Five years ago, social media didn't exist. Five years from now, though ,businesses that ignore social media will no longer exist. The power of instant communication is driving a seismic shift in the way we communicate, the way we do business, the way we consume information, and the way we define our existence in society. To borrow a phrase from Alexander McNabb of SpotOn PR, a prominent social media commentator, saying today that you met someone online is a perfectly acceptable situation, where even a few years ago it would have had all sorts of unsavoury connotations.
Indeed, more and more commercial and business relationships of all types are now starting online and the reason is simple. Networking. The opportunity to interact in a meaningful way with people and businesses who have something of interest to you. But for the first time, the communication is genuinely two way.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube - these are the ‘Big Four', the four pillars of the social media revolution, though there are a great many more niche sites and feeds. Eachhas a different function, but all have a role to play in changing the way we relate, communicate and do business with each other and the world.
"When we started… it was just as a training company," says Akanksha Goel of Socialize, a leading full-service Social Media marketing agency.
"We'd go in, do courses, teach people the mechanics of using Facebook, YouTube and so on, and leave them to it. The problem we found was that nothing much happened after that. We'd taught them the basics, but they didn't have a strategy. And so what happened was that more and more companies started asking us to run campaigns on their behalf, and so the full-service side of things really took over."
John McGrann, Managing Director of Drive Social Media, explains that successful use of social media means having a fully integrated presence across the Big Four. He regards Facebook as ‘business casual', a great place to interact with friends and colleagues, but primarily a place to establish your own online presence. "You should have one fan page for each of your businesses," he suggests, "and definitely keep business and personal pages apart. Your fan page is the only place to make pitches and promote your business, but you've got to earn the interest. As a rule of thumb, when you're posting content, keep it fresh, new, informative and illuminating, and keep it at a ratio of about 6:1, content to pitches."
Goel adds, "You've got to engage with your customers. If someone spoke to you in the language of advertising, you'd want to punch them in the face! Social media is different, it's two-way, a proper conversation, and businesses have got to learn how to listen and how to respond. One of the key things we do with companies now is to work out a strategy with them, develop a set of policies and guidelines that everyone can follow, a clear understanding of responsibilities and reporting procedures. How do you respond to negative comment? What's the best way to handle a complaint? And equally important, what kind of promotions and activities are actually effective across social media channels? We've done some great work with people like Close-Up, HP, Mashreq Bank, Samsung and so on, engaging with leading bloggers and tweeters, drawing consumers into the marketing process and respecting their input into our campaigns."
How to get involved in social media? Both McGrann and McNabb say the same thing. You have to be interesting first, for people to be interested in you. You have to contribute, regularly and well, so that people like, trust and follow you. There is no ‘guaranteed' way in because the business is still being invented, and new uses are discovered every single day. Goel adds the obvious thought, that you should use the channels and tools that you want to work with, but then she goes on to qualify her thoughts in an intriguing way. "We're not interested in hiring qualifications, we're keen to hire personalities. We want natural communicators, people who can engage with a community of like-minded individuals, who can talk to their audience and create a response.
"The technical stuff we can do, it's the marketing skills, the creative ability, the original thinking that we most want. The people who can make a difference, no matter what medium they work in."
Tom Roychoudhury is chief innovations officer, MCN (Middle East Communications Network). He talks about the business aspects. "Social media is at the forefront of our efforts. With some decline in online display advertising budgets, we are seeing an increasing interest in social media channels, and engagement via the available mediums.
"There is not enough that can be said of the power of social, after all, most of the uprisings in the so-called ‘Arab Spring of 2011' were social-media driven, or at least they used social media as a springboard. One cannot predict how this is going to unfold. It will have an effect on the outcome of elections, on governments, on business and so on. Businesses like Pepsi are diverting huge on-TV ad budgets (the Superbowl being an example) and moving it to social. Is this a fad? If it is, it's being driven by consumers, not brands or agencies. Social will be the web in the near future - with almost 70 per cent of web content coming from social."
So, what are the opportunities arising from this revolution?
"Social Media has not emerged as a stand-alone industry. In the marketing communications business every one is planting a social flag - mainstream ad agencies, media agencies, specialised digital agencies, PR agencies, and some start-up social media boutiques as well.
"While you still cannot get a degree in Applied Social Media, those who will carve a niche in this genre will have a striker's role to play. Some of the emerging roles are social community managers, social media strategic planners, social media planners and so on.
"If you want to work in social media, the key thing is to have an open mind.And know the way God made us: two ears and one mouth," says Roychoudhury. "You must be willing to engage in a dialogue, rather than preach from a pulpit. A degree in mass communications with some sort of a specialisation in social media studies would be handy."
And what are the prospects for someone determined to create a career in social media? Goel again. "In terms of salaries, well, it's a very new industry and I think we're all discovering new ways to serve our clients and generate revenue. But it's fair to say you should expect similar packages to conventional agencies. The difference is that we're more flexible about things like working hours and locations. It's the job of each of our ‘community managers' to log into Facebook and Twitter every morning and update their accounts. They have to monitor what's happening, see what people are talking about, report back on the trends and conversations going on.
"It's a very fast-evolving industry, but for entrepreneurs and creative thinkers, it's the best place to be!"
Who's succeeding in Social Media
Wild Peeta
Dubai-based Wild Peeta was set up by two brothers, Peyman and Mohammad Parham Al Awadi, in 2009. No ordinary shawarma restaurant, it started out with a specific online strategy and a highly responsive delivery service - check them out on Twitter and Facebook. Mohammad describes their early days: "After struggling for years to persuade the city's malls to let us in, we decided to make the company 70 per cent delivery-oriented. This meant we would need heavy advertising, and without the budget for that, we had to be creative with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace."
"We came up with the original idea for Wild Peeta towards the end of the 1990s. We wanted to source local produce and to use social media to have the customers influence the menu. Many of the exotic sauces used in our shawarma sandwiches are results of suggestions from customers through Facebook and Twitter."
Wild Peeta is in Deira City Centre and DIFC, and plans are well advanced to franchise the concept internationally.
Aramex
Alexander McNabb cites Aramex. "It's not just enough to stick up a Facebook page or start a Twitter feed, because unlike conventional media - which is all one-way broadcast - new media or social media or whatever you want to call it is a conversation. And unless a business is genuinely ready to listen to and respond to that conversation in a proactive way, they're going to miss the point completely. And their customers will know it.
"Fadi Ghandour [CEO] at Aramex is incredibly good at this, if he spots a problem, he picks up the phone and calls straight away. Often to the complete astonishment of the customer! And as a company, they're very much ahead of the curve."
N_K_D Pizza
Another prominent success in using social media for business is N_K_D Pizza in
Writing on the company blog (www.livnaked.com) he says "Even though we did not have a pizza to sell, we started a conversation with future customers. These ran from ‘Coming soon' to ‘Did you know our pizza is made with ten different seeds and grains?' and so forth. As trivial as it appears, it opened a forum with future customers and, importantly, allowed them to ask questions about the brand and see how we might behave, more or less. It revealed that we were different - just a little bit off, a little bit funky, and all about trying to make a difference.
"By the time we opened the doors on January 17, locally we had about 1,000 Facebook fans/likes and 1,200 Twitter followers. In the weeks following the opening, we were taken aback by the volume of online conversations about the brand. Take a look at the summary of a couple of hundred tweets following the opening, listed in order of frequency: 28 per cent Promotional, 23 per cent Product, 17 per cent Service, 16 per cent Other, 9 per cent Image, 5 per cent Health,2 per cent Negative".
