Facebook Marketing Why Global Brands Need to Change Strategies in the Middle East

Facebook
Marketing
Why Global Brands
Need to Change
Strategies in the
Middle East

23 May 2012
Presented by The Online Project

Presented by The Online Project 2

Why Read this
Report

In the past three years, the Arab World has steadily
embraced business opportunities from social media. With
many global brands operating in the region, several have
extended their international strategies to the local market.
Regional and local brands have also been prone to look
outwards for inspiration from global trends and concepts.

As with most social trends, however, we have discovered
that unique habits exist in the region, creating the need
for more localized and customized approaches to how we
use social media.

Beginning with Facebook, the most popular social
network in the region, this report will introduce you to
some of the differences between users in the
Middle East as compared to their US counterparts.

Facebook Marketing: Why Global Brands Need to Change Strategies in the Middle East


The 5 People
Who can Make Use
of this Research

This research aims to share The Online Project’s findings
when comparing data of Facebook users in the Middle
East to the United States. We have analyzed age, gender,
relationships and language among other self identified
traits, to get a deeper understanding of who we are
communicating with.

At The Online Project, we have been using this
data to develop more customized and effective
strategies to communicate on behalf of our brands.
We hope you find valuable uses for the data as well.

While many people will find the data interesting in and of
itself, we believe there are five types of people who will
benefit most directly from this research:
1. The In House Social Media Champion
2. The Agency Strategist
3. The Community Manager
4. The Advertising Executive
5. The Product Developer



The Key
Takeaways

• When global brands want to extend their social media
strategies to the Middle East, they must take note of
the different social indicators. Primarily the average
number of friends in the Middle East is lower than US
averages; relationship settings and gender preferences
are also significantly different. Such differences are an
indication of a younger and more conservative culture
in the region.

• In order to apply strategies across the region, agencies
must take into account the differences in trends within
each county in the region. Iraqi users, for example,
have a much lower average of friends per user than
Jordanian users. This is an indication of the limitations
and challenges of viral marketing in that country.

• Photo use continues to be a trend in the region. With
many countries that suffer from unstable internet
access which may cause web video campaigns to be
a challenge, photo campaigns have a higher chance
of success as they are used naturally in the regional
Facebook population.



Profile Information Average
Number of Photos in Profile Album 25
Number of Uploaded photos 444
Number of Uploaded Albums 11
Number of photos tagged in 271
Number of pages connected to 80
Arts and Entertainment 20
Age 25

Country Average No. of Friends
US 133
Middle East 59
Jordan 90
Sudan 75
Iraq 22
Lebanon 79
KSA 43
Bahrain 60
Kuwait 45

The above findings show details of a sample collected from equal numbers of male and female Facebook users. As listed
above, the average number of photos in the profile album is at 25, and the average number of uploaded albums is 11 for
this sample. The average number of tagged in photos, on the other hand, is 271, whereas the average number of total
uploaded photos is highest at 444. Moreover, the average number of pages connected to is 80, while the average total
arts and entertainment selection is 20. Finally, the average age for the sample is 25, which could shed a light on likely
patterns of using certain Facebook features such as uploading photos.



Executive Summary

boys vs girls languages
Highest gap Countries that use
between Facebook the MOST
males and in Arabic:
females: • Palestine
Iraq: 45.8% • Egypt
male dominated • Iraq
• Saudi Arabia
Lowest gap
between Countries that use
males and Facebook the LEAST
females: in Arabic:

53% People Using
• Lebanon (5%)
Lebanon: 4.6%
USA Middle East
• UAE (9%)

Facebook in Engish
male dominated

old vs young relationship status
Palestine is the youngest country
USA Middle East

53%
43.6% of the
population is
between 18-24
majority LIST status majority do NOT

44% interested in women 85% interested in women

33% are single 52% are single
43% are married 29% are married

Also in the Middle East:
50% men interested in women
22% women interested in women
10% men interested in men
7% women interested in men
• Exception is Lebanon where women interested in men is 19%

