the uae banking report on social media by ayman itani - arabnet digital summit 2014

THE UAE BANKING REPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA2013-2014

Ayman ItaniDigital Strategist | Media Professor | Public Speakeraymanitani.com

Joe MoufarrejCEO of Lava Brandslava-brands.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

THE UAE BANKING REPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: 2013 - 2014


BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY


We studied 28 banks in the UAE Q3,Q4 2013 and Q1 of 2014. We also used data from April and May 2014 where applicable.

We analyzed the content of more than 4,500 Social Media updates posted by the most active banks.

As with any study done, there is a margin of error due to using publicly available data, public APIs, human error,…

BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

KEY FINDINGS



What we considered to be an “Active Bank” in this study is a bank with at least one Social Media account that posts updates on average at least once per day.

ACTIVITY ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER


ACTIVE ON FACEBOOK

LOW OR NO ACTIVITY ON FACEBOOK

43%

57%

ACTIVE ON TWITTER

ACTIVITY ON FACEBOOK ACTIVITY ON TWITTER

LOW OR NO ACTIVITY ON TWITTER

39%

61%


NOT ON LINKEDIN

HAVE ACCOUNTS ON LINKEDIN

NOT ON INSTAGRAM

HAVE ACCOUNTS ON INSTAGRAM

25%

75%

ACTIVITY ON LINKEDINBANKS ON LINKEDIN BANKS ON INSTAGRAM

ACTIVITY ON INSTAGRAM

64%

36%


YEAR OF CREATING ACCOUNTS

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

01 01 01

03

0807

05

OPENING YEAR OF FACEBOOK ACCOUNT


OPENING YEAR OF TWITTER ACCOUNT

YEAR OF CREATING ACCOUNTS

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

0

02 0202

06

04

02


DATE OF INCREASE IN ACTIVITY

Banks in the UAE have signi�cantly grown their Social Media activity as of Q3 of 2013 and across di�erent channels.

COMMUNITY SIZE

The average community size as of May 2014 for the active banks is 101,991 on Facebook and 16,412 on Twitter.


AVERAGE COMMUNITY SIZE ON FACEBOOK FOR ACTIVE BANKS

400

350

120,000

100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

0Q3 - 2013 Q4 - 2013 Q1 - 2014 MAY - 14


COMMUNITY SIZE

APRIL - 14

COMMUNITY SIZE

AVERAGE COMMUNITY SIZE ON TWITTER FOR ACTIVE BANKS


16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

8,000

6,000

4,000

2,000

0Q3 - 2013 Q4 - 2013 Q1 - 2014 APRIL - 14 MAY - 14


Active Banks in the UAE post on average 261 status up-dates per quarter on Facebook and 271 updates per quarter on Twitter. There are �uctuations based on season, competitions, promotions,… Banks have been active every day of the week on Facebook and Twitter. There is a slight drop of activity over the weekend; how-ever, they continue to remain active.

LEVEL OF ACTIVITY


LinkedIn average community size is 13,570 followers and an average of FOUR posts per bank per month in 2014 . 10% of banks are taking advantage of Show-case Pages.

Instagram average community size is 500 followers and an average of 12 posts per bank per month in 2014

ACTIVITY ON LINKEDIN AND INSTAGRAM


LEVEL OF ACTIVITY

ACTIVITY OF BRANDFACEBOOK

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0Q3 - 2013 Q4 - 2013 Q1 - 2014


LEVEL OF ACTIVITY

ACTIVITY OF BRANDTWITTER

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0Q3 - 2013 Q4 - 2013 Q1 - 2014


ACTIVITY ON LINKEDIN

LINKEDIN AVERAGE NUMBER OF POSTSPER BANK PER MONTH (2014)

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0JANUARY FEBURARY MARCH APRIL MAY


ACTIVITY ON INSTAGRAM

INSTAGRAM AVERAGE NUMBER OF POSTSPER BANK PER MONTH (2014)

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0JANUARY FEBURARY MARCH APRIL MAY

Observing the Growth Rate of the community size of the active banks, Q3 and Q4 of 2013 witnessed signi�cant growth rates in the community. Q1 of 2014 didn’t see that growth. It is common that once a community size is built up to a certain level that the brand e�orts then move towards increasing engagement levels.

