I am a Bank and I am Boring

The below article was published in Qatar Today magazine- Jan 2012 issue. The article is about how can banks manage customer relationships online without just talking about banking and being innovative. Click on the below pics to continue reading.

"Text Version" 

 I am a Bank; Iam Boring

Financial Institutions are perceived to be not innovative and creative when it comes to Online Media and technology. Due to certain regulations and reputation issues, they have been a step behind other industries to make their presence felt online.

Let us explore few ideas that can help you gain foothold in the Online Conversations and interact with your customers.

I recently attended a panel discussion, where a question was raised on how to deal with customer issues raised on your social media channels. Panelists were convinced on the methodology of trying to contact the customer to get details of the problem and acknowledge the issue. Post understanding the issue, commit on resolving the same.

What if your bank’s customer service still gets criticized online even though you have taken efforts to engage with your customers online? Well, then you have to investigate the case and invest in enhancing your customer service. Online media is just another channel to communicate with your customer.

A few more ideas: -

Don’t just talk about banking

If you expect to build a relationship with your customer, you need to talk about various other topics that can build a conversation on social networking sites. If a customer needs to know about your products and offers, they can always go to your public website.

You can use Social Media tools to change the mean and greedy perception of Financial Institutions.

Check out Lloyds Bank Facebook Page. They are talking about the upcoming London Olympics with a countdown ticker. This has got nothing to do with banking. These initiatives create friendly online conversation and interaction that may not be facilitated by a bank otherwise.

Be a Startup Mentor

Have you ever thought about nourishing the potential young talent to form large enterprises? How about offering some advice on launching a start up? A bank has the financial capability and the expertise to mentor start ups. Use your online channels to give tips to people interested in learning more about the enterprise world. Your investment banking arm may probably fund the next Google or Apple.

Show you CSR initiatives.

Have you done something for the community, how about informing people via your Social Media Channels? Do you want volunteers for a CSR initiative, ask for it on your Social Media Channels and watch the response. Check out the Bank of America Page, asking for people who would like to volunteer for their “Building Opportunity” initiative.

Many financial institutions are involved in charity initiatives that go unnoticed. Their projects are not covered in the media and an average customer is not aware about these initiatives. Social Networks are great online tools to tell your customers about these projects and strengthen your brand.

Giveaways for your Online Fans

Customers love participating in competitions. This initiative encourages them to follow your brand online. Host a few competitions for your Social Media Channel Fans. Check out the Citi Bank Facebook page. They are giving an opportunity for their fans to win cash or jam with their favorite band.

How about offering your online fans a $ discount or a coupon to dine at their favorite restaurant.

I wanted to get a feel on what do people expect from their banks in Doha on Social Media Channels. Following is a summarized version of various comments I got from people on Twitter in Doha.

People expect their bank to be more interactive and provide online support for issues. They want instant answers to their queries and special offers for following/liking the brand. Many twitteratis complained that the banks never responded to their queries. Surprisingly, few of them replied that they were not interested in having a conversation with their bank on social networks, as banks are only meant to manage their money, not their relationship. There lies an opportunity for the banks to show that they can manage human relationships and just not financial ones.

Online surveillance of social-networking sites is a new trend for traders dealing in hedge funds and big banks managing customer assets. Stocktwits is a social, stock micro-blogging service monitoring emotions of stock market traders. You will find a community of traders and investors sharing market insight, ideas, charts and news streaming in real-time. This is true engagement of Financial Marketing with Online Media. An investment company, Derwent Capital Markets, has launched a £25 million hedge fund that will use the sentiment of Twitter messages to help guide its trading strategy

As we look forward to 2012, Financial Institution will continue to heavily invest in the Social Media and Interactive Marketing, and work on the revenues.

There is a strong possibility of structural changes in many organizations, where by Digital Channels, e-Marketing and e-Business will fall under one umbrella.

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 1

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East. 

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. 

Part 2 covers - Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan 

UAE 

The country has the highest Internet Penetration rate of 69 % (via - according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East. Most of the search terms are in English. After ‘Dubai’, ‘Facebook’ remains the most search term. In the rising searches, ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘Dubizzle’ are amongst the top 5 searched terms.

Cricket and related websites like ‘cricinfo’ are amongst the top emerging searches, giving credit to the world cup held this year.  

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia – The country with the highest number of Internet Users (11,400,000 as of 30 June 2011 according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East region. Most of the searched terms are in Arabic, which shows popularity of the language in the online world. ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’ remain popular searches amongst the internet users. Photos and Game are some of the most searched categories in Saudi Arabia. Spongebob and Twitter are also popular keywords among the Saudi users. With the recent investment of $300 million by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Twitter, the website’s popularity will surge in the country. 

