State of social media mena 2016

Collaboration with

State of Social 2016 at a GlanceSocial media has transformed the way people interact across the web, and the Middle East is no exception. This year Crowd Analyzer, in partnership with PAYFORT, has done a deep dive into the trends and behavior that shape social media in the region.

Social media in the Middle East has amassed millions of active users and now takes up billions of hours each year. There’s little doubt left that social media will play a dominant role in busi-nesses of the future.

And that brings us to the purpose of this report; State of Social is meant to be a tool you can use to not only navigate the social landscape, but actually excel in it. There’s an old saying that "knowledge is power", and in the fast moving world of social media, this is truer than ever.

Before you start exploring the report for yourself, we wanted to provide a brief overview to help you understand why we covered what we cover in this report, and to whom it will be most useful.

The Purpose of our research was to thoroughly examine the social trends shaping the GCC/MENA region. We looked at user activity, key interests, and some of the major events that shaped social media in 2016. We also incorporated ‘expert insights’ from some of the region’s most prominent thought leaders to help paint a picture of the future social landscape.

For this project we focused on three key countries that had the required social activity to start drawing reliable insights; these countries were Egypt, KSA and, the UAE.

Why Egypt, KSA and, the UAE?

They all have highly active social network populations and a very high level of social media penetration. Social media penetration represents the share of Internet users in selected countries visiting social networking sites on a regular basis. Those three countries all rank in the global top 30 for social media penetration with the UAE ranking 2nd (68%), KSA ranking 25th (35%), and Egypt ranking 28th (30%).

These countries give us the best opportunity to really understand social trends and inside this report you’ll find information that truly capture the state of social in 2017. Even if you don’t live in one of the three countries above we know you will find something interesting inside.

Table of Content

Social Media Statistic for UAE, KSA and EGYPT in 2016

Population, Internet Penetration, Social Media Penetration

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

01

02

05

08

Social Media in 2016 and beyond - Top Trended Topics and Brands

Trending Topics- What mattered in 2016

The US Election: a view from the Middle East

Where does Instagram fit in 2016?

Video takes over social Media in 2016

MENA Social Media behavior

12

13

14

15

16

Social Intelligent Insights

Sharing Economy

Banking and Finance

E-Commerce

Telecom

Fintech

22

28

33

37

43

Experts' Predictions 2017

Crowd Analyzer Predictions48

About State of Social Media MENA

About the partnership

Methodology

Glossary

65

66

68

49 Hootsuite Predictions

Even before the launch of Facebook in 2004, Social Media was starting to transform the way we

interacted with content and each other across the web. Now, in the year 2017, the social landscape is barely recognizable from the turn of the 21st century. The simple, personal, and (let’s be honest) addictive nature of Social Media has led to an explosion of users and new social platforms for us to

express ourselves.

Just like the rest of the world, the MENA region has embraced social media in a way that has dramatically transformed the region. Millions of active users and billions of hours spent navigating content mean social media represents the largest audience for brands and businesses in the region.

We’ve witnessed first-hand the impact social media has had on the region and we know how important understanding this new technology is for businesses. That’s why this year we’ve partnered with PAYFORT and Hootsuite, to bring you a comprehensive look at some of the region’s largest countries and the social media habits of their residents.

Welcome to the State of Social Media MENA 2016.

SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS FORUAE, KSA & EGYPT IN 2016

The largest population of the countries studied is, by a large margin, Egypt. With over 90 million people, the country has massive potential to become the region’s largest social user base in the coming years. For now, however, low internet penetration of just 33% and even lower social media usage means Egypt still has a lot of room to grow.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have considerably higher internet penetration at 65% and 92% respectively, but when it comes to social media usage the UAE pulls far ahead with 68% of residents using either Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Internet Usage in The RegionPopulation, Internet Penetration, andSocial Media Usage

93m

32m

9m

Total Population

31m

21m

8.5m

Internet Users

30%

35%

68%

Social Media Penetration

01

8,300,000

6,100,000

3,400,000

6,900,000

1,500,000

2,200,000

1,900,000

390,000

5,900,000

4,800,000

1,000,000

8,100,000

6,700,000

1,400,000

3,200,000

2,600,000

600,000

Active Users

English Language

Arabic Language

Male

Female

Generation X:

Generation X: Male

Generation X: Female

Millennials:

Millennials: Male

Millennials: Female

Smartphone Owners

Smartphone Owners: Male

Smartphone Owners: female

Online Expats:

Online Expats: Male

Online Expats: Female

Saudi Arabia has an active Facebook population of approximately 8.3 million users, 6.9 million of which are male. Surprisingly, 6.1 million users in the country use the service in English while only 3.4 million use the Arabic version.

Of the total Facebook population in Saudi Arabia, 26% are Gen Xers while 71% are Millennials. Over 95% of Facebook users in the country are smartphone owners and nearly 40% are expats.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

02

5,300,000

5,000,000

930,000

3,900,000

1,300,000

1,500,000

1,100,000

410,000

3,700,000

2,800,000

880,000

5,200,000

3,800,000

1,300,000

4,500,000

3,300,000

1,200,000

Active Users

English Language

Arabic Language

Male

Female

Generation X:

Generation X: Male


Millennials:

Millennials: Male

Millennials: Female

Smartphone Owners



Online Expats:

Online Expats: Male


The United Arab EmiratesThe UAE has the most active Facebook population with over 62% of the population using the service. The country has an equal split of male (75%) and female (25%) users, but the platform is still largely male dominated.

The Facebook population in the United Arab Emirates is also quite ‘young’, with 3.7 million Millennial users and only 1.5 million Gen X users. Nearly 85% of the country’s Facebook users are expats and 5.2 million users have smartphones.

03

17,000,000

5,300,000

17,000,000

11,000,000

6,200,000

3,800,000

2,600,000

1,100,000

13,000,000

8,200,000

4,800,000

16,000,000

10,000,000

5,600,000

720,000

490,000

220,000

Active Users

English Language

Arabic Language

Male

Female

Generation X:

Generation X: Male


Millennials:

Millennials: Male

Millennials: Female

Smartphone Owners



Online Expats:

Online Expats: Male


Egypt represents the region’s largest Facebook population with 17 million active users on the platform and interestingly it also represents the most equalmale/ female split of all three countries studied.

The Facebook population in Egypt has the lowest number of smartphone owners, however smartphone owners still represent 94% of the user base. Where Egypt differs the most from the others countries is its drastically lower expat population; only 4% of the Facebook population is considered expats.

Egypt

04

Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaTwitter is, without a doubt, Saudi Arabia’s most popular social network with an incredible 11 million users. The platform is also predominantly used in Arabic over English, with 7 million Arabic users.

The platform is used primarily via smartphone with 6 million users accessing the service via iOS, 5 million using Android, and only 843K using desktop.

Active Users

11,000,000

English Language

923,000

Arabic Language

7,000,000

Male

5,000,000

Female

4,000,000

Desktop

843,000

IOS

6,000,000

Android

5,000,000

05

The United Arab EmiratesThe popularity of Twitter in the UAE is considerably lower than Saudi Arabia, but is still double the country’s Instagram population. Twitter is used equally in English and Arabic in the country and has near equal male/ female split.

As with Saudi Arabia, the platform is also used primarily accessed via smartphone. Over 80% of users prefer to use a smartphone over the desktop version.

Active Users

2,000,000

English Language

506,000

Arabic Language

498,000

Male

773,000

Female

661,000

Desktop

238,000

IOS

965,300

Android

686,000

06

As with the United Arab of Emirates, Twitter is less popular in Egypt. The platform is primarily used in Arabic, however, there is a notable English population. Android is by far the most popular OS to access the social platform, with more users using Android than iOS and desktop combined.

Egypt follows both the UAE and Saudi Arabia trend of a near equal male/ female split though it skews slightly towards male usage.

Egypt

Active Users

2,000,000

English Language

419,000

Arabic Language

1,000,000

Male

1,000,000

Female

791,000

Desktop

418,000

IOS

446,000

Android

1,000,000

07

The Instagram population in Saudi Arabia is the largest of all three countries studied with 2.8 million users. Females are considerably more represented on Instagram making up nearly 43% of the country’s Instagram population.

Of the total Instagram population in Saudi Arabia, only 15% of users are considered expats and surprisingly only 53% are smartphone owners.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Active Users

2,800,000English Language

970,000Arabic Language

2,300,000Male

1,700,000Female

1,200,000

Generation X

240,000Generation X - Male

160,000Generation X - Female

88,000Millennials

1,300,000Millennials - Male

780,000

Millennials - Female

490,000Smartphone Owners

1,500,000Smartphone Owners

Male

920,000

Smartphone OwnersFemale

560,000

Online Expats

420,000

Online Expats : Male

260,000Online Expats : Female

150,000

08

The UAE has the smallest active population; with just 970K users, it is the only regional platform with below 1 million users. The platform is largely dominated by the younger generation with 590 thousand millennial users.

The Instagram population in the United Arab Emirates has a larger proportion of smartphone users than Saudi Arabia at 73%. It also has a much higher concentration of expats users with 63% of the users hailing from other countries.

United Arab Emirates

Active Users

970,000English Language

790,000Arabic Language

350,000Male

520,000Female

450,000

Generation X



72,000Millennials

590,000Millennials - Male

310,000




Male

380,000


340,000

Online Expats

610,000



300,000

09

Despite its large population, Egypt is less active on Instagram than Saudi Arabia with 2.5 million users. The user base in Egypt is equally split between male and female users and made up primarily of Egyptian nationals.

