SocialEyez's Blog

Egyptian skepticism of elections integrity high, social media research indicates 78% of social media users believe elections were rigged

May 29, 2012

DUBAI, UAE (MAY 28, 2012) – A thorough analysis of social media conversations in Egypt indicates the Egyptian social media users are highly skeptical of the integrity of the country’s recent presidential elections. Last week, before voting began in Egypt, SocialEyez released a report indicating Morsy would come out as the leading candidate. The report was based on analysis of thousands of social media conversations.

Social media monitoring and analysis conducted by SocialEyez over May 26-27 showed that, of users commenting on emerging allegations of elections fraud, around 80% believe the accusations to be true. Of these, 20% said that the authorities supervising the election, namely the Higher Presidential Elections Commission, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, and the Ministry of Interior conspired to rig the outcome of Egypt’s first post-revolution presidential elections by allowing ineligible voters to cast a ballot in last week’s elections. This figure is derived from a manual analysis of a sample of roughly 5,000 captured comments. SocialEyez captured comments using statistically sound sampling techniques from across multiple social media networks including Facebook, twitter and Masrawy over the past 24 hours.

The allegations emerged on Saturday when a junior police officer lodged a formal complaint with the Public Prosecutor alleging that 900,000 national identity cards had been issued by a group of police officers to constables and Central Security Forces personnel – who are prohibited by law from voting. The officer claimed that the job title category of the cards had been falsified in order to allow security personnel to vote. Since then, Essam El-Eslambouly, the lawyer of socialist presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, who ranked third in the presidential elections, has claimed to be in possession of evidence that as many as 117,000 conscripts received ballots.

Belief that fraudulent ballots had been cast was highest on Twitter (95%), the social networking site Facebook (95%) and Egyptian forums (80%). Twitter and Facebook are the online home of Egypt’s revolutionary opposition and the Egyptian intelligentsia. However, skepticism was also prevalent across news websites (65%), where the influence of the fallen Mubarak regime remains strong and its supporters remain active. Examples of typical comments posted across social networks include: “The military wants to only hand power to a military man. Please get it.”

Egyptian media reported on Sunday, May 27, morning that the HPEC had excluded 117,727 registered electors, determined to be deceased, from the lists of eligible voters two days before the elections, but has yet to comment on the accusations that 117,000 conscripts voted and that 900,000 ID cards had been issued to facilitate voting among non-eligible voters. An analysis of data collected from social media indicates that Egypt’s turbulence is likely to deepen: demands for more “revolutionary action” permeated the social media, including a return to street protests and demonstrations and a “purging” of state institutions.

Findings above are based on daily research, monitoring and analysis conducted by SocialEyez, News Group’s social media monitoring and analysis subsidiary. SocialEyez has been tracking Egyptian attitudes expressed on social media towards emergent presidential candidates since January 2011.

News Group Chief Operating Officer Fadl Al Tarzi described today’s findings as “given there are approximately 12 million social media users vs 51 million eligible voters in Egypt, social media is definitely one important indicator of where Egyptian public opinion stands” on the outcome of last week’s vote. Tarzi said that the “unfiltered, unprompted and unscripted” dialogue across social media can be a valuable addition to rounding out assessments of public opinion extracted through the more conventional channels of public opinion polling and traditional media analysis. “If we were to incorporate all three elements in today’s analysis, we can easily speculate that the Egyptian elections would still face a problem of credibility that will have to be addressed,” he said.

SocialEyez is the region’s largest social media research and analysis agency covering Arabic social media. Its political and commercial units offer services to private sector commercial entities, governments, public sector institutions, non-governmental organizations, academic organizations and think tanks. SocialEyez has become the go-to source for some of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms and international businesses seeking interpretations of political security, stability and risk in the Middle East.

-END-

About News Group

News Group, a leading media intelligence group, was founded in 2002. The company and its subsidiaries specialize in the sourcing, distribution, creation, monitoring and analysis of news content in the emerging markets of the Middle East, Africa and the Indian sub-continent. The group includes seven subsidiaries that employ over 300 people. News Group is based in Dubai and operates in 30 countries across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, primarily through its subsidiaries.