Oman

Oman – The country has an internet penetration rate of 48.4%. Facebook and Youtube are popular searches in the country. Al Sablah seems to be popular community forum in Oman, which appear in the existing and rising search trends. Hotmail is also among the rising searches in the country. Elakiri Community is another forum listed in the rising searches. 

Click here to view Google Trends for 2010.

Social Commerce drives Online Business

The below article was published in Qatar Today - Oct 2011 issue. The article highlights the way Social Media has redefined itself and a financial perspective to it.

Text Version

Social Commerce drives Online Business

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver- Ayn Rand

Human beings always like to be in control of things. However, in today’s world humans are being controlled by money. Internet and Social Media are no exceptions to the greenback.

Last week, I was looking for a SLR camera to gift someone that would be easy to operate. While I would never have taken the time to email or call all my friends to ask which SLRs they liked, I felt updating my status on Facebook and asking for help would be a good choice. Guess what within an hour, a stream of comments and suggestions started to list on my Facebook wall. This helped me to take a decision to buy the SLR.

Social commerce is an emerging buzzword that has caught the attention of many including people who called Social Media a fad. It is an area which may redefine the way people engage with social media, and how will they share information. It may also change the way we share information and content with peers.

As we share information and converse with people on Social Media site, the level of trust has increased, so has our comfort level to perform financial transactions. At present, like any other new trends, social commerce is surrounded by uncertainty on issues like

• how will people use the platform to make payments,

• which type of devices will be used to share content,

• how will the brands capitalize on this opportunity

Currently, major developments are taking place on the Facebook platform, as brands want to engage 750 million active users, and develop a platform to purchase products and facilitate payments. This development has been given a new name called F-Commerce

Buddy Media, a Facebook marketing company gives us examples of how successful F-Commerce is: -

• Groupon made 11 million dollars in one day on a GAP promotion

• Pampers – a baby care website, sold 1000 diapers in 1 hour on its Facebook store.

• Ticket Fly – 3.25 average sales generated through Facebook shares.

“Share” (on Facebook) drives Sales; more the people share and recommend better chances of increase in sales.

According to Buddy Media: -

• The predicted revenue for the social commerce market in 2015 will be over $30 billion.

• 90% of all purchase decisions are subject to influence

• 67% spend more online after recommendations

Coca Cola has also got a transaction page set up on Facebook, which enables a fan to purchase branded merchandise directly on the page and make payments.

Take a look at where have Venture Capitalists invested their money in 2011 to ensure maximum returns.

• Groupon (group-buy) $950m

• StoreEnvy (social marketplace) $1.5m

• PlumDistrict (group-buy) $8.5m

• ShopSocial (social shopping/rewards) $1.2m

• Snapdeal (group-buy) $12m

• VillageVines (flash-sales club) $3m

• Baynote (ratings, reviews and recommendations) $13m

• Pose (social shopping/rewards) $1.6m

• Vitrue (Facebook commerce) $17m

All the above sites are closely related to the Share and Buy phenomenon. Your peers recommend a product or a service which may encourage you to buy the same.

Google has also taken a plunge in Social Commerce and is working to commercialize its homepage. This would help balance the competition, as both the giants’ battle for the market share.

The other side to the F-Commerce is the privacy issue, which Facebook has been battling for a while. Some people may not want their social interactions and graphs to be monetized at all. Rather they could do their 'social commerce' on Amazon, or the actual online retail store.

Some brands may actually try to influence their products and services by writing fake reviews. However in the past many brands have been busted for artificially raising their rankings online.

According to techcrunch.com, PowerReviews, a company that provides customer review technology for retailers and e-commerce sites has raised $10 million in new funding this year. This investment brings PowerReview’s total venture funding to $37 million. It shows how powerful online reviews are and how many companies may try to control and get their hands on it.

The social media hype is good for giants like Coca-Cola and Pampers, as they can afford million dollars in advertising. However, the mom and pop stores need to spend significant time to crack a solution which gives them returns. Social Commerce drivers need to give affordable option to small and medium enterprises to break into this stream.

It’s great to see that we are starting to analyze online conversation using numbers which will highlight the results and effectiveness of social media.

Online Reputation Management - A Middle East Perspective

The below article was published in Qatar Today, August 2011 issue, highlighting how few brands in Middle East have started thinking about online reputation management. The article highlights issues faced by brands who completely ignore the importance of monitoring their online presence. Click on the below pics to continue reading.

"Text Version"

Online Reputation Management

On 17th June 2010 @sandeepgeetla tweeted the below rumour which led to a slide in the ICICI shares by 3.5 % in the intra day trading hours, however within hours the stock price recovered due to prompt action by the bank.

