Social media: to be or not to be?

All technological advancements have their pros and cons. Social media has its dark side too. 

Message to parents 

Users, especially teenagers, often seek social acceptance and relate the number of followers they get or likes they receive on their photos to their self-image.

As a parent ensure that your teen knows that she is beautiful, smart, accepted and loved regardless of the results (acceptance) of the virtual world; otherwise, the future will be full of adults with personality and behavioural problems dependent on social media for their acceptance. We should be more cautious not to be trapped within these virtual platforms all day. 

Navigating different sites and applications can be entertaining for a short period and only if we are done with our priorities or in between breaks; as excessive existence on social media is definitely “ not to be” in the real world! 

Social media in numbers

At the International Mobile Summit 2018 in Amman a few months ago, one of the speakers pointed out that if you are planning to start any business, ask yourself this question: can my business be on mobile phones as a mobile application, website or social media platform? If the answer is yes, go ahead but if the answer is no then maybe you need re-think your plan. 

Needless to say, content is a crucial issue that most companies, projects, start-ups should take into consideration. Content varies between clean professional images to videos; interesting information is of major importance. Nevertheless, when developing content, keep your target audience in mind all the time so that they find your posts: 

• Interesting

• Convenient

• Useful

• Entertaining 

• Clear, not confusing

Professional presence on social media is your first impression — people meet you virtually before meeting you in the real world and so it is your image that you have not only to work on developing in the minds of your potential customers or clients, but also maintain this through every post and frequent interaction.

Below are interesting findings from Crowd Analyser’s State of Social Media 2018 report. Note that in all three countries, most social media users are male. Females, though, outnumber males when it comes to Snapchat. Most social media users in Saudi Arabia and Egypt prefer to publish their content in Arabic, while users in the United Arab Emirates prefer to publish in English.

Social media use in Jordan and beyond

Among all popular social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Whatsapp, Facebook has the highest number of active users in Jordan and worldwide. 

According to StatCounter Global Stats for Jordan (May 2017-May 2018): 

• 60 per cent of social media users in Jordan are using Facebook

• Almost 35 per cent use YouTube

• Less than 2 per cent are on Pinterest 

• 1 per cent are on Twitter 

• Less than 0.5 per cent on Instagram

Instagram

• Saudi Arabia is one of the most active countries in the region on Instagram. Most users prefer publishing their content in Arabic. Their most engaging topic is news, followed by travel.

• UAE: Shopping, fashion and food are the most interesting interactive topics on Instagram for users in this country 

• Egypt: The main topics that interest Egyptians on Instagram are online shopping, followed by games.

Facebook

• Saudi Arabia: 16 million Saudis are active on Facebook and a majority of them are interested in publishing content about games and fashion shopping.

• UAE: Expats are 6 million out of 9 million active users in the country.

• Egypt: Egyptian users on Facebook compose a huge base of users that exceeds 35 million.

Twitter

• Saudi Arabia: KSA has the highest number of active Twitter users compared to UAE and Egypt. Millennials (those born after 1980) are the majority of users

• UAE: The majority of Twitter users are most interested in fitness and sport

• Egypt: Compared to other platforms, a small number of Egyptians are active on Twitter. Their favourite topic is music

Linkedin

• Saudi Arabia: LinkedIn users are top and middle managerial levels

• UAE has the highest number of users compared to Egypt and Saudi Arabic, which is not surprising, given that the country is a business hub in the region

• Egypt: Egypt has almost the same number of LinkedIn users as Saudi Arabia

Snapchat

• Saudi Arabia: Snapchat insights are slightly different from the norm. Saudi users are really active on this platform

• UAE: Millennials are the majority of users

• Egypt: Egyptians are not fond of Snapchat, at least not as much as Saudi users. Millennials tend to be the most active

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine