Digital Marketing

Public Sector Usage of Twitter in Abu Dhabi

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As the business sector has adopted the use of social media, the use of Twitter has escalated exponentially. Organizationsare now realizing the importance of stayingconnected via socialmedia networks in order to maintain a firm foothold in the market. Private, public, and semi-government organizations are using Twitter more frequently today for various purposes. From the benign to earth-shattering, sharing views and opinions to making significant public announcements; Twitter’s uses are many, as are its benefits.

According to research conducted in 2013 by Q4 Web Systems, a company that specializes in analyzing best practices in social media, of over 800companies included in the survey, 96% have Twitter presence. Thisrepresents an increase of 9% over the previous year.The research reported Technology and Natural Resources sectors as being the most avid users of Twitter.A region-wide analysis showed that North American companies are the most avid users of Twitter, closely followed by their European counterparts.

Twitter and the Public Sector

These trends show just how important it has become for public and private organizations to have a presence on Twitter and make their presence known. Around the world, organizations are making extensive use of Twitter for various public relations and marketing purposes. Some of the most practical and beneficialuses of this technology today are:

• Emergency and Crisis Management: Twitter is a very beneficial platform for keeping the public informed and updated in real time during an emergency or crisis situations. Public sector entities can use Twitter to share vital information requiringimmediate citizen action or mobilization during suchcircumstances.
• Reaching Out to Customers: Twitter is the most common social media tool to connect with customers, and is a very successful and fast growing marketing and public relations tool. Organizationsuse this means to inform customers of theirlatest products, policies, changes, and public announcements far more effectively than traditional media.

More importantlyis the fact that Twitter easily facilitates the collection and feedback of information which client-driven organizations thrive on as the technology enables greater customer contact, which in turn fuels the desire and need for a more imaginative use of the technology.

• Discussions and Commentary:Twitter has increasingly become a platform for providing analysis on current business and market trends, as well as public policies and agendas, and more frequently for sharing commentary and opinions on important business issues and policy decisions. This in turn has provided organizations with a better understanding of customer opinionsand in anticipatingtrends and gauging people’s reactions to various business developments.
• Marketing and Brand Awareness:Twitter has become a very popular promotional tool being utilised by companies to create awareness about their brands and products, and muster brand loyalty. It is an inexpensive method of promoting products, marketing brands, and addressing customer complaints.
• Opinion Polls and Surveys: Twitter is probably the fastest and easiest way for organizations to run quick surveys and opinion polls to all followers (respondents) by posting a question with a set of response options,and having followers or participants reply with their answers or opinions. Such techniques allow organizations to gauge public opinion and/or customer sentiments towards a particular policy, product, service, or issue.

Measuring Your Twitter ROI

Forgovernment entities that choose to monitor the effectiveness of social media and digital strategies and campaigns, there are a multitude ofpaid and free tools that can be used to this end. Most tools allow users to search by hashtags, social media account names, or general keywords. Generally, these tools can list all the recent mentions of the search item, as well as sentiments (positive, negative, neutral), the top related keywords used in social media updates, and the most frequent users for search items. Some tools also include dashboards that display how many Twitter accounts have been reached by the organization, how much exposure is generated by calculating the number of retweets, the most retweeted content, and similar statistics.

As with any other public sector investment, it is important for entities to measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and digital strategies and campaigns. PR and Marketing Managers can use a variety of tools and outsourced services to manage digital content, analyze and measure results, and improve results of their efforts.

As an introduction to the possibilities of the technology, Twitter has created a page that allows media professionals to learn all the tricks of the trade. By visiting https://media.twitter.com you can learn and explore Twitter best practices and success stories with an option to filter by industry, including government, for ideas and tips for successful Twitter campaigns.

Abu Dhabi’s Public Sector and Twitter

Although Twitter does not form as integral a part of social communication in Abu Dhabi as it does elsewhere in the world, there are several public and private organizations that have been making the best of it. The twitter penetration rate in Abu Dhabi is still under 5% of the total population, with an estimated 96,000 users from Abu Dhabi and approximately 480,000 users across the UAE. Nonetheless, Abu Dhabi government entities have begun to make their debut on Twitter over the last few years with some public sector accounts now boasting over 100,000 followers. These users typically use Twitter to stay in touch with local residents and citizens by posting information, news articles, public service announcements and changes, as well as marketing events and public campaigns. Some government entities have also been able to use their Twitter accounts to post questions and conduct quick polls to gain feedback and public opinion on important social and economic matters with measurable success.

The infographic below includes some of the most followed Abu Dhabi government twitter accounts:

Good GlobalTwitter Practices& Ideas

The growing, yet still limited use of Twitter in the Arab world, versus its widespread usage elsewhere, emphasizes the fact that there are still many lessons to be learned Abu Dhabi’s the public sector. Some best practices that might give local companies something to ponder are discussed below:

• Idea Street:The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) UK created its own internal crowdsourcing platform, Idea Street, which is helping to revolutionize the way the Department and the Government interacts with its staff and the public. The account was created to encourage staff not only to crowdsource new ideas, but also to work together to drive those ideas forward to implementation.
• UN tweets its National Assembly: Public Sector organizations have been using Twitter to keep followers updated live from events, council meetings, and forums. The UN recently received much praise for using Twitter to keep people in the loop on what was taking place during the UN General Assembly. The @UN Twitter account provided an enormous amount of information throughout the course of the general debate session.
• Live Q&A Twitter sessions: Government agencies and politicians including Barack Obama @White House and UK Council Members have been increasingly staging live question and answer sessions to raise awareness of the council’s role, and encourage participation. Residents and partner agencies are asked to tweet questions that are answered by government officials and cabinet members during a specified time period. Discussions and debates take place on a variety of topics, including policies, reforms, and local challenges and issues.
• Weather and Emergency Management: Met Office UKhasbeen using Twitter as the fastestmethod for updating the public on weather news. Met Office is the world leader in weather news, and is able to maintain this reputation by using Twitter mainly for sharing news and keeping followers updated on weather changes. Through Twitter, it is able to send out alerts on serious weather conditions and dangers that may exist for immediate action and avoidance. As of 8^th February 2015, its Twitter page had 267,000 followers from around the world.

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