@gulpanag ICICI committed 3k crore fraud in US. Sebi fined 1 billion dollar on ICICI bank as the news goes..

ICICI bank is known to monitor 3-5k tweets per day via its Twitter handler @icici_care. The bank also monitors online conversations on Facebook, Blogs and other social mediums, to help stop rumors.

The bank responded to the user on twitter as follows:-

@sandeepgeetla These r baseless rumours abt ICICI Bank, request u to not pay heed to them & also not spread them further…”

ICICI has gone ahead and filed a complaint against the person with the cyber crime cell of the police and market watchdog SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)

This is just an example of how a false rumor could damage your brand’s reputation online.

But, how many brands in GCC monitor Social Media Conversations?

The person may have had a bad experience with your brand; however there is a possibility that he or she was never heard. However, customers have found the web to share the experience with people.

There are many groups on Facebook, where customers share their experiences with other potential bank customers, which do influence choices to an extent. Many people resort to share their personal experience about anything on the web as it is a feasible medium to voice their opinion. This makes many brands vulnerable to online abuse, as some of these opinions may be rumors, which further emphasizes the need to have online monitoring tools.

You can use some of the below listed tools which are available online for free:-

Blog Monitoring - BlogPulse – is a blog search engine with several complementary tools such as Trend Search and Conversion Tracker that analyzes the data it collects.

Twitter Monitoring - Monitter – A real-time Twitter monitor for up to three keywords at a time.

Other Tools - Google Alerts – Your keyword search results are sent via e-mail for keyword mentions in news, web, blogs, video and groups categories.

Digimond – an online competitive intelligence solution company – has forecasted that by 2013, 4 million SMEs will be using online reputation platform to monitor their brands. According to Digimond 58% of the executives believe that risk reputation should be addressed by the management, however only 15% of them monitor it.

Recently there have been similar incidences in the online world in Qatar. Many Qtel users retorted against the poor customer service of the telecom company on Twitter using the hashtag #qtelfail. Qtel instantly responded to customer complains on Twitter to address issues.

I personally witnessed a change in the customer service of Qtel when I tweeted them about my Internet issue. I was called back by a service representative to understand my issue and a technician was at my home within few hours.

Recently Arabian Business reported that Qatar Airways was facing a series of complains from customers that claim to be local nationals about its services on Twitter using hashtag #qatarairwaysfail.

What is the Impact of such online posts? One bad customer experience would cost your brand many others.

Does the brand monitor these tweets/posts? It could be competitor brand spreading the rumor.

Many organizations have Internal Communication Departments who monitor print media for news but discount online conversations. What can a brand do to minimize the impact?

- Have a communications team to monitor online conversations and tackle rumors/complaints.

- Hire a PR/Marketing agency that can monitor the web 24x7.

- Have a strong e-Marketing team that can create a positive perception of your brand online.

- A negative review/complain demands special attention. Post public responses to apologize and try to win back the customer. You can privately message the reviewer to get detailed feedback.

Negative comments about your brand can hang an albatross around your neck if they appear frequently in online searches. A positive comment about your brand by clients is traditionally the best source of new business; online forums and recently sites like twitter and facebook act as a powerful word-of-mouth. Having an online presence is a must but tackling rumors/complains is a challenge. Brands will have to bear the brunt of online conversations if they continue to ignore this medium. Online conversations will make or break customer relations in the future as more and more people seek feedback from peers on the web.

Financial Institutions and Online Media - finding the right hook

The below article was published in Qatar Today magazine - July 2011 issue. The article summarizes various initiatives taken by banks to adopt Online Media to communicate with their customers. Click on the below image to contiue reading.

 

***TextVersion ***

Today most of the financial services companies are on a recovery mode and looking for optimistic signs in their books. While the financial pundits predict the possibility of economic recovery, I believe listening to your customers is what’s missing in most of the companies. Many financial and non financial companies are busy implementing what they want to but not what the customer needs.

In the era of Internet, Financial Institutions need to cautiously but firmly make place in the Online Media world to interact with the customer. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn are some of the many sites which can act as agents for these companies to spread their message.

Many banks have presence on Facebook, but lack of transactional capability may not attract customers to become a fan or member of that particular page. Having an information page about the products and services would be a good way to start with, but may not be immensely popular with the customers. Tapping Facebook will require banks to come up with a tricky formula of entertainment, sales and information in addition to providing a secure environment. Yet Facebook’s urge to go public with its user data may be discouraging for many financial intuitions to associate themselves with this website. To meet the legal and compliance requirements would be another horrendous task.

During my research, I came across an application on Facebook that allows users to perform financial transactions - Fiserv's My Money, which is now only available to credit unions, and may be offered to banks in the near future. Facebook users download the application, which helps them find and join a credit union, view account histories and balances, and make transfers.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, ING DIRECT and First American Bank are among the many financial institutions using Twitter for marketing. Twitter is a tool which can be used to directly interact with your customers and inform them about the services. The online reply facility on Twitter can help a company obtain feedback or resolve customer issues.

The National Bank of Australia has managed to effectively use Twitter as a tool to deal with customer complaints and enquires. The bank gets 30 million calls a year on its Call Centre channel and Twitter may be an alternative to it.

Twitter can help banks build long term relationships and give more personal feel to it.

1. Reaching customers.

Public websites hold the transaction capability and remain the primary form of communication for the banks with customers. Increased communication and transparency, would help banks gain customer confidence and trust.  Having online presence would allow your customers to evaluate and discuss the bank’s brand and offerings. Direct feedback from customers would help banks improve those offerings and brand image. HSBC Direct, a U.K based bank uses its interactive website to get and publish customer feedback and discuss community issues. It uses blogs, Facebook and Twitter to interact with "Generation C," or the “Connected, Communicating, Content-centric, Generation."

2. Reducing costs.

Online communication would help the bank reduce costs significantly. Selling products, cross selling products to existing customers would help justify the online presence. Twitter as a communication medium is being seen as an alternative to Call Centers. It may not replace call centers but definitely help in optimizing call center resources. Usage of new technologies can help cut branch operations cost; for example, Deutsche Bank in Germany uses video chat for interacting with customers, thus reducing customer dependence on expensive channels like branches.

As I said before, financial institutions need to be Cautious with their presence in Social Media. One of the possible threats could be a fraudster posing as a bank employee and asking customer for credentials by setting up a similar profile. Online squatter could register themselves on behalf of financial institutions on social media sites and then negotiate with the companies to buy them back. Alternatively, phishing attacks are anyways looming on the Internet and you may be redirected to a site where there is possibility of compromising your personal details.

Banks are experimenting with this space but are yet to come out with a successful working model. Expecting a ROI on spend is not the way forward, as Social Media is still in its adolescence trying to develop such a model. This is just another form of communication tool available to reach to your customers which will ultimately in long term bring the dollars.

Internet v/s Social Marketing

The article gives a visual depiction of Internet v/s Social Marketing, published in Qatar Today Magazine - June 2011 issue.

Internet v/s Social Marketing 

In my previous post I had given few tips to convince your boss to adopt social media for commercial purposes. If you have managed to even partially convince your boss on introducing social/online media in your organization, the next step is to determine the possible ways of reaching your customers on the web. In the initial days of the web, one of the most common ways to advertise your product was by placing a banner ad on a website, or a pop up ad to get the attention of the website visitor. We have come a long way from those days and have more intelligent and less annoying ways of creating awareness for the product/services.

Internet Marketing is still one of the most popular ways to target your potential customers on the web. It is an enhanced traditional advertising campaign measurement with the addition of unique visitors, clicks, bounces, page ranks, keyword authority, link tracking etc.

Internet marketing is predominately focused around the following *terms: -

SEM (search engine marketing) - is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion

Cost per impression (CPI/CPM) - CPM for Cost per thousand impressions is another way to measure the worth of an online campaign.

Cost per click (CPC) - Advertisers pay the hosting service when the ad is clicked, to direct traffic to the respective website.

Cost per action (CPA) - the advertiser pays for each specified action (a purchase, a form submission, and so on) linked to the advertisement

SEO (search engine optimization) - is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via organic search results.

An online campaign is needed to spread awareness which can ultimately lead to sales. Some online campaigns are purely meant for awareness while other’s prompt the user to click on the banner ads, which direct them to a landing page that has a list of the products available for sale.

You need to help the internet user understand what he/she can expect post clicking an interactive banner. If the expectations are not met in the first few seconds, you have lost your prospective internet partner. You need to develop more interactive ads to get the attention of the person viewing the ad.

Internet has come a long way from Web 1.0 to evolving Web 3.0. We can associate these trends with the following terms: -

Web 1.0 = Content

Web 2.0 = Conversation

Web 3.0 = Convergence

At present we are in Web 2.0 but slowly progressing towards Web 3.0.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is another form of communication with your customers. I feel it’s all about Conversation. As a product manager if you are successful in speaking to your online audience in their language, you have won half the battle. It is dynamic, vibrant, emergent, compelling and insightful. Hence, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is not just a medium of communication but a place for marketers to understand its target audience.

Social Media as a conversation is not organized, controlled or in a form of an advertisement.

