Dubai: Nearly 700,000 likes on Facebook and 163,000 followers on Twitter (@gulf_news), Gulf News now has a strong ‘social’ presence. Added to this is Instagram (@gulfnews), launched a few months ago.
When we started, social media was still very much about family and friends – personalised platforms to connect across the world. Slowly, that evolution created an environment wherein corporate and government entities started using it to communicate directly. It became a good tool for crowdsourcing, to find many more voices.
Over the past 3 years, Gulf News’s social media channels have become an active layer in its process to provide updated news content to our readers and pro-actively interact with them.
Portal manager David Westley explains how Twitter has contributed to this success. He said: “We run our Twitter account pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which partly explains our growth. We get 400-500 new followers a day, and are up to 163,000 followers for our main account – with growth this year more rapid than at any other year since we launched in February 2008.
“The other reason we’re followed (we’re over twice as big as any other English newspaper in the region) is that we really focus on the stories that matter. Gulf News is the source people go to when they want to make sure there is any truth in the rumours being circulated, and we often use Twitter to break those stories that our readers need to know - often before the story goes onto GulfNews.com. Only our SMS breaking news alert service is faster.
“Twitter has become very much central to the newsroom, becoming one of the important tools we as a news organisation have in our arsenal today.”
The newspaper’s Facebook page was launched in March 2011. And as the editor of the Readers Desk section that manages social media channels, I can say that initially we struggled to understand the profile of our readers. Our first step was decoding the people who look to it as a key source of news and content sharing. Once that was done, the growth rate was rapid. From 28,000 likes to 60,000 - the journey was within a month. And we grew steadily after that, with an average increase of 2,000 likes per day. Today we are at 668,922 likes. Our nearest competitor, an English language broadsheet daily in the UAE, stands at 277,710 likes.
And the primary reason for these happy numbers is the high level of emphasis the organisation places on reader interactivity. Social media is very important to us because it helps the newspaper keep a finger on the pulse of its readers, which is fundamental to the premise we work on.
Managing Editor Mohammed Almezel said: “We value the contribution of our readers. Having the several hundred thousand followers on Twitter, Facebook and other channels gives us the opportunity to speak to a wider audience that transcends borders, across countries and continents. As media leaders in the region, we are grateful to our loyal following and promise to be the medium they can trust and a credible source for news, views and information. We try and deliver our very best round the clock, seven days a week.”
Social media editor Evangeline Elsa from the Readers Desk added: “Our interaction with readers on Facebook has helped build a massive community base ... I cannot forget the day, January 7, 2014 when our readers on Facebook came together, to help a Pakistani expatriate based in Dubai, find his missing son. The readers took time out of their busy schedules to look for the young man and re-unite him with his family.” The power rests with the people.
