Facebook

We've applied a very organic approach to our ExpatWoman.com Facebook page. We have been running it for only 9 months and have nearly 4,000 followers... that number is peanuts when compared to our 250,000 unique visitors to the website per month though!

We see our site as a forerunner to what is now called "social media"... our forum has been running for about 8 years and has a new post every 20 seconds- it gets very busy in there! So for us, Facebook is something that we need to do to connect to our readers in that stream but our focus is and always will be the main website.

Here's some Facebook stats...

87% of our "Likes" are female unsurprisingly!

We actually get a great response to the posts that we put on Facebook and believe this is because we have let the membership grow on its own without pushing "liking" our page too heavily- so we actually have a fan page that is populated with genuine fans who really want to interact with us on Facebook and have not just clicked "like" to enter a competition or some other forced entry path.

We'll keep you updated on our Facebook journey and also take a closer look at our Twitter account too!

ExpatWoman At Murdoch University Social Media Forum

 Our Editor was on the panel for this debate... read what she had to say...

Firms must up the ante on digital marketing

Businesses in the region can leverage the untapped potential of social media and other communication platforms.  By Rania Moussly, Staff Reporter, Gulf News

Dubai The Middle East holds the lowest ratio of content uploaded on YouTube versus the ratio of content viewed among the major regions of the world. This means there is great opportunity for companies in the Arab world to create marketing content on a website that receives three billion visits a day.

The lack of YouTube content from the Arab world presents great marketing opportunities due to the fact that in 2011, it was the most visited social media site in the UAE alone.

Promoting Brands

"In 2010, Google was the most visited site in the UAE, then came Facebook, and then YouTube," Akansha Goel, executive director at Socialize, a UAE-based social media and training agency with clients such as Coca-Cola, Samsung and Mall of the Emirates, said. Goel spoke earlier this week at the Murdoch University Women's Lunchbox event where UAE digital marketing experts debated all things related to social media and brand marketing.

Coke is, in fact, the world's biggest brand on Facebook with 36 million fans. The company's fan page grows by one million fans every fortnight. "Social media can help any business unless it's a very niche B2B company," Goel said.

However, with over 450 social media platforms on the Internet, it is important for companies not to spread themselves too thin. "It's said that when a tool gets boring for the geeks and nerds, that's when it starts to get interesting for businesses," Goel said. "When your mum and cousin start using it, that's when companies should start taking the risk."

She added it is not worth the time or effort for businesses to take risk on investments in uncertain channels. "It's not worth investing all your digital marketing budget on Google+ at this point in time because although it's growing, not everyone is on it," Goel said.

The latest figures reveal there are over 800 million Facebook users worldwide, with 28 million in the Arab world. Twitter whisked past the 200 million user mark, while LinkedIn lags behind with 130 million users. These growing figures represent huge untapped marketing potential for businesses.

"In the Middle East, there are more people on Facebook than the number of newspapers circulated in the region," Goel said. "It's easy to increase a brand page's fans from zero to 1,000; but then the question is what do you do when they get there."

She added the real test of a good marketing manager is what they do with their fans as a poorly managed social media channel can cause serious damage to a brand's image. "Step one is getting the fans and step two is getting them to come to your store or buy your product," Goel said. "Essentially, social media channels are just a different platform of communication."

Gail Potter, content manager at Expat Web Services for the website www.expatwoman.com, added a lot of brands falter in digital marketing by being too pushy or not regularly updating their pages.

"It's about working across the board to keep a consistent voice for the brand, be it on social media, television or in the papers," Potter said. "Make sure the same engaging message is being delivered across all platforms."

Pitfalls to look out for

Other social media marketing pitfalls businesses need to look out for is what is actually written in the post. "It can't be repetitive, everyday it's got to be something fresh and exciting for people," she said. "Common mistakes I see are bad spelling, capital letters, broken links as well as company pages that aren't updated for months or a year."

Potter added it is important for businesses to make sure they have constant access to their social media pages. A change in management or agency, causing an access glitch, could seriously harm the brand.

"Ignoring complaints or deleting negative posts could always backfire, so it's important to take every single comment on your page positively," Potter said. "The negative comments are the most important because those are the ones that need to be addressed to change minds."

ExpatWoman Education Fair Announcement

The ExpatWoman.com annual Education Fair is a one-stop event for all matters educational in Dubai. It will feature representatives from the many educational institutes covering nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary options, as well as adult education.

Education is always a key theme for ExpatWoman readers and a popular forum topic for newcomers trying to find places for school age children and new mums assessing nurseries. Dubai has a wide range of choices at secondary level and the tertiary sector has grown exponentially in recent years; with much more choice available than residents are generally aware of. This event is always well attended, with parents having the opportunity to browse a wide range of options and discuss their interests and concerns, face to face with educational professionals representing a broad range of specialisms.

