Business owners in Oman on social media

Most times small business owners play multiple / every role in their company. They are required to do the accounting, marketing, public relations, business development, and customer service. It is not hard to see then why they don’t have time to dedicate to a social media strategy.

Big businesses instead hire people and / or agencies specifically for social media marketing and smaller businesses are usually being left behind.

That’s how it works in most countries.

In Oman we could say that it is pretty much the other way around; some small business owners and entrepreneurs are fighting even harder. Apart from doing everything in terms of accounting, marketing, etc. they have also jumped onto the social media bandwagon in a much more aggressive way than the big boys who let big agencies looking after their communication requirements (do they really??)

Here are a few examples from any sort of industry; Facebook is the preferred platform, others like Twitter, blogs, YouTube channels…nothing yet, not taken off from a corporate point of view a part of a couple of exceptions:

Garden Roomz "bed & breakfast" - a lovely little place in Ghoubra where you can enjoy the traditions of Oman by staying within an Omani family. The garden comes with waterfalls! 

Café G is an Omani origin café and patisserie with an international flair and a global vision. Currently the only one of its kind in the Sultanate, Apparently they do great bakes and cakes! 

Ifa Designs provides design and productions of corporate  branded material such as brochures, catalogs and more. Very cool, modern and refreshing creative designs.

Cocomint says: "Whats in an identity but a flavour and a style. What is cocomint?" I'll leave it to you to find out.

"Add a little more Twinkle to everyday life". Cute and unique baby and children's items; bringing the finest designs of equipment, the kindest products for skin, and the smartest toys for development.

Amphibia is a 5 Star Dive Resort with the highest level in safety, quality and training. They have created a dive centre where  they will share their passion and expertise surrounded by the pristine diversity that is Oman.

At Oman Classifieds you'll find solutions for buying and selling online for the whole family. It's an easy-to-use, clean and safe experience backed by a customer support team that really cares. You can also find them on Twitter.

Salim Ghalib, AKA "S.G", is a local hip-hop / R&B artist who started off in the late 90’s by recording instrumentals of other artists' music and then developed in early 2004 with hip-hop/ R&B group known as Dramakillaz.

It took me some time to find these pages and i probably missed a few; please let me know if i did and I'll add them to the list. 

Well done to all of you boys and girls and keep up the good work!

If you want to see the previous post about the TOP 10 companies on Facebook please visit here.

One of the most famous ads ever - Lego

The TV ad, created by TBWA, was voted one of the 100 greatest adverts ever by viewers of Channel 4.

The ad, which were taken off air in 1982, was recently re-aired with the launch of the latest James Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace'.

The animated ad shows what you can make out of LEGO bricks by way of a battle between a mouse which, when threatened by a cat, turns into a dog. The cat turns into a dragon and so on to a submarine and a submarine-eating kipper. The submarine eventually morphs into an elephant, the mouse rebuilds and the elephant faints.

Not a bad ad for those days...

Small update; if you want to see a 1987 lego reproduction of the clock roundabout at Muscat airport as well as a fictional Sinbad’s home town from 1001 nights visit the OMAN....Travels into Oman Blog by our friend YNOTOMAN.

Great ambient marketing

Place-based, or ambient, advertising reaches prospects wherever they happen to be, preferably in the right environment to be receptive to your message. It can be great when launching a new product as it combines two proven techniques: strategic partnering and place-based, or "ambient”, marketing.

For the premiere of one of the most anticipated movies this year, Resident Evil: Afterlife, the Spanish advertising agency Bungalow 25 developed a great campaign making Madrid the city with the highest number of zombies who search for ways to escape the most remote corners of the Earth.

To reinforce the impact and effectiveness of the campaign the agency integrated ambient marketing with other support strategies such as on-line, print, merchandising and outdoor (billboards, advertising panels, posters).

Here is a cool clip, don't be scared...

 

 When will we see something similar in Oman...?

The worst of Facebook

No doubts about Facebook; it is great, everyone loves it, 500 million users, etc. etc., and many times i posted about its benefits and how it can be useful for both personal and business purposes.

So for once I'd like to post the worst of Facebook in terms of Groups you can find there (and there's lots!!) as well as adverts.

Let's start with the groups:

It is quite clear that lots of people have nothing to do in life but spending it on FB. I'm amazed by the number of people joining certain groups...

And here follow some adverts:

Now, I'm very open minded but what i really do not understand is how some people can create such crap. The first ad from top should not even be allowed by Facebook while the others well....say your opinion.

Google logo mystery

As you may recall in May Google celebrated the 30th birthday of Pac-Man. That design, which went public on May 21 2010, was the first doodle to be fully interactive. The Pac-Man character could be moved by using the arrow keys on the user's keyboard making it a smart and fun experience.

Yesterday Google launched a new logo where balls can be can be dispersed around the page by moving the mouse, but gradually form into the Google logo if left alone.

Google offered no explanation when it launched the logo and a spokeswoman declined to comment on whether it was intended as a birthday celebration. Usually such designs are created to mark an event or anniversary. The only official statement by Google said: “Today’s doodle is fast, fun and interactive, just the way we think search should be."

If you want to look at Google’s logos history have a look here and you’ll discover a few you’ve never seen.

Arabic language makes it to the Facebook Top 10!

According to Inside Facebook Gold, a research and data membership service provided by Inside Facebook, Arabic language made it to the top 10 Facebook languages for the first time.

In the month of August Arabic had a growth of 18%, the highest of all languages, followed by Portuguese with 11%.

It is estimated that there are about 280 million Arabic speakers worldwide but it is difficult to divide them into geographical areas or countries as they are very well scattered all over the world.

All other main languages are either declining, French and Italian, or just holding their positions, Chinese, German and English. For the first time in history English has gone just below 50%.

Here follows the top 10:

Nawras goes public. Be part of it!

This is an off-topic as it does not relate to social media but since we are actively participating and contributing to the success of this task I'll be posting here from now on all major news and developments.

Nawras yesterday officially revealed important news and details about its IPO. There has not been an IPO in Oman for the past two years so this is great news not only for Nawras but also for the local economy, small and big investors.

For the ones who don't know about Nawras let me say that it is the Sultanate's customer-friendly communications provider, offering great value, pleasingly different service and excellent quality (check out the website here)

The Capital Markets Authority was represented at the conference by its Executive President, Mr. Yahia Al Jabri, and other officials. While the whole Nawras senior management was present for this historic moment.

The conference was great in terms of press turn up, it was a full house; all local publications, TVs and radios covered the event as well as some of the regional publications.

At the end of the presentation the rest of the Nawras team, from all departments, joined the top table for a great moment of celebration showing that Nawras really is a big family.

Everyone seemed to be satisfied, especially the journalists who were given the chance of a long Q&A. Later in the afternoon regional and international media were also given the opportunity to cover the event with one on one telephone interviews.

If you want to have a look at the official press release please go here.

Nawras goes public. Be part of it! (says Mr. Ross Cormack)