It is the conversation that takes place between Customers, Marketers, Employees, and Investors and web surfers.  On a larger scale, it’s the appeal of belonging in the group as you take action together. “l am trying this brand so why don’t you try it as well?”

Some social media tools that you could use for engaging the audience with your brands

Blogs - I don’t need to define ‘blogs’ for you, however, ensure you regularly update it.  Most corporate companies host blogs on their website. Alternatively you may use popular platforms like Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad.

Microblogging – Twitter is a classic example of microblogging. You need to engage your customers within the 140 characters. Companies use it as a customer service tool.  Check out Jaiku which is another popular microblogging website.

RSS - It a syndication format that allows websites and blogs to distribute their content as feeds to users.  Instead of having to visit the website, users can sign up for the feed provided by the website or blog and using an RSS reader or aggregators like Google Reader, Bloglines to access the feed.

Photo Sharing - Sites like flickr, picasa are popular photo sharing websites. One common technique used by online community a manager is to ask their subscribers to upload photographs on photo sharing websites and ask their friends to vote for the best photographs. Such competitions help the brand to reach out to non-consumers through their existing users.

Podcasts – It is a digital audio that is distributed via the Internet for playback on a user’s computer or portable media device. Link your podcasts to different websites and your blog and make special announcements via it.

Social News and Bookmarking - Social bookmarking allows web users to share their bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. You must have seen websites offering to share their article on sites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit etc are typical examples.

Social Networking – Facebook being the most popular social networking site can be used to engage customers by creating corporate pages and groups. Some other popular social networking sites are Ranren.com (No 1 in China), Myspace, Hi5, Bebo.

Setting the objectives: The SMM goals will be different for every business or organization. SMM can create brand awareness or build idea, increase visibility, leverage existing social media sites to the company’s advantage, help in creating a multi-pronged marketing strategy attract & motivate through Potential Customer Experience etc.

One thing that many digital marketers face difficulty is in measurement and the first step to measure is to set RIGHT objectives. The objectives should be in the interest of the organization and community.

To conclude both Internet and Social Media Marketing have their advantages. To have maximum impact on a campaign combination of both the marketing techniques can be infectious.  

Women Take the lead on Social Media

Dedicated to all the ladies - the below post articulates various trends observed on the online media. The article was published in the Woman Today Magazine - May 2011 issue. Click on the below pic to continue reading.

***Women Rule the Roost***

Both men and women have basic differences in their opinions and habits, which can seem a little confusing, depending on your perception.

The irony is that from conception stage until the eight week of development, both men and women are almost exactly the same. The differences that manifest then grow with them and are evident even in the online presence and usage.

According to a research conducted by Comscore (global source of digital market intelligence) as a percentage of global Internet users, women are catching up quickly with men. In fact, in North America both the genders are at par.

Communication and Social Networking are central to women’s Internet experience. Men may have taken the lead in the global Internet user’s category, but women occupy a larger proportion of time on the web, and this is increasing over time. The average 15+ female spends 8 percent more time online than her male counterpart.

While Social Networking has become a popular activity for all Internet Users, women take the lead in the usage. As per Comscore, globally women spent an average of 16.3 percent of their online time on social networks, compared to only 11.7 percent for the men.  The Social Networking King Facebook depicts similar picture, where the female users exceed the males globally. In the Middle East the men still take the lead on Facebook.

The Twitter technology being popular among both the genders has been adopted for a different reason. A general observation is that, women like to have a conversation within the 140 characters, whereas men prefer sharing information and links. According to the study, a larger percentage of female Twitter users say they use the site to find deals and promotions. Women are also more likely to use the service as to follow their favourite celebrities.

Females are definitely the drivers of the e-commerce business on the Internet. This is evident from the revenue figures of the below sites: -

Zappos (>$1 billion in revenue last year), Groupon ($760m last year) Diapers ($300m estimated revenue last year) are all driven by a majority of female customers.  According to Groupon, women form 77% of their customer base. Definitely the online retail therapy helps the women to relax and brightens one's mood.

Today’s tech savvy woman 18-34 is heavily addicted to social media networks.  An overwhelming majority (57%) admit to talking to people online more than face-to-face, while 34% say checking Facebook is the first thing they do when waking up in the morning – that includes brushing one’s teeth or using the bathroom, as per Oxygen Media.  Even more surprising is the 26% who get up in the middle of the night to read text messages and the 21% who confessed to checking Facebook during the night. When it comes to dating, Oxygen Media reports that 50% of single women 18-34 (vs. 65% of single men) think its okay meeting and dating other singles they meet through Facebook. 

