Governments in the region are taking social media communications to the next level via innovative approaches

Governments in the region are taking social media communications to the next level via innovative approaches

17 September 2015: Innovation is the key highlight of the government’s social media approach - officials have revealed at the 4th GCC Government Social Media Summit.

Held under the theme of “‘Leveraging social networks to drive government innovation and create smart cities’, the 4th GCC Government Social Media Summit 2015 kicked off today (16 September) at Sofitel Dubai Downtown.

The importance of social media among UAE leaders was highlighted, citing the example of how the UAE selected ‘Hope’ as the name of the Mars mission through a social media campaign launched by H.H Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. ‘Hope’ was the most retweeted hashtag amongst the public.

“The announcement of the UAE Space Agency was made on Twitter which was then picked up by the traditional media, showing a clear example of the importance and support the government provides through social media and how the platforms are being used to communicate and engage directly with the public,” said Sheikha Al Maskari, Chief Corporate Officer at the UAE Space Agency.

The UAE Space Agency is one of the regional entities being innovative with its social media approach, utilising its platforms to educate the targeted audience about the space industry and its facts and figures in an interactive way.

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, Assistant Director General, The Executive Office UAE said: “Social media is an effective means of communications. It allowed us to target specific segments of the public, especially young audiences and share relevant news and information with them.”

“There is a continuous increase in social media use amongst residents and visitors to the UAE and we are very proud of the maturity levels of how the government department are taking advantage of this by utilising social media and its analytical tools to develop initiative ways to communicate with the public.”

Head of Government and Alliances, LinkedIn MENA, UAE, Rajai El Khadem said: “We have 380 million users on LinkedIn globally, 16 million users of which are in the UAE. Through LinkedIn we have achieved profiling and identification of the users. I also got to know H.E Dr Saeed Al Dhaheri through LinkedIn.”

“Our goal is not only to connect individuals, however, also to share information, ideas and visions of key figures.” 

Microsoft Solution Sales Manager Paolo Pulcini said: “Microsoft is continually looking at how to turn challenges into opportunities, using social media to close the gaps and receive information from crowdsourcing. Microsoft has three main pillars: The first is being able to work anywhere, anytime on any device. The second is personal and organisational insight and the third is people centric security.

“Our job in this changing world is to ensure that customers stay productive which will in turn maintain and increase their involvement efficiency. Social media is used to connect different departments within one organisation with all people working on one idea together. The Microsoft recruitment process is a further example which is done mainly internally and then via LinkedIn.

Faisal Al Khatib, Researcher, Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government said: “Shifting from traditional and hierarchical modes of decision-making to participatory governance via citizen engagement is a major theme in policy studies. The UAE National Brainstorming Session - a nation-wide technology led citizen engagement initiative - is a model example of this, particularly with regard to defining policy issues related to education. Significantly, it indicates that a shift has taken place regarding how policies related to education are made. The purpose of this initiative was twofold: to gain feedback on how to improve the UAE’s education sector; and, to emphasize the importance of using new and innovative ways - particularly social media - to positively affect policy making in the region. This presentation aimed to document how this Brainstorming Session has helped to shape education policy, before secondly assessing how future citizen engagement initiatives can utilize social media to continue to further fortify the education sector in the UAE.“

The summit features six industry-specific workshops and around 120 delegates which discussed innovations in social media techniques against the backdrop of its increased importance in government communications. The use of social media by governments has steadily grown over the recent years in the GCC region with some of the highest social media platform penetration rates in the world. The result of which has meant that the MENA governments are in a unique position to leverage the citizen social engagement in their communications and service delivery strategies.

The 4th GCC Government Social Media Summit is sponsored by Microsoft, Meltwater, Hootsuite, SocialEyez, Carma, FARS, Zenith Gulf, Four Communications, MBRSG, twofour54, Exantium, and Ideanco.