Social Media Marketing, and How Can We Use It to Make Profit in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

Social Media Marketing, and How can we use it to Make Profit in Saudi Arabia Affiliation) TASK FOUR Social Media in Saud Arabia In the current business world, one cannot talk about marketing without mentioning the social media. Marketing has gone digital and no longer typically depend on the mainstream media as such; firms nowadays focus on the social media marketing since the corporate world has realized that most of their potential clients spend much of their time interacting through the social media. Social media marketing can be generally defined as the process of obtaining traffic or rather attention over social media sites. Therefore, social media is a genera term used to capture the sites that provide very different social actions. For instance, Facebook is a full-blown social networking, which permits the sharing of updates, joining of events, photos and a myriad of other exciting activities. Twitter, in contrast is a social site devised to allow people share very short messages or rather updates with others. In effect, a marketer would need the social media to feed his or her adverts on the sites since social media helps to build links that turn support to the corporate world. Thus, this paper seeks to highlight the use of social media marketing in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it also seeks to show how it can be used to make profit in the Kingdom. For the social media marketing to thrive there must be an internet connection in a region. Therefore, the paper first will address the background as well as the development of internet in Saudi Arabia (Tuncalp 21; Secil 22) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the third largest Middle Eastern country as far as land mass area is concerned; it covers an area of 830,000 square miles. The country has about 25.7 million people, 8.4 million of this population is comprises of non-citizens. Additionally the country has the largest oil reserves in the world, which makes it a viable business environment. Ninety percent of the country’s exports are oil which accounts for almost seventy five percent of the governments total revenue. The Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia has about 9.8 million internet users, among these users, 54% are active users compared to the United States and United Kingdom where figures depict 42% and 43% respectively. Social media marketing in Saudi Arabia can be successful if lead generation campaigns are carefully chosen. The campaigns should be chosen carefully because the country is typically characterized by Islamic sentiments as such; any campaign that seems to challenge the Islamic culture will never achieve its intended goals or objective (Solomon 47). Further statistics show that the thirty-nine percent of the Saudi Arabian internet users purchase their products through online services; this means that the social media marketing can be of very much use in marketing products. Marking on Twitter and Facebook A recent study shows that about 3.2 million Saudi Arabian social media users spend an average of three billion dollars on products and services through the internet each year. Accordingly, electronic products were most bought in 2013 followed by software. As far as services are concerned, hotel reservations and air tickets were the top online revenue earners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An upward trend is foreseeable in the coming years as far as ecommerce is concerned. The figures have an opportunity to increase since each day more of Saudi’s population gets online. On the other hand, of the 9.8 million internet users, four million already are members of the social media while an average of ten percent register in the social sites every year. This shows that if effective campaigns on social media marketing were to be conducted, businesses in Saudi Arabia would benefit from double profits. Moreover, the STC Saudi Arabia recently upgraded heir initial broadband penetration level of four percent to twenty-two percent in regions were broadband services were a problem. Social media marketers should begin developing a lead generation campaign in light of the huge potential infrastructure developments that are bound to take off. Since more ecommerce is being realized, everyday, social media marketing would be in turn a profitable area. This is because many Saudis are spending more time on the social sites. Since most of them buy products and services online, they are easily swayed by adverts on the social media to purchase products (Solomon 47). Ecommerce spend will is predicted to increase since more countries are focusing on doing online businesses with Saudi Arabia. Tough Islamic laws and culture have however posed a big challenge in the social media-marketing venture. For instance, a recent campaign using YouTube where the link was posted on the Facebook site led to a woman being locked for driving. The woman was used in YouTube video to do a campaign in which part of the video showed her driving. The YouTube video brought uproar in Saudi Arabia regarding women’s right to drive. After the video was uploaded, it went viral through the social media. Consequently, she was locked up on two occasions and later held in custody. The video caused a stir in the country’s circles and this proves how the social media marketing content can be effective in Saudi Arabia. The most popular and influential social media in Saud Arabia is Facebook. It has over 3.9 million registered users and seven million visitors thus generating six billion page views a month. Moreover, the Facebook users spend an average of twenty-eight minutes every time they visit the site, compared to the worldwide average users who spend twenty-five minutes or less each time, they are on Facebook site. Much of the Facebook audience interests’ categories indicate a heightened preference for the South Asia, Philippines, Syria and North Africa. This explains that many non-citizens are from these countries and regions. In effect, many of these users communicate with their relatives and friends through Facebook. This represents an opportunity for social media marketers to promote their products and services relevant to these communities. In addition, shipping services, cheap calls, money transfer and airline tickets to the native homes of many non-citizens in Saudi Arabia could be the possible ideas that can use the broad connectivity of Facebook as well as the presence of these communities there. Service Engine Market directly interrelates with social media market. In effect, statistics show that search engine market in Saudi Arabia is totally dominated by Google where it dominates over ninety-seven percent of the market shares. The yahoo search engine comes second with two percent while Bing, Ask