The Egyptian Instagram population is dominated by the younger generation with 88% of usersidentified as millennials. It also has the highest portion of smartphone users with 92% of Instagramers in the country using a smartphone.

Egypt

Active Users

2,500,000English Language

1,500,000Arabic Language

2,400,000Male

1,300,000Female

1,300,000

Generation X



88,000Millennials

2,200,000Millennials - Male

1,100,000




Male

1,200,000


1,200,000

Online Expats

140,000



60,000

10

In 2016, the concept of social media being a business’ “New Front Door”, and with social media adoption showing no signs of slowing down, this metaphor will only get stronger year

after year.

Understanding the topics that trend and the social platforms themselves form the foundation for capitalizing on this evolving technology.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2016 & BEYONDTOP TRENDED TOPICS & BRANDS

Trending Topics – What Mattered in 2016 2016 was a year of change around the world. Celebrity deaths, Brexit, the Olympics, and the US election all found their way to the top of global social trends.

#Rio2016

#Euro2016

#Election2016

#Brexit

#Trump

#RIP

#BlackLivesMatter

#Oscars

#GameofThrones

#PokemonGo

US Presidential Election

Brazilian Politics

Pokemon Go

Black Lives Matter

Rodrigo Duterte &Philippine Presidential Election

Olympics

Brexit

Super Bowl

David Bowie

Muhammad Ali

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

12

The US Election: A View from The Middle EastAcross both Facebook and Twitter, the US presidential election was an incredibly important topic all around the world. And the Middle East was no exception…

BETWEEN

NOVEMBER 1ST & DECEMBER 31ST

THERE WERE

67%of interactions were from male users

25%were businesses

12%were female

+56kMentions of the election.

9.7bimpressions relatedto election content

Social Activity in the region peaked on election day

In the region, most discussions related to the electionAR took place in Arabic, not English

13

Where does Instagram Fit in 2016? Despite some challenges, Instagram continues to evolve as new

features, such as Stories and Instagram for Business, change the way users and brands interact with the platform.

Instagram suffered a trend of users ‘quitting’ the service after

Justin Bieber publicly left the platform.

Instagram played a notable role in the 2016 election with both candidates announcing their

nominations on the social platform.

The top ‘branded’ hashtag on Instagram in 2016 was #VSCO

with over 100 Million users, more than double the second place

#OneDirection.

14

Video Takes Over Social Media in 2016 2016 saw a dramatic rise in video content across all social platforms. Larger data allowances and faster speeds on mobile have made video the most popular form of social expression.

Adele Carpool Karaoke Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen/PIKO-TARO

What's inside aRattlesnake Rattle?

Nike Football Presents:The Switch ft.

Grace VanderWaal: 12-Year-Old Ukulele player

Water Bottle Flip EditionDude Perfect

The $21,000 First classAirplane Seat

Brothers Convince Little Sisterof Zombie Apocalypse

Channing Tatum & Beyonce'sRun The World

Donald Trump: Last WeekTonight with John Oliver

Candace Payne,Chewbacca Mom

Ted Yoder, Soundscapes

Buzzfeed, Countdown to thenext presidential election

NBC News, Election results

Atlanta Buzz, People arelining up to hug police

officers in Dallas

Viral Thread, Populationcount from US to CA

CNN, Election resultson Empire State building

Dena Blizzard, Pokemon Gofor moms “Chardonnay Go”

Super Deluxe,Election map

Under the Hood,Video of a truck completely

carved out of wood

15

MENA Social Media Behaviour The MENA region continued to embrace social media through 2016 and users are quickly becoming a high profile audience for marketers.

136Mmonthly Active Users and

127Mof those users accessing the platform via mobile.

97%of users watch at leastone full video each month

5.3 milliondaily users on average

8.7 milliondaily users on average

18 milliondaily users on average

Instagram’s global average usage reached around 42 percent in 2016 increasing from 24 percent in 2014.

The UAE and KSA pulled ahead of global averages, with 60% of UAE residents and 82% KSA residents using the service.

The broader MENA region is still catching up however with 22% of residents using Instagram

Global use of Snapchat has nearly doubled from 12% to 23% since 2014.

20% of the global Snapchat audience is located in the MENA region with the UAE and KSA markets tripling in the last 2 years.

Approx. 9000 snaps are shared every second on the platform.

Ramadan proved to be one of the year’s top trending topics in the Arab world, with tweets being viewed over 10.7 Billion times.

There was a wide range of trends across the UAE that re�ected the diverse nature of the country:

• World Government Summit@WorldGovSummit

• Global Women's Forum@Womens_Forum

• Dubai Tour @DubaiTour

In KSA Football and TV are the major drivers of tra�c on the platform with and topping the trends.

Egypt saw a broad range of topics re�ective of the large population:#pokemonGO#rio2016#عمرو_دياب

#دوري_عبداللطيف_جميل#سيلفي

16

The Region’s Most Social Brands… Taking a look at some of the region’s top performing social brands provides some insights into what local consumers are interested in…

Vodafone Egypt 0% 45.8% 8.3% 45.8%9,469,227

Orange 4.2% 58.3% 8.3% 29.2%8,740,177

Etisalat Misr 0% 62.5% 25% 12.5%8,280,387

AWOK.com 0% 95.8% 0% 4.2%1,348,314

Etisalat UAE 0% 87.5% 12.5% 0%1,164,378

Carrefour UAE 0% 16.7% 37.5% 45.8%600,933

Panda 0% 29.2% 4.2% 66.7%1,649,248

Jarir Bookstore 0% 58.3% 8.3% 33.3%1,529,612

STC 4.2% 62.5% 33.3% 0%1.386.218

On Facebook, it seems text based content is nearly dead with virtually all top brands opting to

abandon this post type. Instead, visual content appears to be king with photo and video content proving the most popular.

EGYP

TU

AE

KSA

LOCAL FANS TEXT PHOTO VIDEO LINK

17


Twitter is drastically more popular in Saudi Arabia then UAE and Egypt. A particularly interesting trend with Saudi Arabian businesses is their extremely low ‘following’ counts.

Vodafone Egypt 1,656,935

Etislalat Misr 1,336,297

Orange 1,026,694

Etisalat UAE

DU

DIFC

Mobily |

9,010 491,515

16,315 270,084

2,631 139,162

1,817,369

1,486,253

853,189

7,446 88,996

5,772 112,190

218 5,058

3,212,087

3,149,968

1,592,698

9 163,316

11 565,916

2 31,781

EGYP

TU

AE

KSA

FOLLOWERS FOLLOWING TOTAL TWEETS

االتصاالت السعودية

موبايلي

العربية للعود

18


Vodafone Egypt 145,309

SUBSCRIBERS VIEWS UPLOADED VIDEOS

Orange 148,781

Etisalat Misr 180,334

The du Channel

Emirates

Etisalat UAE

STC

Mobily

العربية للعود

YouTube is still a developing platform in the region, but a few brands have started to leverage the potential of video content. The trends show that a number of videos produced correlate with total views.

169,197,307 598

4.2% 58.3%

0% 62.5%

56,976

188,554

30,538

95,310,188 1,119

91,652,892 389

56,931,523 179

428,182

322,897

61,736

289,121,570 823

134,483,343 280

58,759,638 187

EGYP

TU

AE

KSA

19

…and What You Can Learn from Them In the world of social media, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So what can you learn from the region’s top brands?

Got something important to share? Pin It! Keep announcements, new campaigns, and project launches in the limelight longer by pinning on Facebook and Twitter.

Videos drive engagement; top brands create thoughtful videos with their audience in mind rather than just sharing other videos.

Emojis are the fastest growing language in history; think about how you can include them to better express your brand(s) story.

Your products and services don’t need to steal the show; try to create content that will entertain your audience and encourage them to interact with your brand.

20

The influence of social media continues to grow and it is having a big impact on how

businesses evaluate their success. Interactions, engagement, and overall sentiment can tell you a lot about how your organization is performing.

In order to get meaningful insights, however, you need to know how you compare to other organizations in your sector. That’s why we’ve collected deeper data on the region’s

leading businesses across six unique sectors. This data can serve as a benchmark for your business and help you better set goals for 2017.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENTINSIGHTS

Sharing Economy

67%

12%

KSA Egypt

9%

UAE

2%

Jordan

1.4%Qatar

1.4%Kuwait

.71%Lebanon

Activities in each Country

Most Active Networks(excluding brands' posts)

Interactions/Day 2,653The number of comments and retweets captured.

Active People/Day1,537People who posted original content, comments, or retweeted posts.

Engagement Rate28.81%The percentage of original content receiving at least one interaction

Sentiment Score-0.222How people feel towards the post. Neutral, negative or positive

Buzz Overview

Ride-sharing and the broader sharing economy is continuing to gain popularity in the Arab region based on current social trends. The topic saw considerable engagement throughout 2016 with posts and discussions garnering over 970K interactions and 28.8% of all content receiving at least one interaction.

Facebook Twitter Instagram

15% 74% 11%

22

Sharing Economy

Demographics

Ride-sharing was largely discussed by male users in all countries studied. This was followed by female users, and finally, business users in all countries with the exception of the UAE where female and business discussions were equally split.