News Group subsidiaries include the region’s largest media monitoring firm, Media Watch Middle East, used by over 100 of the global Fortune 500 companies. News Group advocates integrated media research as most accurate and comprehensive indicator of public opinion, this approach involves traditional + social media analysis + public opinion research.

For the Arabic Version of the above Press Release, kindly click below:

Amr_PRESS RELEASE _Egyptians Vote Rigged ——- Arabic

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Egypt, MENA, Social Media, socialeyez news, Special Reports

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Egyptian Elections Predictions

May 24, 2012

Social Media Research Indicates Egypt heading for Elections Run-off Between Islamist Candidates

DUBAI, UAE, May 23, 2012 – Data analyzed by News Group, the region’s leading media intelligence group, shows that voting in Egypt today and tomorrow will conclude in a run-off between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsy and the independent Islamist candidate Abdel Monem Aboul Fotouh.

The findings are based on months of research, monitoring and analysis conducted by SocialEyez, News Group’s social media monitoring and analysis subsidiary. SocialEyez has been tracking Egyptian attitudes expressed on social media towards emergent presidential candidates since May 2011, shortly following the revolutionary overthrow of the Hosni Mubarak regime.

“While one may argue that social media users do not represent the masses in a country like Egypt, our findings have consistently shown that social media can be used to gain an accurate and unbiased understanding of public sentiment” said Fadl Tarzi, Chief Operating Officer of News Group. “Imagine if you could listen to millions of conversations at once and get analysis and insight into these conversation on a same day basis with no bias, and at a low cost – that’s the power of social media analysis, for the first time in history this is possible”

SocialEyez research results are based on collected data from several hundred thousand user comments and online public opinion polling. SocialEyez estimates that Morsy and Aboul Fotouh are benefitting from the support of 32% and 28%, respectively, of Egypt’s voting public. The research also shows that remaining contenders, including Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafik, are not likely to gather any substantial support at the polls.

SocialEyez’s political analysis unit has an established track record of accurate analysis, and of detecting trends online before they materialize offline. In 2010, SocialEyez asserted that social media was becoming “a disruptive force” in Arab politics and noted that Mohamed Baradei’s Facebook page was prompting larger numbers of Egyptians to the streets in public protest of the Egyptian regime. Shortly after, SocialEyez detected calls for the revolution trending on Facebook and other social media platforms two weeks before traditional media discussed the possibility of regime change in Egypt. In 2011, it also captured a growing demand online to cut natural gas exports to Israel, and was ahead of the trend in noting the extent of the Salafist movement’s support and massive popularity online. Likewise SocialEyez noted a high risk for violence at the soccer match in Port Said in February 2012, where dozens of football fans were killed.

About News Group

News Group subsidiaries include the region’s largest media monitoring firm, Media Watch Middle East, used by over 100 of the global Fortune 500 companies.

For Arabic Version of the above Press Release, please click below:

Press Release-Egyptian Elections-Arabic

Egypt elections predictions – May 2012

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Egypt, MENA, Monitoring, Social Media, Special Reports

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Prisoners’ Hunger Strike: The Biggest Ever In Middle East

May 20, 2012

76 days without any food? That is what Bilal Thayb and Thaer Halahleh are going through. This is followed by approximately 1600 others since April 17^th; a third of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Their protest centred on demands for more family visits, an end to solitary confinement and an end to “administrative detention” (to be held indefinitely without charge).

During the strike there was already a huge social media echo especially on Twitter and Facebook with users spreading the information and demanding additional support. The final storm of attention and action within the Arab social media sphere rolled over on May 14th with the announcement of the Egyptian-brokered agreement between prisoners and Israel. Thereby an end of the mass hunger strike was aimed in exchange to end solitary confinement for 19 prisoners and the opportunity for the prisoners to receive visits from their relatives lining in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Moreover Israel agreed to also improve other conditions of detention by letting “administrative detainees” free once they completed their sentence.

On the other hand, posts on Twitter denied the end of the hunger strike. At this stage of information, Thaer Halaheleh and Bilal Thayeb shall be released within the next month and will stop to refuse food as soon as they see their documents with their release order.

As regards to all other prisoners, we will see what happens in the next few days and weeks, but for now it is time for the SocialEyez Social Media Buzz for the last few days.