and AOL takes the remaining. Furthermore, it is rather interesting to note that the top search term on Google is “Facebook,” “You tube,” “twitter”, and “photos”. This indicates that internet users in Saudi Arabia have the ability to consume a variety of social media content as well as the necessary bandwidth and speeds to make the experience a pleasing one. Social media marketers need only to be directed by the user interests in order to carry out successful lead generation campaigns. Marketing on Instagram With the social media ever-new applications, it has now become easier to advertise or rather market a product through the social sites. For instance, Instagram, which was created in 2010, has managed to attract two million users in Saudi Arabia though the number is on the increasing side. This site enables individuals to start and mange their businesses even from their homes through photo-sharing application. In Saudi Arabia, internet users have started to realize the potential of Instagram and as such, people are using this media channel to market their products. In fact, Instagram is one of the best ways to start a small business that can be easily managed from any place and at the same time reaching a high number of people. Whilst Instagram allows social media marketers to upload photos of their products and services on other social media sites such as Facebook and twitter, entrepreneurs can reach more users by using different applications developed for that purpose. Though the use of Instagram is relatively new in Saud Arabia, it is quickly picking up since most people in his country are quick to embrace any new technology. Radul Saifuddin the head of marketing department at Hype Company, a Digital Media Services firm in Jeddah, began providing social marketing solutions through twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well. She does this through helping people with small businesses to build their marketing strategies via using step-by-step lessons. Through her initiative, she has managed to teach hundreds of businesses people. Initially many business people in Enigma could not afford marketing expenses and because of this opportunity, she has become successful since more people prefer social media marketing to the typical means of marketing, that is, the use of mainstream media and advertising companies. Now through the firm which typically depend on the social media, she can share what is happening in Saudi market very easily since many people in Saudi Arabia use the social media in getting instant information of what is happening in the business world more so the new trend in products and services. According to Radul, starting a business through Instagram is easier compared t other means of advertising. This is evident by the fact that statistics show remarkable financial profits and results for investors as well as business owners because of the social media and most importantly the high number of users at reach. The biggest advantage of using Instagram and other social media channels is that it is capable of reaching Customers most consumers with very little cost or no cost at all. Thus, it stands to be the most important tool to reach customers in Saudi Arabia. In fact, Social media marketing works best for women in Saudi Arab since the religion and culture does not allow them to be aggressive and out at all times. Many times women in Saudi Arabia are indoors and as such, social media can best work for them since they can work from home. Moreover, the cost of transportation maybe a bigger a disadvantage to these women too, thus social media works best for them (Hoffman 73). Another, advantage of using Instagram as a marketing tool, is that when photos of the products and services are uploaded, the centre of attention is all directed towards the photo since there is no other distracter like in Facebook where there are different things displayed on the site at a go. Sarrah and Hessah Al-Jalajil’s online business is another perfect example of how social media marketing is thriving in Saudi Arabia. These two sisters have a home based business selling desserts situated in Riyadh and have twenty three thousand followers on Instagram. Moreover, these two sisters communicate with their customers through Whatsapp informing them of new flavors in place. This shows how the social media marketing is quickly being embraced in Saudi Arabia. The sisters also affirm that they managed to market their products through social networking sites but since Instagram is very popular, they now reach customers directly through uploading different photos of the desserts they make. For marketing to be effective, one needs to get a feedback after a while and thereafter work on improving the different weak areas of the product or service. Equally, through the social media marketing, one can get feedback or rather a survey of how the campaign was effective. Instagram for instance, allows customers to comment on photos and as such, business owners can easily get feedback which is objective thereby knowing which products are more popular and which one should be improved. The two entrepreneurs also attest that many people in Saudi Arabia use Instagram and Twitter on a daily basis; this makes it easier for more to be reached. Big capital businesses such as jewelry scare many people because of the huge risks and capital one would need to put in when starting the busing. However, social media marketing has changed the game nowadays, since the photo application on Instagram provides room for the use of filters, which allows the products to be presented in the best way possible. Additionally, customers who would want to window shop can do that without visiting the stores practically, thereby feeling secure that no one will think they are so rich when checking out these products. Even when these customers have made the decision on which product to settle on, they can always purchase them online without any fear of risking their lives. According to Mishael Bugis , a jewelry business man living in Makkah, Instagram is a powerful marketing tool in Saudi Arabia and believing in the social media can be a vital step n getting the largest number of customers. He also affirms that for one to attract more followers, the seller need to have built trust. It majorly depends on the presentation of the business on Instagram. For instance, for Bugis to get more customers, his images should be of quality as well as the presentation. He also adds that the product description is very imperative since it has to be put well and easy form to understand in order to increase the customers’ desire to purchase through pictures. Moreover, he admits that before Instagram came into being, promoting a small business was indeed difficult. He however believes that there are forms of social media marketing though Instagram is the most effective and