It is not news anymore that Arabs are big on social media. We're one of the nations that leverage a high internet penetration rate. Social media platforms are constantly buzzing with tends and hundreds of millions of content pieces, daily.
As you know by now, we keep a close eye on social media platforms. This year, we added a new section to the State of Social Media 2019 in order to provide marketers with a more inclusive and comprehensive report. In the newly added influencers' sections, we provided the top ten followed celebrity and society influencers/pages in UAE, KSA, and Egypt.
What do influencers say about these nations?
Although all nations follow politicians, artists, and public figures, each country has a special dominating domain that says a lot about the nation. We're simplifying the interests of nations through analyzing the influencers/pages they are most interested in.
UAE; National Pride and Culture
By taking a quick look at the top followed pages on Twitter and Facebook in UAE, we notice a very steady trend in following and growing the pages of officials in the country. It's very evident that Emiratis and residents of the emirates are huge fans of the rulers of the country.
It's not only about Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid, who already has a large fan-base in the whole Middle East. The list includes many prominent figures such as Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed (Crown Prince of Dubai), Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed (Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi ), Dhahi Khalfan Tamim (Deputy chief of Dubai Police), and a few more officials. This highlights an essential relationship between users from UAE and the leadership of the country. Perhaps patriotism is the message that users in UAE respond the most to.
In addition to officials, the list of influencers included a number of renowned artists such as Ahlam, Hussein Al Jasmi, Balqees Fathi, and Shamma Hamdan.
KSA; Leadership, religion, culture, & society
Saudis are very active on social media. Out of experience, we can tell you that analyzing a buzz from Saudi Arabia will need a dedicated team to read hundreds of online conversations. Thankfully, you can spare your team the waste of time by using Crowd Analyzer.
As we looked at the list of the most followed personalities, we instantly realized how much Saudis are attached to the essences of their society. First, they are quite involved in the happenings the kingdom is involved in. The most followed Twitter page is King Salman's, followed by a number of official entities' pages. Saudi writers and poets made it to the most followed personalities.
Egypt; a fusion of everything!
Egyptian users are very active on social media. Hence, you will find personalities from different domains and industries. You'll find political figures, opposition activists, artists, charity pages, and sports players.
Why is this important?
Well, as a starter, we all need to acknowledge the importance of influencers in indicating the interests of nations and markets. Many marketers do a great job creating awesome content, and executing creative ideas. One of the few things that marketers may not invest in, is studying and researching their target audience to create a thorough and precise persona profile.
We cannot assume the interests and characteristics of any nations, we can only figure them out by understanding the behavior of most of the population of targeted countries. No matter of how similar cultures and nations seem, there a few difference that will make you reshape your strategy.