For this Buzz-Report we took a closer look at the user reactions in Palestine, published on Facebook and Twitter. Due to the different usage, the result depiction of 1779 analyzed posts is divided between Twitter and Facebook.

Thereby 70% of the analyzed comments were from Twitter, mostly related to the Hashtags “PalHunger”, “ThaerHaleleh” and “BilalDiab”, whereas the remaining 30% came from Facebook with the major buzz from the Facebook pages “Halada” and “Q.N.N”.

Microblogs

The analysis of the 1252 tweets/retweets showed that:

One fourth of all comments posted updates on the hunger strike and the recent developments, mostly attached with objective sources.
One third of all comments actually provided real time updates and personal experiences on the protests and demonstrations organized in solidarity to spread awareness about the hunger strike.
14% of the tweets supported the prisoners by expressing respect and reverence for them and treating them like heroes. This was complemented by 2% of posts, which expressed gratitude for all international activists that took part in the protests and demonstrations across Europe. Special Information about the critical condition of Bilal Thiab and Thaer Halahleh were given by 12%, while 19% shared pictures and cartoons pertaining to the hunger strike like the campaign on Facebook.
The remaining 1% underlined the role of Khader Adnan in sparking a revolution inside Israeli prisons.

Facebook

The majority of the Facebook users who commented on the hunger strike, involved “God” by praying and supporting the prisoners, in the hope of being s released and returned back to their families (60%). Around one tenth of the analyzed comments criticized Arab leaders for not getting involved in this topic and not supporting the Palestinian prisoners, while 4% brought the issue on a higher level by highlighting the importance for the Palestinian set of problems and casting the prisoners’ as heroes that have restored hope. However, 3% claimed, that a protest on Facebook is not enough and called for mobilization and action offline as well.

The remaining 25% took part in the picture campaign to spread awareness about the hunger strike. This social media activism snowballed on May 14, when Millions of Facebook users changed their profile pictures to a generic illustration of a faceless Palestinian prisoner dressed in the typical Israeli prison brown uniform stamped with the acronym of the Israeli Prison System (IPS), Shabas.

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that dominate current discussions on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the Palestinian Prisoners Hunger Strike and the search was done manually on Facebook and Twitter. The mentioned posts and comments were captured in both English and Arabic on May 13^th and 14^th in Palestine.

If you are interested in monitoring any special event, political development or a certain brand/product we welcome you to contact us at info@social-eyez.com. We also appreciate any suggestions and improvements for this Blog. Also follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook-Page to get regular updates regarding future Buzz Reports.

For the Arabic version of the above report, please click below:

Prisoners’ Hunger Strike – Buzz report

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Buzz Reports, Conversations, Engagement, Events, MENA, Monitoring, Palestine, Sentiment, Social Media, The Social Network, Twitter, Uncategorized

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Public Sphere Revolution: The Advent of Social Media in the Middle East

May 10, 2012

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A star behind bars: Adel Imam

May 3, 2012

“Don’t know what is more depressing; having to defend #adelimam

or seeing a lot of people in front of court asking for his head”

In recent news, famous Egyptian comedian Adel Imam was convicted on Feb ‘2, 2012 of using his films and plays as a medium to defame the Islamic faith. Due to the nature and sensitivity around this case, it naturally transitioned into a rapid increase in buzz across the Social Media Milieu.

One of the targeted productions was the movie “Morgan Ahmed Morgan” and the play “Al Zaeem” (“The Leader”), even though the aforementioned had been approved by the Censor Board prior to release. During the course of his acting career, which consisted of over a 100 productions, the 71-year old Egyptian satirically illustrated his country’s political and social landscape. Unfortunately for Adel Imam this resulted in his objection being rejected on April 24^th, after which a fine of 1000 Egyptian pounds and a three-month prison sentence were actioned. Consequently an intellectual uproar followed, which could mainly be attributed to the fact that the blow could no longer be cushioned and protected after Mubarak’s regime was repudiated. Hence a heated debate followed surrounding the suppressing cultural, artificial and social freedom of Egypt.