The majority of the discussion took place in Saudi Arabia, with 67% of all activity coming from that country. Egypt and the UAE made up most of the remaining activity with the broader Arab countries showing less interest.

UAE was the only country which had females activities equal to business activities with represented 23%. KSA had the least active business accounts participating with the sharing economy topic.

Moreover, males in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the most active in the Middle owning 79.5% of KSA’s and 47.3% of Qatar’s activities, respectively. Lebanon had the least percent for female participation with 46%. Female participation was at its best in Lebanon with 31% followed by UAE with 23%.

Gender by Location

KSA Egypt UAE Jordan Qatar Lebanon Bahrain

80%

15%

6%

65%

21%

14%

54%

23% 23%

67%

21%

12%

74%

15%10%

46%

31%

23%

65%

20%15%

Male Female Business


Most Active Gendersper Network

Facebook

73%

26%

1%

Twitter

74%

20%7%

Instagram

57%

33%

10%

Gender overview

Business8%

Male71%

Female21%

23

Sharing Economy

Language and Dialect

Discussions around Ride Sharing across all countries analyzed took place primarily in Arabic with only 11.7% of interactions analyzed occurring in English. This is a strong indication that this

industry is fostering meaningful communities in the Arab world and producing content that connects with the Arab population.

Languages per year based on

1,034,440activities

ArabicEnglish

12%(121,000)

88%(913,440)

English represents 11.7% out of the total investigated activities.

Arabic is the dominant language is 2016 when it comes to talking about Careem & Uber in the Middle East.

24

Sharing Economy

Sentiment

Overall sentiment for Ride Sharing solutions was slightly negative, however, it should be noted

that with the exception of Saudi Arabia, other countries had a favorable opinion of the services.

Instagram was the only social platform where these services received overall positive feedback, with both Twitter and Facebook leaning negative, a trend that was true for both male and female users.

KSA Egypt UAE Jordan Qatar Lebanon Bahrain

12%

24%

64%

22%

14%

65%

35%

12%

53%

30%

13%

57%

27%

14%

60%

30%

11%

59%

18%16%

66%


Sentiment per Country

Genders’ Sentiment

14%19%

67%

15%21%

64%

Positive Negative Neutral

25

Sharing Economy

Sentimentper Network

Sentimental Activitiesper Male Per Network

Sentimental Activitiesper Female Per Network


10%

16%

74%

16%

20%

64%

11%

78%

11%

9%14

%76

%

18%

28%

54%

11%

84%

5%

14%

24%

62%

10%

15%

75%

11%

79%

10%

26

Sharing Economy

Mentions Overview (Online Users Only)

Users in the Middle East mentioned the most popular Sharing Economy based companies 40

times per hour on average.

Online users actively engage with Sharing Economy companies' Twitter accounts an average of 36 mentions per hour. Same companies were mentioned in 788 news articles every month on

average.

Type

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Blogs

Forums

News

Hour

36

1

1

0.5

0.1

1.1

Day

867

13

36

13

2

26

Week

6,100

88

252

92

13

182

Month

26,432

382

1,091

397

56

788

Type

Mentions

Conversations

Active People

Interactions

Likes

Comments

Retweets

Interactions onblogs, forums,news websites

Hour

40

11

6

242

133

54

52

3

Day

956

262

153

5,802

3,197

1,290

1,250

65

Week

6,726

1,847

1,077

40,840

22,504

9,079

8,800

457

Month

29,147

8,004

4,667

176,973

97,518

39,343

38,133

1,979

27

Banking and Finance - The United Arab Emirates

Interactions

The topic of finance and banking in the UAE saw 149.5K interactions received throughout 2016 and achieved an impressive engagement rate with 1 out of every 2 posts made receiving at least one interaction. This strong engagement indicates a mature industry that produces the right content for its audience.

Interactions/ Day 409The number of comments and retweets captured.

Active People/ Day185 People who posted original content, comments, or retweeted posts.


Sentiment Score0.61How people feel towards the post. Neutral, Negative or Positive

UAE

93%


KSA

2%

Egypt

1%

28


Demographics

UAE banking and finance companies are primarily discussed by male users, who are responsible for nearly 50% of all interactions. This compares to businesses which made up 33% while female users accounted for the final 17%.

Unsurprisingly, the majority (93%) of the discussions for these UAE-based companies took place in the UAE, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt representing the next two most active markets.

Most Active Gender(excluding brands’ posts)

Male50%

Female17%

Business33%

29

Banking and Finance - The United Arab of Emirates


An analysis of over 65,000 users showed that despite being based in the Arab region, English was actually the more common language for social activities relating to this industry. With 68.2% of engagements occurring in English and the remaining 31.8% taking place in Arabic, the impact of expats on the industry is clear.


67,818activities

ArabicEnglish

68%(46,263)

22%(21,555)

68.2% of users’ activities with UAE banking social accounts in 2016 were in English.

30


Sentiment

Overall sentiment for banking and finance companies in the UAE was positive, this was true across both male and female demographics and was particularly true for business users.


Banking Sentiments

26%

11%

63%

30%

7%

63%

44%

4%

52%

31

Banking and Finance - The United Arab of Emirates


Online users mentioned UAE banks accounts 24% times more in twitter than Facebook. Banking Social accounts in UAE receive on average 881 mentions per month where only 315 (35.8%) gain at least 1 interaction. On average 8 unique people engage with banking social account every hour. People are actively engaging with posts more than just liking it with 64.4% of the activities made on online users’ posts with banking social accounts in UAE was comments. Online users’ posts on banking social accounts received on average 14 comments per hour.

Active Interactions per Network

Mention per Network

Type

Twitter

Facebook

Hour

1

1

Day

16

13

Week

1300

91

Month

483

393

Type

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Hour

2

11

1

Day

55

274

24

Week

386

1,928

171

Month

1,672

8,354

742

32

E-Commerce

Activities in each Country(excluding brands’ posts)

57%

KSA

15%

UAE

11%

Egypt

4%

Kuwait

.91%Oman

.89%Qatar

.74%Iraq

Buzz overview

The topic of e-commerce saw very strong engagement in 2016 receiving 3.7 million interactions related to Souq, Namshi, and Jumia, which translates to 422 interactions per hour through the year. This strong level of engagement is a very positive sign for the e-commerce industry in Arab countries and further confirms its continued adoption in the Middle East.

Interactions / Day 1,450The number of comments and retweets captured.

Active People / Day1,468People who posted original content, comments, or retweeted posts.

Engagement Rate14.39%The percentage of original content receiving at least one

interaction

Sentiment Score0.03How people feel towards the post. Neutral, Negative or Positive

Most Active Networks

Interactions Mentions

18%

92%

28%

.66%

53%

4%

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E-Commerce

Demographics

E-Commerce activity for the 3 online stores mentioned was once again primarily driven by maleusers, accounting for over half of all activities, Businesses made up 33% and female users accountedfor roughly 15%.

The majority of the discussion took place in Saudi Arabia, with 57% of all activity coming from this country. The UAE and Egypt also have a considerable impact on overall activities accounting for 14.7% and 10.8% respectively. Broader Arab countries such as Oman, Iraq, and Qatar were considerably less active which may indicate that e-commerce is still developing in these countries.

Gender overview

Male52%

Female15%

Business33%

80%

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E-Commerce


An analysis of over 714,000 activities that Arabic was the dominant language for social activities relating to e-commerce with 87.4% of engagements occurring in Arabic. This is a positive sign for the industry and a strong indicator that these three companies are focused on addressing the unique needs of the e-commerce landscape in the Middle East.

Languages - Analyzing around

714,660 activities

ArabicEnglish

13%(90,400)

87%(624,260)

Arabic is the main languageused in E-Commerce mentions and interactions.

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Sentiment

Overall sentiment for the e-commerce industry largely neutral across the countries studied. Social campaigns promoting offers and discounts were the main contributors to positive sentiment, while complaints made up the majority of the negative sentiment.

E-Commerce

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Users’ Sentiment

17%

67%

16%

Telecommunication - Egypt

Interactions

The topic of Egyptian telecommunication companies was the most popular topic studied earning a very impressive 3.04 million interactions in 2016. Posts related to Egyptian telecom companies also saw a strong engagement rate with nearly 57% of all posts receiving at least one engagement.

Interactions/Day8,3093.04mThe number of comments and retweets captured.

Active People/Day2,349859.56kPeople who posted original content, comments, or retweeted posts.


Sentiment Score-0.31How people feel towards the post. Neutral, negative or positive

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Demographics

Egyptian telecom companies are almost exclusively engaged with by male users representing nearly 87% of all interactions. Businesses were nearly non-existent in this space making up only 0.3% of all interactions, female users rounded out the remaining activity. This appears to indicate that current content is not interesting to female users, companies that recognize this gap may be able to gain an edge in the marketplace.

Gender overview

Male87%

Female13%

Business0.3%

80%

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An analysis of over 1.3 million activities showed that Arabic was virtually the only language used to discuss telecom companies in Egypt. Out of all activities studied 97.5% were carried out in Arabic while only 2.5% occurred in English.


