Whether or not you like Facebook, the site has become a hotbed of activity for companies looking to befriend new customers. Which begs the question: what actually works at drumming up business in the Emirates?
Among UAE companies, 29 per cent allot a slice of their marketing budgets specifically to social networking on sites such as Facebook. It is especially important for small businesses: 54 per cent of smaller companies found new customers through social networks, compared with 33 per cent of large companies, according to a survey commissioned last year by Regus, a company based in Luxembourg that provides meeting rooms as well as both real and virtual office spaces.
Yet converting Facebook friends into cash flow remains a challenge for many companies. In the GCC, where about 5 million residents are already registered on the site, there are certain steps entrepreneurs and business leaders can take to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, according to experts from Logicks.com, an internet marketing consultancy based in Dubai.
"What a lot of people do is they just get on social media" without a clear strategy, says Abbas Alidina, the founder of Logicks.com, who is teaching at a workshop next month on how to integrate social media into a business.
"It takes a lot of time to be on social media," he says. "So unless you have some direction before you get started, you might end up wasting your time."
Direction is precisely what Mr Alidina and his colleague, Ali Manek, the training director at Logicks.com, recently tried to provide in Abu Dhabi at a monthly meeting for Tamakkan, a group that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation in the Arab world. Here is a sampling of the tips they shared with business leaders in the audience:
Build the Right Profile
Many businesses have created a "group" within Facebook that hundreds of customers have joined. But none of these groups can be displayed on search result sites such as Google or Yahoo, which means companies will gain less exposure online than if they go ahead and set up a "page" within Facebook. "A lot of companies started off with groups and they asked us: 'I have a group. I have 1,000 people in my group. How can I transfer them over [to a page]?' Unfortunately," says Mr Manek, "you can't."
Engage customers
Regularly posting photos, videos, links and questions can all help lure - and keep - customers on a page. Promotions, of course, work as well, although companies should be prepared to step up the game in this digital space. 1-800-Flowers.com developed a creative incentive for attracting more than 127,000 fans to its Facebook portal: reveal an online coupon code for discounts on new flowers, but only to those customers who click the "like" button on its page. "The most important thing is you need to be engaging," says Mr Manek.
Customise both the page …
It's also important to stand out from the competition by branding a page with the business logo and, say, a welcome video, rather than keeping the generic template most Facebook pages are created from. "There's a lot of clutter on Facebook," says Mr Alidina, "and this is one way to stand above the crowd."
… And ads
When Facebook users sign into their account they often see advertisements pop up on the right-hand side of their screen. "Someone is targeting you based on the information that you have on your profile," says Mr Alidina, who notes he has helped a property agency create one particular ad that can be seen only by UAE residents who are over the age of 24, among other parameters. "This is really powerful," he says.
nparmar@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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MATCH INFO
Azerbaijan 0
Wales 2 (Moore 10', Wilson 34')
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The specs: 2018 Audi Q5/SQ5
Price, base: Dh183,900 / Dh249,000
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder / 3.0L, turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic / Eight-speed automatic
Power: 252hp @ 5,000rpm / 354hp @ 5,400rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,600rpm / 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy: combined 7.2L / 100km / 8.3L / 100km
The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees
Tom Sleigh, Graywolf Press
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
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Fringe@Four Line-up
October 1 - Phil Nichol (stand-up comedy)
October 29 - Mandy Knight (stand-up comedy)
November 5 - Sinatra Raw (Fringe theatre)
November 8 - Imah Dumagay & Sundeep Fernandes (stand-up comedy)
November 13 - Gordon Southern (stand-up comedy)
November 22 - In Loyal Company (Fringe theatre)
November 29 - Peter Searles (comedy / theatre)
December 5 - Sinatra’s Christmas Under The Stars (music / dinner show)
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
(All games 4-3pm kick UAE time) Bayern Munich v Augsburg, Borussia Dortmund v Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin, Wolfsburg v Mainz , Eintracht Frankfurt v Freiburg, Union Berlin v RB Leipzig, Cologne v Schalke , Werder Bremen v Borussia Monchengladbach, Stuttgart v Arminia Bielefeld
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Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier, in Bangkok
UAE fixtures Mon Nov 20, v China; Tue Nov 21, v Thailand; Thu Nov 23, v Nepal; Fri Nov 24, v Hong Kong; Sun Nov 26, v Malaysia; Mon Nov 27, Final
(The winners will progress to the Global Qualifier)
EA%20Sports%20FC%2024
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
KEY%20DATES%20IN%20AMAZON'S%20HISTORY
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Match info:
Burnley 0
Manchester United 2
Lukaku (22', 44')
Red card: Marcus Rashford (Man United)
Man of the match: Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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More on animal trafficking
