Internet quite often, there is a lucrative market to obtain by reaching out to these users. The survey also studied the disposition of users on companies that use Internet to communicate their message and that of those who use social media to communicate their message the results follow:
Please rate how you feel towards companies and brands that actively use the Internet to communicate their message Opinion Percentage (%) Highly Positive 17 Positive 32 Neutral 36 Negative 9 Highly Negative 6
Table 1: User disposition with regard to companies using the Internet to communicate their message
Forty-nine percent of users felt positive towards companies that did use the Internet to communicate their message; fifteen percent were negative more than a third of consumers were neutral. Please rate how you feel towards companies and brands that actively use social media to communicate their message Opinion Percentage (%) Highly Positive 12 Positive 27 Neutral 41 Negative 14 Highly Negative 7
Table 2: User disposition with regard to companies using social media to communicate their message
The percentages here take on a slightly lower positive stance. Only thirty-nine percent of users were positive towards companies using social media to communicate their message. 41% of users were neutral to this and a more than one-fifth of the users were negative. This indicates that companies should approach consumers differently, in the focus group discussion later Page 23
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(Chapter 5) there are best practices listed that can aid companies in their communications with consumers. In another report conducted by SPOT ON PR (which will be discussed later) will provide insight as to why this may be. Other notable statistics provided by this report is that: 71% of MENA Internet users watch television on a daily basis, and of those 63% watch more than an hour a day 27% of MENA Internet users listen to the radio daily, and of those 52% listen for at least an hour a day 43% of MENA Internet users read the newspapers daily, and of those 80% read the papers for an hour or less These statistics portray a significant meaning as they provide the daily use of media of the average Arab social media user. It shows that although Internet usage is very important to MENA users, other forms of media such as television and newspapers are still widely used. 2.1.2 MENA Twitter Demographics and User Habits Survey Even though this survey is a little outdated (it was published in August 2009), it is one of a few documents found by the author to hold information about Twitter demographics in the MENA region. It was estimated that the numbers using Twitter will drastically increase in the next six to 12 months since it was written. At the time this survey was conducted there was an estimated 15,000 Twitter users in MENA. Those who participated in the survey are 216. Carrington Malin, author of the survey suggests that adoption of Twitter in the Middle-East and North Africa region is broadly following the technology adoption life cycle and Twitter adoption is in the early adopter phase.i Twitter usage in the MENA region state that 40% of those are located in the UAE; 11% in KSA, three percent in Jordan, 13% in Egypt and four percent in Morocco. The survey indicated that
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MENA users tend to be older than their global counter parts with 77% from the UAE and 69% from the rest of MENA being between the ages of 25 and 39 years. The survey distinguished three noteworthy characteristics that are different than global users and specifically to the US: 1) Twitter users of the MENA region are predominately male 68 % of users across the survey (UAE included). Excluding the UAE the number of male users was around 75%. The higher number of female participants indicated that they resided in the UAE. 2) The majority of Twitter users in the MENA region are either employees or self-employed. 3) The MENA Twitter community is considered to be an influential group. The survey discusses statistics from Sysomos as having the split of Western users female to male ratio as 53% and 47% respectively while the stay-at-home mom a target market that are important to US marketers. Western statistics will be discussed later. Moreover, the survey reports that Twitter users in the MENA region are a small but influential crowd of people (SPOT ON PR). They actively share and consume content. Of the participants who took the survey 76% stated that they interacted with bloggers often, 59% interacted with journalists and 65% had their own blogs. Most of the community on Twitter has a Facebook account and their tweets are reposted on Facebook. Twitter even reflects on other media outlets. 38% of Twitter users have tuned into a TV program they heard about on Twitter, 28% have Picked up a newspaper to read an article or story and around 18% tuned to the radio to hear a program or announcement. User Activity: The report does not discuss each countrys user activities independently, moreover the report could be considered to be skewed towards MENA users who are power users and not those who are just starting out with Twitter. 54% of users who took this survey follow between 100 and
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499 followers and 53% are followed between 100 and 499 users. Nevertheless, the report does indicate some important findings that could be used in the future of social media usage. The report states that 70 % of those who took the survey stated that they tweet every day. Of those 35% tweet between two to five times a day; 10% tweet between 6 and 10 times a day and 16% tweet more than ten times per day. An important statistic to point out is that 44% of Twitter users indicated that they will be tweeting more in the future. 42% of users were motivated to open a Twitter account for both business and personal reasons and 10% opened their account purely for business reasons. Language Preference: Only 26% of Tweeters tweet in Arabic. These account for 50% of Arabic users surveyed. Perceptions: Twitter can influence peoples opinion about a brand, in fact 85.5% of users who took part in the survey agreed that they have formed a more positive perception of a brand or company as a result of using Twitter and 68% agreed that they have formed a more negative perception about a brand or company as a result of using Twitter [5]. Lastly, the power of Twitter seems to hold in the fact that 32% of users have actually bought a service or product as a result of using Twitter; 70% have recommended a product and over 90% found out about a service or product as a result of Twitter, meaning they have used as an information source. Therefore this survey clearly indicates that it is important for companies and brands to take a serious look at Twitter and take part in the conversation; however companies must take into account that they have to join the conversation and not spam users (SPOT ON PR).
These statistics are from February 2010 Survey
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2.1.3 101 things brands should know about Twitter This survey conducted in February of 2010 states some positive comments and trends for the use of Twitter. 95% of users who took the survey stated that they welcomed brand engagement; 65% are interested in receiving special offers and 88% would recommend a brand based on their Twitter experience and 82% would be willing to buy a product or service from a brand that a relationship with me on Twitter. Users indicated that they do not appreciate advertising and self-promotion; rather they like to have a personal relationship with the brand. They also advise a brand to be ready to be fully engaged. Brands should try a half-hearted effort and then abandon Twitter, this will result negative reputation reputation management is important. 2.1.4 Middle-East and North Africa Facebook Demographics The latest report provided by SPOT ON PR was published in May 2010. Therefore more accurate MENA statistics is taken directly from www.facebakers.com a Facebook Statistics website The SPOT ON PR report provides the general structure that will be reported here. The SPOT ON PR report stated that there are 15,000,000 users that currently use Facebook across the MENA region. The segmentation of percentages falls to the following: 22% of Facebook users are from Egypt and it comprises the largest MENA group, 15% are from KSA, 12% from Morocco, 11% from UAE and six percent from Jordan. 50% of Facebook users have selected English as their preferred language of correspondence; 25% correspond in French and only 23% correspond in Arabic. A report written by Abbas Alidina for Logics.com stated that users are over a thirty day period ending May 22, 2010, Facebook growth has been significant, Table 3 shows displays the growth in ascending order. Egypt has added 322,000; a 9.6% increase Jordan has added 55,000; a 6.2% increase
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Morocco has added 99,000; a 5.6% increase Saudi Arabia has added 119,000; a 5.3% increase UAE has added 153,000; a 9.5% increase Increase in Facebook population over a 30- day period ending May 22, 2010 Country Egypt UAE KSA Morocco Jordan Number of People 322,000 153,000 119,000 99,000 55,000
Table 3: Facebook population increase over a 30-day period
Percentage 9.6 % 9.5 % 5.3 % 5.6 % 6.2 %
For each country listed in this report, the top brands and media are listed. This is done to provide a view of where each countrys interests lies. In many instances, gaming and news top the lists. This shows that there are similarities between MENA users and international users. Moreover, businesses can use this information to explore how to tackle market segments. More detailed demographics are presented for each country. Appendix F provides these statistics in tabular format for easy comparisons. Egypt: According to Facebakers.com Egypt currently has 4,262,800 users and is considered to hold the twenty-second place in Facebook usage (the top five countries are USA, Indonesia, UK, Turkey and France in that order). Facebook penetration rate is currently at 5.3%. Since the SPOT ON PR report was written, it has risen 1.3%. The penetration against the online population is currently 25% a five percent increase since May. The top five brands in Egypt are: 1. Vodafone Egypt 2. Coca Cola Egypt 3. City Stars Egypt
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4. Sprite Egypt 5. Islamic Design House The top three media in Egypt are: 1. Akher Akhbar al Tabiya fi Misr wal Watan al Arabi (Latest Health News in Egypt and Arab World) 2. Egypt Eyes 3. Daily News Egypt
Age:
50% of users are between the ages of 18 and 24. This is around 8% increase reporting from SPOT ON PR. There are 28% of users that are between the ages of 25 and 34. This number has not changed since SPOT ON published the report. Eleven percent of the Facebook community is over 35 years of age. This is a one percent increase since May. Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 4: Age distribution in Egypt
Egypt 12 % 50 % 28 % 7% 2% 1% 1%
Gender:
Males out number female users (68% to 38%) and the statistics are consistent since May 2010. Gender Divide
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Gender Male Female
Table 5: Gender divide in Egypt
Egypt 62 % 38 %
Language Preference:
According to SPOT ON PR usage of Facebooks Arabic intereface has grown sharply over the past year. However statistics show that English is the predominant language of usage for Egyptians and is currently sitting at 64.6%, Arabic usage is 34.3 % and 0.3% users use the French interface. Language Preference Language English Arabic French
Table 6: Languagedistribution in Egypt
Egypt 64.6 % 34.3 % 0.3 %
Alexa Ranking:
Facebook is the second ranked site in Egypt; Twitter is the thirty-third place; Watwet is ranked at 13,319; D1G is at 206 and the Alexa site has no information on the ranking of LinkedIn in Egypt. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
Social Media Platform
Egypt 2 33 N/A 200
Facebook Twitter LinkedIN D1G

Table 7: Social Media Ranking according to Egypt
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) KSA usage of Facebook takes on the thirty-second place world-wide. Saudi population that is currently connected onto Facebook is 2 922 780, since the SPOT ON PR report was published,
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there is an increase of over 600,000 users. Facebook has penetrated 11.3% of the overall population and 29.8% of the online population. Since May there has been a four percent increase in population penetration. The top 5 brands on Facebook in KSA are: 1. XBOX 2. XBOX Daily News 3. XBOX Australia and New Zealand 4. XBOX DE 5. XBOX Canada
Age:
According to Facebakers.com 38% of the Facebook population are between the ages of 18 and 24. This is an eight percent increase since May. Moreover, 35% of this population is between the ages of 25 and 34 which is a one percent decrease since May. 15% are over the age of 35, again there is a one percent decrease since May.
Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65

Table 8: Age distributions in KSA
KSA 13 % 36 % 35 % 10 % 3% 1% 1%
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Gender:
The gender divide in KSA follows the same trend along the MENA region, however, KSA is in the lead with 69% males and 31% females. It seems that there is a two percent shift towards the males since May.
Gender Ratios Gender Male Female

Table 9: Gender divide in KSA
KSA 69 % 31 %
Language Preferences:
KSA is the only country in this study that has an almost equal divide with language preferences. The ratio is slightly in the English favor with 49% of the population prefer to use the English interface and 48.6% prefer the Arabic interface. Also 0.3% of users use the French interface. Language Preference Language English Arabic French
Table 10: Language Preference in KSA
KSA 49 % 48.6 % 0.6 %
Alexa Rankings:
In May 2010, Facebook held the fifth position, however almost six months later Facebook has moved up to the fourth place. Moreover, Twitter holds the fifty-second place, while D1G holds 162nd place. LinkedIn statistics are not present for KSA in alexa.com.
Social Media Sites Ranking per Country

