DUBAI: Nielsen Online reported that among the top ten social media sites, Twitter.com is the fastest growing, increasing 1,928 percent year-over-year, from one million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in June 2009.

“No longer just a platform for friends to stay connected in real time, it has evolved into an important component of brand marketing,” Nielsen Online noted. The research firm added that Twitterers (a.k.a. Tweeters) are primarily adults with cash to spend. This means that a huge new platform is available to those companies who are agile enough to incorporate it into their marketing campaigns. Dubai headquartered Cyber Gear has done just that, creating “Tweets Scheduler” software that helps online marketers setup campaigns on Twitter.

According to Sharad Agarwal, CEO of Cyber Gear: “Our proprietary software helps clients develop an engagement matrix to build online communities. Corporate tweets can be generated at pre-designated schedules to enhance online visibility and increase brand followers. The software supports multiple URL’s and helps synchronize message postings based on live site statistics generated through third party analytics software like Woopra and Live Traffic Feed.”

Agarwal can easily demonstrate to businesses just how effective the Tweets Scheduler can be. The company has used the Tweets Scheduler in its Go-Green.ae portal to build an international fan following from over 60 countries. Cyber Gear launched the Go-Green.ae initiative and its associated web portal in July 2008 to remind people to be mindful of and sensitive to the natural environment in their daily life. While the main objective of the site is to increase the awareness of environmental issues that affect the future of the planet, Go-Green.ae has also been a way for Cyber Gear to show the power of Web 2.0 technologies and the potential of online social networking.

“Cyber Gear has been around for 13 years and we have specialized in offering Internet solutions to companies in the region,” explained Agarwal. “We have long been doing traditional web campaigns, such as banner campaigns, email campaigns and SMS campaigns. Of late, we found through requests that started coming in from known brands in the region, that there is a desire to tap into social networking sites. Therefore we have started doing some customized proprietary development to help clients in the region build up their brands online using social networking. It’s still early days in the Middle East, but I think in the next three to six months, there will be a lot of big regional brands, a lot of homegrown brands so to say, that will be active on different social networking sites.”

The company’s software currently supports only English social networking campaigns but the Cyber Gear CEO stated that it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be creating bilingual campaigns as well. He sees that in Dubai, many businesses are setting up accounts at online social networking sites, particularly Twitter. These companies are eager to attract as many followers as they can in order to enhance their brand visibility and drive traffic to their respective websites. That’s where Cyber Gear’s Tweets Scheduler becomes important.

One drawback though to the growth of social networking in the region is the continued dependence on computers, rather than mobile phones, to gain access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This lessens the immediate impact of such platforms in daily life and can restrict their usage to office settings where connectivity is readily available.

“In the Middle East, accessing social networking sites is still largely done through PCs and laptops. Other mobile devices are used to access the Internet, but I would say that happens just twenty percent of the time. Of course there’s no formal research for that but it’s what I read and hear,” Agarwal remarked. “What I find is that people here are more comfortable accessing the Web through their computers rather than using handheld devices. That’s largely because a lot of multimedia content is not supported by many handheld devices. Technical, bandwidth and cost limitations also mean that in the Middle East you are better off accessing the Web in a traditional manner.”

And while some local companies are turning to new marketing platforms, others are behind the times, unwilling to recognize the impact of the Internet on the Middle East’s business environment. Too many local firms still look at their commercial operations in terms of the customers who walk through the company’s brick and mortar doors. It’s a shortsighted and potentially bankrupting position.

“Companies have to think global now. Especially in these times when the economic realities are more challenging. If a company doesn’t have an effective website, then there is no way for it to reach out to new customers and gain new markets,” Agarwal said. “Any self-respecting company in today’s business environment has to have a decent website. Not only one that looks good, but one that generates new business and provides a good user experience to people who visit the website. A lot of companies in Saudi Arabia, as least the ones I have seen, have first generation brochure websites. All you can do at the site is click and go to the next page. There is no user experience worth talking about. There is no interactivity.”

His advice is that local firms should investigate the possibilities that new technologies offer. Businesses should use their websites as the starting point in building online communities. Web 2.0 tools can be incorporated that allow site visitors to have online conversations with the respective company and perhaps even with each other, on issues relevant to the business. In this way a company will get to know more about the community it is a part of and aiming to profit from. With an effective website in place, online social networking resources can then be used to create a buzz about the company, its products and services. The more people who learn about what a business has to offer, the more opportunities there are to make a sale and the greater the chance for continuing commercial success.

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