A sample size of 9851 posts was the basis for this week’s Buzz-Report surrounding Adel Iman, in which we took a closer look at the discussions related to the caseon various social media channels within the Middle East. The research was conducted between the 31^st of January and the 26^th of April 2012. As graphically represented below, the vast majority of buzz occurring on social media clustered around February 2^nd and April 24^th – respectively, the day of the sentence and the court’s final decision to reject the objection.

The bulk of results were mainly gathered from Twitter, in addition to the results captured from message boards, forums and online news media outlets, wherein most of the users expressed a negative sentiment regarding the verdict of Adel Imam. Voices from the film and entertainment industry came together to support him in the struggle for freedom of speech, this was done by means of petitions such as: “The Front of Creativity”. A group of independent writers and filmmakers vowed not to keep silence until the sentence against Imam was revoked.

In addition to the subjective opinion of some users, plenty of posts shared information about the sentence. Retweets emphasized the users’ agreement, for example: “Famous actor, Adel Imam, sentenced to three months in jail for defaming Islam http://goo.gl/kIFz0 #Egypt” (37 retweets, 4 favourite).

But more than the half of all posts were in reference to objective information, for instance news articles, including a short statement of the user’s sentiment towards the verdict. Surprisingly, just a few posts displayed support for the verdict itself.

Sentiment Analysis was broken down into three categories, in which the majority related the news around the verdict of Adel Imam to political issues which went beyond the realm of the case itself. Approximately one-fourth of all posts were a call for action to support Adel Imam, whilst only a small number of users (10%) either avoided the topic or claimed the verdict was fair.

This was further segregated into those who support the verdict, which made up a 30% share and those who believe that Egypt has more detrimental issues to be concerned about (70%), such as the current political and social situation.

However as previously mentioned and indicated below, the vast majority of users supported Adel Imam (54%) and could not fathom the accusation against him, irrespective of whether they liked the actor as a person or not. In addition a few posts (13%) acknowledged that Imams work is imperative in order for Egyptian society to accurately see a reflection, this resulted in 33% of user posts calling for protests against the verdict.

A large percentage of posts connected the case to a higher political issue. Politically interested users discussed Imams relationship to Mubarak, accused the Muslim Brotherhood, or compared the trial to the case of Sawiris, who was accused for blasphemy after having tweeted cartoons of Mickey and Minnie Mouse wearing conservative Muslim attire. Furthermore, several comments related the trial to a wider context, including the political future of Egypt, the issues regarding freedom of speech and the combination of state and religion or the rising power of Islamists.

Predominantly conversation in Arabic surrounding the discussion itself got a powerful political spin, this was seen when Author Alaa Al-Aswany revealed his own indecision towards the case and asked the Egyptian presidential candidate ‘Abolfotoh’ about his position regarding the Adel Imam case, which was retweeted over 290 times.

In response Dr. Abolfotoh stated that an individual should not have the right to offend Islam. Nevertheless he added that a trial should be the last step after a fundamental discussion. This posts was retweeted more than 420 times:

Similarly, Amre Moussa, a competitor in the Egyptian presidential election, gave voice to the trial (retweeted more than 70 times) mentioning that laws and rules should be modified, ergo more flexible.

In conclusion, this case demonstrated the tremendous impact social media can have on politics. Adel Imam was released and found not guilty. Could this be a sign for further political developments in Egypt?

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that dominate current discussions on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the verdict for Adel Imam, covering the Middle East. The mentioned posts and comments were captured in both English and Arabic from the 31^st of January to the 26^th of April 2012. The keyword for the search was “Adel Imam” in different spelling variations and hashtags in both Arabic and English and was afterwards checked manually.

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Buzz Reports, Conversations, Egypt, MENA, Monitoring, Sentiment, Social Media, Twitter

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Augmented Reality: Project Glass by Google

April 16, 2012

When Google released their all new concept video for augmented reality glasses on April 4^th, it caused a stir in the tech world and, of course, the effect was seen all over social media. The now infamous “Google Glasses” were developed by the Google X research group, who coded the trendy invention under the title “Project Glass”, providing the world with a glimpse of what possibilities technology may have to offer in the near future, including augmented reality.

According to the MacMillan Dictionary, augmented reality is the technology of combining real world images, video, etc. with computer-generated information and/or imagery. In case of the “Google Glasses”, it means that by using a display on the glasses’ frame in connection with wireless internet, voice recognition, a camera and/or other components, it will be possible to see overlaying interactive graphics on top of the real world to assist the wearer in its actions throughout the day e.g. by navigating, finding information and/or communicating with friends.