KSA Facebook Twitter 5 49
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LinkedIN D1G
Table 11: Social Media rankings in KSA
N/A 169
Morocco: Facebakers.com states that the current has 2 268 420 users, a 22% increase since May of 2010. The percent of penetration from Internet users is 21.7%. In May it was 17% which means it has increased by a little over four percent. The percent of penetration of the population is 7.17% -- again there is an increase since May as it was documented to be six percent. Morocco is in the fortieth position in terms of usage of Facebook. The top two brands listed in Facebakers.com are: 1. Renault Maroc 2. Sony Ericsson Maroc
Age:
Age distribution is Morocco follows the similar trends of the MENA region. 46% of Facebook users are between the ages of 18 and 24. This approximately translates to an eight percent increase since May. Moreover, 24% of users are between the ages of 25 and 34, nine percent of users are over the age of 35.
Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 Page 33 Morocco 21 %
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18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 12: Age distributions in Morocco
46 % 24 % 6% 2% 1% 0.5 %
Gender:
In terms of male to female users, Morocco also follows the norms of the MENA region with females representing 39% of users while males are 61% of all users. Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 13: Gender divide in Morocco
Morocco 62 % 38 %
Language Preferences:
French is the predominant language of use in all of the North African countries (Algeria, Tunis and Morocco). This is reflected in interface usage of Facebook. 82.3% of all Moroccan Facebook users prefer the French interface, while 10.6% use the Arabic interface and a mere 5.6 percent use the English interface. Language Preference Language English Arabic French
Table 14: Language Preference in Morocco
Morocco 5.6 % 10.6 % 82.3 %
Alexa Ranking:
Facebook is ranked the second most viewed site in Morocco. Twitter holds the thirty-sixth position; LinkedIn holds the seventy-eighth position; and D1G holds the 289th position. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
Morocco 1
Facebook
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Twitter LinkedIN D1G
Table 15: Social media rankings in Morocco
40 79 292
United Arab Emirates (UAE) There are currently 2 007 080 Facebook users, this represents an increase of 20.47% increase since May 2010. In terms of penetration, from an Internet users stance, Facebook is currently at 53.47%, the highest in the MENA region and it has increased since May by over eight percent. In terms of overall population penetration Facebook is 40.33%. This is again an increase since May by around 7 percent. Therefore those who are becoming Internet users are more or less joining Facebook too. The top brands on Facebook are: 1. Emirates Airline 2. Burger King UAE 3. Etisalat UAE 4. Emirates Airlines 5. Etihad airways
Age:
As quoted from the SPOT ON PR report: the UAE is the most developed Facebook community in the MENA region. They have the biggest spread of age groups, with the loWest percentage of under 25s in MENA and the highest percentage of over 30s 46% of users are between the age of 25 and 34; 16% are between the ages of 35 and 44; and 24% are between 18 and 24. Age Distributions Age Segments UAE
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Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 16: Age distributions in UAE
8% 24 % 46 % 16 % 4% 1% 1%
Gender:
The MENA trend continues with having a 65% of male population to 35% female. Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 17: Gender divide in UAE
UAE 65 % 35 %
88% of users prefer to use Facebooks English interface, while there are only 9.3% of users use the Arabic interface and a mere 0.8% French interface users. The UAE shows the greatest amount of Facebook users who prefer to use English. Language Preference Language English Arabic French
Table 18: Language preference in UAE
UAE 88 % 9.3 % 0.8 %
Alexa Rankings:
In May 2010, Facebook held the second ranking in the UAE, however since then Facebook has become the 3rd in the country. Twitter is holding 15th place; LinkedIn 19th place and D1G holds the 165th place. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
UAE
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Table 19: Social media ranking in UAE
3 16 18 186
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Jordan was chosen to be part of this study as companies there are innovators in the field of email and social media. Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury led a team of people to develop Maktoob.com that was later bought by Yahoo! in 2008 (Sekhri). Watwet was an initiative developed by another team led by Karim Arafat. Watwet is considered to be a clone of Twitter, and those who use Watwet micro-blog less frequently than those of Twitter. Watwets advantage over Twitter is that it allows two-way SMS via telecom providers each in Jordan (ZAIN) and KSA (MOBILY) (Saqer). D1G was also developed by a team of Jordanians lead by Dr. Usama Fayyad in 2007. Jeeran is as well a Jordanian initiative and is now being hailed as one of the largest Arab user content generated platforms (Jeeran). According to Facebakers, Jordans rank in Facebook is in the 63rd position. The Facebook population is 1,030,280 and this is considered to be 16.08% of total population penetration and 59.15% of the total online population. The top five brands in Jordan are the same as those of KSA: 1. XBOX 2. XBOX Daily News 3. XBOX Australia and New Zealand 4. XBOX DE 5. XBOX Canada
Age:
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48% of the Facebookpopulation has indicated that they are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. 26% of people who use Facebook in Jordan are in between 24 and 34 years of age; Twelve percent are over the age of 35. Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 20: Age distributions in Jordan
Jordan 15 % 48 % 26 % 7% 3% 1% 1%
Gender:
Jordan has the highest percentage of female users amongst the five countries being studied. Females account for 42% of users while males are 58%. Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 21: Gender divide in Jordan
Jordan 58 % 42 %
Jordanians only work in one of two languages with the majority (68%) choosing English. Arabic only accounts for 31%. Language Preference Language English Arabic French
Table 22: Language preference in Jordan
Jordan 68 % 31 % N/A
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Alexa Rankings:
Facebook is ranked in the second position; Twitter holds the 25th position; LinkedIn holds the 51st position; D1G holds position number 94. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
Jordan Facebook Twitter LinkedIN D1G

Table 23: Social media ranking in Jordan
2 25 45 86
2.2 The Western Social Media Consumer

Globally, Facebook is ranked in the second place, Twitter in the tenth place and LinkedIn in the twenty second place. There are numerous research companies in the West who are conducting surveys and obtaining large amounts of statistics with regards to consumer demographics, motivations, behavior and interactions with social media mediums. As with the trends seen in the MENA region, social networking and media are seeing momentous year on year growth 2. 2.1 Facebook Demographics for the Top Three Western Countries In order to compare the MENA region with the West, statistics are provided for the top Western countries that use Facebook. These countries are: USA (ranked first), UK (ranked third) and France (ranked fifth). The country in second place is Indonesia while the country in the fourth place is Turkey. United States of America: The USA is ranked in the first position on Facebook in term of users with a total of 143,090,140 users across the entire country. The top five brands listed are: 1. XBOX 2. Taco Bell
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3. Walmart 4. Best Buy 5. JCPenny XBOX is also mentioned is also the number one brand in KSA and Jordan. The top five Media: 1. Cartoon Network 2. NPR 3. The Onion 4. Animal Planet 5. The New York Times
Age:
The biggest two age groups each holding a 25% share are individuals between 18 and 24 and between 25 and 34. The group aged between 35 and 44 account for eighteen percent of the Facebook population while the age group between 45 and 54 account for twelve percent. Ten percent of the Facebook population is over the age of 55. MENA users who are over the age of 55 tend to be negligible accounting for one percent of the users per country. Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 24: Age distributions in USA
USA 11 % 25 % 25 % 18 % 12 % 7% 3%
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Gender:
Unlike the trends observed in the MENA region, female users outnumber males. Females account for 56% of users while males account for 44% of users. Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 25: Gender divide in USA
USA 62 % 38 %
Alexa Rankings
According to alexa.com, US traffic to Facebook accounts for the second most visited site, Twitter is the eighth, and LinkedIn is the 15th. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
USA Facebook Twitter LinkedIN D1G

Table 26: Social media ranking in USA
2 8 15 N/A
The United Kingdom (UK) With a Facebook population of 28,413,560 the UK is ranked in the third place. Facebook has penetrated the overall population by 45.57% and the online population by 55.23%. The top brands: 1. iTunes (UK) 2. Starbucks UK 3. Smirnoff GB 4. Vodafone UK 5. BlackBerry UK & Ireland
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The top five media: 1. BBC World News 2. The Guardian 3. MySpace UK 4. MTV UK 5. Republic.co.uk MENA countries which Facebakers indicated that they had top media also listed news websites in their top media sites.
Age:
Age distribution shows similar trends as in the US. Fifty-four percent of the Facebook population is equally divided between two age groups: between 18 to 24 and between 25 to 34. 17% of the users are between the ages of 35 and 44 while nine percent is between 45 and 54 years of age. Six percent account for users who are older than 55 years of age.
Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65

Table 27: Age distribution in the UK
UK 14 % 27 % 27 % 17 % 9% 4% 2%
Gender:
As in the US, the gender divide is more biased towards female users with 52%. Males account for 48% of users.
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Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 28: Gender divide in the UK
UK 48 % 52 %
Alexa Rankings:
The alexa site ranked the UKs usage of the sites with Facebook taking the second place in generating traffic, Twitter in the eleventh position and LinkedIn in the fourteenth position. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country
UK Facebook Twitter LinkedIN D1G

