Palestinian Businesses Utilization of Social Media Marketing

Palestinian Businesses Utilization Of Social Media Marketing

Prepared by: Ayman Qarout

SOCIAL NETWORKS

•Meet & share•Has purpose•Interact with each other

Video/Photo Sharing

• Share photos & videos• Discover & learn• Interact with other users

OVER SPARK NEW MEDIA

BLOGS

• Personal site• Easy to create & share• Visitors can leave comments

PODCASTS

• On-demand Radio & TV shows• Available 24-hours• Sharable

OVER SPARK NEW MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media networks areprimarily Internet and mobilebased tools for sharing anddiscussing information amonghuman beings. The term mostoften refers to activities thatintegrate technology,telecommunications and socialinteraction, and theconstruction of words, pictures,videos and audio.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Person

Media Producer Media Consumer

has more than 300,000,000 users

1.China2.India3.United States

4.Facebook

5.Indonesia6.Brazil7.Pakistan8.Bangladesh

If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest

Need of the Study

• All major global brands use social media to reach their customers, even small businesses & professionals do

• Facebook: Rank2 … YouTube: Rank 5 … Blogger: Rank 16

• What is Palestinian businesses position in social media?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How social media marketing is different from the traditional marketing?

2. What is local organizations perception toward social media?

3. What are the social media tools most used by local organizations?

4. Which social media marketing tactics do local organizations use? Are they effective compared to global organizations uses?

5. Do these tactics take advantage of the new media aspects?

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service

SOCIAL MEDIACHARACTERESTICS

• Participation and Sharing• User-generated and user-control• Community• Conversation• Openness

FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE

• Social media marketing case studies (2)

CASE STUDYSocial Media Marketing Adoption

- Sample: 1068 marketers- 66% will be investing in social media in 2010-Of them, 40% will shift more than 1/5 of their traditional marketing toward social media marketing- 51% are shifting marketing efforts toward more customer engagement

SMM TACTICSDirect Methods

Indirect MethodsSMM TACTICS

Indirect Methods

SMM TACTICS

Share insight and opinion

Talk about company culture and values

Be the one to break the news in your industry

Offer discounts, coupons or special offers to

customers who find you via social media

Highlight employees

Track conversations about your brand for online reputation management

Learn new things, related to your industry or not

Direct traffic to your site

Mention awards you’ve won or accreditations

you’ve earned

Hold contests

See how your competitors are interacting with customers Answ

er common custo

mer questions

Show your human face

Sales

ServiceManufacturingRetailerWholesaler

METHODOLOGY

• Secondary data: books, articles and case studies

• Primary data: structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews

• Sample size: 20 local companies

• Limitations: No cooperation from companies, time limitations, surveyed companies are only in Ramallah

8

7

3

2

ServicesManufacturingRetailersWholesalers

Sales

1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th Qtr

FINDINGS

I think social media sites are good only for fun and socializing

AgreeDisagree

Sales

1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th Qtr

FINDINGS

I encourage open conversations with both customers and employees, and encourage customers to participate and talk

about me

EmployeesCustomers

Strongly AgreeAgreeNo OpinionDisagreeStrongly Disagree

Sales

1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th Qtr

FINDINGS

I prohibit access to social networks in my company domain

AgreeNo OpinionDisagree

Usage

FrequentlyOccasionallyInfrequentlyNever

FINDINGS

Personal usage of social media sites

Usage

FrequentlyOccasionallyInfrequentlyNever

FINDINGS

Does your business have a presence in social media?

20

No9

Yes11

Services7

Manufacturers3

Retailers1

FINDINGS

Social media channels used

Channel

11 Facebook group/fan page

1 YouTube

2 Twitter

0 Blog

0 Podcast

0 Photo sharing

0 Wiki pages

Category 1Category 2

Category 3Category 4

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 1Series 2Series 3

FINDINGS

Tactics Used

Direct

Adverti

sing

Gather C

ommunity

Monito

ring

Share

tips

0123456789

10

YesNo

YesNo

CONCLUSION

• Marketers are not up-to-date with what is happening in the industry

• Most of social media marketing efforts are still in early stage and need to be worked out

• There is no true “relationship marketing” in local companies, and most of them care only with directly selling their products

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Marketers should seek to more engage the customers, make conversations with them

2. Companies should become more open, encouraging both their customers and employees to talk about them

3. Marketers should start taking risks in their marketing campaigns, and be more creative

4. When having a presence in social media, you shouldn't ignore it

5. Make customers fall in with you