“We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t,” the Google X research group explains. “[We] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.”

In this week’s Buzz-Report, we decided to take a closer look at the discussions surrounding “Project Glass”, on various social media channels within the Middle East. With a total of 6379 captured results, the research was conducted between the 1^st and 9^th of April 2012, of which English made up the majority share of volume (54%).

After the release of the concept video on the 4th of April, the discussion grew immediately within a matter of days; according to the News Media Index, this topic became the top story on blogs for the week of April 2-6 and the No. 2 story on Twitter.

To gain insights on the reactions to ‘Project Glass’, we delved deeper with focus on the UAE market, in order to provide an example of the user reactions within the Middle East. The captured results were mainly from Twitter, and showed a mixed sentiment towards the new augmented reality glasses and various subtopics:

Almost instantaneously after the video release, a vast majority of users in the social media milieu took to posting the video, as well as spreading general information about it in reference to news articles on social media – especially on Twitter or pinned it on Pinterest. The official Video alone was viewed in excess of over 11 million times and has almost 80 thousand likes on YouTube, all of which made up 55% of the total buzz and contained mainly a neutral or positive sentiment:

However, approximately two days after the release, the depiction of the ground breaking technology changed: there was a wave of parodist videos spilling over YouTube and followed through on Twitter, with a fourth of all captured posts (26%). These mock videos, which have up to 1.6 million views, broach the issues of the possible danger’s related to use of futuristic technology, with the likes of users of the ‘Google Glasses’ walking into street poles, as well as playing on the fact that Google ads will certainly bombard users on every possible occasion.

In addition, a significant amount of posts were posed to question the possibility of such a technical future, especially because some experts say that with the design shown in the video, the glasses would not be able to deliver the information as claimed in the video from Google. For example Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, stated: ”In one simple fake video, Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to.” Several Arabic posts even suggested that this must merely be an April fool scam.

In reaction to this, a successive progression of articles and images were released, showing the co-founder of Google with the prototype of the glasses to confirm that the glasses were in fact real: “#Google’s #SergeyBrin sports #ProjectGlass in public, while others question whether the experience will really be…” – posts of this nature accounted for around 7% of captured data.

The Concept Video was compared to the future technology video done by Nokia in 2009, by 4% of tweeters within the UAE, who made statements such as: “I liked the #Google Glasses Video better in 2009 when #Nokia made it”. However, many users stood by the fact that this kind of technology is simply not to our benefit or not yet, at least.

At the end of the day, all we can do is wait and watch closely to see the progress of this invention and it’s usability, as it transcends and possibly affects the way we see the world, both literally and otherwise.

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that dominate current discussions on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the Project Glass from google, covering the Middle East with a special focus on user reactions from the UAE. The mentioned posts and comments were captured in both English and Arabic from the 1^th of April 2012 until the 9^nd of April. The keywords for the search were: “Google Glasses”, “Google Googles”, “Project Glass” in different spelling variations, combinations and hashtags in both Arabic and English.

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Uncategorized, Social Media, Buzz Reports, Conversations, Brands, Sentiment, MENA, UAE, Monitoring, Engagement, The Social Network, Twitter

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Social Media Buzz: Earth Hour in Dubai and Middle East

April 5, 2012

احنا في وسط غزة الشركة مطفية الكهرب من الساعة 3 العصر للان احتراما لكوكب الارض

(Translated: We’re in the middle of Gaza with no electricity since 3pm till now, In respect to planet earth )

Global warming emissions resulting from energy production have become a serious problem for the environment due to the growth of the world’s population. During the course of their day to day activities, people consume food, fresh water, minerals, wood, and energy. However, during the production of these daily necessities, a significant amount of pollution is created, which results in the depletion of our resource base. Raising awareness about this crucial issue, and reducing the unnecessary waste of resources, is the main reasoning behind the invention of the ‘Earth Hour Campaign’.