1,309,552activities

ArabicEnglish

3%(32,131)

97%(1,277,421)

English represents only 2.5% of the total activities in Egypt

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Sentiment

Overall sentiment for Egyptian telecom companies studied was negative across male, female, and business users. Twitter was home to the most negative users with just under 30% of users expressing negative sentiment, while Facebook and Instagram saw a lower 15% of users expressing negative sentiment. Having strong community managers who can address

concerns and resolve conflicts should be a top priority for these companies.


Users’ Sentiment

9% 16%

75%

10%18%

72%

8% 12%

80%

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10%15%

75%

8%

36%

56%

8%

34%

58%


9%15%

76%

10%

27%

63%

8%15%

77%

Most Active Gendersper Network


87%

12%

1%

77%

21%

2%

79%

19%

2%


9%15%

76%

8%

30%

62%

8%14%

78%

Sentimental Activitiesper Female Per Network

Sentimental Activitiesper Male Per Network

Sentimentper Network

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Telecommunications in Egypt is a highly competitive market and it shows on social media. Between each telecom brand receiving at least 8 mentions an hour and a sentiment score of -0.31 last year, telecommunications in Egypt is an analysis goldmine.

Mention per Network

Type

Twitter

Facebook

Hour

8

11

Day

204

258

Week

1,436

1,814

Month

6,222

7,859

Active Interactions per Network

Type

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Hour

27

187

4

Day

654

4,497

104

Week

4,602

31,651

734

Month

19,940

137,152

3,179

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Fintech

Interactions

The topic of FinTech is still quite new but it still received considerable attention globally with 464K interactions. The novel nature of FinTech in the Middle East contributed to a rather low engagement rate of just 31.5%, on par with other emerging industries such as ride-sharing. New industries need to experiment with a wide range of content to better understand what their target audience is interested in.

Interactions2.54k The number of comments and retweets captured.

Active People1.06k People who posted original content, comments, or retweeted posts.

Engagement Rate31.58% The percentage of original content receiving at least one interaction


70%

UAE

17%

Jordan

6%

Saudi Arabia

5%

Egypt

.82%Qatar

.61%Lebanon

.34% .31% .24% .14%Kuwait Bahrain Morocco Libya

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Fintech

Demographics

New content was most frequently produced by businesses, with male users representing the most frequent commenters. Female users showed some interest in the topic, but made up just under 20% of all commenters.

The majority of content around Arab Fintech organizations occurred in the UAE, with international content also penetrating the market. This again highlights the novel nature of these companies with just 34% of new content coming from an Arab country.

Gender overview

Male32%

Female8%

Business60%

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Fintech


The topic of Fintech is still largely discussed in English across the Arab region, which once again shows that the industry is in its infancy. Of all new content released during our study only 5% was in Arabic. This represents a clear opportunity for Arab FinTech companies who want to capture local consumers; by creating engaging content in Arabic, local companies can gain an edge over their international competitors.

ArabicEnglish

6%(85)

94%(1,380}

Fintech Startup founders and marketing executives need toestablish more engaging content in Arabic. Otherwise missing

an untapped opportunity.

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Fintech

Sentiment

Even though the industry is quite new, overall sentiment is positive to neutral. This is a promising sign for future growth and with more effective education, the industry will likely continue growing in the region.


Users’ Sentiment

13% 1%

86%

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Social media is rapidly evolving across the Middle East and it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends. If you’re not working on the frontlines day to day, it’s easy to miss out on new opportunities and see how the landscape is changing.

That’s why Crowd Analyzer and Hootsuite are sharing their predictions and luckily for you we’ve got some of the region’s leading experts to share their insight on the State of Social media and talk about the trends they’re seeing today. Understanding the social media landscape is becoming more critical each year and these expert insights will help you capitalize on this new frontier.

SOCIAL MEDIA PREDICTIONS 2017

Predictions

Why Social Media Monitoring is the one thing to do in 2017?

When Crowd Analyzer was launched in 2013, Social listening was next to none-existing as a culture in the Middle East business sphere. If one had to monitor a social media campaign or do some online market research, it had to be done and checked and double checked manually based on the interpretation of the person performing the research.

This is where social listening excels, it takes the human “interpretation” element out and inserts Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Data Science and other ground-breaking technology to make machines as linguistically proficient as humans yet mixing the qualities of human-felt sentiment with the neutrality of machines.

Imagine this, if someone were to tell you something in the presence of a group of people, you find it hilarious yet your best friend is offended, who is to judge? And can you afford that sort of judgement when the same statement affects your business and brand reputation?

Social Listening is pretty much truly synonymous with social intelligence. As in, you need to intelligently look at Social Media and not just at your brand’s own account but your competitors’ accounts, keywords that may touch on an upcoming campaign or product and accounts you may even want to take inspiration from.

What to look for? That is an excellent question.

In a region as emotionally involved in every aspect as the Middle East, Sentiment is a must. Whether someone has negative, positive or neutral feelings towards a mention of yours is very important, one negative statement has been proven to incite a horribly damaging PR campaign. One negative tweet can, in fact, make or break your business’ reputation.

Since the Middle East is essentially a hub of many cultures, Arabic language is not as unified as one might hope. Whether in Egypt, Levantine areas, Gulf or with content producers using standard Arabic, it is essential to be able to tell the dialect behind each mention. Not only does this bring you unprecedented insights, it also can easily direct content creation, AD targeting and assist you in weaving stories your exact demographic would read and more importantly, interact with.

The topic of relevancy, however, will again take you back to the seemingly long battle between humans and machines, who understands language more? Relevancy algorithms, in Social Listening, not only look at words verbatim but at whole sentences; also, factoring in cultural backgrounds based on location and dialect to not only look at keywords but at context, syntax and topics.

Finally, Gender and Location demographics are essential to look at. You need to see which demographic is rich in interaction so you can build the relationship further and which demographic is untapped so you can go in and make them yours.

Social media monitoring and intelligent social listening and management is your gateway to better products, stronger marketing, a wholesome PR strategy and an everyday guide to taking any sort of brand to the next level. If there is one thing we want you to do in 2017, it is to listen and listen carefully.

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The largest population of the countries studied is, by a large margin, Egypt. With over 90 million people, the country has massive potential to become the region’s largest social user base in the coming years. For now, however, low internet penetration of just 33% and even lower social media usage means Egypt still has a lot of room to grow.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have considerably higher internet penetration at 65% and 92% respectively, but when it comes to social media usage the UAE pulls far ahead with 68% of residents using either Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Check out their insights on the biggest trends to watch in 2017 below.

Predictions

Social catches up with search for discoverySearch remains king when it comes to consumer research and evaluating products or services, but social is starting to rival search when it comes to discovery. This trend is especially strong among younger consumers, something that needs to be considered by brands interested in targeting millennials. Global Web Index found that 37 percent of all internet users turn to social networks to research brands or products, and also found that 50% Snap chatters and Instagrammers research products on social media.

Social commerce shows new promiseSocial commerce has been hyped before. However, adoption in APAC along with new features introduced by Instagram and Pinterest makes this trend an inevitable evolution in consumer behavior. As KPCB’s Mary Meeker 2016 Internet Trends Report found, there’s been a 106 percent year-over-year growth in users who have made a purchase from WeChat.

Dark social risingFueled by mobile and messaging, dark social is gaining ground. Dark social is critical for marketers to understand as if you only track social traffic with traditional web analytics, you’re drastically underreporting the value social delivers to your business. A study by the digital advertising company Radium One found that 82 percent of content shared on mobile is done through dark social.

Video ignites social advertisingLast year, we saw social video begin to dominate the social landscape. The next evolution is to combine the emotional power of social video with the scale and reach of social advertising. A May 2016 study by Animoto found that 70 percent of marketers plan to use social video advertising in the next 12 months with Facebook the platform of choice.

Organizations turn to connected workforcesOrganizations are increasingly investing in the online reach and customer influence of their own workforce by leveraging employee advocacy, social selling, and digital skills training. Ninety percent of brands surveyed by the leading research firm Altimeter plan to pursue employee advocacy solutions in 2017.

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Social Network Developments

Moments in time. Customer experience and service.Twitter will focus on being where consumers go to experience, create, and report on moments in time. From cultural events to breaking news, Twitter’s focus will be on real-time moments. Businesses will continue to use Twitter to create shareable customer experience moments, increase loyalty, and quickly serve their customers on social.

Driving conversions. Social marketing.Facebook will remain the top network marketers use to drive conversions from social. But businesses know they need to pay-to-play on Facebook. With the success of Facebook Live and new features like Facebook Marketplace, expect to see more opportunities to advertise as well as a continued push for social commerce.

Brand awareness. Community building and discovery.In North America, Instagram hasn’t been as successful as driving purchases as Facebook. But as retail brands such as Warby Parker and Kate Moss show Instagram works well for brand awareness and engaging your community of customers, advocates, and supporters. Brands will come here to inspire customers and fuel social discovery of new products and services.

Content distribution. Audience engagement.Snapchat has matured as social marketing channel. But there’s a greater focus on content than other networks. Brands such as MTV, National Geographic, and Vice have been successful at using Snapchat to distribute content. Universities have been using Snapchat to engage students on campus. And celebrities are rewarding their fans with special content, exclusive access, and fun visual experiences.

Content platform. Social selling and peer-to-peer influence.With the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft in 2016, expect LinkedIn to continue to invest in their content platform as they try to become the single place professionals go to stay on top of things happening in their network, industry, and profession. LinkedIn will also invest further in social selling, helping sales teams tap into the power of peer-to-peer connections in LinkedIn. This means LinkedIn isn’t where brands blast messages. But rather where your content has to spread through your workforce—shared by sales teams, amplified by employees.

