Husam Jandal Blog

Facebook for Businesses: Losers, Risk-Takers, and Winners. Where Do You Fit?

Husam Jandal — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:54:09 +0000

The best social media platform for businesses is Facebook. Are you using it effectively for your business?

Almost 16 years ago, the founder of Microsoft (Bill Gates) made an interesting statement. He said in the future there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with an Internet presence, and those with no business at all.

Today, I would modify that statement to say that in the future there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with a Facebook presence, and those with no business at all!

So why do companies need to be on Facebook in the first place? Well, here some real-life reasons of being on the blue social platform:

Increase brand awareness and stay top-of-mind with customers and target audiences.
Save on marketing spend. Yes, Facebook is totally free (except if you choose to advertise) and you can connect with all your potential and existing customers with a single ‘Status Update’ 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Lead generation and promotions. Many companies enjoy constant amount of new enquires generated from Facebook. Those customers are easy to acquire and loyal due to the fact that they found you from Facebook word-of-mouth.
Sales and business development. The concept of Socially Facilitated Selling has changed how business is done today. Now you need to be social and understand the buying cycle of your customers on Facebook.
Customer service. If you want to do the bare minimum in being customer oriented and customer centred, then you need to be communicating with your customers thru their preferred channel, and today it is Facebook.
Research and feedback on product or services. Facebook allows you to post questions and polls to get instant feedback from your target audience. The days of hiring a research firm to conduct surveys are gone forever.
One last reason… Simply if you are not on Facebook, your competitors are. So guess what will happen in the long run if you don’t get in quickly. Most probably you will have lost this market space, and even if you move in late you will be playing a catch-up game.

Now that we have covered some of the most basic reasons why companies need to be on Facebook, let me show you 3 kinds of businesses that are using Facebook differently:

1) LOSERS: These are the companies that are just watching from a distance for the following reasons:

Afraid of things going wrong on the largest social platform, i.e. Facebook!
Lacking the knowledge of how to conduct business on Facebook: how to start, manage, and plan
Worried about their brand reputation, and the possibility that their fans might complain about their products or services
Unable to identify or measure the true ROI from starting and investing in Facebook
Ignorant! Yes, there are many companies that are simply comfortable with traditional media and resisting to change
They don’t have a clear idea of how to do business on Facebook

2) RISK-TAKERS: A lot of companies are jumping into the Facebook bandwagon to get into the social conversation. Most of them suffer from excitement-withdrawal symptoms when they don’t get the expected results after spending time and effort on Facebook. Usually they experience most, if not all, of the following:

They have been attracted to the cool features on Facebook and try do nice things, but they find there is no tangible business benefit
They have not been able to break through the Facebook clutter and establish brand awareness
They have realized that Facebook takes a lot of time, and almost impossible to manage effectively without necessary resources
They have tried to promote their brand only to get a backlash and negative PR
They build a fan base, but they don’t know how to keep them engaged or what to do with it, or how to monetize it
Unable to answer the question of what their Facebook investment has added to their bottom-line?

3) WINNERS: These companies have reacted to Facebook with a different mentality. They are a smart-crowd and tend to learn and invest in elevating their knowledge about Facebook before they do anything serious on it. The usually do the following:

Invest in themselves and their staff by educating and by attending social media courses
Join training workshops about Facebook, and involve their team members from all levels and functions
Develop a complete plan and strategy for Facebook before even touching the ‘Like’ button
Have a research and development process in place to monitor the competition and identify relevant benchmarks
Seek advice and consult with experts to avoid guesswork and negative results
Set clear business objectives and allocate the necessary resources to Facebook effectively

If you are really serious in helping yourself and your organization to make it in this Facebook-driven world, then I would highly recommend that you consider the winners approach. Do invest your time, and involve your team, in learning more about this powerful platform.

I have been asked by many companies and professionals to enhance their knowledge so that they and their organizations can succeed on Facebook. However, this requires commitment, as they need to be ready to learn! Therefore, I have worked with a global team of Facebook experts and developed a complete training and coaching program called “Facebook for Businesses“.

If you are interested in this program, then check out the details on WSI Academy website. I hope to meet with you soon (if you choose to become a winner) at the upcoming workshop where you will learn how to use Facebook for your Business.