Propelled by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Earth Hour 2012 took place for the fifth consecutive year after its launch in Australia in 2007. As diverse as its participants were, they all stood behind one goal: By turning off all lights and other electronic devices, the energy consumption should be rationalized to set an example about the importance of protecting natural resources and environmental conservation to society…

Moreover, with the theme “I will, if you will”, Earth Hour’s YouTube platform alone generated around 4 million hits over the weekend. Thereby, more than 4400 challenges were accepted by a staggering 150,000 people committed to go beyond the hour and thinking green by recycling or doing other good deeds in the spirit of sustainability. Nowadays, a campaign such as this can attribute its tailwind to the social web: news spread quickly due to the use of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other Forums or Blogs to extend the involvement and run the campaign. The hashtag #EarthHour even made it to the trending topics in UAE on March 31^st.

Overall, this year, the campaign was a huge success globally with more than 6,525 cities, towns and municipalities in 150 countries and territories participating. Similar to the last years, the UAE and other Middle East countries joined the world’s largest environmental movement. The Earth Hour campaign, in the UAE organized by Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF (EMS-WWF) took place on March 31 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. In Dubai, the main centre in Deira and numerous other iconic buildings and landmarks, like the Burj Khalifa, switched off their electricity for one hour. “The most valuable is nothing other than our nature. We should adopt whatever methods are possible to educate public the importance of preserving environment and the value of natural resources” said Eng. Salem Mismar, Assistant Director General, Dubai Municipality.

This year Dubai achieved a record saving rate of 216,000 KW/h and 130,000 kg carbon emission, and a 6% increase in saving compared to 2011- according to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) who led the Earth Hour celebrations in the Emirate.

“The response from the community was amazing. Without a doubt, it showed that great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause” commented Simran Vedvyas, a volunteer for Earth Hour Dubai in Gulf news.

But Dubai was just an example, a vast majority of countries located in the Middle East participated in the event and saved a huge rate of energy: e.g. Oman with 53,430 KW. And also the citizens of Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and many more showed a big interest by switching off their lights at home or joining a local event on the streets.

These achievements are important, as a great man once said: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Especially in the UAE, the fast transition from traditional economy to a modern, highly urbanized country affected the environment massively. Although the UAE is constantly working on advancing the environmental situation, the ecological footprint of an average UAE resident had been the highest in the world according to the WWF Living Planet Report 2008. That is why campaigns like the Earth Hour are considered very important to fast developing regions.

The bulk of social media users thought so as well; with a substantial amount of engagement on social media, the topic was widely spread and discussed within the days leading to and after Earth Hour. During the captured time period (from 29/03/2012 to 02/04/2012), the major share of buzz (MENA region) was on the day of the event (March 31^st) with 5733 out of 9209 mentions and the bulk of the comments and posts were formulated in Arabic with 79% (English: 21%).

Over all, Twitter held the largest share of conversation, in comparison to all other social media platforms (7285 out of 9209 mentions) on this event. Hashtags in English as well as in Arabic such as #EarthHourUAE, #EarthHourDubai, #EarthHourJO, #EarthHourKSA, #ساعةالأرض, #ساعة_الأرض #ساعة_الأرض_السعودية were used to promote the event or display one’s personal feeling about it.

For the sole purpose of promoting the Earth Hour event, many Twitter accounts were created; in the Arab world for example: @EarthHourUAE, @EarthHourJordan, @EarthHourSaudi, @IksWill, @EarthHourCasa, @EarthHourAmman, and @EHMorocco. Furthermore some users were pushing the event by exchanging their profile pictures with the logo of the Earth Hour event and encouraging others to do the same.

(Translated: Change your Twitter profile picture to the Earth Hour logo, to help raise the awareness of this international event)

The majority of tweets regarding the campaign in the Arab world came from UAE, especially Dubai. But not only individuals talked about the event – there were also enterprises and government agencies involved, such as Dubai Public Prosecution, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, who were highly engaged in the event .

(Translated: Public Prosecution is inviting you to participate in the activities of Earth Hour event, next Saturday, at the Boulevard Plaza Tower beside Burj Khalifa)

The general sentiment towards the event was positive, as users showed great support by counting down to the event hour, sharing pictures of last year’s Earth Hour, and encouraging other users to support the event.

Some users were particularly innovative and creative in promoting the Earth Hour, e.g. by writing a poem about the spectacle and how it can benefit society.