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook has reportedly said women drive 62% of activity in terms of messages, updates and comments on the website.

Online Videos have become a popular medium of communicating on the web. The consumption of online videos among women has surged. A Nielson study in 2010 shows women aged 25-44 are a major force behind the rapid adoption. The consumption changes over the course of the day and varies according to time, mood and location. More than half of the women interviewed during the study admitted watching video during the course of the day while at work.

Men are more upbeat about Online Trading, Sports, Games, Personal Finance and Technology.  Men also dominate the internet search world (71.6 searches per searcher for men vs. 64.0 for women)

Johanna Blakeley, who was recently featured on Ted Talks spoke on End of Gender on Social Media. She said women are the drivers of Social Media, they actually out number men in all the age segments on use of Social Media. She is the Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center, a media-focused think tank at the University of Southern California

If men are the amplifiers of the web then women are the speakers. If men lead the online technology then women drive the e-commerce sales.  Certain activities such as shopping and socializing are known to be favored by women in the physical world and this behavior is replicated online, especially on Social Media front. 

Boss we need to Socialize

The below article was published in Qatar Today's April 2011 issue. Click on the below pics to read.

Text Version

*****Boss - We need to Socialize…*****

The last conversation with your boss on adoption of Social Media may have left you stranded and you may be wondering how to convince him/her. You may conclude that the person is rigid not open to new ideas. A close minded person is difficult to convince and it requires strong will to change ones thought process. According to marketing guru Seth Godin, “a closed-minded worldview doesn't mean you're stupid, it means that you are selling yourself and your colleagues and your community short”.

Your boss is not stupid, probably ignorant. One of the best way to change perceptions and open a close mind is to present data in an appealing manner.

The adoption of Social Media in the Middle East for commercial purpose has been encouraging however it still needs to reach an advanced level. Senior management is still puzzled by the question – “Why the company should explore the Social Media route to reach their customers?”

Here are some tips that could help you to sell Social Media to your senior management:-

Show Them Facts and Figures

A survey conducted on Media consumption & habits of MENA Internet users in 2010 by Spot On PR firm based in Dubai showed that

- Social Networking is the second most popular activity carried out by Internet users after email.

- 32% of all Middle East & North Africa Internet users surveyed, bought products or services online

Spot On PR has reported that the Mena Population on Facebook has reached 17.3 million as of August 2010.

According to InsideFacebook.com, a leading source of news and analysis on Facebook, informed that Arabic language version of Facebook was the fastest growing language as of August 2010.

Blogs: Over 5 million blogs are tracked by Technorati, the “Bible” of Blogs with 600,000 being corporate blogs (Technorati)

Keeping up with the Competition

The hype of Social media would have caught your boss’s attention and there is a possibility that he/she may have seen some social media work at other corporations.

This means your boss is likely in a position to have a conversation on commercial aspects of social media. You just need to develop an online strategy that fits the organization’s business objectives. Your boss might just be looking for someone to take the lead. A survey conducted by IQPC in 2010 showed that 80% of corporate executives consider Social Media as an important aspect of the online communication strategies.

Customer Feedback Online

Every year companies spend millions on customer service surveys. This helps the executives to get an insight on what is their customer thinking.

When you go online try searching “your company name + bad experience”, you would be surprised at the results. Unfortunately, this freely available data online is overlooked by companies. ICICI bank is known to monitor 3-5k tweets per day via its Twitter handler @icici_care. The bank also monitors online conversations on Facebook, Blogs and other social mediums, to help stop rumors.

Listening to your customers creates strong relationships and helps you develop the right products. This would eventually lead to monetization.

Instant Response

Social Media not only gives you customer feedback online, but gives you the opportunity to respond back to your customer online. Many companies in Qatar like Qtel, Virgin Mobile give instant response to customer queries on a social network like Twitter. Customers are keen to interact with their brands online. A study conducted on MENA Twitter habits by Spot-On PR in Feb 2010 gave the following results: -

- 50% of the surveyed had purchased a product or service as a result of Twitter

- 88% of Twitter users recommend products / services

- 65% of respondents were interested in receiving special offers & coupons from brands on Twitter

Here is an opportunity for many for you to sell these stats to your boss which would help you build a case to monetize the investment in online media.

One step at a time

If your boss is partially convinced and asks you to give him a lead, start with maintaining an online blog. It is not that difficult to move some corporate offline content online. Recommend a person who has the passion for writing and can update the blog on a regular basis.

A few more reasons: -

Using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media - Get your website among the top 10 searched items on Google, which leads to more traffic and visibility of your brand.

Reputation Management – Customers are discussing about your brand online, whether you like to listen or not.