Are you ready to know about the success strategy of Facebook for Businesses? Contact me for more details.

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Ecommerce in the Middle East is Exploding

Husam Jandal — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:41:00 +0000

The Middle East is the fastest growing region for Ecommerce sales Worldwide.

Many businesses are now considering to shift into ecommerce to tap into this wave and take advantage of the new market opportunity. Various industries are reaping the benefits of this growth faster than others, but eventually we will see a total change in the way businesses and consumers do business in the fruitful region.

Below is all what you need to know about the recent development with regards to Ecommerce in the Middle East:

Middle East and Africa Lag World in Online Purchasing

Middle East and Africa Lag World in Online PurchasingThe FINANCIALThe FINANCIAL — Business-to-consumer ecommerce sales in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), including sales of travel, digital downloads and event tickets, are growing faster than in an …

E-Commerce in the Middle East grew 300% in the Past Year

During Wamda’s COE (Celebration of Entrepreneurship) E-Commerce event taking place in Jordan today, Aramex COO Iyad Kamal gave a little bit of insight into how the company has witnessed the online payment landscape …

Meet the International E-Commerce Contenders

The Middle East: Home of the luxury retail experience. E-Commerce in the Middle East is growing at an amazing rate. In 2011, customers in the region spent around $1.1 billion through the Internet. But by 2016, that spending …

CNN Interview on E-Commerce in the Middle East

CNN Segment about the increasing role of Social Media in the Middle East featuring interviews with Mohammad Nour (founder & CEO of Shoutit) and Fadi Ghandour (founder & CEO of Aramex) www.shoutit.com

A Growing E-Commerce Opportunity in MENA

A Growing E-Commerce Opportunity in MENAWamdaIn a recent study, eMarketer estimates that while the Middle East and Africa is still the least developed region in e-commerce, sales in the region are growing faster than anywhere else in the world…

MEA Ecommerce Sales Soar

Online retail is growing faster in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region than in any other part of the world, new figures have indicated. Estimates from eMarketer suggest that the …

Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest e-commerce

Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest e-commerce site, has just announced the acquisition of Sukar.com, a private Middle East sales club founded two years ago. Sukar.com was one of the Middle East’s first private shopping …

Innovation in the clicks & mortar retail in the Middle East

M.E :Ecommerce is not a part of the Middle East region’s culture, in the sense that people are more comfortable buying clothing and apparel off the store racks rather than punch in their credit card numbers online. There is a lot …

Ecommerce in the Middle East | Radio Interview

Last week’s Dubai Eye radio #Unwired digital programme featured a special segment on ecommerce in the Middle East featuring Spot On PR’s Alexander McNabb; Rama Chakaki, Partner at Baraka Ventures…

Are you ready for launching your Ecommerce in the Middle East?
Contact me for more details.

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Use of Social Media in Healthcare – Best Resources

Husam Jandal — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 02:30:26 +0000

Social Media is a powerful marketing channel for all industries, and especially for the healthcare industry. Use of Social Media in Healthcare proved to be an effective strategy for many organizations.

Below, you will find some of the best resources related to the use of Social Media in Healthcare. At the end of the post, you will be able to learn how to use Social Media in Healthcare…

Consumer use of social media in healthcare

Consumer use of social media in healthcare. Social media is becoming a bigger part of the collection of health information, but it varies by health condition and treatment options how patients use social channels during their …

Farris Timimi, MD, Discusses the Role and Use of Social Media in Healthcare

“This isn’t an addition to your job. This is part of your job,” says Mayo Clinic cardiologist and Medical Director of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Social Media, Farris Timimi, MD, when discussing the role and use of social media in health care. “This is …

Social Media Gets an A+ For Use in Healthcare

Social Media Gets an A+ For Use in Healthcare. Social media has mostly been talked about in the negative when it comes to hospitals and healthcare organizations. Data breaches – Confidential records, with personal info like Social Security…

Healthcare Social Media: Time To Get On Board

Healthcare Social Media: Time To Get On BoardInformationWeekIn a recent interview with InformationWeek Healthcare, Hood said potential stumbling blocks include understaffing of the social media effort; clumsy use, namely using the wrong social media…

Social Media “Likes” Healthcare

Social Media Likes Healthcare is a PwC report providing insight into what some of the largest healthcare providers are doing in the social media landscape. … Integrating social media data/analytics into the organization; Measuring the effectiveness/linking to ROI; Educating staff on how to effectively use social media; Keeping up with the pace of technology change; Responding to information identified via social media; Sharing of patient identifiable information/HIPAA …

Are you ready to the use of Social Media in Healthcare industry?
Contact me for more details.