Table 29: Social media rankings in the UK
2 11 14 N/A
France: Sitting in the fifth rank of Facebook usage, France has a total of 19,755,460 Facebook users. This accounts for a penetration in the population of around 30% and a penetration of the online population of 44.27%. The top brands are: 1. Oasis Fun Page 2. Nike Football France 3. M&Ms France 4. Schtroumpf Haribo 5. La vache qui rit
The top five media are: 1. Equipe de France 2. MTV France
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3. FRANCE 24 English 4. VICE FRANCE 5. auFeminin.com
Age:
Frances age distribution is between those of the MENA region and those of the West. 31% of Facebook users are between the age of 18 and 24 while 28% are between 25 to 34 years of age. Thirteen percent of users are between the ages of 35 and 44; ten percent are over the age of 45. Age Distributions Age Segments Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
Table 30: Age distributions in France
France 17 % 31 % 28 % 13 % 6% 3% 1%
Gender:
Gender distribution follows the trends of the West with females accounting for 52% and males account for 48%. Gender Ratios Gender Male Female
Table 31: Gender divide in France
France 48% 52 %
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Alexa Rankings:
The alexa rankings in France are shown in the following table. Facebook is in the second position, Twitter is in the 27th position and LinkedIn is in the 63rd. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country France 2 27 63 N/A
Table 32: Social media ranking in France
2.2.2 Twitter Usage: From Edison research it is determined that 84% of Americans, aged over 12 years have some form of Internet access, with 84% of those having a broadband Internet connection (compared with 13% dial-up access). Moreover, over 50 % of Americans have at least one social networking profile. As such, the US is seeing a significant year over year growth. The majority of people who are getting connected are in the 12-17 age group with 78% growth, followed closely with 18-24 at a 77% rate and the 25-45 age segment with 65% rate. Awareness about Twitter has increased significantly due to the fact that many television, radio and print media are incorporating their Twitter accounts within their programs. However, Twitter is only used by seven percent of the American population. Moreover, most Twitter users tend to read and follow others without actively contributing themselves. Interestingly, as opposed to MENA Twitter users, Americans are split between habitual tweeters and those who access occasionally: 15% tweet less than once a month; 22% of users tweet at least once a month; 30% tweet at least once a week; 15% tweet at least once a day;
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and 18% tweet several times a day. As stated above, MENA users are more active tweeters with 62% tweeting at least two to five times a day. Another interesting statistic that is significantly different than MENA trends is that 53% of Twitter users are female while 47% are male. Statistics that show similarities to MENA users are as follows: There are many more users connected onto Facebook than there are users using Twitter. MENA only mentions 15,000 Twitter users while Facebook users have reached fifteen million. American Twitter users only account for seven percent of American population Twitter users are also characterized as early adopters of technology. 51% of American Twitter users are far more likely to follow a brand. MENA respondents stated that 70% have formed a more positive perception of a brand after using Twitter. This indicates that MENA Twitter usage in businesses is important to integrate within marketing plans. In the US, celebrity voices are far reaching, by having a celebrity tweet something will most likely have a thousand follower-reach as opposed to an average consumer having a hundred follower reach. This is not the case in the MENA region celebrities do not influence MENA users as much, rather they follow events. Therefore if businesses were to endorse events, they will be more connected to their followership, as opposed to having a celebrity backing a product in the MENA region.
2.3 Article Review
Across the world, and now including the MENA region, the consumer is being referred to as the Consumer 2.0 (Chahine, Bhargava, Smayra and Belcaid), a consumer who will not absorb online content passively, but rather be proactive with the content. The consumer has become social, and looks for information online before making purchasing decisions. According to the
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survey conducted by SPOT ON PR and Effective Measure, 32% of MENA users purchase products online at least once. Of those who are active, there is a significant trend amongst the buyers; these trends will be discussed in the section titled Secondary Analysis. In the following subsections are titled according to the titles of the articles being reviewed. 2.3.1 Growth of Internet Market and Connectivity There is a huge potential market that is available in the MENA region and is expected to reach in the billions of dollars in the next few years. The Booz Allen report established that there is a significant growth in Internet connections (41%) and mobile phone connectivity (115%). There are emerging segmentation which are namely youth and women. According to the Booz Allen report the segmentations that are emerging are (Chahine, Bhargava, Smayra and Belcaid): Youth which account for 33% of the market Female Socialites which account for 31% of the market Leisure Males which account for 31% of the market Professionals 5%
Additionally, with this growth, users are depending on social media to make purchasing decisions. YouGovSiraj a survey company based in the UAE has revealed that 80% of UAE citizens do in fact use social media to do so (AME INFO 23rd February 2010).
2.3.2 The Arab Media Scene From the secondary analysis in the previous sections, it has been revealed that MENA users are avid Internet users; however they still consume television, radio and print.
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Print Media: Although print media is declining worldwide and even in the MENA region, The Arab Media Outlook report of 2009-2013 indicated that print is still growing albeit at a very decreased pace. Some MENA countries are being awarded with new licenses to launch printed materials. In terms of advertising revenue, magazine circulation is much higher than print. With the fact that the population of the Arab region is relatively younger than their counterparts in the West, many are turning to the Internet to get their news. One of the threats that is seen in the West is online newspapers and blogs. Although this is affecting the Arab region, it is not greatly impacting the print. Hence print is still important to MENA users as a source of obtaining information and viewing ads. According to the report, people who were surveyed indicated that 41 percent of them read the printed newspaper while 40% read online blogs. Moreover, journalists are increasingly using Internet blogging sites as source for news coverage (Arab Media Outlook). This is in fact in line with the report presented by SPOT ON PR with the fact that MENA users are interacting often with journalists and bloggers. Blogging is not seen as a threat to the print, instead it is viewed as a complement (Arab Media Outlook p34). The region is trying several methods to overcome the slowdown. Zawya.com a UAE based business information company has taken its content online and now mainly caters to business news. It has adopted a subscription business model set on three-tiers. Another method is that print is heading for consolidated platforms. Television Revenues generated from television are quite low due to several reasons. Firstly there are around 600 Free-to-Air (FTA) channels distributed across the Arab region, these do not include
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the paid TV channels or the terrestrial channels. This enables a significant fragmentation of the viewing population. Many of the FTA channels act as premium channels by providing recent movies and TV offerings. Moreover, many of the FTA channels do not run on a revenue earning model. Thus this creates an intense difficulty for those channels that do run on advertising revenues. Finally, the majority of the channels in the Arab region does not have a mechanism for measuring viewership, but depends on surveys conducted by market researchers in the region. This is not the case in the USA by which viewership is measured according to cities and states, advertisements there are more accurately distributed according to targets. However, it is believed by the report that there will be strong growth in this area over the next upcoming years. Online and Mobile Globally, the Arab region has only achieved twelve percent broadband penetration with the GCC countries leading the way. Both the Arab Media Outlook report and the Booz Allen research both forecasted a huge growth in the upcoming years. It is predicted also that although many international companies such as Facebook and Google have significant market share, there is a huge potential for Arab players to make a mark in the region. Some examples that are seen are Jeeran.com and Maktoob.com.
2.3.3 Impact of Social Media in the Region It has to be noted that by far, the UAE is leading the way in social media usage and consumption across the MENA region. Many companies in the UAE are using social media to interact with consumers. However, this usage is not as what consumers expect. Many companies are talking at their consumers as opposed to engaging with them across the different mediums.
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A research paper titled Social Media Marketing in the UAE revealed that many companies in the UAE are only beginning to use social media as a means to communicate with their consumers. The means of communication is in the form of advertising to them. This is resulting in a conflict of what social media networks are intending a sharing community of personal experiences and engagement. It is the conclusion of this research that companies in the UAE should pay closer attention to their customers and engage more over the social media mediums, those in the MENA region who connect on social media expect high quality of communications with others on social media sites. Although this will not affect the outcome much, the author believes that this research comes with a skewed survey base: it has been stated that 71% of participants in the survey conducted for this research are female and most between the ages of 15 and 30, this is not a true representation of UAEs social media users. As it has been stated previously, the majority of users in the UAE are older than the age group quantified and are mostly male.
2.3.4 The potential of Social Media in the Workforce Using social media responsibly in the workforce only enhances the performance and knowledge of work related issues, by which peers discuss problems and issues with others as well as discussing issues with experts from within the field of their business. The press release titled UAE professionals active social media users stated that 66% of residents indicated that they use social media sites at least somewhat actively, meaning that they use it a minimum of two to three times per week. Professionals mainly use sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to gain knowledge and experience from peers (Stoeterbroek and Taifur). Even though the UAE has one of the most active communities in social media, more than half of the companies forbid employee access, making the UAE the most restrictive amongst the thirteen companies surveyed in this report.
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Facebook is the mostly used social networking tool across the MENA region averaging a rank in the second place except for UAE were it is currently ranked in the third place. Twitter is gaining a lead, however companies that do use Twitter must engage with users on Twitter, refrain from spamming, self-promoting and advertising and be truly genuine with their contributions, as Twitter users in the MENA region tend to be more mature (age wise than their counterparts of the West).
2.3.5 Comparison between Social Media Sites and Traditional Media Usage Traditional media is usually a single one-way communications message that is usually broadcasted from TV, radio and advertisements in newspaper and magazines. It is designed to be shouted out to a large audience that may or may not be interested in the product being sold, in the hopes that someone will be interested and becomes a customer. Nowadays, the probability of a commercial or an ad to catch the eye of the consumer is wildly challenged. However, there are two schools of thought that are emerging: 1) Those that say leave traditional media for the cheaper and more tuned social media marketing 2) Those that say a combined offering of marketing is the key to ensuring customer buy-in. In the survey (in the later paragraph, it is evident that the majority of business executives who participated in the survey believe that a combined approach is the optimal solution.) In the following sections, an analysis of each platform will be investigated briefly: Television Ever since the introduction of television time-shifting such as TIVO and ShowBox , consumers can simply fast forward over the commercials in pursuit of their favorite television programs. Moreover, it is too costly to create a commercial only to have it ignored. The cost of the commercial depends on creating the commercial as well as airing it on TV. Also, the cost
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depends on the required time slot. According to gaebler.com, the average cost of a TV commercial still runs as high as $100,000 (Gaebler.com Resources for Entrepreneurs). Print Ads Readership of newspapers in Europe, the Far-East and the US have noticed a notable decline in circulations and are being replaced with online subscriptions of their newspapers. This is a trend that is emerging slowly in the Arab region (as mentioned previously, the Arab Media Outlook still believes that there will be an increase in readership of newspapers albeit at a 2.3% growth rate up to the year 2013). This is not the case in other parts of the world. Moreover, the cost of placing the ads in the newspaper is costly and the effects of it are much lower than placing an ad online. Social Media Like other forms of media interactivity, social media has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
Cost effective, campaigns can be started and stopped according to the business at hand. Moreover cost wise it is cheaper than TV ads, print ads and billboards
Targeted, social media can be thought of as upon-request marketing. Better feedback, brands have almost instantaneous feedback from their customers on what is going well, what needs improvement and what should not be repeated.
Disadvantages:
Unlike other forms of media, social media is time consuming. Business executives have to be prepared to spend numerous hours per week to build brand awareness, answer questions and interact with their consumers.
Moreover, once a company invested in social media, it cannot abandon ship. There has to be some form of reputation management.
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2.3.6 A View of American Business Executives In the next chapter (Survey Findings) some of the questions were based on the report provided by Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner. The author had several assumptions: 1) Western business executives and MENA executives have similar characteristics 2) Western executives and MENA executives usage is similar 3) Tools used are the same The report investigates some demographics about the business executive and discusses their views on benefits. Some of the interesting statistics are listed below: 85% of business executives who took part in the survey reported that the first advantage of using social media was to generate exposure their businesses. 63% indicated that social media increased traffic to their businesses. 54% indicated that they witnessed a rise in search rankings. 52% indicated that they generated qualified leads. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top social media tools used by business executives.
2.3.7 Conclusions of Literature Review Documentation that is available on this subject is very few, as a matter of fact, what is available has been included in this research to provide an overview of existing research. However, a few emerging trends have been identified. Firstly, the MENA region is growing at an accelerated speed and the potential revenue creation that is becoming available is increasing due to the connectivity and the infrastructure that is being laid out. With this increase the usage by segments are taking form and the biggest two that are emerging are women and male youths.
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Secondly, Facebook and Twitter are the leading two social media networks that are being used and there is a gap in locally created social media networks. If Arab nations do not create their own versions of social media networks, the bulk of revenues will continue to be absorbed by these giants (Facebook and Twitter). Thirdly, confidence in social media usage by businesses needs to increase as well as the type of communication. Instead of advertising and talking at consumers, businesses must find innovative ways to engage them.
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3.0 Interview with Director of Marketing at D1G
D1G started operations in November of 2006. During its first ten weeks it attracted more than 300,000 visitors and five million pages (AME INFO, February 2007). To reinforce its position in the Arab world it strategically acquired several other sites to become under the D1G umberella, of those are: Seenandjeem.com, a question and answer bank (AME INFO, February 2007) Yasater.com, a site that incorporates non business and non political news (AME INFO, March 2007) 66g.com, a games, mp3 downloads and movies (AME INFO, July 2007) Moreover, it has created a sister site purely for women and their concerns through a site named 7asnaa.com (the beautiful). Among the sites initiatives, it enabled the platform with services such as A9waat, or sounds. This service allows users to upload and share personal audio clips that can also become part of online discussions. The aim of D1G is to be the leading portal in the Middle East to cater to the needs of Arab youth in one meeting area. The following information about D1G was obtained through an interview conducted to Fouad Jeryes, the Director of Business Development and Marketing.
Age Population of the popular site is distributed amongst four categories: six percent of users accommodate ages less than 17; 53% of users fall between the ages of 18 and 24; 37% of users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and only three percent make up users over the age of 35.
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Age Distributions for D1G Under 17 18 24 25 34 Over 35
Table 33: Age distribution for D1G users
6% 53 % 37 % 3%
Gender Gender distribution is similar to those of other social media sites with the majority (60%) males and 40 % females. D1G Gender Ratios Male Female
Table 34: Gender divide for D1G users
60 % 40 %
Country Distributions D1G traffic is segmented into four groups; Gulf States (31%), North African countries (20%), East Mediterranean countries (38%) and other regions (11%). Traffic distributions are as follows: KSA takes up 65% of Gulf States traffic which equals: 20% of overall traffic UAE takes up 17% of Gulf States traffic which equals: 5.27% of overall traffic Morocco takes up 41%of North African traffic which equals: 8.2% of overall traffic Egypt takes up 65% of East Mediterranean traffic which equals: 24.7% of overall traffic Jordan takes up 18% of East Mediterranean traffic which equals: 6.84% of overall traffic The five countries listed make up 65% of all traffic to D1G. Jeryes mentions that the highest activity over the site is on the forum section, followed by the video section. The online trends that they are experiencing today are users will be accessing the Internet for a specific reason. They have created a service called Diwan by which users are allowed to create very specific and content driven social networks under D1G umbrella. As an example, 7asnaa.d1g.com was created, a site catered for womens interests.
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D1Gs Uniqueness
According to Jeryes, people use D1G because it fills a gap in the online content space (or content
space in general) in the Arab world. Most sites fail to deliver rich media services and open platforms to users in the region. Moreover D1G contains diverse libraries of relevant photos, videos, audio clips and articles. In the Arab online space, users have a specific taste with regards to content and design. Unlike most sites, D1G concentrates on a special segment of the market (Jeryes). D1Gs Usage The majority of its users (90%) are considered to be of the Youth generation (15-30 years). To D1G, this is considered a critical age that allows the D1G team to influence individuals towards content, brands, and lifestyles. D1G is accessed through users laptops; however, the D1G development team is adding mobile access and applications as well. The highest activity on the site is on forums and videos which is considered typical for Arab users. Business Benefits from Accessing D1G The concentration on user generated content that appeals to youth attracts a great deal of business for D1G. Business partners and advertisers see the value in D1Gs target market because they feel youth are attracted to them at an influential age where they are associating themselves with brand names and products. Businesses cater to these users early and appeal to their interest in manners that attract them. Businesses join D1G by offering banners, SMS, SMS sponsorship and overlays within D1G pages.
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4.0 Survey Findings
The survey comprises of 21 closed questions. The graphs that are portrayed in this research are provided in both Arabic and English due to the fact that the survey was bilingual at the time of launching. The analysis of the survey questions are segmented into 5 categories: 1. Demographics 2. Company and budget 3. Usage of Social Media 4. Motivations and benefits 5. Challenges and barriers 6. Perceptions about social media It should be noted that the survey results are very small and thus do not represent a true picture of what is happening in the MENA region. Rather they show that business executives do have awareness in social media and this report is considered to be the beginning of an exploration.
4.1 Demographics
The survey contained five questions that dealt with Business executives demographic data (age, gender, country of residence and education). 4.1.1 Age Out of 58 respondents 12 did not complete this question. 23 (50%) of the remaining respondents selected the category Between 31 and 40 years old. The other notable sections were between 41 and 50 years old with 11 respondents (24%) and between 26 and 30 years old 7 respondents (15%). Page 58
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Age
Less than 25 years old - 52
Between 26 and 30 years old -- 62 03 Between 31 and 40 years old -- 13 04 Between 41 and 50 years old -- 14 05 Between 51 and 60 years old -- 15 06
Figure 1: Age of Business Executives
According to the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report the median age of respondents were between 41 and 50 years old. Which leads to the conclusion that Arab business executives who use social media users approximately 10 years younger than their counterparts of the West. 4.1.2 Gender Out of 58 respondents, 46 completed this question. The majority of respondents were male with 42 respondents (91%).
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Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011 Gender
Male -- Female --
Figure 2: Gender divide for Survey participants
The Social Examiner reported that there were a slightly higher number of female users to those of male users with a 60% - 40% split. 4.1.3 Education This survey question did not include respondents with no higher educational background. But it is consistent to say that all respondents had some formal training. Out of 58 respondents, 46 answered this question with the following: 20 respondents (43%) have a Bachelors Degree, 17 respondents (37%) have a Masters Degree and 9 respondents (20%) have a Post-Graduate degree. According to data obtained from Boolean Black Belt 75% of LinkedIn users have at least a college education (Cathey).
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Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011 Education