Facebook friends
USA
133

Jordan
90 Sudan Lebanon
Middle East 79 Bahrain
Middle East 75
7590 60 Kuwait
KSA
43 45
Iraq
22

Average friends per user

average vanity numbers per user
25 80
444
271 20
profile uploaded connected
pics 11 photos pages

uploaded tagged entertainment
albums photos pages



Facebook
Population in the
Middle East

Egypt dominates Facebook
presence in the Middle East
Egypt takes the lead in having the largest share of
Facebook users in the selected Arab countries of the
region followed by KSA, UAE, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

The UAE has the highest population
to Facebook users in the region
Participation to population ratio refers to the prevalence
of Facebook participation in a given country relative
to its population. UAE has the highest participation to
population ratios when compared to large population
countries such as Egypt.



Gender
Differences

Iraqi users have the biggest
gender gap on Facebook
Gender ratio analysis indicates that the higher share of
Facebook users belong to male populations in all of the
selected countries. Iraq noticeably displays the greatest gap
between the number of male and female users while Lebanon
shows the lowest gap. It is worth noting that all selected
countries of the GCC region with the exception of Bahrain,
also show a relatively high percentage difference between
male and female users.

Facebook is more male dominant
in the Arab world, female in the US
In line with the above findings, the overall population of
Facebook users in the Arab region is predominantly male
with an overall gender difference of 30%. Interestingly when
comparing with advanced markets such as the USA, the
percentage difference between genders stands much smaller
at 10% and female users occupy a greater space on Facebook.



Age Differences

Youth continue to dominate Facebook
Age per country breakdown analysis shows that age groups
18-24 and 25-34 take turns in dominating Facebook space in
most countries of the region. As a percentage of country users,
Palestine has the highest users to population ratio of 18-24 year
old users at 46%. Followed by Iraq at 40% , Egypt at 39% and
Lebanon at 36.1%. Countries with the highest 25-34 year old users
to population ratios on the other hand belong to UAE at 45.8%,
Kuwait at 42%, Qatar at 42% and KSA at 36%. Age groups 13-17
and 35-44 stand in the middle range in most countries at a high
23.5% and low 6.1%. While age groups 45-55 and 55+ represent
the lowest population on Facebook across all selected countries.

Youth bulge is more pronounced
in the Middle East than the US
While the prevailing age groups in the selected Arab countries
and USA are 18-24 and 25-34. Arab countries have a much
higher percentage difference between these age groups and
the rest of the population compared to the USA. Older age
group populations (35-44+), however show greater presence on
Facebook in the USA relative to Arab countries. This indicates the
existence of a predominately young audience on Facebook in this
region compared to the west.



Language Settings

Palestine uses Arabic setting
more than any other Arab country
Language setting preference of users in the region shows an
overall higher tendency to set Facebook’s language setting into
English. Interestingly though this is not true for certain countries
such as Palestine where 68% of Facebook users chose Arabic
as their language. Showing similar behavior is KSA at 58%,
Iraq at 56% and Egypt at 53%. On the extreme opposite end,
Lebanon, UAE and Qatar share the least number of users with
Arabic language settings at 5%, 9%, and 15% respectively. It
should be noted, however, that using the Facebook interface
in English does not denote a preference to communicate
predominantly in that language.

Arabs use English (as a setting)
The overall percentage breakdown of language settings in
selected countries of the Arab region shows more than 50%
of users have chosen English as their default language on
Facebook compared to 44% who chose Arabic and a minor
3% who chose other.



Social
Relationships

Iraq hides relationship status the most
Analysis shows that the majority of Facebook users in the
selected Arabic countries do not disclose their relationship
status information on their profiles. As a percentage of total
country users and in comparison with the rest of the countries,
Iraq displays the highest percentage of unavailable data when
it comes to relationship settings at 77.2% while UAE displays
the lowest at 57.7%.

Arabs disclose less about their
relationship status than the US
A major 64% of Facebook users in the Arab region do not
share relationship setting information relative to 36% who
do. At the opposite end, 70% of users in the USA do share
information regarding their relationship status which highly
reflects the cultural differences in both regions.