GROWTH RATE


TWITTERFACEBOOK

400

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0Q3 - 2013 Q4 - 2013 Q1 - 2014 APRIL - 14 MAY - 14


GROWTH RATE OF COMMUNITY SIZE (%)


We analyzed the content of more than 4,500 Social Media status updates posted by the most active banks and found that 47% of the content falls under the category of “Marketing by Brand” while 37% is “Engaging Customers”.

CONTENT ANALYSIS


KEY FINDINGS – CONTENT ANALYSIS

MARKETING A BRAND/EVENT

46.89%

ENGAGING CUSTOMERS

36.95%

RECOGNIZING CUSTOMERS

6.10%POSTING A

NOTIFICATION2.29%

PROMOTING HR

ACTIVITIES1.10%

CROSS-MARKETING A BRAND

0.37%

POSTING A CHEER1.08%

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES

2.29%

POSTING ABOUT A GENERAL

EVENT1.73%

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1.19%

UAE BANKS ONLINE ACTIVITY


The category within “Marketing By Brand” that composes 64% of the marketing content is “Posts general product/-service marketing”. 22% of the marketing content is competition related

MARKETING BY BRAND


POSTS GENERAL PRODUCT/SERVICE MARKETING64.24%

POSTS A STATEMENT “COMPETITION RELATED”22.04%

POSTS AN EVENT UPDATE4.84%

SHARES A LINK TO WEBSITE OR APP3.74%

UPLOADS EVENTS PHOTOS/VIDEOS2.99%

POSTS BANK NEWS0.80%

POSTS A STATEMENT “UPCOMING PROGRAM”0.75%

POSTS MEDIA RELATED TO A PRODUCT/SERVICE0.45%

POSTS CURRENT NUMBER OF FACEBOOK FANS0.05%

POSTS A STATEMENT “REWARDS CUSTOMER”0.05%

SHARES LINK TO WEBSITE OR APP3.74%

CATEGORIES OF MARKETING BY BRAND



The category within Marketing By Brand that composes most of the marketing content is “Posts general product/service marketing”.



For example:Our sincere thanks for voting for our [CardName] ! Your trust has helped us win the prestigious [AwardName] for [BankName] Card under the category of “XXX"

الخدمةربيعاختار [ البنكاسم الشريعةمبادئعلىتعتمدألنها [األوقاتكلفيالكاملةالشفافيةلهتضمنالتياإلسالمية

.


TACTFUL MARKETING APPROACH

If we look closer at the “Posts general product/service marketing” category, we see that the brands are using a tactful method to promote its brand. The brand tackles a topic related to its industry or its audience in a way that appeals to a general audience and then �nds a way to link it to its services.


TACTFUL MARKETING APPROACH

For example,It's the weekend, it's time to go shopping! By using [BankName] credit card you can win back up to X%… [link]Experience the ultimate family holiday at [location]. Immerse yourself in adventure this summer, The exclusive O�er for [Type] Cardholders from AED […]* For more information – visit: [link]SALE SALE SALE! Catch the 3 days sale at @[Place] on Sheikh Zayed Road and get up to XX% o�. [Link]


COMPETITIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

22% of the “Marketing by Brand” is competition related.


COMPETITIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

For example,Which one of the following screens appears �rst when you access the [Bank Name] Mobile Banking App? If you know the answer, post it as a comment with hash tag #[QuizName] and stand a chance to win a [Prize]! Condi-tions Apply.

Login to [Bank Name] Online or [Bank Name] Mobile and get a chance to win an AED […] mall voucher or AED […] cash back. Learn more: [link]


ENGAGING CUSTOMERS

This is where the bank tries to be active with its audience, interacting with them, soliciting participations in competitions, general questions or statements that are of appeal to a wide range of audience,…

ASKS CUSTOMERS QUESTIONS

ASKS A CUSTOMERS

TO LIKE/SHARE/TAG/VOTE

HELPING CUSTOMERS

POSTS A STATEMENT

“COMPETITION RELATED”

GENERALKNOWLEDGE

POSTS A STATEMENT

“ENVIRONMENTFRIENDLY”

POSTS A STATEMENT “REWARDS CUSTOMER”

POSTS A STATEMENT

“GOOD MORNING”

POSTS A RELIGIOUS

QUOTE

REPLIESTO A

COMMENT

POSTS AN EVENT UPDATE

POSTS ASTATEMENT“FOOTBALL

MATCH SCORE..”