Bachelors -- Masters --
Post-graduate --
Figure 3: Education qualifications of survey respondents
4.1.4 Country of Work The survey was sent out to respondents in five countries: Jordan, KSA, UAE, Morocco and Egypt. The question was asked Of the 58 respondents 46 completed this portion of the survey with the following divide:
Country of Work
Egypt -- Jordan -- KSA -- Morocco -- UAE --
Figure 4: Country of work
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4.1.5 Preferred Language of Correspondence The findings in this question are interesting; out of the 58 respondents, 46 answered this question with the majority of the participants choosing to correspond in English 40 respondents (87%). Both Arabic and French accounted for three users each. In the previous chapter titled Secondary Research, findings shows that the Arabic language is on the rise.
Language
Arabic -- English -- French --
Figure 5: Preferred language of respondents
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16
14
12
10 8 6 4 2 0 Egypt -- Jordan - KSA -- Morocco -- UAE - Arabic -- English -- French --
Figure 6: Preferred language against country of work
After performing a cross tabulation on country of residence versus language preference shows the distribution of languages in the countries. As expected, French is one of the predominant languages in Morocco; therefore the 6.5% participants who preferred to use French reside in Morocco. However, the author suspected that the there would be a higher percentage of participants who preferred correspondence in Arabic to reside in KSA. Out of the participants, only one KSA business executive chose Arabic as his/her preferred language.
4.2 Company and Budgets

The survey contained three questions regarding company and budgets of participating business executives.
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4.2.1 Size of the Business 37 business executives responded that they were part of a small sized company (less than 500 employees) which equals around 80%.
Large corporation (more than 2,000 employees) -- - 0002 40
35
30 25 20 15
Medium corporation (between 500 and 1,999 employees) -- 1999 - 005 Small business (less than 500 employees) -- - 005
10
5 0 Total
Figure 7: Size of Businesses
Analyzing further the other two segments, the findings show that Jordans participants are only part of smaller corporations.
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14
12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Egypt - Jordan - KSA - Morocco - UAE - Medium corporation (between 500 and 1,999 employees) -500 - 9991 Small business (less than 500 employees) -- - 005
Large corporation (more than 2,000 employees) -- - 0002
Figure 8: Size of business against Country
According to The Social Media Examiner, 88% of respondents were part of a company less than 500 employees this number also includes sole proprietors (46%), small business owners (17%) and small businesses (25%). 9% is allocated for medium and large companies. The survey shows that 9 respondents (19.6%) are part of medium or large corporations. This leads to the conclusion that Arab companies of larger scale are using social media more than their Western counterparts. 4.2.2 Budget Out of 58 participants, 48 answered this question. The majority of users, specifically 58% indicated that their budget for marketing is less than $30,000. There were no participants who
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selected a budget Between $51,000 and $70,000. Budgets tended to polarize either less than $50,000 or more than $91,000 with the majority at the lower end.
30
Less than $30,000 -- 000,03 Between $31,000 and $50,000 -- 000,13 000,05 Between $71,000 and $90,000 -- 000,17 000,09 Between $91,000 and $100,000 -- 000,19 000,001 More than $100,000 - 000,001
25
20
15
10
0
Figure 9: Company budget for Marketing
4.2.3 Budget Allocation: The question regarding budget allocation asked where was the budget planned on being invested in. 35 respondents (73%) chose Social Media and Traditional Media.
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35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Total
Figure 10: Budget allocation
Social Media alone -- Social Media and Traditional media -- Traditional media alone --
7 respondents (15%) selected Social Media Alone.
20 15 10 5 0 Social Media Social Media and Traditional media alone -- Traditional media alone -- --
Figure 11: Budget allocation against budget
Less than $30,000 -- 30,000 Between $31,000 and $50,000 - 000,13 000,05 Between $91,000 and $100,000 - 000,19 000,001 More than $100,000 -- 000,001
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12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Egypt - Jordan - KSA - Morocco - UAE - Less than $30,000 -- 30,000 Between $31,000 and $50,000 - 000,13 000,05 Between $71,000 and $90,000 - 000,17 000,09
Between $91,000 and $100,000 - 000,19 000,001

More than $100,000 -- 000,001
Figure 12: Budget allocation against company
Looking at the countries involved and marketing budget, participants from the UAE have indicated that their budgets have are less than $50,000. Some participants from Morocco, Egypt and KSA have indicated that they have a larger budget to invest in marketing. The question asking where the budget will be spent is an optional question, only 29 responses were received. The breakdown of this question is as follows: 14 respondents (48%) indicated that will spend the allocated budget on an in-house strategy. 8 respondents (28%) indicated that they will be outsourcing their marketing. 5 respondents (17%) indicated that they will deal with marketing in-house without a plan. 2 respondents (7%) indicated that they will be hiring personnel.
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9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Less than Between Between $30,000 -$31,000 $71,000 and and 30,000 $50,000 -- $90,000 - 000,17 000,13 50,000 000,09 Between More than $91,000 $100,000 - and $100,000 -- 100,000 91,000 100,000 In-house, ad-hoc -- In-house, develop a strategy - Outsourcing -- Plan on hiring --
Figure 13: Budget allocation against strategy
4.3 Social Media Usage
There were three questions dedicated to this area of the survey that included how long business executives have been using social media, how much time they spend using social media per week and forms of social media used. 4.3.1 Duration of Social Media Usage The question How long have you been using social media in your marketing strategy? led to 58 complete responses from participants.
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Experience in Social Media Usage in Marketing

Heard of it and not planning on using it -- Heard of it and am planning on using it -- Just getting started -- Been doing it for a few months -- Been doing it for a few years -- 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Total
Figure 14: Experience with social media usage
The results yielded: 2 respondents (3%) have heard of social media but are not planning on using it. 2 respondents (3%) have heard of social media and are planning on using it. 10 respondents (17%) are just getting started. 17 respondents (29%) have been using social media for a few months. 27 respondents (47%) have been using social media for a few years.
4.3.2 Length of Time Spent per Week The question How many hours per week do you spend using it lead to 56 out of 58 complete responses. 18 respondents (32%) indicated that they use social media Between 5 and 10 hours; 13 respondents (23%) indicated that they used it less than five hours. 35 respondents (45%) are using social media more than 10 hours per week.
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Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011 Usage Per Week
Less than 5 hours -- 5 Between 5 and 10 hours -- 5 01 Between 11and 20 hours -- 20 11 Between 21 and 30 hours -- 30 12 Between 31 and 40 hours -- 40 13 More than 40 hours -- 04 0 5 10 15 20 Total
Figure 15: Hours of usage per week
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9 8 7 6 Less than 5 hours -- 5 Between 5 and 10 hours -- 5 01 Between 11and 20 hours -- 11 02 Between 21 and 30 hours -- 21 03 Heard of it and not planning on using it -- Heard of it Just and am getting planning started -on using it -- Been doing it for a few months - Been doing it for a few years -- Between 31 and 40 hours -- 31 04 More than 40 hours -- 40
5
4 3 2 1 0
Figure 16: Hours of usage against experience of usage
Business executives who are just starting with social media to market their business are spending more than 5 hours. It is interesting to note that there is at least on executive who is just starting out and spending over 40 hours per week; at the same note there are no executives who are just starting out using social media less than five hours. There is a wide range of length of usage amongst those who have been using social media for a few years.
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4.3.3 Forms of Social Media Used and Understanding of Consumer This question requested that the respondent chooses all the fields that apply. All the participants answered this question: Twitter 33 respondents Facebook 41 respondents LinkedIn 51 respondents Blogs 20 respondents Watwet 1 respondent D1G 1 respondent Others 10 respondents; of those, www.plaxo.com was indicated twice, YouTube was indicated twice and the following indicated once: Journals, Xing, Ecademy, Hyves, Hi5, Marokko.nl, hababam.nl, Business Chamber, Foursquare, VIADEO, digg and slideshare. Since this survey was primarily presented to LinkedIn users, this result is biased in its favor. Even though twelve respondents did not answer Which country are you working from? the graphs show a clear indication that Egypt was the heaviest Facebook user:
Figure 17: Facebook usage by country
The graph indicates that thirteen users from Egypt; six users each from Jordan, KSA and Morocco and two users from UAE.
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The graph distribution of Twitter users over country is:
Figure 18: Twitter usage by country
The graph displays 11 users from Egypt, four users each from Jordan and KSA, six users from Morocco and two users from UAE.
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Use of blogs is shown:
Figure 19: Blogs usage by country
The graph illustrates that there are 8 users from Egypt, two from Jordan, one from KSA, three from Morocco and 2 from UAE. LinkedIn usage per country is shown:
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Egypt --
Jordan -- KSA -- Morocco -- UAE --
Figure 20: LinkedIn usage by country
51 out of the 58 users who completed this survey selected LinkedIn. Excluding the twelve individuals who did not complete the country of work question, the statistics of this survey show: 13 users from Egypt, 11 users from KSA, seven users from Jordan, 8 users from Morocco and four users from the UAE. 4.3.4 Business Executives Followers The question asking business executives perception of what type of consumers follow them yielded 47 responses out of a possible 58. The following definitions were taken from a report that categorized the personas of users titled The Social Profile by Exact Target. The survey described seven categories of followers namely: Shopper: These individuals primary concern is to shop, most of their other actions on social media relate to this activity. 2 respondents (4%) chose this category to describe their consumers. Information Seeker: Before making purchasing decisions, these individuals go online to read reviews and then make informed decision. 18 respondents (42.5%) chose this category of
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consumers. This is well in line with several documents detailing the consumers from UAE, as stated previously in the Secondary Research chapter. Enthusiast: These are consumers who tend to have offline hobbies and interests. Their interactions with social media tend to follow their interests. Only 2 respondents (4%) selected this option. Deal-Seekers: These consumers usually are active members who review products. Dealseekers are also individuals who look for promotional information about the products; however they tend not to be active in blogs. They tend to be looking for free samples. 4 respondents 9% chose this option to describe their followers. Cautious: These individuals primarily use social media to interact with family and close friends and are wary of interacting freely with whomever. 5 respondents11% chose this option. Business First: These individuals use the Internet and social media for business purposes. In addition they connect with other individuals with business connections in mind. 7 respondents 16% chose this option.
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Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011 Type of Consumers

