News
Small business owners optimistic about economic recovery post-COVID
In partnership with the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Facebook published the Global State of Small Business report based on a survey of small business owners from around the world.
The report is the first in an ongoing series planned before the virus struck and is based on data from surveying more than 30,000 small business leaders across more than 50 countries.
This research aims to amplify the voice of SMBs and assess how their situations are changing.
Small businesses are the heart of the community – and the unsung heroes of the global economy. From coffee shops, bookstores, and restaurants to plumbers, wedding planners, and graphic designers, small businesses create jobs and growth in every country, reducing poverty and income inequality. But they are facing the challenge of a lifetime.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a public health emergency. It is also an economic crisis that is hitting small and medium-sized businesses exceptionally hard. Globally, 26% of SMBs reported that they had closed between January and May 2020 – over 50% in some countries.
SMBs are in urgent need of cash and customers to run businesses and pay salaries. The report saw a significant proportion of SMBs, reducing their workforce in response to the pandemic at the survey time. Egypt (51%), UAE (50%), and KSA (35%) have reduced the number of employees/workers because of COVID-19. Other key stats from the report showed that Egypt (73%), UAE (81%), and KSA (64%) reported that their sales this year are lower than last year.
Entrepreneurs are resilient people, and the report shows that many Facebook SMB owners remain optimistic about their businesses’ future, despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic. According to the report, 52% of SMBs in Egypt, 61% in the UAE, and 59% in KSA are optimistic about their businesses post-COVID.
Globally, nearly three quarters (74%) of SMBs closed at the time of the survey expect to reopen as COVID-19 containment measures are lifted. For example, in the sampled countries, the most cited activity by business leaders of closed businesses was working on plans for reopening. In Egypt (57%), UAE (65%), and KSA (65%) reported some of the highest proportions of SMBs that are operational or engaging in any revenue-generating activities.
The increasing pace and unpredictability of change brought on by the pandemic have encouraged small businesses to adopt a proactive rather than reactive approach to getting back to business. According to the survey, the only way for SMBs to survive the pandemic is a pivot to digital.
The report found that at least one-third of SMBs indicated that they had earned a minimum of 25% of their sales from digital channels in the previous 30 days. In Egypt (35%), the UAE (40%), and in KSA (29%) of operational SMBs on Facebook reported that 25% of their sales were made digitally in the past month.
“SMBs are vital to the global economy and play a big role in Facebook’s community – and since the early days of the pandemic, we have taken steps to help them weather the storm. That is why we recently launched Facebook Shops to make it easier to sell online and created our Business Resource Hub, where small business owners can get training, advice, and information – including guidance from healthcare experts,” said Ramez Shehadi, Managing Director of Facebook MENA.
“The path to recovery is uncertain, and as economies start to re-open, SMBs will need continued support from governments or other institutions to get back on track – we hope this report will help identify areas where that support can make the biggest difference. These are challenging times for businesses throughout the world, and Facebook is determined to do all we can to help them make it through.”
According to Facebook, over 160 million businesses use Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp every month. Over the next six months, SMBs in more than 50 countries and regions will be surveyed monthly regarding business operations in the context of COVID-19 to capture the impacts of the pandemic on the financials and challenges of SMBs, as well as adjustments being implemented in response to the crisis.
Source: Facebook
News
Amr Diab Gets Hacked on Twitter
Amr Diab’s Facebook page has announced that his twitter account has been hijacked by anonymous and now tweeting political.
Update: Amr Diab’s Facebook Page announced that “Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been restored successfully and you can follow Amr’s tweets normally now”
Amr Diab got hacked on Twitter
On Thursday 9th of Jan, Amr Diab’s Facebook page announced that Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been hacked by anonymous and now tweeting politics!
Amr Abdul-Basset Abdul-Azeez Diab (born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of pop music. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle East Artist, three times: 1998 for the album “Nour El Ain”, 2002 for the album “Aktrr Wahid Byhbak 2001” and 2007 for the album “El Lillady”. Amr Diab also won The African Music Awards 2009, Big Apple Music Awards; Life Achievements Awards: Best Singer of The Year in 2009, and Best Male Act in African Music Awards 2010.
He is known as the Father of Mediterranean Music He has created his own style which is often termed “Mediterranean Music” or “Mediterranean Sound”, a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.