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LinkedIn for Businesses – Best Resources

Husam Jandal — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 03:47:44 +0000

LinkedIn is one of the most effective social media marketing channels for businesses. People do business with people, and LinkedIn is the largest social media network for business professionals on earth!

There are endless number of opportunities from using LinkedIn for businesses, such as for sales, business development, marketing, HR & recruitment, among many others. Below are some of the noticeable resources on why to use LinkedIn for Business. At the end of this post, you will have the chance to learn more:

LinkedIn For Business

LinkedIn for Business – It’s billed as the social network for professionals, but now LinkedIn is trying to be the viable social media option for businesses. LinkedIn for business LinkedIn for Business -The social network, with 120 million members wor…

Linkedin For Businesses and Professionals: How It Works

Linkedin for businesses and professionals has become a serious networking tool with over 150 million users. Learn from the experts about Linkedin by connecting with Local Pulse Marketing for Social Media Quick Start …

How To Promote Your Business On LinkedIn

It’s a goldmine for businesses that need new connections. LinkedIn looks a lot like Facebook, but with a targeted audience that companies can take advantage of. The best part: many of the solutions for increasing the presence of your business on LinkedIn are free and easy to use.

2 Tips to Harness the Marketing Potential of LinkedIn

The social media network LinkedIn is often used by consumers as a way of marketing themselves for career purposes. However, unbeknownst to many businesses, the tool can also be used to raise marketing awareness and …

10 LinkedIn Tips for Growing Your Business

LinkedIn is designed to better connect business professionals. These 10 profile tips will enhance your business networking with LinkedIn.

Using LinkedIn to build business: Nine ideas

LinkedIn has over 161 million professional users in some 200 different countries, making it the ideal tool for savvy SMBs owners looking to build their business.

Are you ready to take full advantage of using LinkedIn for Businesses?
Contact me for more details.

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Foursquare for Hospitals – Best Resources

Husam Jandal — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:46:11 +0000

The applications for Foursquare in real life are endless. I would say it is my favorite mobile-social app ever. This time I am focusing on how Hospitals can make good use of this amazing tool. Here some of the best resources, research, and recommendations on how to use Foursquare for Hospitals effectively:

Why Hospitals Should Care About Foursquare

Foursquare is becoming more and more common outside of us nerds who have been “checking-in” for years now! Hospitals should engage with what foursquare is doing, and if you think about it, every day physicians, …

Hospitals on Foursquare – A National Survey

This table (opens new window) contains data on over 780 Hospital Foursquare accounts. Researched in January 2011, it includes unique users, total check-ins and indicates if the hospital as claimed their venue. This data …

Healthcare checks into Foursquare

But when I saw Foursquare posts in Twitter searches that showed people checking in at our hospitals, I became a bit more interested. Now, I’m glad these posts show up in Twitter and Facebook feeds, because I can respond …

Innovative Nurse

Foursquare is a mobile application that allows users to “check in” at specific locations. Nearly 1000000 businesses are already on foursquare and over 20000000 people use Foursquare to connect with local businesses.

Your Hospital and Location-Based Networks

The post looked at Facebook Places and Foursquare and how they’ll impact hospitals. One obvious potential is for patients to use the comments and tips features to make remarks about their experience with a given provider …

Foursquare in Healthcare?

They also use Foursquare to see who’s coming to their stores, how often they’re coming and offering special coupons or discounts to people who visit. Hospitals could definitely benefit from creating customer loyalty programs.

Are you ready to take full advantage of Foursquare for your hospital? Contact me for more details.

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Would you pick Facebook ads over TV?

Husam Jandal — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:00:05 +0000

It seems there’s a Facebook-related headline every week and for many reasons – Keep in mind how Generation Z connects today. But where does that leave TV when it comes to reaching out to audiences? Here’s my take on Facebook and its role in advertising:

While the industry debates Facebook’s worth, its necessity, and its value in digital advertising, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that it will indeed become a strong contender for “the most effective advertising medium” sometime in the near future.