18
Business First -- Consumers use the internet for business purposes, keeping up with the latest trends, communicating with business contacts, and making new connections through sites like LinkedIn - -- Cautious Very selective of who they communicate with -- --
16
14
Deal-Seeker take part in reviews but not so much blogs and look for promotional information about products -- --
12
10
Enthusiast have offline hobbies and interests -- --
8
Information Seeker go online to read reviews about products to make purchasing decisions -- --
Megaphone -- want to connect, educate, and share resources and information online with others. These consumers clearly fall into the influencer category -- --
0 Total
Shopper primary interest is shopping and interacting online -- --
Figure 21: Type of consumer
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To further investigate the perceptions of the business executives who took part in the survey, a cross tabulation was performed, the results are as follows: From the UAE a total of four business executives answered this question. The perception of these executives on who their consumers are indicates that two participants chose Deal seekers (50%), this evaluation is acceptable according to the secondary research conducted by SPOT ON PR, and YouGovSiraj indicate that people for the UAE read and take part in reviews, this is indicated by the fact that there is a higher number of Twitter users that come from this country. The other participants indicated Cautious (25%) and Business First (25%). The author expected that due to the larger Twitter community that there would have been an indication that some consumers were of the type Megaphone. However due to the small numbers of respondents this was not apparent. There were eight Moroccan respondents who took part in this question. Of those who took the survey, five respondents selected Information Seekers (62.5%) as their type of consumer. One respondent selected Megaphone, one selected Business First and one selected Cautious. There were a total of eleven respondents from KSA who took part in this question. Five respondents selected Information Seeker (45.4%); two participants selected Megaphone (18.2%); one chose Shopper; one selected Enthusiast; one selected Business First and one selected Deal Seeker. The majority of respondents for this question were from Egypt. These fifteen respondents also indicated the most variety of consumer types. Information Seeker accounted for four responses or 26.6%. This is also the case for business executives who selected Business First. There were two executives who selected Megaphone and two who selected Cautious. One executive selected Shopper, one selected Deal Seeker and one selected Enthusiast. Respondents from
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Egypt seem to have a larger array of business activities to indicate such diversified groups of users. Jordans business executives who took part in this question accounted for seven respondents. The majority of the respondents selected Information Seeker (57%). Two respondents selected Megaphone and one selected Cautious.
UAE --
Business First -- Consumers use the internet for business purposes, keeping up with the latest trends, communicating with business contacts, and making new connections through sites like LinkedIn -- -- Cautious Very selective of who they communicate with - --
Morocco --
Deal-Seeker take part in reviews but not so much blogs and look for promotional information about products - --
KSA --
Information Seeker go online to read reviews about products to make purchasing decisions -- -
Jordan --
Megaphone -- want to connect, educate, and share resources and information online with others. These consumers clearly fall into the influencer category -- -- Shopper primary interest is shopping and interacting online -- --
Egypt --
Enthusiast have offline hobbies and interests -- --
10
15
20
Figure 22: Type of consumer according to respondent country
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4.4 Motivations and Benefits
The question What do you consider the most benefits of Social Media? was a matrix question by which respondents choose how much they agree with the statements. 56 respondents answered the question with the following results:
Generating Exposure to Business

Agree --
Neutral - Strongly Agree --
Figure 23: Generating Exposure to Business
Generating Exposure to Business: 35 respondents strongly agree that social media does indeed generate exposure, 18 respondents merely agree and 3 respondents selected neutral. Of those that selected neutral, one respondent was just starting out to use social media and the other two were using social media for a few years. Better Understanding of the Customer: 25 respondents strongly agreed that social media enables one to better understand their consumer; 22 respondents agree, 1 respondent disagrees and 8 felt neutral to this question. One of the major attractions of using social media is to better understand the consumer. 81% of respondents agree with this statement. The majority of respondents who chose strongly agree spent between 5 and 10 hours weekly on social media. The individual who disagreed with this statement spends more than 40 hours.
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Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media 2011 Better Understand the Customer
Agree -- Disagree -- Neutral -- Strongly Agree --
Figure 24: Better understanding of the consumer
More Conversations about your Brand: 26 respondents agreed with this statement; 21 strongly agreed and 9 respondents were neutral. The majority of respondents that strongly agreed spent between 5 and 10 hours using social media.
More Conversations
Agree - Neutral - Strongly Agree -
Figure 25: Generation of more conversations
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Lower Costs: One of the advantages of using social media because of its lower costs in comparison to traditional media. 22 respondents strongly agreed with this statement; 19 respondents agreed; 14 were neutral and 1 respondent strongly disagreed, this respondent is just getting started with social media. Costs that are associated with social media come in terms of time investment more than monetary.
Lower Costs
Agree --
Neutral --
Strongly Agree -- Strongly Disagree --
Figure 26: Lower costs
Impacting Search Ranking: This question lead to the most diverse responses from participants; only 11 respondents strongly agreed with this statement while 26 respondents agreed. 16 respondents were neutral; 2 respondents disagreed and one strongly disagreed. Helped to Close Sales: This question lead to the most number of disagreed respondents, a total of 8. Moreover, 20 respondents selected neutral. Eight respondents selected strongly agreed and 20 respondents agreed. 35% of respondents were chose neutral were just starting to use social media. 25% who chose neutral used social media more than 40 hours per week.
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The higher number of respondents who chose neutral and disagree is due partly to the fact that this survey did not primary target business executives who worked in marketing or sales. Lower costs, impacting search ranking and helping to close sales were three areas that showed a higher percentage of respondents either being in disagreement of the statement or neutral. Again this could be explained that not all business executives use social media for marketing or sales purposes, however this is an area that could be investigated further.
4.5 Perceptions of Arab Business Executives about Social Media vs. Traditional Marketing
There were two questions allocated to this area of the study. The question do you think that social media marketing will replace traditional marketing in your company? lead to a total of 48 responses. 34 respondents (71%) stated that social media will not replace traditional means of marketing in their businesses.
Usage of social media over traditional
No -- Yes --
Figure 27: Perceptions if social media will be used instead of traditional media
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It costs too much: A total of 28 respondents disagree with this statement, of those 10 strongly disagree. 10 respondents are neutral to this question; 8 respondents agree and only 2 respondents strongly agree. In line with the previous question those who said yes were the ones that strongly agreed and the majority of those who agreed with this statement.
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 No -- Yes --
2
0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Figure 28: Perceptions against statement it costs too much
Traditional media is not that effective anymore, the consumer is ignoring it: The strong sentiments are in line with the previous question. Those who strongly disagree (4 participants) selected that social media will not replace traditional marketing, while those who strongly agree are the participants that selected yes to that question (3 participants). 17 participants disagreed with this statement; 15 were neutral and only 9 agreed. Social media is still in its infancy in the MENA region. As previously stated in the literature review, traditional media is still growing in the MENA region albeit at a slower pace. The difference here is that social media is being referred to as selective media, users are choosing to participate in it as opposed to being forced to look at it.
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16 14
12
10 8 6 4 2 0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree No -- Yes --
Figure 29: Perceptions against opinion that Traditional media is not that effective anymore
I have no knowledge of what the consumer wants: One of the advantages of social media is that it is traceable (Steitiyeh). Responses to this question lead the following results: 2
respondents strongly agreed with this statement; 6 respondents agreed; 17 respondents were neutral; 17 respondents disagreed and 4 respondents strongly disagreed. Again the strong sentiments are in line with the previous question.
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Agree Disagree Neutral Strongly Strongly Agree Disagree No -- Yes --
Figure 30: Perceptions against the statement "I have no knowledge of what the consumer wants "
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Both traditional marketing and social media marketing will complement each other: 92 % of respondents agree with this statement. Of those 58.3% (28) of respondents strongly agree with this statement; the rest (16 respondents) agree. Only four respondents felt neutral.
25 20 15 No -- 10 5 0 Yes --
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Figure 31: Perceptions against Both social and traditional forms of media will complement each other
Traditional marketing is more artistic: This question yielded the most diverse responses 2 respondents strongly agreed to this statement; 12 respondents agreed; 22 respondents were neutral; 10 respondents disagreed and 2 respondents strongly disagreed.
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16 14
12
10 8 6 4 2 0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree No -- Yes --
Figure 32: Perceptions against "Traditional marketing is more artistic"
Consumers enjoy having a say: This question indicated that respondents understood the fact that consumers are vocal about their wants and needs. 19 respondents strongly agreed to this statement; 21 agreed; seven respondents were neutral and 1 respondent disagreed.
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree No -- Yes --
Figure 33: Perceptions against "consumers enjoy having a say"
The majority of respondents showed a lack of understanding of what social media can offer a business. Their answers indicated that they will continue to use traditional media marketing and that social media marketing will not yield the desired results such that social media is lower in Page 88
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costs, or understanding the consumer better. A great deal of respondents chose the neutral option in this list of questions. From a preference point of view the author investigated the types of marketing that business executives prefer. The question Which type of marketing do you prefer? (Please note that in Arabic, the question was translated to which type of marketing do you use?) allowed multiple answers. The following are the results: 44 respondents selected social media 30 respondents selected email marketing campaigns 25 respondents selected newspapers 20 respondents selected SMS 20 respondents selected Billboards 19 respondents selected Television 14 respondents selected Radio
4.6 Challenges and Barriers