Social
Relationships

UAE has the closest balance
of single to married ratio
Of the available data on the relationship status of users, we
analyzed data to show the share of different social status
information in each country. As a percentage of country users,
Iraq displays a high 61% “Single” relationship status compared
to “Married” at 26%. UAE on the other hand displays an almost
even 41% “Single” and 42% “Married” relationship status. Data
also shows “Engaged” percentage share is lowest in all selected
countries.

Most Arab Facebook users are single,
majority of US are married
Analysis shows that “Single” and “Married” relationship statuses
dominate both the Arab countries and USA for the available
data. The Arab region however, displays a greater gap between
both statuses in comparison with the USA. Noticeably, “In a
relationship” status is also more pronounced in USA relative to the
Arab region, indicating the behavioral and cultural differences.



Social
Relationships

Most countries don’t
disclose gender preferences
Analysis shows that the unavailability of data in the “Interested in”
section is higher across all selected countries in the region.

Most people in Arab
world interested in women
All selected countries in the region display a tendency towards
expressing their interest in women. The population used belongs
to both male and female users who provide relationship status
information. As percentage of a country’s population, Iraq displays
a high 88% users interested in women compared to 12% in men.
Similarly, Egypt displays 87% interested in women status relative to
13% in men.

Arab world and US both have most
users who are men interested in women
The majority of selected Arab region Facebook users express
interest in women in their social setting information at a staggering
85%. USA Facebook users on the other hand display different
behavioral patterns as 44% express interest in women versus 56%
in men. This also is an indication of cultural differences.



Recommendations

• When creating pages that target the Middle East, develop
localized content strategies that cater to the differences
covered in this report. You can use the native Facebook
targeting features or customized options offered by advanced
social media management systems (SMMS) to push your
content to the relevant audience.

• Segmenting your content strategies also has its benefits as you
will be able to write in local dialects when using Arabic.

• Although many countries use a mix of English and Arabic
Facebook interfaces, test out the content of your own page
to see what gets better reactions. Just because users in
Lebanon for example use the Facebook English interface more
frequently, this is not necessarily an indicator that they will
respond more to English content.

• When creating social campaigns for countries with low friend
per fan averages, consider using external forces like Facebook
advertising to drive the campaign further. Low averages
indicate a limited viral coefficient and potential.



Conclusions

• Many reports have been published internationally that
display overall trends. The data here, especially when
compared to the USA, indicates that Facebook users are
not acting uniformly across the globe.

• As the number of brands and organization tapping
into social media opportunities to connect with their
consumers growth, we should continue to further
differentiate between online segments – by industry,
countries, and demographics.

• We encourage all practitioners to actively look at the trends
happening within their verticals and continuously raise the
bar in how accessible we make our companies and how
effectively we drive our communication strategies.