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30 Expert Talks: Predictions for Social Media 2017

I’d have to say that Microsoft purchasing LinkedIn was the most notable moment in social media for 2016. LinkedIn has grown to be one of the region’s most influential social platforms and with the added resources Microsoft can bring to the table, I’d expect this growth to continue over the coming years. I think LinkedIn still has a way to go before it reaches its full potential but once it does it will be a powerful player in the Middle East’s social landscape.

I’d have to say that Microsoft purchasing LinkedIn was the most notable moment in social media for 2016. LinkedIn has grown to be one of the region’s most influential social platforms and with the added resources Microsoft can bring to the table, I’d expect this growth to continue over the coming years. I think LinkedIn still has a way to go before it reaches its full potential but once it does it will be a powerful player in the Middle East’s social landscape.

Along with LinkedIn, both Facebook and Instagram appear to bring the most value to our business. I think that the social channels you use will always depend on the sector you’re in but for us these three are having a big impact. With that said the overwhelming popularity of Snapchat with the younger millennial generation means businesses will need to start considering the platform.

What’s quite amazing to me is the continued decline of Twitter in the region, it seems as though every month the platform loses more and more ground to Instagram and other up and coming social media platforms.

Overall I think the drop comes from the way users interact with brands on Twitter, more and more it is becoming a customer service channel rather than a marketing channel. People prefer to use it to complain or ask questions rather than find new and exciting products.

We’ve been lucky to have quality social media monitoring in place that helps us stay on top of these trends and adjust our strategies accordingly. It’s something that is still in its infancy in this part of the world but it makes a big difference in how you market with social media. Based on the data we’ve collected, we are looking towards the millennial generation and how they use social media to inform our future strategies. They are going to be the biggest digital consumers in history and understanding their behaviour is the key to capitalizing on it.

Enaam AliSocial Media ManagerCentric DMCCTwitter - @enaam_ali

The most notable moment of 2016 has got to be the Mannequin Challenge, what started off as a simple high school event in Florida went on to be the most viral trend of 2016 and was picked up by everyone including Sporting teams, Government organisations, Brands and celebrities. Unfortunately, unlike the ice bucket challenge it didn’t represent a cause or a mission, I’d say it represented virality in the modern digital era.

Monitoring or social media listening has brought in fantastic results for us and we are all about offering a helping hand to potential customers; they know that we are looking out for them even if they haven’t directly asked us. It’s definitely something the region shies away from, but that’s due to the fact that a lot of brands here don’t run social media in “real-time”.

Ali Khalid RanaMarketing Manager JadopadoTwitter - @jadopado

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While it’ll take a bit to dislodge Facebook from its perch, I think Instagram has the potential to do it, which is incidentally the social media I would prioritise as a business owner as well. Based on the awesome set of features it has including

Instagram Stories & Instagram for Business - it definitely has the potential to be the next big thing.

Influencer marketing in the region is not as well established as it is in the globe, in my opinion it requires a lot of real time engagement & detailed KPIs to generate result. Currently, all that you can accomplish from influencer marketing is brand awareness & brand association. I’d like to hold on to the point where influencer marketing starts driving real time results.

I wouldn’t specify a generation, all of the generations could be a target and should be marketed to their needs and likes; basically for you to be a great brand/organisation you need to ensure you are not eliminating any of your customers and are keeping them in the loop with tailored content.

30 Expert Talks: Predictions for Social Media 2017On YouTube the content was almost always thought out, edited, and polished. Next came Instagram which still had an element of polish, but forced users to express themselves quickly, limiting storytelling. Snapchat continued the short snippet model but also added an element of urgency, forcing users share content that was happening today. The logical conclusion was always going to be live streaming and now we are there with platforms like Periscope, Facebook live, Instagram Live. Live content is everywhere!

With this evolving trend better social monitoring is going to become crucial. Currently I think the market isn’t capitalizing on the potential of social monitoring, and truth be told they aren’t really taking full advantage of social marketing either. If companies want to connect with users, they need to know what their customers are talking about, looking for, and interested in. As the time frame to capitalize on social trends gets shorter and shorter social monitoring is really the only way to keep up.

Another thing that social media monitoring helps with is identifying what social networks a business should be focusing on. Depending on who your customers are and where they’re located, the ‘best’ social network for your business is going to change. For now, I think that in terms of raw reach, Facebook will remain the number one platform in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. They’ve done such a good job at hooking their users and are quickly taking over the mobile space.

Twenty sixteen had so many interesting moments on social media that it’s hard to say which was the most notable, but if I had to choose I think it would be the huge trend towards live streaming content. It represents one of the biggest changes to how people interact and consume media and shows the desire we all have for immediate and unfiltered content.

Interestingly, this trend isn’t all that surprising as long as you’ve been paying attention. Look at how video started…

Sara Shabana Regional Social MarketingManager Souq.com

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Do you know what your customers really want? If you are aiming to delight and retain your customers, it’s key to build a clear picture of their expectations. The new mega trend that drives revenue is not products or brands, it’s customer experience. The challenge for companies lies in the fact that this experience is now being impacted by customers on a public, visible platform that is out of their control – or is there a way to control it?

We are often asked by brands: how can we accelerate growth, while making it sustainable? The EY point of view is that brands should listen to their customers, put them at the center of their business, and consistently deliver to their needs. This will allow businesses to build trust. We call it "The EY trust revolution." Three key questions that companies need to ask themselves to build trust are:

1. How are you retaining your customers?Customers are dissatisfied when they perceive thatthey are not receiving value for their money.Dissatisfied customers will not only choose againstinteracting with the brand again, but they will alsodiscourage others. The effort and cost it takes toreconcile broken trust is much more than the pricecompanies pay to keep their customers happy. EYresearch shows that it costs five times more toacquire new customers than to retain an existingcustomer.

2. Are you listening to your customers?Customer experience is the next competitivebattleground. Nowadays customers are informed,empowered and not necessarily loyal to a particularbrand. Customers usually treat social media either asa platform to complain or as an outlet for satisfaction.They post as they experience, making social media a

real-time accurate database for their voice. EY uses social media as a baseline to uncover critical customer insights and the root causes for business performance challenges, as well as to identify improvement areas.

How does the voice of customers impact you?One mistake or bad experience can go viral in seconds, influencing the perception of brands and resulting in a brand reputational disaster. There have been many instances of company revenues being significantly impacted as a result of reputational damage that occurred in a matter of hours.

It is imperative that brands recognize the voice of their customers and respond to them in a timely fashion. Ask yourself today - Do you know what customers are saying about you? And are you doing something about it?

Sherwette MansourSocial Media IntelligenceLeadEY MENA

Twenty sixteen was certainly a busy year for social media across the Middle East and around the world with large events such as #Euro2016, #RioBrazil2016, and the #Oscars showing just how powerful social media can be. In Egypt, it is becoming clear that brands need to start focusing on social marketing. Throughout 2016 interest in digital media, and in particular, social media influencers took off at an accelerated pace.

In Egypt, Instagram and Snapchat have been gaining a lot of attention from the most ‘tech savvy’ users, however Facebook and YouTube continue to dominate the market in terms of overall reach and engagement. It’s sad to say but I really don’t feel optimistic that Twitter will succeed as a platform for social marketing. We are seeing brands spend less and less on the platform and it just doesn’t deliver the

Samer AlyDigital Marketing SeniorSupervisorOrange Egypt


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The prevalence of social media has greatly assisted in the transformation of word of mouth (WOM) into electronic word of mouth (eWOM). This transformation has given consumers from all backgrounds the chance to strike up conversations, not only intimate and private ones, but also brand-related. These continuous conversations have surely generated numerous insights, on which brilliant campaigns were built on and probably the lives of thousands if not millions were touched.

We have witnessed the rise and fall of traditional media, when digital became the convenient alternative to traditional. Would dark social become the alternative to traditional social media? I am not arguing that dark would completely kill of traditional, yet traditional is bound to lose a lot of its ground to dark social channels. Dark social is simply the creation and sharing of content that occurs outside of what can be measured by web analytics, specifically through online chat and email. It is a fact that active monthly users on platforms like WhatsApp

Mohamed Abu GabalSocial Media ExecutiveOMD Media

results brands need to see to justify the investment. The ROI of a certain social channel is the key factor that decides whether a brand chooses to continue and with Twitter, for most brands it’s just not there.

As you can imagine this increased interest in social media marketing means businesses are scrambling to better understand how these platforms work and what users are interested in. This is where social media monitoring has become invaluable, in telecommunications and a range of other industries you need to know what’s being said about your brand; it’s no longer a luxury it’s a necessity. Brands can be destroyed on social media by a single incident if it’s not handled properly.

or Facebook Messenger have surpassed 1b each, and since no normal commercial tool is able to access those conversations (as far as we know) hence the term ‘dark social’ was coined. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a whopping $16b in 2014 it was not done vainly. It all became clear in summer 2016 when WhatsApp’s new T&Cs allowed user data to be shared with Facebook. A smart move by a data giant that survives on users’ eyeballs and most importantly their data.