Image by birgerking, Flickr CC

The last bastion of traditional advertising, the TV, is often deemed to be a time-waster for most consumers. Brands purchase viewership based on TRPs and in their attempt to reach the right audience, they fail gravely by picking the most popular soap or reality show to make their point. No surprise, these brands need a reality check themselves!

With TV advertisements, it is difficult to measure the size and makeup of the audience that views them. Since most ads are purely aesthetic they often provide NO measurable performance metric to represent the consumers.

Facebook, on the other hand, seems to have hit the nail on the head. It guarantees audience reach and frequency of ad delivery along with direct links to the seller’s products. You can target real people, not anonymous cookies, who actually take interest in buying a product like yours.

Also, Facebook allows advertisers to reach out to the desired audiences, the self-identified fans across highly targeted age ranges, genders and geo-locations. It gives them the ability to: connect with their consumers, convince them and build a relationship that’s essential for a self-generating sales funnel. To add to that, advertisers can reach to their fans’ friends, and friends of friends, and possibly reach out to their competitors’ fans. The Facebook ad options appear to be endless.

Even though TV and Facebook ads may have similar target audiences, Facebook increases the possibility of actually reaching the desired audiences. It is worth mentioning, as well, that the real impact of Facebook is in its ability to cut down television budgets.

In the meantime, for those who want to maximize brand engagement and consumer advocacy, I would recommend you coordinate your Facebook and TV efforts well and make the most of this giant social media network for effective advertising.

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Proximity based marketing: How to take advantage of your location

Husam Jandal — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:05:54 +0000

The other day I was in Mall of the Emirates, and as I was passing by a booth for a real estate company, I took notice of the person manning the booth. He was observing all the people passing by him. To my surprise, this agent chose to have a conversation with me about their new residential tower project. He was trying to sell me an apartment!

There are much better ways to connect with people when they are in your vicinity; there are more effective ways than random selection. With social media, location registry tools, CRMs, mobile devices, and Bluetooth technology combined, a delicious recipe can be cooked up, allowing companies to maximize their reach to target groups. The beauty of it is that it can even be done during the exact moment prospects are passing by your premises. We call this proximity-based marketing.

Here are a couple of examples:

1. A restaurant group uses Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla (mobile location registry platforms) to customize its service for customers based on info available to them about each person in the vicinity of their restaurants.

2. An electronics store uses a Bluetooth broadcasting technology to send Bluetooth messages about special offers to all mobile users within a short distance of their premises – of course the recipients should also need to have their Bluetooth devices turned on.

Implementing a proximity based marketing strategy can be very essential for businesses from specific industries. There are endless ways to apply this concept; however, extra time, planning, processes, and resources will be needed to utilize such marketing channels successfully.

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Is the search way the right way?

Husam Jandal — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:46:59 +0000

As a consumer, how often do you use search engines for finding the right product?

Imagine you are looking to buy a new smartphone. You enter “smartphone” in the search box. Next, you see all the latest smartphone ads on top mobile websites and you start to compare and perhaps end up making your decision in just a few clicks.

Image by pichado photography, Flickr CC

If nothing else, your purchasing decision is mainly governed by what you click and what you read on search results and that’s basically how search engine marketing dominates a consumer’s decision making.

Worst still, search engine marketing and online advertising are so closely connected and what you see on your search is exactly what the seller/advertiser is paying for “to rank high on search results.” I don’t want to get into a messy discussion on what all the online marketers do to rank high on search engines (say, Google). But the fact is in this digital age, “search” gets too much credit, and “displayed results” on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) plays an important role in brand recognition and sales.

In a recent research published by GroupM Search, titled “The Virtuous Circle – The Role of Search and Social Media in the Purchase Pathway,” more than 86% of consumers agreed that “search” was an integral part of their purchase pathway. In another research study, it was found that online reviews – user reviews and product reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions of most consumers today.

While I wonder how fair it is to follow social media and read search engine results to make up my mind on a particular product, I somehow feel my purchasing decision is largely standing on the shoulders of search engine giants who are playing with the popular mentality of consumers and striving to appear in front of our faces!

We all know the drill – put the right ad in front of the right user at the right time but the question is – is it really the right way?