The 2010 Social Media Industry Report asked survey participants what were the most pressing issues they would like answered, and the top three questions by participants were: 1. How do I measure social media return on investment? 2. What are the social media best practices? 3. How do I best manage my time with social media? In addition to these three questions, the Social Media Industry Report examines an additional seven questions for a total of top ten questions business executives would like answered. The remaining 7 questions were: 1. How do I reach my target markets with social media? 2. How do I generate traffic and leads using social media?
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3. How do I implement social media tactics? 4. What are the latest social media trends? 5. How do I get started? 6. How do I integrate my social media activities? 7. How do I evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? The survey requested that participants order the importance of these questions according to their views. The results are as follows: The question that garnered the most Very Important with 33 respondents (57%) is: How do I reach my target markets with social media? 16 respondents (28%) selected Important and 9 respondents (16%) felt neutral to this question. 28 respondents (48%) selected Very Important to the question How do I measure social media return on investment? while 24 respondents (40%) selected Important. 6 respondents (10%) felt neutral. 26 respondents (45%) selected Very Important to What are the social media marketing best practices? while 25 respondents (43%) selected that this was an Important question and 7 respondents (12%) were neutral. Of the top three most important questions on Arab business executives minds two are also thought about by their Western counterparts. How do I generate traffic and leads using social media? received 23 (40%) responses Very Important by business executives. It also generated 19 (33%) Important responses; 14 (24%) participants were neutral; 1 respondent felt that this question was Unimportant and 1 respondent felt that it was Very Unimportant. The question How do I evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? received 23 (40%) Very Important responses and obtained 21 (36%) Important votes; 10
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respondents (17%) felt neutral to this question; 3 individuals (5%) felt that this question was Unimportant and 1 respondent (2%) felt it was Very Unimportant. This question received the most Unimportant votes. The question What are the latest social media trends yielded 21 (36%) Very Important responses; 27 (47%) selected Important this is the highest Important question score; 9 respondents (16%) were neutral to this question and one respondent selected Unimportant. The questions How do I get started? and How do I integrate my social media activities? each received 20 (34%) Very Important responses and 2 (3%) Very Unimportant votes. However, the question How do I integrate my social media activities? obtained 25 (43%) Important votes; 10 respondents (17%) were neutral and one individual felt that this question was Unimportant. The question How do I get started? obtained 19 (33%) Important responses; 16 respondents (28%) were neutral. This question accounts for the highest percentage of responses choosing neutral. The question How do I best manage my time with social media? garnered 17 (29%) Very Important responses; 26 (45%) Important responses; 13 (22%) respondents were Neutral and one respondent selected Unimportant. Only 14 respondents (24%) felt that the question How do I implement social media tactics? as a Very Important. 29 respondents (50%) chose Important and 15 (26%) felt neutral to this question.
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A formula was derived to evaluate the list according to Arab business executives. Percentages in each of the columns were given a weight. Please see the following table: Column Very Important Important Neutral Unimportant Very Unimportant
Table 35: Weight of questions
Weight 5 4 3 2 1
These percentages were multiplied by their assigned weight, added and them divided by five. Five being the number of options respondents can choose from. For example: The question How do I reach my target markets with social media? is calculated as follows: [ (0.57)*5 + (0.28)*4 + (0.16)*3 + 0 + 0 ] / 5 = 0.89. Therefore the questions rated by Arab business executives are as follows: Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Question How do I reach my target markets with social media? How do I measure social media return on investment? What are the social media marketing best practices? What are the latest social media trends? How do I generate traffic and leads using social media? How do I evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? How do I integrate my social media activities? How do I best manage my time with social media? How do I implement social media tactics? How do I get started?
Table 36: Ranking of top questions that business executive would like answered
The weakest question How do I get started? is in line with the findings of this research as the indicated that 75.8% of users have been using social media for at least several months. The question What are the challenges that you face with using social media? garnered a total of 44 responses. Participants were asked to state how much they agreed with set statements. The following is their responses:
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The statement that received the 49% and the most Strongly Agree votes is Creating positive noise and buzz about the brand. It also received 44% Agree votes; four percent were neutral and two percent Disagreed. 39% of respondents selected Strongly Agree to the statement turning followers into customers; 59% selected Agree, and two percent were neutral. 38% of respondents selected Strongly Agree to the statement getting traffic to your website, blog or your Facebook page; 44% respondents selected Agree; 11% were neutral and seven percent Disagreed. 29% of respondents selected Strongly Agree to the statement creating content; 36% of respondents Agree; 20% were neutral; 13% of respondents Disagree and two percent of respondents Strongly Disagree. This question obtained the highest rates of disagreement, which leads the author to believe that there is at least one fifth of the business executives do not have issues with creating content. The survey also probes the Arab business executives perceptions on what other executives need in order to use social media with the following question: As a person in the business world, what do you think Arab businesses need in order to enter the social media marketing scene? Out of 58 respondents, 13 participants left this question blank; hence the total number of responses is 45.
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18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Confidence that there is a ROI - Knowledge --
Motivation and commitment - Understanding on how to measure return on investment - Other --
0
Total
Figure 34: Perceptions of business executives on why others do not join social media
17 respondents (38%) selected Confidence that there is a ROI; 10 respondents (22%) selected Understanding on how to measure return on investment. These responses are in line with the previous sections findings the second most important answer that Arab business executives would like to be answered is how to measure social media return on investment. 9 respondents (20%) selected Knowledge; 8 respondents (18%) selected Motivation and commitment and 1 respondent (2%) selected Other. The comments received by 3 respondents that fall under Other are: Customer education An overall basic knowledge of the above Understanding the values and benefits over traditional, out-dated media
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5.0 Open-Ended Questions
A list of four questions was sent out to 40 individuals. Responses came from a total of eight. Details of these participants can be found in Appendix E. This portion of the study was designed to delve deeper into the understanding of how to make Social Media work for the Business executive; it took into account some of the statistics obtained from the online survey that was conducted. Even though responses came back to two distinctive usages of social media (those who promote their products, and those who use it primarily to network) there were similarities in the answers. It must be noted that the number of respondents is small and in the future, further analysis should be conducted to obtain more accurate results.
Question 1A: Overcoming challenges and barriers faced using social media
There were several challenges that were mentioned by participants: 1) Knowing what Social media can do for the business There are numerous social media sites currently available, each with its particular functionality and purpose. One participant, UAE-MA mentioned that his company is still at the beginning of their social media journey. They are primarily using social media within the companys team members and experimenting with the results. However they have not reached the full potential that social media can offer, as they have not actively managed them or used them interactively. 2) Time Dedication In order for the social media strategy to work, business executives must invest time. UAE-MA wrote there was no right person within his team to actively take-on this role: we just hired a
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person that part of his role is to effectively use online/social media mechanisms and be more interactive with our customers.
3) Moving from direct marketing to participation marketing Several participants suggested that companies often spam their consumers with promotions and marketing campaigns. This was referred to by one individual as Social Media Addiction. Another participant UAE-MP stated that this was the method mostly commonly used in the corporate world. Companies tended to do much talking at the consumer as opposed to talking with the consumer. UAE-MP stated that this ideology was changed when he started his business. Overcoming this challenge was done by changing the type of information that was placed on social media and encouraging consumers to participate. This individual set out several initiatives and tied them in the context of his product. Promotion of his company only came when individuals asked about it. Jordan-FJ stated that engagement of individuals is a problem: in the Arab world it is rare to find a vibrant two-way social stream. Looking at foreign news sites, youll find that only moments after an article is published, youll receive constructive comments, opinions and feedback. For most users, comments come in the form of Thank yous or one liners over anything else. To place this individuals response in context, the following must be taken into consideration: 1) Target market is generally younger than those of the UAE. 2) Penetration in Jordan is currently sitting at 14% as opposed to 35% of UAEs. Another participant Jordan-ZS stated that participation in the conversation was most important; listening and answering questions in blogs.
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Several individuals stated that word of mouth is essential to engaging their consumers. Morocco-MC stated that word of mouth by promoting is even more important than the use of social media. Some of the early adopters such as Morocco-ZL found that convincing users to join social media was tough at the beginning (Morocco-ZL started using social media tools since 2005). Moreover, he had difficulty creating a marketing plan to adopt social media. 4) Interconnecting on social media platforms and timings of postings This point closely relates to the one above. Business executives are encouraged to learn about their consumers behaviors and actions. Instead of posting information in continuous streams on Twitter for example, they must learn about the usage of their consumers. UAE-MP stated that his followers follow the product in waves. Followers follow products at approximate time intervals: some follow in the morning, others in the afternoon, others in the evening and yet another group overnight. Therefore his companys participation occurs in shifts. Jordan-FJ mentioned that there is sometimes a social media addiction. People will lose interest if postings are very frequent. Moreover knowing the different channels of social media is important. Audiences of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all differ. Therefore even though the message is consistent, delivery of the message should be reflected with consideration to the medium. 5) Understanding your follower Understanding the followers is very important in building trust. Moreover, giving credit where credit is due. Companies must understand that consumers are not a source of revenue, but rather virtual business partners. UAE-MP refers to his companys as partners as they are the ones that provide the most meaningful insights of his business. By building an environment of trust followers are more at ease to provide the company with innovative ideas, tell the company
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where it has failed and where it did a great job. However, in return UAE-MP argues that they have to credit their followers for their contributions online and offline such as in conferences.
6)
Trust
Morocco-OB stated that there are many users who do not use consistent information, or real names, instead opting to use nicknames. He believes this hinders building solid relationships with the online communities.
Question 1B: Future social media challenges that may be foreseen
Most companies in the MENA region are not at this stage yet, however a few words may be mentioned to enlighten business executives of what may behold in the future of social media usage. Jordan-FJ mentioned that it is highly important to be attuned to a companys followers. As a matter of fact, his company data mines all information that emerges from his followers and analyzes them. UAE-MP on the other hand prefers to take a more trial and error approach to new things that will be coming up in the future of social media, analyzing what works and what does not. As stated in an article written by Kim Luu: Twitter didnt exist a few years ago. It might disappear as a tool in a couple of years as Twitter spam grows and new competitors are created (Luu).
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Question 2: Business executives perception of their consumers as Information Seekers and whether they prefer to have them become influencers
All participants who were involved in this question replied that they would like to see their consumers change from being just information seekers to becoming influencers Morocco-MC stated Definitely become a Promoter. The word of mouth is more powerful than any media. Jordan-ZS stated that in her line of business, it is essential that her followers become influencers as influencers enhance positive change. UAE-MP stated that when he first started his business initiative he only invited his family and friends. Through word of mouth his company now has 6000 loyal followers. Building on the previous question, UAE-MP mentioned that considering his consumers as his virtual business partners encourages positive growth. It is explained by Jordan-FJ that individuals on the social-sphere will be looking at influencers for advice and recommendations on an array of topics. This will lead to a large amount of supporters who are digesting all that is sent out on social channels. There were some reservations expressed by Morocco-OB: People are very conservative and this relates to our culture some consumers could become influencers but you need to satisfy them and push them to do so. Another mention to the same thread by Morocco-ZL we still find that our customers/contributors are not sharing as much as in developed countries. People are more concerned about getting information than about sharing it unless it has an emotional relation (personal photos, personal live events). An event that did create live buzz about a product was mentioned by Morocco-ZL, a customer mentioned on his Facebook account a year ago an experience he had in a bank agency based on Bluetooth product we designed for the bank, it made some very significant and positive buzz.
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Question 3: Business adaption to catering to the Arabic social media consumer
Respondents agree that many companies are hopping onto the social media bandwagon without understanding how to use it. Jordan-FJ wrote that most companies, governments, organization and others have jumped onto social media in hopes of gaining more business and saving their current client base. Unfortunately, many of these transitions are not organic as they come late to the game and have much to learn about social media etiquette. UAE-MP said that corporations look at quantity as opposed to quality of followers, and using bribing methods to buy followers. There are several points that can be taken into account for business to adapt to the Arabic social media consumer: Networking. According to Jordan-ZS this is the most important factor to promoting her business. Sharing information about the company both online and offline this information does not necessary be just about the product/business, but it can also be about the person him/herself Talking about things that are in the context of the product, but not directly about the product and be involved in other initiatives that relate to the product. UAE-MP has six categories of initiatives that are discussed online: Education Adventure Small business Business integrity Travel Music
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Community issues
These areas are discussed within the context of his product. Hence interest is built about the product throughout many follower interests. This allows for his company to target a wider audience. Identifying key people efficiently, according to Morocco-OB, Morocco will only continue to use social media platforms such as Facebook to establish connections with important decision makers. Especially now that Morocco has over two million people connected. Morocco-ZL uses social media for his company to: Communicate to and through the consumer Interact with them Get content from them
However, UAE-MA mentioned that they still have to investigate other Arabic Social Media Platforms.
Question 4: Lessons learned by business executives on the usage of social media

The following is a list of ten lessons learned shared by the executives who answered the openended questions. 1) Strong networking, its an ongoing activity, Morocco OB explains be active to be seen and to be followed, participate to debate and show the value that you can add to any discussions 2) Building knowledge transfer system through blog discussions 3) Being active at different group levels, Jordan-ZS explains, providing advise online and then build a strong network using different channels Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. 4) Believing that this should work
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5) Concentrate on finding quality followers as opposed to a quantity of followers. UAE-MP states that bribing followers with coupons will only expedite them into leaving once the offers stop. 6) Know market and make sure they know you, by engaging with them on a personal level. Moreover keep with the customs of the country: Morocco-ZL explains interaction needs to be adapted to the local customs. 7) Be unique and build a culture around product/brand. Social media activity online is only fortified with a strong presentable and personal offline presence. Make sure that people know how great you are both online and offline. UAE-MP states that the user must find the content interesting and engaging. 8) Get into the science. Using social media allows one to gather a great deal of information about everything and everyone. Investigate the granular trends that are emerging. Jordan-FJ explains We analyze and mine every little piece of date we collect, we learn things that surprise us all the time and react accordingly. 9) Be honest, as Morocco-OB explains be honest and never lie on this kind of media, brand yourself and avoid any damage to your brand. Reputation management is important to maintain the right image. 10) Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. By placing oneself in customers position one can evaluate a service from a different perspective. Morocco-ZL explains put yourself in the place of the customer and see if a buzz effect or viral marketing can be generated (People will talk about cases, achievements (national or local).
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6.0 Discussion
This chapter will revisit each research question and provide a summary of the findings according to the questions.
6.1 Who is the Arabic social media consumer and how does s/he differ from the Western social media consumer?
Facebook is the leading social media site that is frequented by the majority of Arabic social media users. It is ranked second in each of Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt; third in the UAE and fifth in KSA. These rankings were taken from www.alexa.com on November 10, 2010. The countries of the GCC (UAE and KSA) have a higher penetration rate of social media users than there are in Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. This could be explained by the reason that the income in the GCC countries is higher therefore affordability of Internet connectivity is more abundant in the Gulf States than it is in other countries. The highest penetration percentage lies in the UAE. MENA users tend to be younger than their Western counterparts. The only exception is again the UAE which has the most age distributions and the oldest age group. By comparing the age differences, the Western countries have older members that use Facebook. In terms of gender divisions, the MENA region witnesses a higher influx of male users over female users, with KSA displaying the highest percentage of males and it stands at 69%. The country with the highest percentage of females is Jordan with a percentage of 42%. This is not the trend that is present in the Western countries. At a glance, the US, UK and France have a higher percentage of women users than men. Currently the majority of MENA users with the exception of KSA, use social media in English. KSA users are divided almost 50-50 between English and Arabic. Moroccos users mostly use
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the French language. However, it is expected that the number of Arabic users will be rising as more get connected to the Internet. MENA users are avid Tweeters; even though there are only 15,000, they follow over a hundred people and are followed by over a hundred people. This is different than their Western counterparts who mostly follow other Tweeters (people who tweet).
6.2 An analysis of the social media sites frequented by Arabs