If traditional social media channels are a data and insights gold-mines, think of the treasures you can get by electronically eavesdropping on 42b messages in 53 different languages per day, and this is only WhatsApp. I am a great advocate of user privacy and I admit that I can be obsessed with it sometimes, yet I fully understand that we (marketers) cannot be locked out of such a deep mine of priceless treasures. We have the option to go down the wicked path and devise methods to hack into those conversations, or better yet and to avoid the legal hassle, come up with ways to bring those conversations into the light, where we can listen to them and derive workable information out of them.

I believe that this is our greatest challenge for 2017 and beyond. We need to constantly work on content that initiates more meaningful conversations in the open. More personalized content that would make fans feel special and maybe enticed to take their conversations to the public. Perhaps emerging technologies could leverage this potential, especially the everlasting developments in the smartphone and wearable category. It is also a possibility that the doors would tighten further and we will never have access to the dark side of social, nor succeed in bringing them to the light, but always remember the barriers that we, humans, were able to pass.

How brilliant minds came up with bright game-changing ideas. Keep dreaming, keep working.


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In some ways, the Middle East is so far ahead of the rest of the world with regards to social media, and in so many critical ways, we are still lagging very far behind. Our audience are all using it. They are spending their lives with it. So where is the disconnect I believe the brands in this region are struggling to come to terms with how to approach social media. We are allowing the Facebook and media agencies of this world to convince us that it is all about media spend.

The more you spend the more you achieve. Which makes us lazy when it comes to creating disruptive and innovative content. When you look at other more progressive markets, they understand social media. They understand that people on social media are not trying to move further down the consideration journey to purchase a chocolate bar, or even change their behaviour with regards to the fabric conditioner they use. No. They are trying to watch funny cat videos. They are trying to see the latest ‘Barbes’ & ‘Catch me outside’ meme. I expect middle Eastern brands to start taking more risks in 2017, to develop a stronger sense of humor and sense of purpose within the channel, and ultimately have more fun. If we are having fun creating the content, then our audience will more than likely have fun watching it.

Ayla de MoraesPlanning DirectorGrey Digital

One of the biggest social media moments in 2016 had to be MadfooatCom’s revamped digital marketing strategy. The company was able to achieve results far above expectations with their Facebook page reaching 143,772 followers. This boost to MadfooatCom’s digital presence led to an increased awareness for our brand, we’ve noticed a considerable change in customer behaviour and a more positive outlook regarding bill payments. This increased customer engagement means we are better able to understand our organizations strengths and weakness, and as a result we’ve been able to create a better overall product.

These positive results would not have been achievable without effective social media monitoring, it really is a critical element for our marketing efforts. eFAWATEERcom is an online service that allows people to pay their bills online, this means that our customers are far more likely to reach out through our social media channels. If we aren’t monitoring our brand and the topics that our customers are discussing, we’re missing out on opportunities.

From our experience, most of our customers reach out to us through Facebook and we expect that will continue into the future. With that said, LinkedIn has also captured our attention. As LinkedIn is a social network dedicated to professionals while still offering targeted advertising, we believe it has a lot of potential to reach a completely new consumer segment and further expand eFawateercom’s reach.

We also feel that Instagram is an important tool to enhance customer awareness about for our brand. We use it quite frequently to promote our services however when it comes time for consumers to interact many revert back to Facebook.

Fawateer.com

Looking forward we think some of the major trends brands need to be aware of in the social media space are live video content (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram) and the rise of Facebook bot. It seems as though the days of social media being exclusively people is coming to an end and the companies that leverage Facebook bots will have a huge advantage over competitors.


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It is expected that Brand Advocacy will drive consumer trust and long term loyalty affecting each part of the purchasing funnel. The rise of AI lenses, chatbots and more specifically customer service chatbots will continue - coupled with the decrease of social media automation vs social media management. Marketing insight driven by data and analytics will be at the heart of decision making across brands.

Tarik AminCEODigital@Adline Media Network

Social media is part of real life, all our lives. Pop culture used to be determined by TV and movies. Now it's determined by social media. Pop culture matters since it drives consumer decisions. Pop culture is cyclical -things become cool, mainstream adopts, then fade away as cool kids move on to next thing. With social media, these cycles have become faster and faster. Its crucial for businesses to understand how these cycles form and even predict the next one to be able to capitalize on trends. In 2017, more people will use social media thus increasing the effect of this on businesses and modern life as we know it.

Zak NassarProduct ManagerDubizzle

The explosion in social media new features and the fierce competition in 2016 was amazing. we have been talking about the social media in many aspect of life for years now, even we talked about Banking 2.0. However we are much closer to conducted full financial transactions through different social platforms after they approved themselves in marketing, reputation and business customer targeting"

Alaa Adel ZidanSocial Media Lead DMI

The announcement of 2030 vision was the most notable moment in 2016. It represents the change. When there is a change you will normally have two teams, one to fight against it, and another one to support it.I believe social media monitoring is extremely important to us. It helps us to control any problem for our client before it goes on public. The demand and awareness for the importance of monitoring is raising in the region.

Albraa HamadaOperation Team SupervisorSmaat


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I still expect Facebook to remain at Number 1 in the Middle East, but it will never be in the GCC.

I think the most notable social media network for 2017 is Twitter. It is so popular in Saudi Arabia. The King and the crown prince are using it to speak to public.

I love using influencers for marketing campaigns of course, I will choose them according to the type of the campaign. They create so many creative ways to promote your product and mostly in indirect ways.

Top 2016 Social Media Win for me is Snapchat and Top 2016 Social Media Fail in the Middle East for me Tumblr.

The industry I expect to win in Social Media in the Middle East in 2017 is Entertainment for sure. We just started it in Saudi Arabia.

Leveraging the power of social media has been growing exponentially in the past few years. The facilitation of an open two-way communication between consumer and business, generated a wealth of valuable data that in some cases revolutionized businesses and industries. 2017 will be the year of ‘battle of knowledge’, so be ready to see more efficient analytics, actionable insights and manifestation of AI in the field

Youssef ShalabyRegional Head of Reasearch& Analytics Hug Digital


Lots of businesses still think of social media as a marketing tool, but the reality is that it’s quickly remaking the entire customer lifecycle, often in unexpected ways. The biggest trend for the year ahead: change. Platforms are poised to continue to evolve in accelerating, unexpected ways. The one constant that businesses can depend on is that social media itself isn’t going anywhere. As attention spans shrink, legacy media outlets splinter and traditional ads lose their mojo, social media is increasingly the one reliable place to reach consumers. The tools and channels may shift but the cultural sea change instigated by Facebook more than a decade ago is here to stay. And you don’t need a crystal ball to see that.

Ryan HolmesCEOHootsuite

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As social media is disrupting many things around us, with the ongoing demand for now data (live feeds), and the ongoing “share “share on the web is overwhelming! and increasing we cannot miss the connected people around the hour demanding answers and views marketers are lost in this translation this year people will take more advantage of the available tools and their influence on brands, Retail growth online is a scene will learn a lot from, people are back in public relations not companies anymore.

I completely feel that social monitoring/listening is underused in the region, there are plenty of suppliers who cater for this however businesses have recently started understanding the power of beyond social listening and with that said I am talking about “Social Insights”. Listening is present but insight isn’t. Today everything is content led even on all your social platforms but how much impact is this content delivering on your business objectives.

Facebook is always a driver due to the continuous ad/creative innovations which fits multiple business objectives

My top advice to business owners is to use Instagram, the power of visual and creative speaks louder. The more creative yet simpler you can get with delivering your message the easier your consumer will find you credible.

It is important to tell your “Story” right!Instagram stories, even though the app is trying to be everything at once it still has a stronger reach across multiple markets where most businesses operate in in our region. Snap is getting there but due to the limited operation of the markets and coming in late they have missed on the earlier party!

I would Unfortunately use influencers yet personally I am not a big fan of influencer marketing as it has no specific measurement on the impact it has on a specific campaign or product! Brands are spending crazy amounts on these celebrity influencers (As I would like to call them) while I would rather maximize my reach/engagement on a Facebook or on Instagram.

Hind Ahmad Al-NahedhCEOSocialobby.com

The most notable social media moment in 2016 on a global scale is #LastSelfie as one of the best social executions on a new platform. The reason behind this is simply using a new social/camera tool (Snapchat) to deliver a message for a good cause through your mobile. www.justforthis.com

The campaign is all about delivering a selfie that disappears within 10 seconds of endangered species (Using the snapchat platform). The campaign was made to raise awareness around endangered species through an interactive mobile screen.

Karim RefaatGroup Account ManagerSocial Middle East &North Africa - MEC Global


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The main focus for businesses should be the need to work on stories and the only way for this to happen effectively is to listen to their prospect and current audiences.

Also, online advertising is not as effective as it was before, it was becoming noisier and cluttered which calls for more personalized customized engaging content as opposed to generic and cluttered online ads.

Mustafa Othman Regional GrowthMarketing LeadMiddle East & Africa - UBER

The social media space is one of the fastest moving industries today; one feature rolled out by Facebook has the potential to alter entire marketing strategies. To remain on the edge of social, here are some of the future trends I expect to boom in 2017.

A surge in professional networking: With the growth of Slack, Microsoft buying LinkedIn, Facebook Workplace, and most recently the announcement of Facebook Jobs, companies must start leveraging professional networking in order to promote their transparency, harness employee advocacy, hire exceptional talent, and market their services to other businesses (B2B marketing).