In The Mediterranean in Music, David Cooper and Kevin Dawe referred to his music as “the new breed of Mediterranean music”.According to author Michael Frishkopf, Amr Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially in his international hit, “Nour El Ain”.
In his analysis of The Very Best of Amr Diab album, Victor W. Valdivia of All music said: “His music melded traditional Arabic sounds and textures with Western rhythms and instruments. The mesh was dubbed Mediterranean music, and The Very Best of Amr Diab displays Diab’s superb skill in creating it.”
In 1997, he won three awards at the Annual Arabic Festival: one for Best Video, for Best Song, and for Best Artist of the Year. Diab received a Triple Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain and a World Music Award in Monaco.
After the success of the previously shared overall analysis of Sherine’s new album “Ana Keter” and her social media presence, we decided to fulfill your requests with more details and additional insights.
The report is from Jan 15 through Jan 31, 2014; however, starting Feb, we noticed that Sherine’s team has enhanced and developed how they engage with fans on Facebook.
Still, there’s more to do; please review the slides below to know what exactly they are missing with recommendations.
Check out the report:
Key take-outs in 15 days after the launch:
- Album gained 11 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube
- YouTube Channel subscribers boosted by 90K subscribers in 15 days out of 127K total subscribers overtime
- Buzz reached 15K tweets/RTs since the launch on Twitter
- How do people talk about the album/Sherine on Twitter?
- People are sharing songs from YouTube & SoundCloud
- +90% positive sentiment on Twitter
- Sherine’s Twitter account is excellent at spreading the news about the album’s success.
- People are tweeting the song’s lyrics.
- Sarcastic tweets about Sherine & few songs (regular) - Almost zero negativity about the album
- Album teasers on Facebook created credibility for Sherine’s page, reflected in the page results after the album’s launch in the next 15 days with 92K Interactions & 312K New Likes.
- The album received tremendous engagement on the launching date of Jan 15. However, no posts for four days after the launch negatively affected the interactions.
Recommendations:
Sherine Abdel Wahab’s Facebook page would have received double or maybe triple new likes and interactions if the improved posts’ quality; please find below the points taken:
- Long updates with no extra value-added will lead to losing your fans’ interest
- The text-only format isn’t preferred, as it is well-known that they generate less reach than other content (Facebook announcement)
- A call to action is essential to generate leads & increase engagement
- Each post has to have its visual, audio, or video so you can attract/engage your audiences
- Understand the situation and act upon it, always be relevant to the time and avoid posting irrelevant content at the wrong time.
- Revise the tone of voice in future activities.
To recap - Overall performance is average to good - Enhance your content formatting - Improve the tone of voice on all networks - Be creative to engage your fans better - Be Consistent - Start your SoundCloud account.
News
Putin, Obama war on social media starts with unfriend on Facebook
New stage of the cold war, is it?
The Social media war between Putin and Obama started with UnFriend, this is the action taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Facebook diplomacy with American president Barack Obama.
The unfriending comes after an official White House update about the possibility of a US-Syrian war. President Putin revealed that Obama’s updates about the Congressional debate on a possible war with Syria have annoyed him.
After unfriending, President Putin update status on profile “Something I should have done a long time ago”
Also, He said to Russia’s Pravda News Service “President Assad and I, we are the Facebook friends. We like the same pages, we share pictures of cute women and all that. Obama needs to lighten up on there, it’s not for serious stuff,”
President Obama’s latest posts about the possibility of the war in Syria have been reported by someone and he received a warning from Facebook that he will be prevented from posting on his profile for 24 hours.
He has also commented “Really, Putin needs to grow up. If he didn’t like that [post], he could have just hid it from his news feed instead of creating all this Facebook drama,”
JOE BIDEN “Vice President of the United States” announced to reports that President Obama has signed into his Twitter account to unfollow Putin.
The turmoil generated between Putin and Obama over their dispute on the Syrian crisis. Expanded to reach the social networks
Putin and Obama on social Networks
The question now is, are we witnessing a new stage of the cold war between the two countries, will they continue the war online instead of the military tactics and old spy war?
It’s obvious that social media is really changing the game in everything, and now it’s taking over on a very high level.
Keep an eye on Digital Boom and we will keep you posted with more news and updates on the cold war and even more…
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