Customer Service – Twitter, Facebook and various other social networks are becoming prime source of direct interaction with customers.

According to the Internetworldstats.com the Middle East has 63 million Internet users. So, if just 50% of those are affected by brand recommendations online, that’s 32 .5 million people are reachable through online mode of communication. Internet is here to stay and grow big; however, it’s your choice to ride the wave or stay onshore to make a difference.

Virtual Online Banks for Social Networks

The scope of the article covers banks for social networks and not Internet Banking.

Many banks have realized the potential of online social engagement; however, most of them are reluctant to connect with customers online. The concept of virtual online websites is not getting any younger. The realm of social media or online social engagement is growing with an estimated value of US 10 million in 2010 as estimated by Engage Digital Media.

In 2009 Mashable had reported that a user of Entropia Universe – an online virtual engagement website – bought a virtual space station for US $ 330,000. This transaction is registered in the Guinness book of world records as the most expensive virtual world.

People have got used to making online payments for goods on Internet and conducting their daily transactions via electronic channels. The comfort level now extends to social networking sites, where users are paying for virtual goods, and this builds a case for introducing financial services.

The scope of innovation in the world of online payment market is extensive. Once extended to virtual online world the scope is challenging. Some of the existing websites in the online social engagement world that facilitate financial transactions are: -

• Facebook, Secondlife, Entropia Universe – Purchase of Virtual goods 
• Purchase of Online Services – Facebook - Qtel Mobile Top up
• Online Social Lending – Virgin Money, Kiva

The above examples are an insight to various business opportunities that are yet to materialize. 

Mind Ark, the company which runs the Entropaia Universe became the first company to issue virtual banking licenses to real world banks in 2007. In March 2009, the Swedish Financial Authority, granted license to Mind Bank AB, that will allow it to function as a central bank for all the virtual world’s within Entropia Universe. Mind Bank will be able to process real money transactions for activities in the virtual world.

During my research, I came across an application on Facebook that allows users to perform financial transactions - Fiserv's MyMoney, a US based app, which is now only available to credit unions, and may be offered to banks in the near future. Facebook users download the application, which helps them to find and join a credit union, view account history, balances, and make transfers.

Banks are experimenting with this space but are yet to come out with a firm working model. Expecting a ROI on spend is not the way forward, as Social Media is still in its infancy stage.

What did you tweet when Facebook was down?

After Facebook went down on Thursday, thousands took to Twitter to share the news, vent their frustration and get their fix of social networking. The two-and-a-half-hour outage for the users was like they were drug addicts going through withdrawal. Facebook's more than 500 million users have grown accustomed to sharing updates from their daily diets to pets. Twitteratis were not behind in expressing their humor in 140 characters. I have collected a few interesting tweets below: -

@OPB: BREAKING NEWS: Facebook is down. Worker productivity rises. US climbs out of recession #facebookdown

@BugFrog Congress considering emergency funds to help out Farmville farmers hurt by Facebook outage,"

@maxxhendriks "Facebook is down! Users are roaming the streets shoving photos in people's faces and screaming "DO YOU LIKE THIS? DO YOU?"

@alqaeda #facebook is down. Not sure if  we did that, but we should claim anyway. Hitting the infidels where it hurts, etc.

@vladimirRS - Facebook down due to explosion in Farmville's manure composter. Five million people forced to work

@MTVClutch - Facebook is down. We can't tell who's hungry or tired

@joeschmitt - Either Facebook is down or Mark Zuckerberg just set everything to PRIVATE

Zaraa Hatke Quotes on Facebook

English Translation - 'Awesome Quotes on Facebook'. More often than not many of us write hilarious, thought provoking, opinioned quotes and share with our friends. I decided to keep a track of these quotes, by my friends, over the past few weeks on Facebook and below is the outcome. Every quote has been credited with its respective source and are selected on the basis of being hilarious and thought provoking..(ps. the original source of the quote "may" be different)

Agar duniya main Mehnat ki Qadar hoti To Gadha sub se zayada izzatdar hota....! - Boski G

Call me Miss Flintstone, i can make your bedrock - Mansi S

Vaadon Aur Yaadon Me Kya Fark Hai?
Insaan Vaadon Ko Tod Deta Hai,

Aur Yaaden Inshaan Ko Tod Deti Hai - Aashish B

life is : leaving the house in morning dressed in clothes , that u brought with credit card for work ,driving through traffic in car that u still paying for ,putting in fuel that u cant afford,in order to get to the job u hate but need so badly so that u can pay for the clothes,car fuel and the house that u leave empty the whole day , in order to live in it - Kamal A

kutte. CONGRATS BUDDY!!!! Who is the lucky girl? when did you get engaged - Rishi S (The Dharmendra Style but for a different reason)