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Would you pay your consumers to watch video ads?

Husam Jandal — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:22:17 +0000

It is no surprise that the current online marketplace is greatly suffering with a supply-and-demand imbalance. The demand for quality content, specifically videos that are entertaining yet informative, far outweighs the supply.

And while there are many reputable brands producing quality content and videos for their advertising, there are a host of “less-than-savory” options as well. You’ll find everything from no-name websites to forced pop-ups, auto-plays, and bogus micro-sites being used by millions of online marketers, possibly with lower budgets,striving to keep the clock ticking (i.e. generating leads and increasing their sales revenues).

Image by ajstarks, Flickr CC

Brand marketers use a number of incentives for their consumers – FREE subscriptions, giveaways, downloads, ad walls, graphics, etc. But among them, one that is particularly intriguing to me is Incentivized Video Ads – a strategy through which brands “pay” their consumers for viewing their videos.

“Facebook users can now earn Facebook credits in exchange for watching video ads in games.” No doubt, this is Facebook’s way of enabling brand advertising for its users but what I really wonder is – how can incentivized views lead to more effective digital advertising today?

Engagement advertising giant, SocialVibe, raised $20 million in March.

“What we’ve learned from millions of interactions is people like free stuff and now Facebook users can earn credits simply by participating with the advertiser to get that free stuff,” said Jay Samit, CEO of Social Vibe. “This kind of advertising satisfies what brands have been looking for – an opt-in experience with a reach greater than TV and highly targeted.”

Apart from being an obvious “idle money-making avenue,” I have come to realize that Incentivized Video Ads help in transforming the way the brands can connect with consumers on the most influential space, the Internet, and they are doing it on the consumer’s terms.

However, I fail to agree that incentivized viewership is necessarily always a winning option:

What happens to the quality of the views?
Are these views just as valuable?
Are these viewers really consumers?
Is it the audience that the marketers really want?

In my quest to finding the right answers, I continue learning. Do you think Incentivized Video Ads will compromise the quality of video content?

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How creating online Arabic content can help your business

Husam Jandal — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:03:47 +0000

In today’s interconnected world, the competitive advantage of any business is largely determined by the degree of technology adoption, utilization and connection with the target audience. Researchers often argue that without a critical mass of local content, Arab countries cannot reap the benefits of the global information revolution.

Rising need of Arabic content online

The size of local markets is always critical to measuring the benefits of using localized content for online communication. According to InternetWorldStats.com, Arabs make up about 3.1% of the world’s population and 3.3% of Internet users around the world understand and speak Arabic.

With 230 million people speaking Arabic in the Arab World, of which over 60% are under the age of 25, Internet usage in the Middle East is rapidly increasing. In fact, Internet penetration in the Middle East is increasing at the rate of 28.3%, about 3% more than the global average. We can say with certainty that there exists a large pool of local Internet users who are looking to read Arabic content online and the need of creating good quality Arabic content is increasing.

However, many of these Arabic users either do not find any good Arabic content or face a rather disconnected online experience when they are sent to an English web page through an Arabic ad or link. In turn, the local audience loses interest and gets carried away by the global competition, which is exactly why a lack of online Arabic content has led local businesses down a bottleneck.

Local initiatives for online Arabic content

Despite the shortage, there are very few initiatives pushing for Arabic content online, including the likes of Google and Twofour54 to name a couple. In the past few years, governments all over the Arab world have also started launching billion-dollar plans for e-Governments projects and related infrastructures which helps position the Arab World as a part of the global information society.

While some Arab countries are showing real drive in the Internet space, there are others that still lack the dynamism required to boost Arabic content for the next generation of online users.

Why businesses should focus on online Arabic content

By providing quality Arabic content, organizations and businesses can help promote more local community engagement. This can also open up channels for international communities that are interested in Arabic culture and looking to learn more about the Arab world.

By creating online Arabic content, businesses can better connect with their Arabic audience, those who are more comfortable using the Arabic language. But the truth remains that even though there exists a huge demand of online Arabic content, there are not enough companies that are creating good Arabic content for their Internet-savvy, local audiences.

Perhaps it is time for businesses to consider applying Arabic content in their online strategies in order to achieve a more targeted market outreach that allows them to take advantage of the great opportunities the region has to offer.

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