Instagram is turning into another Facebook: Instagram is no longer the simple platform it once used to be. Facebook continuously loads it with more features and ad formats to make it more attractive to

marketers, thus becoming more lucrative for Facebook. For better and for worse, Instagram is quickly becoming a full advertising solution.

Social commerce: Instagram’s buy-button will soon hit the Middle East, and Facebook’s dynamic ads already exist to promote product catalogs. This will especially benefit small businesses to directly sell their products through channels their customers already exist on, removing barriers to conversion. Soon, conversion will start happening within Facebook, as opposed to a shopping cart on a separate website.

Video: If you haven’t hopped on the video bandwagon yet, be sure to start now. Facebook expects 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic to be video in 2020.

Snapchat vs Instagram Stories: It’s silly to start thinking Instagram is a “clear winner” over Snapchat — it’s simply too early to tell. Stories have affected Snapchat’s growth globally, more so in the Middle East. However Snapchat hasn’t only filed for IPO, but the company has also just opened an office in Dubai, clearing saying they’re invested in the region. I’m interested to see how they push for growth here. Only their constant ability to innovate will help make them soar, so time will tell if Snapchat will deliver.

Data & analytics: As data has become indispensable for any business, every person in the organization should be empowered to access digestible information they can take actions upon. And because the market in the Middle East has extremely high potential, it’s important to understand the people who live here and their habits to truly add value to their lives. Tools like Crowd Analyzer help break this barrier by providing features such as automated sentiment analysis in a variety of different Arabic dialects, making it easier for businesses to penetrate the region with more success.

Social media is reaching full maturity in the Middle East. Most businesses have already adopted social and are seeing highly positive results. The future developments in 2017 will only make social a better investment.

Momen Al-Adl Data & Analytics LeadMO4 Network


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1. What was the most notable thing about social media in 2016?As an industry we’ve been talking about being “always on” for years. Whether it’s real time responses, real time reactions, real time campaigns, real time engagements, real time listening, the phrase “real time” has never been far from a meeting room, brainstorm or strategy document. Our favourite social media platforms collectively took this to a whole new level in 2016, when they went “live”.

2.What does it represent?Going “live” means that once again we have to re-think our rules of engagement. Our small “real time” window of opportunity to produce client-approved digital content, created by agile behind-the-scenes teams, has been snatched away. Now we have to think and act like live news teams, presenters and producers. We have to prepare for every eventuality, with the client reviewing the final creative execution live as it happens!

3.How important is Social Media Monitoring for your business?Social media monitoring is incredibly important to our agency and clients. Balancing the ideal requirements with technological ability and client budget, can often be a challenge.

For global brands, social listening is an Indispensable tool to garner insights on what consumers are saying and how they are interacting with their brands. It also gives them the opportunity to understand local cultures and pick up and mitigate any potential issues or crisis.

Kiera DohertyHead of DigitalWeber Shandwick MENA

4. What are the primary social media channels youfeel are the most rewarding for your business?The visual nature of Instagram, coupled with thepress media’s enthusiasm for sharing social images toillustrate stories, has been a big opportunity for us.We have had some great client success stories where content we have posted on Instagram has madeheadlines.

LinkedIn has continued to prove its value as the go-to platform for leaders and professionals in Dubai, and across the region. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, used the platform to give his followers greater understanding of the new cabinet he’d recently appointed. His LinkedIn Influencer post titled, ‘Why Ministers for Happiness, Tolerance, Youth and the Future?’, was viewed more than 300,000 times in its first 48 hours and made media headlines.

Sheikh Mohammed also utilized the platform to celebrate the upcoming 2017 Year of Giving, share his opinion on what ‘giving’ is, and call on his followers to find ways to give, either personally or professionally. Alongside Sheikh Mohammed, official LinkedIn Influencers from the UAE, of which there are only around 500 in the world also include, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, and Her Excellency Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi.

5. Do you expect Facebook to remain at number 1 inthe Middle East in 2017?We rely on Facebook for many of our B2B and B2Cclient campaigns. Its ability to reach and engage withhighly targeted mass and niche audiences has madeit crucial for our clients - it’s certainly not a platformwe plan to ignore in 2017. That being said, it can be ahighly competitive space, which requires constantfinancial investment to generate cut through andengagement. We are constantly looking for new,innovative ways to be more creative, generate standout, and spark engagement on other platforms, aswell as Facebook.


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Brands should re-reconsider using social media monitoring not just for crisis alerts. The winner brands will capture insights and signals to transform trends into consumer's needs.

Hesham ShataCEOThink Marketing MagazineEgypt

Influencer marketing is currently under utilized across the region to a large extent. Most brands make decisions on which influencers to use based on social following and reach, the bigger the numbers the better without much emphasis towards looking at real impact. If your brand has an online marketplace look into developing a program that requires influencers to drive conversion, monitor closely and reward accordingly. Sometimes influencers with tight, close communities will perform much better than big number, expensive alternatives.

Tarek NasrManaging DirectorThe Planet

Our reality is today more than ever before greatly influenced and shaped by the ideas and content we create, view, share and discuss online. Social media has become not only the definitive reflection of the state and evolution of brand-kind, it has become the barometer of the state and evolution of man-kind. Next year will see more profound integration of digital technology and products into our daily lives and brands will further expand on their roles as content publishers.

Mohamed YousriLeo Burnett

Social Media has become the new TV for brands. If you’re not sharing interactive video content on your social media accounts, you’re doing it wrong. The prevalence of live video and "consumable one-day stories" in 2016 will only continue to grow with all the

Mohamed El DalySr Social Media Manager1000 heads

the new disruptive options that offer a better audience experience. If you’re not using Snapchat and Instagram Stories already, you’re definitely missing out on reaching an easily-engaged target audience that consists of mostly millennials, especially with a high penetration rate among the GCC's top markets, such as KSA and UAE.

In 2017, artificial intelligence and dark social will start gaining more ground, mostly due to the ever-growing rise of mobile and messaging options. Chatbots and programmatic media buying are two things that every brand needs to think about as not to get left behind. Since Facebook has switched to a pay-to-play approach, dark social will play a huge part in driving conversion. Marketers need to start using Facebook's (and now Instagram's) advanced targeting and growing list of ad types as a key strategic element for social commerce.


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2016 was massive for social. Facebook videos really picked up - I even remember auto-play entering the Egyptian marketing and all of the metrics going berserk. Microsoft acquired an ugly, counter-intuitive website called LinkedIn for over $25bn in cash, mind you. And Instagram introduced a unique feature that they totally invented entirely on their own: Stories.

Indeed, Facebook is gaining lots of grounds, especially in this part of the world. Although not as fresh and exciting as it used to be a couple of years ago, Facebook's growth is phenomenal and its targeting capabilities are unmatched. That's why it's ideal for any business. Yes it lacks organic reach. And yes it's cluttered with every piece of content on the face of the Earth, and doesn't allow its users to immerse themselves to properly consume said content, but it's still the best starting point for anyone.

The days of the free and fair internet for everyone are over. So for everything else, there's Facebook. With a bit of time and effort into video content, and some cash behind the distribution, brands and content creators can reach their target audience and build communities around their messages. I definitely prefer the old days of the independent blogs and the community forums, though.

And speaking of acquisitions, perhaps Snapchat should've sold when both Facebook and Google came knocking. Although an interesting experiment that broke all expectations, I personally think Snapchat is no longer hot, and is being taken over by Instagram. It's not just about have photography and videography with filters in one place, it's also about the discovery, the personlization, and above all, the targeting capabilities offered to hose high-paying sponsors.

While Snapchat rolled out an experimental API to allow brands to access users with minimal information, Instagram leverages Facebook to let advertisers get to exactly those they're looking for. There's just no comparison.

And as for twitter, I'm not really sure how long they're going to be eating into their funding, before the first major shareholder realizes that there's no hope for revenue, let alone profit, and then pulls out, and the entire company starts to crumble, potentially bursting the complete tech bubble along with it. That's not going to be fun.

Tarek ShalabyCo-Founder & CEOMintrics


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2017 will be a remarkable year. We will see changes on how social data is perceived, collected and analyzed. This year we will witness a stronger approach towards video content. Most social media platforms already started to go down this path in the past two years, and now we will see how heavily video content will be integrated into everyone’s marketing efforts. If the content is King, then videos will become the Emperor.

Mohammed AyyadSr Specialist Digital Comm.Abu Dhabi Airports Company

Social media's purpose will be to drive digital transformation and fit within an eco-system of integrated systems, apps, websites, devices, marketing landscapes and big data that transport customers through the path-to-purchase, and post-purchase.

Elie Bassil Chief Strategy OfficerMirum MEA

Because of social media, an opportunity is being prevailed by creating dialogues between brands and humans, which has allowed brands to be more human than ever before. Social media put the power in the hands of consumers allowing brands to listen to them and adapt to their needs. Brands are expanding their main purpose of existence by being more of an added value rather than just a money absorber. Social media made people way more connected, keeping businesses constantly under the radar; the more human your brand is, the more successful it will be. It provided a platform for the consumer to be heard and respected, whether it is through their suggestions or their feedback. Brands can now speak through a humanistic perspective to connect to their consumers.

