Brands and businesses in Saudi Arabia should be present on social media to tap into the growing number of Saudi users and potential customers, said Bilal Hallab, general manager of the The Social Clinic.
The Social Clinic, a social media & business consultancy headquartered in Jeddah, recently researched and audited an infographic on the state of social media in Saudi Arabia.
It showed that the Kingdom ranks first among Arab states in social media growth, with Facebook at No. 1 with 6 million users, of which 90 percent use Facebook in Arabic.
The total number of Twitter users, as shown in the infographic, is 3 million. Saudi Arabia has the highest growth rate on Twitter of 3,000 percent, versus the global average of 300 percent. The Arabic language is the fastest-growing language on Twitter. Saudi Arabia contributes to 30 percent of this growth and Riyadh ranked 10th in the list of cities in the world with most tweets. Riyadh is also the only Arabic city on the list.
Hallab told Arab News that The Social Clinic obtained all figures in the infographic directly from social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. No third party was involved.
“The aim of collecting these statistics, studies and researches is to give all businesses and brands a wake-up call on the importance and risks of social media. They will want to make sure they are doing it right, when they decide to invest in social media, which is inevitable,” said Hallab.
Being present on social media has become a natural and a much needed extension of a brand. That is why companies are tailoring their services to be social media friendly. “Social media allows brands to expand their horizon. For instance, they can now easily tap into the photography and film industry when that was previously too costly and with many limitations,” said Hallab.
He pointed out that it is highly advisable for companies to deploy in-house social media departments to communicate with the public on social networking sites rather than outsource it, due to easier communication workflows, processes and overall engagement and crisis management.
Brands advised to harness social media