Khatta Meetha - ahem, I m allergic to Bullshit - Sapna R

Can you get Drunk without Drinking??? - Seema KB

A man who smiles when things go wrong.... has already thought of someone to blame it on :D - Rohit

Well when we Indians goto a baba who has a Parrot who picks up a card and predicts future ..... World goes OMG look at "dot heads" for everything they goto an "Animal"....... Join the gang u Focktupusians ..... :) - Anil A

Beware its gonna get 'MESSI' - ARGENTINA!! - Sandeep B

The entire German team will be arrested outside the stadium for publically raping not only a team but d entire nation (In context of Germany v/s England Fifa World Cup 2010)- Atul B

Life is like a coin. Pleasure and Pain are the two sides. Only one side is visible at a time. But remember other side is also waiting for it's turn. - Varsha S

Reality is more interesting than fiction - Varun B

Nothing is personal if you don't take it personally - Khushboo B

Dubai sheher ka saara, Meena Bazar Leke - Vishal M

Conclusion - clothes are supposed to fit us - we are not supposed to fit into the clothes ! -Satyen C

Facebook is for people you went to school with. Twitter is for people u wished u went to school with - inspiration 4 ppl wanna b on twitter - Source Unkown

Facebook team’s up with Connect Ads

Trevor Johnson, head of strategy and planning for Facebook EMEA, announced Facebook's recent alliance with Connect Ads, who have been named the site's official representation partner in the region, at a press conference on Wednesday

Facebook hopes that the deal with Connect Ads will give exposure to advertisers in a socially conservative Middle East region where online marketing is in its early stages and social media sites under threat at times from the service providers.

I had an offsite meeting in Marsa Alam, Egypt in 2008 where I met the Connect Ads team. It was a pleasure meeting Mohamed El Sayad GM – MSN Arabia and Amr Al-Masri who is an account executive at Connect Ads. Connect Ads makes an excellent team to work with. They were busy launching MSN Maghreb then and today they have managed to seize control of Facebook in the Middle East.

The Cairo-based advertising booker already handles sales for Microsoft Corp.’s MSN regional portals and other local sites namely MSN Arabia, MSN Maghreb, ArabFinance.com, Masrawy.com, Otlob.com, Yallabina.com, Mazika.com, CareerMidEast.com, YallaKora.com, Barca Arabia, and El3ab.com

There are about ten million active Facebook users in the Middle East and North Africa region, making up about 2.5% of the social networking site's total base of 400 million active users worldwide. United Arab Emirates has an average of 1.2 million Facebook users with more growth expected from the Middle East as a whole over the coming years.

What Color Was Your Bra

Caution – I am not trying to be a sexist or show that breast cancer issues don’t really matter. Just ridiculing the level to which Facebook platform was used to raise the Breast Cancer awareness

Last week did you update the color of your bra on Facebook? I am sure being a woman you wanted to show your support for the deadly Breast Cancer and make people aware of its affects. Well, some really smart person wanted all the women to update their status with the color of the bra they were wearing at that time. This would perhaps bring a revolution in creating breast cancer awareness

The effort taken by most of the women was ostensibly for a good cause. Now, I am wondering how you can bring awareness in the minds of men by updating your Facebook status with the color of your bra?

Men would be already fantasizing the size of the breasts and some perverts may have reached the climax as well. Some of them may be wondering if the bra was silk, satin, cotton etc…

Women may be wondering how can they fight the disease and create a revolution and awareness in the minds. Holy Shit! We need to fight it out with our Women Power…

Many groups were created on the website by so called Charity Organizations, who would donate some money to a breast cancer research if they would acquire 1000+ members. Another marketing gimmick!

Some groups had all the intentions to create soft porn by asking the members to send their photographs in a bra and the best pic would receive a 10$ gift certificate.

And to heighten the level of this futile campaign, some women actually updated their status with the color of panties they were wearing. This further diluted the breast cancer awareness message. May be they were trying to make a point about Ovarian Cancer. Confused!

Horrendous! Not sure if this is the right approach to create awareness for a deadly disease? C’mon! wake up people…such dim-witted ideas would help you identify the color of the bra but the thought would just stop there.

Every one may have updated the color of their bra but no one was speaking about breast cancer.

Personally I liked the approach of this particular group who asked women not to share the color of their bra, but by sharing their time or money to help people suffering with this disease. Splendid approach! Serves the purpose.

Let us all lend our support to create awareness about this illness which may have affected your mother, girlfriend, wife, sister, daughter etc in a more sensible manner. Social Media messages spread like fire so let us use this weapon in a wise way to create a difference.