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Asif Iqbal
Doha
With Qatar having one of the highest internet penetration in the world, there is tremendous opportunities for businesses to harness the potential of social media as a marketing tool and add value to their brand, a top international social media trainer has said.
"In Qatar, the average time people spend on social media is about six and half hours but there are a few business entities that have exploited the social media platform to use it as a marketing tool," Nikky Kriel told Qatar Tribune in an interview.
According to Kriel, in Qatar around 75 percent of all advertising is spent on print media but with social media getting engrained and interlinked with the businesses everywhere, the trend is likely to change as more and more businesses turn to social media and start using it as a marketing tool.
She said social media, when done right, is really a powerful marketing tool that will build awareness of one's business and attract more traffic, leads, clients and opportunities.
On being asked if social media would be a challenge for businesses, Kriel said for many businesses, using social media to market their brand has been a challenge.
She said most businesses, either outsource their social media or are reluctant to invest to set up their own social media team.
"In recent years the traditional methods of reaching out to the audience are not creating the same ipact as they used to have and companies have to come up with new ways to make an impression and differentiate themselves from the competition.
"By using social media, brands have the chance to create a strong presence by interacting with customers online," Kriel added.
She said social tools can also help to strengthen brand perception by communicating core values to a wider audience.
"This, in turn, opens up the opportunity to start conversations, grow business partnerships and expand the online community to win new followers and potential customers."
She said that even in social media, video content will be the next trend and it is expected that by 2019, 80 percent of all contents in social media will be through videos.
Kriel further said that actively using social media is one of the easiest ways to reach a large audience and get the company or brand name in the minds of existing or potential customers.
She said not only does an already established network help to create new contacts, it will also help to deepen connections that have been formed.
"Even though this sounds very familiar to traditional marketing techniques, social media has given them a new twist. Companies that fail to adopt to a new more connected and interactive market, will inevitably fall behind," she added.
Asked if small businesses or large businesses are more open to using social medial platforms, Kriel said in a large firm decision making takes its due course.
"On the other hand, small and medium businesses decision making is more easy and therefore they are in more favourable position to use the social media," she said.
Regarding the future of print media, Kriel said there has been a shift of the print media to digital platforms as seen in the western countries.
She said,"The role of the media will always be to provide accurate content and eventually newspapers will have to get onboard digital platform. We cannot stop the decline but we can slow down the decline."
