Social media marketing in the UAE

This purpose of this research was to gain an insight into the extent of social media marketing usage by organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In-depth interviews from marketing experts were initially conducted in order to gain some insight of social media marketing. From the insights gained, a survey questionnaire was designed and issued online. One hundred and twenty respondents completed the survey. This structured questionnaire established an effective link between the research objectives and the questions asked. Findings indicate the predominant marketing activities used by organizations in the UAE on social media networks were as follows: to increase brand awareness; advertising; feedback on products or services; promotional offers; directing to the organizations website, and inexpensive reach of potential customers and market intelligence gathering. The most popular social media sites used for these marketing activities are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, and MySpace. Linkedin is also used by marketers but not as much as the former social sites. The practical implications of these findings provide useful knowledge to marketing managers who are constantly seeking cheaper, quicker ways of communicating their marketing objectives to a wider target audience online