SHARES LIKES TO WEBSITE OR APP

POSTS A STATEMENT “LIFESTYLE”

POSTS GENERAL

PRODUCT/SERVICE

MARKETING

51.23%

1.77% 1.52%

19.00%15.39%

3.04% 2.03%0.76% 0.76% 0.13%0.32% 0.06% 0.06%

2.79%0.95%

ENGAGING CUSTOMERS

For example,"The weekend is a great time to relax and spend some quality time with you loved ones. Tell us how you plan to unwind today!”

“Don’t access banking services from public computers. Keep your identity safe.”



LANGUAGES USED

POST LANGUAGES

70% 17% 13%

A\ENGLISHARABIC

MIXED ARABIC & ENGLISH

70% of the status updates were in English while 17% were in Arabic. The remaining 13% were a mix of both Arabic and English in the same status update.


VIEWPOINT


VIEWPOINT

We reached out to top executives in banks in the UAE and asked them if they would handle’ their bank’s Social Media account to get closer to their customers and a good portion of them were eager to do so.


For example,It's the weekend, it's time to go shopping! By using [BankName] credit card you can win back up to X%… [link]Experience the ultimate family holiday at [location]. Immerse yourself in adventure this summer, The exclusive O�er for [Type] Cardholders from AED […]* For more information – visit: [link]SALE SALE SALE! Catch the 3 days sale at @[Place] on Sheikh Zayed Road and get up to XX% o�. [Link]

“YES. It is highly recommended for any member of a customer focused organization to be exposed to day to day interaction with customers - whether to spend a day in the branch, call center or at the social media 'command center'.”

Petr KlimesGroup Marketing Director

VIEWPOINT


“YES. How else you can be put under pressure to see and feel reality? If I cared to know the truth, and get to the cracks of it nothing beats real time, honest, straight through feedback from the ones we need to care about. Yes it might be challenging, we might get defensive, but still, some learning will be there.”

Mohamed ZaqoutGroup Head of Retails

VIEWPOINT

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS


This study details the Social Media KPIs of the UAE banking industry and can act as a benchmark against the activity of banking brands and relevant other industries.

For example, you can take a look at the average community size and see where you stand in comparison to it.




Content tactic that is working for brands is tackling a topic related to its industry or its audience in a way that appeals to a general audience and then �nds a way to link it to its services. E�orts in that direction will continue to bear results; however, more emphasis in the content communication needs to be done on the Customer Support aspect as that is a recurring theme in user questions to the brand.



Regularly do Content Analysis on how people are interacting with your content and what they are posting on your wall in the direction adopted in this report. The results of this analysis will assist you in building more e�ective content calendars moving forward.



There is a need to continue to invest in Social Media ads to grow the community size and boost visibility of content to that community, especially with the decreasing reach of organic reach.



There is a communication opportunity via LinkedIn for communicating on a regular basis with all of these active professionals on LinkedIn. Moreover, only few banks are taking advantage of LinkedIn’s Showcase Pages to communicate relevant content with their di�erent connected audiences.



Few of the banks are active on Instagram; however, you see that there is a recent e�ort in being more active on that platform. Instagram continues to grow in popularity and banks can be part of the discussion if they do it tactfully.



SCALE UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS (PROMO)

Is your bank ready to scale up its Social Media rankings?

Contact for consultation to benchmark the Social Media activity of your bank versus the industry. We can help you revamp your channels, optimize your content, spark engagements with your audience, and grow [email protected]+971529608685


DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

Full report can be downloaded from, http://bit.ly/uaebanks

Thank You

the uae banking report on social media by ayman itani - arabnet digital summit 2014

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