Sherif RafikDigital DirectorLeo Burnett - MENA

Social, especially in 2017, is going to be owned by content in the form of proper storytelling which emotionalizes information. We are living an extremely fast paced time in the world social and some brands might lose focus on that and fall in the trap of the details versus segmentation of where their efforts should be, i.e. where their customers live and how to reach them. I call this era the survival of the fastest and the relevant, to both brands and social sites."

Hussein M. DajaniCOOHug Digital

Simply put, 2017 will be the year of mobile, personalization, and privacy. With users – especially millennials – becoming more conscious about the content they choose to consume, brands must move away from bulky, one-way, ad-like content in favor of a more targeted and transparent one-to-one communication system.

Here’s why: 55% of millennials unfollow brands that post images that looks too much like ads (Chute). Not only that, but 55% of consumers of all ages trust customer photos more than branded or professional photos.Brands need to adjust by posting more genuine content, namely, UGC. They need to focus on building long-term brand advocates rather than hiring one-time influencers.

As users shift more to private, ephemeral content gains in popularity. Apps such as Snapchat – and copycats Instagram Story and WhatsApp status – will continue to attract users looking for low-maintenance/ commitment-less ways to share.Private messaging apps are outperforming social networks. In the UAE, WhatsApp is the most active social platform (GWI), followed closely by Facebook.Brands need to level up their communication in the same way. Don’t be afraid to invest in Chatbots. Make it personal. Get on Snapchat and Instagram Story, show your brand’s “true face”, be transparent, and engage with the audience (especially millennials) in a real, personal and open manner.

Brands and marketers need to understand that content that isn’t mobile friendly, is not worth posting.With 80% of internet traffic in the ME region comes from mobile users (GWI), brands need to focus on vertical, mobile-specific content, and short-form videos that can be seen on the go, both on mute and with sound.

Sandra KhawandClient Strategy Manager1000 Heads


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Facebook is the only channel that marketer can see the number of customers that clicked on ad on iPhone but later converted on desktop or the number of people that saw an ad on desktop and later converted on android tablet!

Also, Facebook is the only channel today that able to do very accurate cross platform (App & Web) re-targeting!

The first thing you should consider when choosing a social media platform is whether or not your targeted audience are there. The size and type of audiences vary from platform to platform, but as a small business owner you want to go to where your people are. For small recruitment agency that does not have a big budget, Linkedin should be their only social channel to invest in.

I get asked to choose between Instagram Stories and Snapchat, each has a base of loyal users and even, and I can see today that users are confused between where to devote their time, should they share their video to both or cut one completely, but I guess after Instagram launched the live videos and Whatsapp got the stories, users will start cut Snapchat and focus on Facebook properties.

Finally, each industry in need of social media marketing but industries that touch user's day to day lifestyle will always win like the Telecommunications, Transportations, Food…etc

What was the most notable social media moment in 2016, in your opinion?There are many moments to mention but If I must mention one, it’s the "Pokemon Go". It shows how social media can move any business quickly and help growing an initiative to make $200 million in net revenue globally in no time!

As for social media monitoring, Social media content in our region is huge and we are in need for the monitoring tools to analyse this content, listen to our consumers and show what's happening in simple reports and metrics but if you want to start adding value to these insights, so add a layer of intelligence where all your stakeholders will benefit, for example: HR can use it to understand attitudes towards the brand, technology can use it to know what features your product needs to improve the service, CS can use it to understand the type of support people want most, advertising team can use to understand how much impact their messaging is having on their audience and benchmark that against the competition and optimize for better ROI.

What are the primary social media channels you feel are the most rewarding for your business?Depending on the business type and country you are targeting, and the audience you want to target, social media channels rewarding for your business. For example, if you are pushing fashion so Instagram is #1 channel, if you are focusing on Egypt market so Facebook is #1.

Facebook will remain always #1 not only because they have the largest number of users but because it has all type of content in one screen, its targeting, delivery and conversion measurement is unique.

Heba BadawyGroup Portfolio Marketing Head Souq.com


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Crowd Analyzer have gone through literally millions of interactions and conversations on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, blogs, forums and news sites in order to bring to you in unprecedented groundbreaking insights about the Middle East through State of Social Media for the year 2016, a collaboration with PAYFORT and Hootsuite.

About Crowd AnalyzerThe leading Arabic Focused Social Media Monitoring Platform in the Middle East. With clients spanning 8 countries and a team of native Arabic speakers, the platform brings unprecedented social insights such as sentiment, dialect, relevancy, gender and location demographics and influencer mapping with the highest rates of accuracy and coverage, changing the way businesses view social media every single day.

About PAYFORTThe most trusted Online Payment Gateway in the Middle East working with Businesses, Governments, and Startups to maximize online payment acceptance. PAYFORT is regional expert in payment processing technology and solutions across major markets in the GCC & Levant countries.

About HootsuiteThe most widely used platform for managing social media, offering Social Listening, Social Marketing, Social Customer Service, Social Selling and Social Advocacy among many other solutions.

AuthorsAmira Abou Shousha

Radwa Rashad

Mohamed Elsherif

About the Report

ProductionSeham Syed

Mohamed Sayyed

ContributorsAhmed Saad

Nardeen Ehab

Hootsuite Predictions SectionIan Healey

Anina Grostern

About the Report

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MethodologyCrowd Analyzer with PAYFORT team dived deeper to produce such an in depth report about the social media.

The Purpose of this research is to examine the GCC/MENA in terms of volume, interests and overall trends in

2016.

Section

Social Media Stats: (per country/channel)

Why UAE, KSA and UAE?

Among Top 30 active social network penetration in all countries as of January 2016.

This statistic displays the share of internet users in selected countries visiting social networking sites as of January

2016. Based on a comparison of the number of active accounts on the top social network in each country to the

population, South Korea ranked first with a social media usage penetration of 76 percent while UAE - 2nd

(68%),KSA - 25th (35%) & Egypt - 28th (30%).

We collected the data from the most popular social media advertising platforms i.e. Facebook, Twitter &

Instagram. We have specifically analyzed advertising related country profiles on these platforms to reach

cohesive insights of social media usage in the countries researched in this report.

Top Trended Brands and Topics

We gathered a lot of data from different social media network and analyzed the numbers in 2016 cross

referencing with GCC/MENA Trends and numbers while digging deeper in the most trending topics and

illustrated all these data in an incredible infographic taking you through what happened in 2016 and what people

shared on social media MENA.

Social Intelligent Insights:

Crowd Analyzer will dig deeper into the top Industries winning social media in 2016. Every Interaction and

conversation will be analyzed by Crowd Analyzer in terms of the following: (Topic/Social Account (Monitored for

30-60 Days) - Number of Impressions - Number of Interactions - Demographics- Gender and Location –

Sentiment-sentiment score-SOV- Languages/Dialect).

Sharing Economy:

Modules such as Ride Hailing applications (Uber/Careem) & others such as (Shezlong, Mumm, etc.)

Banking and Finance:

GCC/MENA reviews, demands and complaints related to all banking and finance modules as well as top

competitors per region as ranked by users.

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MethodologyE Commerce:

Digging deeper into social media mentions, conversations and statistics related to E Commerce portals in the

Middle East (namely Souq, Jumia and Namshi) considering reviews, demands, complaints and marketing

campaigns impact and reception.

Telecom:

Digging deeper into social Telecom providers in Egypt (namely Vodafone, Orange and Etisalat) considering

reviews, demands, complaints and marketing campaigns impact and reception.

Fintech:

Digging deeper into social Fintech companies in MENA considering reviews, demands, complaints and marketing

campaigns impact and reception.

Interested Audience: Ecommerce /retailers/ Payment service providers companies and banks.

Social Media predictions 2017

Crowd Analyzer Predictions:

Crowd Analyzer touches down on major social media related news and their potential effect on Social Media in

2017 and giving you some predictions on social media monitoring and proves why it’s the one thing to do in

2017.

Hootsuite Predictions:

Hootsuite is one of the largest social media tools in the world supporting 1000s of businesses across 100s of

countries. As the social media presence in the Middle East and the broader MENA region continues to grow,

Hootsuite is uniquely positioned to comment on what the future holds and give insights on the biggest trends to

watch in 2017.

30+ Expert Talks: What is expected and needed for fruitful social media monitoring and marketing cohesively in

the Middle East for industry experts.

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• Mentions:New posts sent about the monitored topics in social media. The new posts could be sent on social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), news, blogs, or forums.

• Interaction:Any activity made by users on a post. It can be a like, comment, share, or retweet.

• Conversation:Any new post that has at least 1 interaction.

• Engagement Rate:The number of conversations / the number of new posts.

• Sentiment Score:(Total Positive Posts- Total Negative Posts) / (Total Positive Posts+ Total Negative Posts).

• Net Sentiment Score:(Total Positive Posts- Total Negative Posts) / The total number of posts captured.

• Active Engagement:Posting new stories, commenting, sharing, or retweeting posts. In other words, all activities except likes which are considered passive engagement.

• People Engaged:The number of unique users who sent new posts or interacted with any posts.

• Sentiment:How people feel towards the post. Crowd Analyzer has automated state-of-art algorithms that categorize posts automatically, with the ability to edit them manually to, neutral, negative or positive.

• Response Rate:The number of people who received a reply from the company on their posts or comments divided by total number new posts and comments sent.

• Activities:News posts or comments.

Glossary

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www.crowdanalyzer.com

Collaboration with

State of social media mena 2016

Marketing

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