Dubai residents are fortunate to be faced with so much choice at all stages of academia. Different nurseries offer different approaches to early years development and it pays to research to find the right place for a toddler's first steps out of the home environment. Mothers of young children are invited to come along and meet the nursery teams, to get a feel for the schools and discuss any concerns.

There will be a wide range of primary schools exhibiting at the Fair representing the different approaches and curricula available. Parents and students will be interested to talk to professionals from the many secondary schools represented to research International versus British versus American options and the implications of the choice on further education paths. Teams from the universities of Dubai will be there to offer their expert opinion on curriculum choice. The examining boards Edexcel and Cambridge University are also attending and will be answering queries from a global perspective.

At the tertiary level, UOWD, Middlesex University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Murdoch University, The London College Of Fashion & SAE Institute offer a very wide range of courses based in Dubai, and some have links to partner campuses in London and the USA. ExpatWoman.com Managing Director, Jane Drury, says, "The option to split a degree course studying partly here and partly abroad offers interesting opportunities for both social and professional development, and for sandwich courses, international internships can only add weight to a graduate CV. For some families also, reduced costs of one or two years of study being home-based will be a consideration."

The event is not just about the younger generation, there are also further education and retraining options represented. Drury continues, "It is less common than it used to be with more single and married women working in the region, but still it is often the case that women come to the region as a 'trailing spouse' or have taken career breaks to raise a family. We meet women all the time who have taken the opportunity to maybe change career, retrain or set up their own business, and many more who are looking for something but not sure what to do."

Course options for adults represented at the event will include short courses in interior design, fashion, film, photography, animation and multimedia, professional qualifications to teach in nursery and schools early years, brain training to enhance intelligence and memory, first aid and a range of courses around entrepreneurship and starting your own business. Some of these courses have options or timings that work as after school activities too and for the younger students they can consider etiquette and savoir-vivre training, English and Maths tuition and a fun Lego club amongst other activities.

The ExpatWoman Education Fair is being held on March 13th from 4pm till 9pm at the Grand Millennium Hotel, TECOM, Barsha. There is no booking required and entry is free, with light refreshments available. Parking is available and the metro station TECOM stop is nearby.

2011 in review for ExpatWoman.com

The year 2011 saw female- focused website, ExpatWoman.com, reach new heights with numbers of 1.9 million unique visitors at, 5.4 million site visits and page views of over 39 million. This has reflected an increase of 52% unique visitors compared to 2010 and a 24% increase in visits.

Effective Measure, the leading provider of digital media planning solutions in the region, latest report pegs ExpatWoman.com as being the 22nd best performing website in the UAE, 75th across the GCC and 105th across the entire MENA region. Drilling down within this information results in ExpatWoman.com being the number one performing website for advertisers aiming to reach women in households earning above 100,000 US$ whether targeting solely western women or all women.

 Jane Drury, CEO and founder of ExpatWoman.com says, “2011 was a significant year for us in terms of our increased penetration and sustained exponential growth, as well as being the website’s 10 year anniversary. The Effective Measure results correlate with our own findings and further enhance the attractiveness of our offering to media planners, marketing agencies and clients. If you want to market to women in Dubai, the UAE, the GCC and MENA, ExpatWoman.com is the site to advertise on.”

2011 saw the launch of sites for Oman and Kuwait to complement the existing sites of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. There are also plans afoot to expand further into the MENA territory, with a wider range of online services through 2012, with KSA and Egypt currently under review. “We have a business model which is proven and works and wherever there are women seeking vital information for a successful expat life, ExpatWoman.com can be there for them,” adds Drury. “For advertisers this is perfect, as our 360° approach to the site and the business as whole, gives agencies and brands a direct outlet to reach an important target market through online, events and print.”

Building on expansion of both the programming and the editorial teams, 2011 saw the start of significant enhancements to site presentation and navigation, and the introduction of a suite of new online services, to be rolled out across MENA, which will continue through 2012. With a two-pronged approach to build on the already strong reader experience whilst increasing regional penetration, all signs point to another bumper growth year for Expat Web Services’ flagship site.

About ExpatWoman.com

Expatwoman.com was established 10 years ago and swiftly became an indispensable resource for expats moving to and living in the UAE. Today, it is the largest and most popular female- focused, English language, information website in the UAE. With regular hit rates of 20 million hits per month and a readership spanning over 225 countries, ExpatWoman.com is a web force to be reckoned with. The umbrella of ExpatWoman.com also covers special events, coffee mornings, magazine publishing and a busy information board bursting with advice and queries about life in the UAE.