easiest one. Through Instagram, he was able to market his products and the quality of images helped him to gain satisfied customers. TASK FIVE The use of social media marketing in Saudi Arabia is very effective, however, culture and religious still remains a challenge. Through a scan of the headlines on the dailies, one would think Saudi has declared war on marketing through the social media. For instance, in recent case, Saudi’s top religious clerics dismissed Twitter users, reefing them as a “council of jokers.” Moreover, the government has of the recent past threatened to shut down all modern communication tools like Facebook, Twitter, Whatspp and Skype. It wants to shut them down because of their encryption, which completely protects the information that the users share. The government feels threatened by the fact that it cannot eavesdrop on any communication happening through this channels. It feels as if its enemies can carry out an operation on the country without its prior knowledge thus making the authorities nervous since majority of the Saudi citizens are wired. Statics shows that despite the government’s restrictions on information, both offline and online, the people of Saudi remain among the most connected people in the world. A case in Point is Jon Stewart’s recent arrest. He was arrested because he was seen to be a threat to the government because of his growing influence on the social media. A recent study shows that in Saudi Arabia Twitter and You Tube is now being used overwhelmingly in the public discourses, which indicates that social media marketing can be the perfect channel for promoting products and services. The study shows the extent in which the social media has gone in influencing the people’s minds and desires. Moreover, studies show that, there is a bi-weekly You Tube show, which aims at showing what the Twitter users in the country are talking about. It is estimated that in a day the You Tube gets about a hundred and ninety million views from in Saudi Arabia, which calculates to roughly more than six views per person per day. This means if a social media marketer was market a product on the site he would reach very many people with low costs compared to using other means. Seemingly, seventy percent of the quite affluent population in Saudi is under 28 and almost a hundred percent of this population is highly connected. Accordingly, this means that if businesses were to use the social media to market or promote their products and services, they would indeed make a good return on their investments since they are assured of reaching and influencing over seventy percent of Saudi Arabians. Additionally, the availability and prevalent use of the social media in Saudi Arabia is considered to be the highest in the Middle East, this is according to Professor Haisam Yehia, a specialist in human behavior and interaction. Professor Yehia who is also a social media business developer asserts that any marketer who wishes to promote his her products in Saudi Arabia, should first think of using the social media before other channel. He further states that the reason why social media marketing can effectively work in the country is the fact that Saudi is ranked the highest country in terms of Smartphone and mobile phone penetration in the world. Tentatively, this is relevant since most of the social media users (almost fifty percent) use their Smartphones to access the internet. Most people find fun in accessing the social media in Saudi since it is place where venues for entertainment are non-existent. Thus, majority of the internet users find fun in spending most of their time on the social media since it is a source of entertainment. In effect, a marketer is rest assured of his campaign getting through if he she will focus mostly on using the social media in channeling his or her campaign. There is huge and growing interest in social media in Saudi Arabia therefore; great profits can be reaped from effective social media marketing. The social media marketer can use the You Tube links on social sites like Twitter and Facebook to direct users into viewing adverts and promotions on You Tube. This is because many internet users in Saudi Arabia love watching videos on You Tube since it offers entertainment choices not available on mainstream media. The variety of videos found on You Tube include locally produced content which is made by young talented Saudi’s who know how to relate a large audience , and who in a position to tackle their issues since they have the freedom compared to mainstream media. The mainstream media is full of redlines and many adverts are usually closed out since they are said to be advocating behaviors and vices which are considered to be violating the social and religious norms. As such, much profit can be realized if the social media would be used to promote products and services since there is no restriction over whom the message will reach. The authorities have no say over any kind of advertising so long as it is channeled through the social media (Al-Rasheed 57). Accordingly, a research done two months ago by N2V , one of the biggest internet holding company in the Arab world indicates that Most of the products and service done on social media makes up for the restrictions that are common in the conservative Saudi society. For instance, You Tube offers content, which Saudi families banned from the reach of their teenagers and youth as well. They did so through blocking certain television channels at home. Nibel Jarrar, who is the general business development officer at N2V, asserts that the social media gives the Saudis a place to view everything they want; from anywhere they want thus getting information on different products and services in the market. Marketers can use surveys on the social media to know how their previous campaigns faired. For instance, they can develop questionnaires which users can fill, leaving all kinds of feedback on the form and since its free to feel, many users would not mind sending a minute or two on such surveys. Moreover, marketers can pay for ads to be run social sites such as Facebook and Twitter thereby allowing many viewers to get product information on different products and services that prop up each day. Firms can make profits if they can develop their own links that can be put on the social media thereby making it easier for users to reach the product description and make payments online if they feel develop some desires to test these products. Ultimately, despite of the social, cultural and most importantly the religious challenges, social media marketing has been proved the best way to promote products and services in Saudi Arabia. Works cited Al-Rasheed, Madawi, ed. Transnational connections and the Arab Gulf. Vol. 16. Psychology Press, 2005. Hoffman, Donna L., and Marek Fodor. 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