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29 March 2024

5 tips for Tweeters (and Facebookers) to make the most of their Ramadan updates

Published
By Staff

Middle East residents use social media platforms 30 per cent more during the holy month of Ramadan whilst also shifting the time of the day that they engage with social media communities to much later in the day, a new report has revealed.

The results were presented by The Online Project (TOP), the first social media agency in the Middle East, in a report analysing behaviour trends of consumers in eight Middle Eastern countries during the holy month.

The analysis maintained residents’ engagement with brands gets multiplied during Ramadan, providing businesses with the ideal window to communicate with customers.

TOP observed Facebook and Twitter activity in nine different countries across the region including: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to provide a general overview of social media trends in the region looking specifically at levels of engagement, sentiment and perception and the timings of their interaction.

History shows that during Ramadan, consumer spending spikes and therefore Middle Eastern companies boost their spending on traditional ‘off-line’ campaigns by 20 per cent during Ramadan.

For example, the four largest telecom companies spend around $200 million during the month. Armed with this knowledge, brands can ensure that alongside traditional off-line campaigns, social media is utilised to the best advantage, reaching a wider audience that is more open to engagement than at other times during the year.

Zafer Younis, CEO of TOP, said: “Having discovered that social media consumption and user habits significantly change during the holy month, we set out to study the outlying variable of this change to isolate the driving forces. We monitored thousands of tweets and Facebook posts in nine countries to study user behaviour. Instead of looking at their social media platforms first thing in the morning when they wake or get into work, our results show that during Ramadan, people are most active on Twitter early evening at approximately 7pm, just before they break their fast.

“Therefore, if brands wish to take advantage of this spike in audience, should also consider posts that include content tailored to specific audiences that is entertaining or value-adding.”

Following analysis of the figures, TOP has put together their top five recommendations for making the most of communicating with consumers during Ramadan:

1.            Recognise that Ramadan is a unique time in the Arab world both online and off and as a result, lessons you have learnt about your communities during the year may not apply during the holy month so adapt your campaign to recommended timings to make the most of the advertising dollars you have spent.

2.            Align your publishing times with your audience and maximise engagement.

3.            Optimise your content mix as user interests’ shift during the holy month.  Adapt your content accordingly to stay relevant and build stronger relationships with your audience.

4.            Increase your advertising support budgets during Ramadan. The holy month enjoys higher organic engagement rates so your budget can push your content further in Ramadan.

5.            Implement integrated marketing campaigns by interlacing social media usage increase in-line with TV, radio, and print consumption to deliver higher multiplier effects in Ramadan.