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are global platforms that are frequented by many people worldwide. Many of the Arab users of Twitter are more than likely to interact with journalists, bloggers and media in general. The users of D1G have a new application by which they can create their own Deewan and unify their access to the platform. Facebook and Twitter are two of the leading social media sites in the MENA region. Facebook continuously shows up in the top five of most visited sites. Moreover, Twitter is in the top 100. As the Booz-Allen report stated, there are four important user segments emerging (Chahine, Bhargava, Smayra and Belcaid): Youth which account for 33% of the market Female Socialites which account for 31% of the market Leisure Males which account for 31% of the market Professionals 5%
Even though the fourth segment, only accounts for five percent, they are the most pragmatic users. These professionals use LinkedIn. According to SPOT ON PR, LinkedIn accommodates five percent of MENA traffic. One could argue that these professionals also make up the five percent of LinkedIn users.
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6.3 How does the usage of social media sites reflect on traditional media usage?
Without a doubt, social media in the Arabic world is still in its infancy, but it is gaining ground rapidly. As the Arab Media Outlook expressed, print and television are still important in the region, and will continue to observe growth, however at much lower percentages than what was happening several years before. Companies now are experimenting with social media to see how it can affect their bottom line. The survey results clearly show that Arab business executives will continue to spend their marketing dollars on both traditional and social media. The survey showed that 71% of respondents felt that social media will not replace traditional form of media. 73% of respondents indicated that their marketing budgets will be spent on social media and traditional forms of media.
6.4 An analysis of Arab business executives who use social media in comparison to Western counterparts who use social media
The survey showed that the Arab business executives have the following demographics. 83.9% are between the ages of 31 and 50. Only 15% are between the ages of 26 and 30. 91% of respondents were male and the majority of business executives surveyed had indicated that English was their preferred language. More emphasis on Arabic should be made to accommodate the language fragmentation. From respondents who answered the survey question regarding education, 43% had a bachelors degree, 37% had a masters degree and 20% had a post-graduate degree. In comparison to global LinkedIn users, 75% (Cathey) From the open ended questions, there were several challenges and barriers that were identified by participants: 1) Knowing what social media can do for the business
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2) Dedicating time 3) Moving from direct marketing to participation marketing 4) Interconnecting on social media platforms and timings of postings 5) Understanding the follower 6) Building trust In order for social media to work for a business, executives must be ready to commit time and effort into understanding the social media platform. From the survey, the largest segment of business executives (32%) are committing between five and ten hours while 45% are committing more than 10 hours per week. Moreover, customer engagement is one of the key strategies to understand the follower. A future concern that was mentioned is the fact that some business executives do not know what the next big thing is. Experimentation is highly recommended. Networking is one of the main benefits found. By interacting with others, business executives can share experiences and knowledge.
6.5 How are Arab businesses using social media to cater to Arab social media users?
Many business executives find that numerous companies are using social media without a clear strategy. This will likely to yield a failed social media effort. From the open ended questions, five points emerged as key to operating in the MENA area: Networking Identifying key people efficiently Sharing information about the company both online and offline Talking about things that are in the context of the product, but not directly about the product involved
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Getting content from users
6.6 Lessons learned by business executives on the usage of social media

The following is a compiled list of ten lessons learned by business executives: 1) Strong networking 2) Building knowledge transfer systems through blog discussions 3) Being active at different group levels 4) Concentrate on finding quality followers as opposed to a quantity of followers 5) Know the market and make sure the market knows you 6) Be unique and build a culture around your product/brand 7) Get into the science 8) Be honest 9) Put yourself into the shoes of your customer 10) Unify your image
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7.0 Further Analysis
Even though the author chose to conduct this research based on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and D1G, it is noteworthy to study that there are several other online social networking sites that are worth analyzing from a business executives point of view and they are: Jeeran Maktoob Kooora
These three sites are repeatedly presented in the top 100 in the five MENA countries selected. It is recommended that these sites are investigated to see how business executives can use them to gain followership. As with the example from UAE-MP by stating that he talks about community concerns in the context of his product, these sites may offer suitable followership in order to grow ones business. Furthermore, business executives should be on the lookout for new Arabic platforms that will be emerging over the upcoming time frame. It must be noted here that the business executives upon completing the survey the author found that they use social media sites differently than those of the regular Arabic social media user: Some of the sites that are more prominently used by the average social media user are: Maktoob.com, YouTube, Jeeran.com, kooora.com, Tagged.com, Orkut and blogging sites. Business executives should be exploring these sites in order to gain higher leverage amongst users. It is also apparent that there was a low response rate from the UAE, from the secondary research, the UAE is active in the social media arena, this is not reflected well in this research. It is recommended that these research questions be asked again at a later date to business executives to better understand the impact of this research. Some questions that should be addressed to business executives are:
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1) Since the usage of social media how as this affected engagement of consumers? 2) Has the usage of social media increased the quality of products/services in the region? 3) Will business executives depend on social media as a tool to hire?
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8.0 Conclusion and Recommendation
Social media usage is increasing worldwide and the study shows that the MENA region is no exception. Even though social media usage is still in its initial stages, there is an extensive margin of growth forecasted in the next few years. It is apparent that there is very little research currently available to document the trends in the MENA region. In order to benefit businesses in the region, surveys and studies should be further conducted to better understand the influences to affect the MENA social media users. Even though this study portrayed a small response rate, it managed to establish the following facts about the region: 1) MENA users tend to be younger than their Western counterparts. By comparing the age differences, the Western countries have older members that use Facebook. Currently the majority of MENA users with the exception of KSA, use social media in English, (KSA shows an almost equal divide). 2) Facebook and Twitter are two of the leading social media sites in the MENA region. Moreover, Facebook has exceeded the 15 million user mark in the region. 3) Social media in the Arabic world is gaining ground rapidly. The survey results clearly show that Arab business executives will continue to spend their marketing dollars on both traditional and social media. Moreover, recent incidents in MENA (Egypts and Tunisias revolutions) show that social media is playing a vital role in shaping the events. 4) It is highly beneficial to have a marketing strategy associated with social media. Business results as indicated by research are better than those who use it without a plan. Moreover, in order to use social media effectively, executives must be ready to commit time and effort into understanding the social media platform.
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5) Sites that are frequented by the average MENA social media user (as opposed to the business executive) are different than those sites used by the businesses. Some of the sites that are more prominently used by the average social media user are: Maktoob.com, YouTube, Jeeran.com, kooora.com, Tagged.com, Orkut and blogging sites. Business executives should be exploring these sites in order to gain higher leverage amongst users. Finally, by investing time, creating a plan and using social media transparently and effectively, many Arab businesses will truly find benefits to their businesses. Social media usage and its role in the MENA region will increase.
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Appendix A: Quantitative Portion of Research -- Survey Questions
Marketing Executives Survey

Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out this survey. Once a set of results have been complied I will send you a version of the research, which will include best practices compiled to aid you in bringing forward your business. Please be advised that whenever you see the term Social Media it is referring to the use of interactive tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs.
1) The Social Media Examiner found that there are ten questions that were on business executives minds, and they are listed. Could you please order them in importance according to yourself? 1 How do I measure social media return on investment? 2 What are the social media marketing best practices? 3 How do I best manage my time with social media? 4 How do I reach my target markets with social media? 5 How do I generate traffic and leads using social media? 6 How do I implement social media tactics? 7 What are the latest social media trends? 8 How do I get started? 9 How do I integrate my social media activities? 10 How do I evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each platform? 2) How long have you been using Social Media in your marketing strategy? a. Never used it b. Heard of it and not planning on using it c. Heard of it and am planning on using it d. Just getting started e. Been doing it for a few months f. Been doing it for a few years 3) What motivated you to use Social Media? a. Ease of use b. Affordable c. A chance to interact with consumer d. Everyones using it 4) How many hours per week do you spend using it? a. Less than 5 hours b. Between 5 and 10 hours c. Between 11and 20 hours d. Between 21 and 30 hours
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e. Between 31 and 40 hours f. More than 40 hours 5) What forms of Social Media do you use? Please list all that apply a. Twitter b. Facebook c. Blogs d. LinkedIn e. Watwet f. d1g g. Other, please specify 6) What do you consider the most benefits of Social Media? a. Generating exposure to business b. Better understanding of the customer c. More conversations about your brand d. Lower costs e. Impacting search ranking f. Helped to close sales g. Other, please specify 7) Do you think that social media marketing will replace traditional marketing in your company? a. Yes b. No 8) Why? a. b. c. d. e. f.
It costs too much Traditional media is not that effective any more, the consumers are ignoring it I have no knowledge of what the consumer wants Both traditional marketing and social media marketing will complement each other Traditional marketing is more artistic Consumers enjoy having a say
9) Which type of marketing do you prefer? a. SMS b. Social Media c. Email Marketing campaigns d. Newspaper e. Television f. Radio g. Billboards
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10) How much budget have you planned to spend on Marketing in the upcoming year? a. Less than $30,000 b. Between $31,000 and $50,000 c. Between $51,000 and 70,000 d. Between $71,000 and $90,000 e. Between $91,000 and $100,000 f. More than$ 100,000
11) Where do you plan to invest this money? a. Social Media alone b. Social Media and Traditional media c. Traditional media alone 12) If you selected Social Media, how will you be spending the budget? a. Plan on hiring b. Outsourcing c. In-house d. Develop a strategy 13) What are the challenges that you face with using social media? a. Creating content b. Turning followers into customers c. Getting traffic to your website, blog or Facebook page d. Creating positive noise and buzz about your brand 14) How big is the business you are in? a. Large corporation (more than 2,000 employees) b. Medium corporation (between 500 and 1,999 employees) c. Small business (less than 500 employees) 15) As a person in the business world, what do you think Arab businesses need to enter the Social Media marketing scene? a. Knowledge b. Motivation and commitment c. Understanding on how to measure return on investment d. Other, please comment 16) What are the nature of consumers that Friend or Follow you on Social Media? a. Cautious Very selective of who they communicate with
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b. Information Seeker go online to read reviews about products to make purchasing decisions c. Enthusiast have offline hobbies and interests d. Deal-Seeker take part in reviews but not so much blogs and look for promotional information about products e. Shopper primary interest is shopping and interacting online f. Business First -- Consumers use the Internet for business purposes, keeping up with the latest trends, communicating with business contacts, and making new connections through sites like LinkedIn g. Megaphone -- want to connect, educate, and share resources and information online with others. These consumers clearly fall into the influencer category 17) What is your age? a. Less than 25 years old b. Between 26 and 30 years old c. Between 31 and 40 years old d. Between 41 and 50 years old e. Between 51 and 60 years old f. More than 60 years old 18) What is your gender? a. Male b. Female 19) What is the highest degree that you have achieved? a. Bachelors b. Post-graduate c. Masters d. PhD 20) What is your preferred language of correspondence? a. Arabic b. English c. French 21) Which country are you working from? a. Jordan b. KSA c. UAE d. Egypt e. Morocco
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Appendix B: Letter of Invitation to Survey
Dear <Business Executives First Name>, My name is Aminah and I am a Masters student currently completing my studies with a thesis titled: "Arab Business Executives' Usage of Social Media". I kindly request that you'll take part in my 21 question survey, which should take around 15 minutes of your time. It would be my pleasure to share my findings with you upon completion. Moreover, if you could share this survey with other business executives from Saudi Arabic, UAE, Jordan, Egypt and/or Morocco would be great. The link to the survey is: http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=KBKONK_4e49bf77 I thank you for your time and cooperation, and hope you will be part of my study. Sincerely, Aminah
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Appendix C: Qualitative Portion of Research -- Open Ended Questions
The following is a list of questions that was sent out to business executives. The choice of these business executives was perceived to be the most willing to aid with this research.
1) When you first started using social media, what were the challenges and barriers did you face and how did you overcome them? Do you see any future challenges that you may still need to overcome?
2) Most of the respondents in the current survey selected that their consumers are information seekers. Do you find this satisfactory or would you prefer that your future consumer becomes an influencer, hence promoting your product?
3) 69.6% of respondents to the survey stated that interacting with consumers was mostly what motivated them to use social media. How have you adapted your business to cater to the Arabic social media consumer?
4) Could you provide me with some Lessons Learned on winning methods that you followed to achieve your successful use of social media with your business?
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Appendix D: Letter to Business Executives to Respond to the Questions
Hello <Business Executives First Name>, I am a Masters student currently finishing off my thesis. I have sent out a survey titled Arab Business Executives Usage of Social Media. Many executives have completed the survey, you being one of them I am very thankful. Before I compile my results, Id like to ask you for your valuable input as I feel that in world of Arab business, you have profound experience in using social media to enhance your business. My questions delve into finding a deeper understanding of how you use social media to your business advantage. Your responses to the following 4 questions are highly important to completing this section of the study: 5) When you first started using social media, what were the challenges and barriers did you face and how did you overcome them? Do you see any future challenges that you may still need to overcome? 6) Most of the respondents in the current survey selected that their consumers are information seekers. Do you find this satisfactory or would you prefer that your future consumer becomes an influencer, hence promoting your product? 7) 69.6% of respondents to the survey stated that interacting with consumers was mostly what motivated them to use social media. How have you adapted your business to cater to the Arabic social media consumer? 8) Could you provide me with some Lessons Learned on winning methods that you followed to achieve your successful use of social media with your business? I realize your time is of great essence, I would like to point out that this study is one of the first of its kind in the MENA region, and with your answers I would like to achieve a break through. Again I thank you for all your time and efforts and hope that you will take some time to reply back to this email. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely,
Aminah
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Appendix E: Details on Business Responded to Open Ended Questions Executives Who
The email went out to 40 individuals and the following were the respondents of open ended questions portion of the study. To ensure anonymity of individuals only country of residence and gender were documented. Each participant was given a pseudonym. Country of Residence Jordan Jordan UAE UAE UAE Morocco Morocco Morocco Egypt Egypt Pseudonym Jordan-ZS Jordan-FJ UAE-AA UAE-MA UAE-MP Morocco-MC Morocco-ZL Morocco-OB Egypt-MA Egypt-AM Gender F M M M M** M M M M M*** Experience with SM High High High Low High Medium High High High High
Table 37: Open-ended respondents
** Requested a telephone interview ***Expecting a reply
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Appendix F: Demographics at a Glance
The following tables summarize data presented in chapter 2. Age Distributions MENA Region Country
Age Segments
Western Countries UAE Jordan USA UK France
Egypt
KSA
Morocco
Under 18 18 24 25 34 35 44 45 54 55 64 Over 65
12 % 50 % 28 % 7% 2% 1% 1%
13 % 36 % 35 % 10 % 3% 1% 1%
21 % 46 % 24 % 6% 2% 1% 0.5 %
8% 24 % 46 % 16 % 4% 1% 1%
15 % 48 % 26 % 7% 3% 1% 1%
11 % 25 % 25 % 18 % 12 % 7% 3%
14 % 27 % 27 % 17 % 9% 4% 2%
17 % 31 % 28 % 13 % 6% 3% 1%
Table 38: Age distributions of MENA countries and top 3 Western countries
Table 38 discusses displays the Facebook age distributions according to the five MENA countries as well as the top 3 Western countries. In a subsequent table Facebook country rankings are displayed. Percentages highlighted in yellow show the highest in a particular age segment, while the percentages highlighted in green show the loWest in a given age segment.
Gender Ratios Country Gender Male Female 62 % 38 % 69 % 31 % 62 % 38 % 65 % 35 % 58 % 42 % 44 % 56 % 48 % 52 % 48 % 52 % Egypt KSA Morocco UAE Jordan USA UK France
Table 39: Gender divides of MENA countries and top 3 Western countries
Table 39 displays the Facebook gender ratios according to the five MENA countries and the three top Western countries. The table shows that KSA has the highest male percentage; the USA shows the loWest male percentage.
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Language Preference Country Language English Arabic French Egypt 64.6 % 34.3 % 0.3 % UAE 88 % 9.3 % 0.8 % Morocco 5.6 % 10.6 % 82.3 % KSA 49 % 48.6 % 0.6 % Jordan 68 % 31 % N/A
Table 40: Language preferences of MENA countries
The table above displays the language preferences in the MENA region. Social Media Sites Ranking per Country UAE KSA Morocco Jordan USA
Country
Egypt
UK
France
Facebo ok Twitter LinkedI N D1G
2 33 N/A 200
3 16 18 186
5 49 N/A 169
1 40 79 292
2 25 45 86
2 8 15 N/A
2 11 14 N/A
2 27 63 N/A
Table 41: Social media ranking per country
These ranks were checked on November 10, 2010. According to Alexa.com these are calculated the average user traffic over a one month period. Facebook Ranking / Country France Egypt KSA 5 22 32
Country Rank
USA 1
UK 3
Morocc o 41
UAE 46
Jordan 63
Table 42: Facebook ranking according to Facebakers.com
These Facebook rankings are taken from Facebakers.com
Aminah Hamam
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References
Chahine, Gabriel, Jayant Bhargava, Chady Smayra, and Adel Belcaid. "Winning in MENA's New Media Scene." booz&co.. N.p., 30 MAR 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . Bryman, Alan, and Emma Bell. Business Research Methods. Second. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print. Rahal, Fawzi. "2.9% of the Internet are Arabs." The Next Web. N.p., 02 DEC 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . BI-ME Staff, . "80% of UAE consumers use social media to make purchase decisions, reveals YouGovSiraj poll." Business Intelligence Middle East. N.p., 22 FEB 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . Meddah, Mohamed Marwen. "Middle East & North Africa Internet Users To Account For Greater Percentage Of World Total." STARTUPARABIA. N.p., 17 AUG 2007. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . "Media Consumption and Habits of MENA Internet Users." SPOT ON Public Relations. N.p., SEP 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. "Spot On PRs MENA Twitter Demographics & User Habits Survey." SPOT ON Public Relations. N.p., SEP 2009. Web. 19 Nov 2010. Ri d er, J es s y. " Fac e bo ok - Po we r f u l B us in es s P rom ot i on T oo l f or Me rc h a nts a n d Com pa n i es . " eZ i n e Ar t ic les . eZ i n e Art ic l es , 1 5 S E P 2 01 0 . W eb. 2 8 Ma r 20 1 1. < ht tp :/ /e zi n ear t ic les .c om /?F ac e b ook - - - P o we rf ul- B us in es s - Pr om ot i on - T o o l- f or Me rc h a nts - a nd- C om pa n ies & i d =5 0 37 5 01 > . K ap l a n, A n dr eas M ., a nd Mic h a el H a en l e in . " Us ers of t he wor l d, u n i te! T he c h al l e ng es an d o p por t u n i ti es of S oc ia l M e d ia . " B us in es s H or i zo ns . 53 ( 20 1 0): 59 - 6 8. Pr in t. W ard, S us an . " Def i ni t i on of S oc i a l Me d i a. " A bo u t.c om . N. p ., n .d . W eb . 3 Fe b 2 0 11 . < ht tp :/ /s bi nf oc a na d a. a bo u t.c om /od /s oc i a lm ed ia /g /s oc i a lm ed i a. htm >. B ea tt y, S te v e . "W a ys t o Im pr o v e Br an d A war en es s b y B u i l d in g L i nk s ." S earc h E ng i n e W atc h . Se ar c h E ng i n eW atc h.c om , 1 7 FE B 2 0 11 . W eb. 2 8 M ar 2 01 1. < ht tp :/ /s ear c h en g i ne w atc h.c om /3 64 1 90 3 > . B u ll as , J ef f . "1 0 R eas ons W h y Yo u Sh o u ld B e Us i n g T wit t er B ef or e Yo u r C om pe t it ors Do . " j ef fb u l las .c om . F ef f B u ll as , 20 1 1. W eb. 2 9 M ar 2 01 1 . < ht tp :/ / www. j ef f b u ll as . c om /20 1 1/ 0 1/ 06 / 10 - r e as o ns - wh y- yo u - s ho u ld - be - us i ng - t wi tt er bef ore- yo u r - c om pet i to r s - d o/ > . Alexandrou, Marios. "Technology Adoption Lifecycle." Mariosalexandrou.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov 2010. 101 Things Brands Should Know About Twitter SPOT ON Public Relations. N.p., FEB 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. Middle-East and North Africa Facebook Demographics SPOT ON Public Relations. N.p., MAY 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. Alidina, Abbas. "MENA Facebook Digest: Tracking Facebook Usage in the Middle East and North Africa." Logicks.com Internet Marketing. N.p., 22 MAY 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010.
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Sekhri, Rajiv. "Q&A: Maktoob founder Samih Toukan ." Yahoo! Business News. N.p., 25 AUG 2008. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . Saqer, Gaith. "Watwet Redesigns, Now Supports Mobliy the Second KSAs Mobile Operator.." Arab Crunch. N.p., 16 SEP 2008. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . "About Us." Jeeran. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov 2010. Webster, Tom. "Twitter Usage in America: 2010 The Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Study." Edison Research. N.p., FEB 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. "Twitter and the Consumer-Marketer Dynamic." A 360i White Paper. N.p., JUL 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. "Arab Media Outlook 2009-2013." Dubai Press Club, n.d. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . Al Tenaiji, Afraa A., and Yoosuf Cader. "Social Media Marketing in the UAE." European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2010 (2010): n. pag. Web. 18 Nov 2010. Soeterbroek, Saskia, and Saira Taifur. "UAE Professional Active Social Media users, survey shows." Robert Half. Robert Half International, 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . Moir, Scott. "Facebook Better Social Media Marketing Intimacy - Twitter Better Viral Expediency." eMarketing Egypt. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . Stelzner, Michael A. "2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report." Social Media Examiner. Social Media Examiner, 19 APR 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . "d1g expands their portal services with 66g.com acquisition ." AME INFO. N.p., 22 JUL 2007. Web. 18 Nov 2010. "d1g expands as it acquires yasater.com." AME INFO. N.p., 28 MAR 2007. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . "d1g acquires seenandjeem.com to create the largest Arabic questions and answers portal on the net ." AME INFO. N.p., 28 FEB 2007. Web. 18 Nov 2010. . Cathey, Glen. "LinkedIn Demographics and Visitor Statistics ." Boolean Black Belt. N.p., 20 SEP 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. . "The Social Profile Report #3." Exact Target. Exact Target, n.d. Web. Steitiyeh, Firas. "6 Reasons why you should include "Social Media" in you media plan." Interactive Middle East. 01 FEB 2010. Web. 18 Nov 2010. Luu, Kim. "A Social Media Primer for Business Executives." Money and Risk. N.p., JUL 2010. Web. 19 Nov 2010. <http://www.moneyandrisk.com/be-the-boss/social-media/a-social-primer-for-businessexecutives/>.
The technology adoption life cycle describes how people adopt to the use of technology with people being segmented into five categories:
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Innovators, those who adopted a technology well before it was mainstream. Early adopters, those who would like to use the technology as a competitive advantage that would outbid the older technologies Early majority, those who surmount to the most purchases. These are the people who after seeing the positive track record of a product, use it to improve their companies Late majority, those are explained by Mario Alexandrou these consumers are pessimistic about their ability to gain any value from technology investments and undertake them only under duress -- typically because the remaining alternative is to let the rest of the world pass them by (Alexandrou) Laggards the critics of a potential technology.
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