Manama: Women in Qatar use social media websites more frequently than men, a white paper released by the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar) has revealed.

While 67 per cent of Qatari women check their profiles at least once a day, the corresponding figure for men was 59 per cent, said the "ictQatar: Creating a Strategic Presence in Social Media" report. The most visited sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Qatar Living and Qatar Share, according to a report in the Qatar Tribune on Tuesday.

The paper suggests youth between 20 and 24 years of age are the most frequent social media users, with 83 per cent of them checking their profiles at least once a day. English is the most popular language in use, it adds.

Mina Nagy Michel Takla, social media specialist, said on the paper's release that Qatar is the third highest Arab country in terms of Facebook penetration, with 513,060 users - or 33.95 per cent of its population.

More than half of Facebook users (56 per cent) are between 15 and 29 years old.

The report added the Qatari web pages most followed are those of Qtel, Vodafone and the Doha Film Institute (DFI).

Qatar Museums Authority is the only Qatari government organisation with a presence on micro-blogging websites like Twitter.

The most followed organisations on Twitter from Qatar are Al Jazeera, Qatar Airways and Vodafone.

Among community websites, 380,000 unique posts have been made on the Qatar Living site since April 2010. It has received one million posts since its launch four years ago.

Qatar University Forum (QatarU) is the highest Qatari forum in terms of membership, with about 100,000 users. Qatar Shares has the highest number of active users, with over 414,000 threads and over 6.7 million replies and comments.

In the report, ictQatar details its eight-pronged strategy for enhancing its social media initiatives, as well as 12 tips for creating an effective social media strategy.

The paper includes specific case studies on social media usage by ictQatar across a variety of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Qatar Living and Qatar Shares, that could serve as an example for other organisations, especially government agencies, on how they can effectively use social media to engage their key audiences.

The eight-step strategy includes developing clear social media goals, identifying key social media sites and focusing on them, setting a content strategy, selecting the right tools, engaging and facilitating conversations, monitoring progress and establishing a growth strategy. ictQatar will present the white paper to government and non-governmental organisations to help them understand the benefits of social media and demystify some of the concerns about engaging in it.

The white paper will also be presented to universities in the country, especially to marketing, communications, media and IT students.

"ictQatar has found social media to be an extremely powerful way to connect with our stakeholders and receive valuable feedback and insight on a variety of programmes and initiatives. It has helped us build a dialogue with our constituents," Howaida Nadim, ictQatar's executive director of communications, said.

"We hope this white paper will encourage more organisations in Qatar to integrate social media into their outreach plans and tap into the powerful two-way communications it enables," he added.

The white paper is available online at www.ictqatar.qa.

 

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