Table Of ContentEdited by
Nehme Azoury ∙ Lindos Daou
Business and Social
Media in the Middle East
Strategies, Best Practices
and Perspectives
Business and Social Media in the Middle East
·
Nehme Azoury Lindos Daou
Editors
Business and Social
Media in the Middle
East
Strategies, Best Practices and
Perspectives
Editors
Nehme Azoury Lindos Daou
USEK Business School Faculty of Business Administration and
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik Economics
Jounieh, Lebanon Notre Dame University–Louaize
Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
ISBN 978-3-030-45959-8 ISBN 978-3-030-45960-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45960-4
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To those who seek to better understand the world around us with a view to
create a positive change and make a lasting impact.
Foreword
Hardlyadaygoesbywithoutsocialmediamakinganimpactinoneway
or another; it could be as trivial as initiating a social debate on whether
to “food post” or not, or as revolutionizing as inducing change and po-
tentially development in a country’s political system.
As the controversy surrounding social media and networking sites
rises, several studies have been dedicated to address the polemics that
this new form of communication has brought on the table.
While some argue that the social media platforms have boosted net-
work business marketing, saved lives by sending, for instance, notifica-
tions prior to a quake in Japan, and given a voice to the voiceless, by al-
lowing them to defend rightful causes, raise awareness, or even “trigger”
a revolution of the importance of the Arab Spring, others maintain that
theworld would be better off withoutall the problems thatthey are cre-
ating.Tothelatter,thebenefitsthatcanbereapedfromsocialmediacan-
not counterbalance the behavioral dependence, the exacerbating anxiety
anddepression,thelackofsleep,andtheinvasionofprivacy,amongoth-
ers,thattheyarelikelytoengender.Theissueofprivacy,forexample,has
takenahistoricalandnationalturnwhenitwasreportedthatCambridge
vii
viii Foreword
Analytica has used data collected from millions of individuals’ Facebook
accounts without their permission to establish psychographic profiles of
the concerned persons, and hence determine which type of advertise-
ment would prove to be efficient to orient people’s votes. By doing so,
the Brexit was believed to be facilitated and presidential elections in the
United States of America were deemed to be swayed, as the data harvest
affectedthe“freewill”orrighttoequalaccesstoinformation,andhence
riggedthedemocraticprocess.Currentlawsandregulationsdonotseem
to protect so far social media users from such actions.
Amid these controversies, this book, which gathers a high-level panel
ofacademicsandprofessionals,isagreatmeanstobetterunderstandhow
these platforms operate in the Middle East region, the epicenter of the
unprecedentedArabSpringRevolutionandasignificantmarketshareto
socialmediaplatforms;itcomparessocialmediatotraditionalmarketing,
shedslightonsocialmediaandCorporateSocialResponsibilitywiththe
pertainingimpactoneconomyandcorporatedecision-making,andeven
addresses the effect of these digital platforms on politics (including news
industry) and on the higher education sector.
Iwishyouapleasantreadingandhopeyouwillenjoy,asmuchasIdid,
uncovering many interesting aspects of the social media phenomenon as
you delve into the chapters of the insightful “Business and Social Media
in the Middle-East”.
Mount Lebanon, Lebanon MP General Chamel Roukoz
Introduction
Theriseofsocialmediaanditsintegrationinalllifeaspectshasbecomea
trendyissueandhasbeenwidelydiscussedinvariousconferences,books,
researches, and among several communities. Social media has changed
the ground rules of doing business. Marketing strategies rely heavily on
social media as a solid component in their communication tools. The
theme has recently gained a lot of awareness and trendiness but was not
yetquiteconcretizedinabookthattakesintoconsiderationsocialmedia
in the Middle East from a business context.The book aims to fill a gap
in literature that has newly existed due to the rapid evolution of differ-
ent social media platforms and their direct effect on businesses.The use
of social media worldwide is shaped by the culture of the region. In the
Middle East, social media is perceived, to a certain extent, as a way for
communication and interaction between individuals and communities
rather than between individuals and companies/brands. Furthermore,
Middle Eastern societies interact and use social media differently from
other cultures and this is an important point to be highly considered
by businesses while drafting their digital marketing and communication
strategies that are targeted for Middle Eastern countries and specifically
ix
x Introduction
for Arab cultures. It is also very important to study the use of social me-
dia in the Middle East as it has become an essential tool that successful
businessesworldwidecanrelyontoreachefficientlyandeffectivelytheir
customers. It is noteworthy that the Middle East region encompasses a
diversity of cultures, communities, and religions; it is therefore quite es-
sential to deepen the knowledge in an area that englobes a large variety
of people.
The use of social media today has become a double-edged sword that
needs to be handled very delicately as it can be a blessing if used cor-
rectly and meticulously or a curse should it be mishandled and ignored.
Nowadays all organizations rely on social media as a solid tool and thus
acomplementarytoolfortheirtraditionalmarketingstrategies.Thepar-
ticularities of using social media depend on a variety of factors ranging
from the type of organization, objectives of the marketing strategy, mes-
sage content, and channels used. It is therefore important to highlight
thateducationandlearningaboutsocialmediatopics,strategies,andin-
sightshavebecomeanecessityasorganizationsthatarealwaysseekingto
reach their audience, cannot carry on if they do so on a trial and error
basis. Current best practices are being shared in worldwide conferences
and forums to share success stories to the benefit of other companies as
social media marketing is still relatively an emerging topic especially in
business. These practices are not only used for marketing tools directed
to customers but are also included in almost all industries and company
departments.
Ourcurrentbookisdividedintothreemajorparts:Thefirstpartpro-
videsageneraloverviewabouttheriseandevolutionofsocialmediatack-
ling the bridge and gap between traditional marketing and social media.
Italsohighlightstherelationshipbetweensocialmediaandcorporateso-
cialresponsibility,theroleandimportanceofthescientificandnumerical
sideofsocialmedia,theanalytics,andtheireffectoncorporatedecision-
making.The second part discusses the cultural side of social media and
theMiddleEastandNorthAfricanCountries.Itexaminestheuseofso-
cial media and its impact on MENA countries’ economy and discusses
therole,perspective,andusageofsocialmediabypoliticalleadersinthe
Arabworld.Italsotacklestheissueaboutdigitalrecruitmentanditsim-
plementation in the Middle Eastern region. The last part presents case
Introduction xi
studies about different topics, namely, the case of the Arab Spring and
the role of social media in this regard. It also sheds light on the impact
of social media on the educational sector in Egypt as well as the impact
of digital media on the media industry specifically the news in Lebanon
and, namely, the Lebanese Broadcasting Station International.
Using a modern and an authentic tone at the same time, this book
delves into a recent topic which is still developing while noting that its
future remains unclear especially when it comes to talking about its ex-
tent on different levels whether individual, corporate, or even cultural.
This worldwide topic is still being explored from different angles as it
is still evolving and further research and publications are needed in this
regard. I truly hope this book will give an overall perspective on social
media and businesses in the region while shedding light on some inter-
esting cases and good practices in the Middle east.
Prof. Nehme Azoury
USEK Business School
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik
Jounieh, Lebanon