Contributors and special thanks
This report could not have what we do: COO Qais Al the report would not have
been produced without the Rousan; Human Resource been possible as well: Rakan
efforts of some of key team Manager Hadeel Al Jobour; Brahedni, Founder of Social
members and partners. Human Resource Officer Dana Watch List; Dana Adham, who
A special thanks goes out Refai; Business Development served as a statistical consultant;
to: Eman Mufleh, Business Manager Hanan Dajani; and our Iain Twine and Mark Soohoo
Development Associate who finance team: Khaled Al Azhari, from Edelman PR Agency for
served as a main contributor Raed al Absi and Saad Hashem. their mentorship and guidance;
in analyzing the data; Roula and Rob Kubasko, who
Khatib and Hamzeh Janakhat, Former team members, who developed the images and
Social Media Analysts, who have left a lasting trace on presentation of the report.
both collected and prepared what we do: Hussam Binni;
the data; Firas Steitiyeh, Nahla Tabbaa; Sohaib Ismail;
Ahmad Moqanasa and Zeid Ahmad Akour; Osama Tuffaha;
Haddadin, Products Manager Rama Abdelhadi; Dana Mismar;
and Social media developers Loay Malahmeh; Mahmoud
(respectively), who created the Mujahed; Ali Babay; Ashtar
tools to gather the data. Daraghmeh; Firas Jallad; Nichola
Khoury; Mohammad Moey
We would also like to thank Shawash; Amer Al Saleh; Kim
all the team members at Wutsen; Ali Al Hassani; Nader
TOP who make it possible Abu Eiteh; Ahmad Salem; Tanya
to spend every day Marrar; Sara Assad; Mohammad
learning something new: Khatib; Mohammad Abu
Client Servicing Manager Baker; Julia Schmutzler;
Nisreen Shawwa; Head of Yasmine Sakka; AbdelAziz
Community Management Abu- Fadaleh; Hamzeh Zaher;
Jansait Qoqandoqa; Art Salwa Qattan; Dana Abiqwa;
Director Suad Taji; Social Furat Abuhashhash; Ez Zmeili;
Media Marketing Manager Mahmoud Madi Dwairi; Dina
Feras Hilal; Strategists and Habash; Ala’a Qaraeen; Dana
Project Managers, Ali Zueiter, Kakish; Riham Abu Daqqa; and
Ali Abdulhadi, Sima Zeidan, Maher Jilani.
and Dima Shahin; Community
Managers Diya Murra; Fouad And our colleagues at
Abida; Najeeb Nimri; Sabina Al Modern Media for their
Shawareb; Shatha Hamdan; Tala constant support: Razan
Hammouri; Yara Al Qudah; Zena Goussous, Kholoud Sarsak,
Risheg; Kareem Shareef; Nour Samah Ayoub, Hiba Karadsheh,
Soudani; and Tara Mubaidin and Dina Al Sahhar, Odey Abdl
our designers Lama Qudah; and Ghani, Ahmad Anabtawi,
Mustapha Al Abdali. Khaled Nobani, and Ruba
Nobani, and former team
Our analysis team: Islam member Ghada Odeh.
Ayyeh, Mahoud Shahwan, Lina
Mash’el, Rawan Hamed, Tarek We received feedback,
Qaitouqa, and Zeid Bushnaq. direction and information
from the following industry
Our operations team for contributors, without
making it possible to do whom the preparation of



Research objectives & Methodologies
The objective of this report Data collection utilized collected using convenience
is to focus the lens on Facebook’s Advertisement sampling as data was easily
Facebook’s users population Platform, in order to collect accessible through this
within the selected data on users’ demographics method; the sample contains
Arab region. Starting information in each of the a total of 162 users. As for
by a quick glance at the listed countries. This data the data used to analyze
prevalence of Facebook was collected in one batch growth trends per country,
in each individual country, during mid November it was also collected using
followed by a description and repeated in March. Facebook’s Advertisement
of general demographics Exceptions are; the data on Platform, however at two
information including social “Friends of Fans” which was weeks intervals between
demographics within that collected using Facebook May and November 2011
country and in comparison Insights from a sample of and again in March 2012
with the United States as a regional pages containing in order to validate the
benchmark. Finally, taking a total of 368,141 users. In consistency and current
a closer look at growth addition to the data on the data.
trends displayed across all sample of users from the
countries during a period of specific countries mentioned
approximately six months. in the report which was

Open Research
This independent research was 100% funded by The Online Project. We want this research
to spread at no cost. Please attribute the source of the research where possible.



About TOP

As the Middle East’s leading social media agency, The
Online Project develops and executes social media
strategies for Fortune 500 companies and high profile
organizations operating in the region.



Contact Us

For general enquiries please email info@theonlineproject.me

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Tel: +962 6 465 8209 Tel: +971 4 428 0731 Tel: +966 1 463 4462
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P.O. Box 840616 7th Floor, Thuraya 2 Al Rabiah Building
Amman 11184 Dubai Media City Olaya Riyadh, KSA
Jordan P.O. Box 500717
Dubai, UAE



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for Your Time

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