Certainly there were also neutral tweets that basically consisted of links to pages and websites promoting the event just as environment related issues in general followed by the event hashtag.

However, there were some negative tweets about the event, expressing criticism on the idea of the event and claiming the need for a more effective long term solution.

Aside from engagement on Twitter, various Facebook pages were created to promote the event; some in English (Earth Hour Qata, Earth Hour Libya, Earth Hour UAE, Earth Hour Egypt…), and others in Arabic, such as: (ساعة الارض Earth Hour, Earth Hour Jordan ساعة الارض الأردن…). Furthermore there were more than 11 Facebook events established for the Earth Hour in Arabic, with about 1529 people attending. For the keyword “ساعة الأرض” (Earth Hour), there were about 866 comments posted on Facebook during the monitoring period.

The Social Media Milieu experienced continuous amounts of buzz over the period : Overall, 27 Videos were uploaded during the captured period, with a view rate up to 81,767 views and about 664 comments discussing these videos.

In comparison to other platforms, users of Message Boards and Forums showed less interest in the topic. But the interaction that took place showed the same outcome, people were mainly promoting the event and its benefits, sharing videos and photos.

“Social media is not just connecting the world but is becoming the primary organizing tool for citizens to take action. People from over 150 countries across the globe are harnessing the power of online platforms to physically care for the future of the planet,” Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley said.

Just a few days after the event, the NRDC, Opower and Facebook confirmed the launch of an app “to help social media users lower their energy use by competing” on the social network. “Motivating consumers to take action—something that has traditionally been a challenge—is the key to unlocking this potential,” NRDC said in a statement. The extent of engagement in social networks during this time showed that people are concerned about their environment, thinking outside the box and focusing on the future.

The Earth Hour was a phenomenal success – not only in the real world but also on social media. Thus, apart from the electricity and carbon emissions savings, it also reminded a lot of people of what is going on outside their offices or homes.

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that dominate current discussions on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the Earth Hour 2012, covering the Middle East. The mentioned posts and comments were captured in both English and Arabic from the 29^th of March 2012 until the 2^nd of April. The keywords for the search were: “EarthHourDubai”, “Earth Hour”, “@earthhour” ,“Earth Hour 2012”, “EarthHourJo”, “EarthHourJordan”, “EarthHourSaudi”, “EarthHour”, “EarthHourBahrain”, “EarthHourUAE”, “EarthHourDubaiStyle”, “EarthHourAbuDhabi” and “EarthHourEgypt”, all in different spellings and as well the correspondents in Arabic.

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Buzz Reports, Conversations, Engagement, Events, MENA, Monitoring, Sentiment, Social Media, The Social Network, Twitter, UAE

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THE DEATH OF SHAIMA ALAWADI: A Social Media Case Study

March 27, 2012

The power of social media has been proven time and time again, as demonstrated by the ‘Kony 2012’ outreach that went viral in a matter of days, there is however a common trend with these types of social media news outbreaks. They are often related to raw human emotion, a sense of making a difference, speaking up and defending a useful cause. This was no different in the recent killing of Shaima Alawadi, news of her tragic and brutal death dominated social media during the course of this passing week.

Shaima Alawadi died on Saturday (24.03.2012), after beeing serverly beaten on the head with a tire iron in her home on Wednesday (21.03.2012). Next to her a threatening note was found saying “go back to you country, you terrorist”. Shaima Alawadi was a 32-year-old woman, from Iraq living in El Cajon (California) with her family including five kids. The family members believe the woman may have been targeted because she was Middle Eastern and wearing a Hijab.

After news about her death was published, numerous social media communities on a variety of platforms engaged in heated discussions surrounding her tragic passing. Due to the occurrence being emotionally charged, especially because it is religious in nature, not to mention the overall sensitivity in recent years around terrorism, islamophobia and racism, it is a interesting and valuable example of how SM users disseminate news in the social media milieu.

Out of the 3176 posts captured from 21/03/12 – 25/03/12, the majority of discussions took place on Sunday with 3110 posts. The topic was discussed predominantly among males with 40% share of coverage, while 15% were female and a total of 45% were unknown. A vast majority 62% of the posts were written in English, in comparison to Arabic which made up 38%. Overall the bulk of comments captured were ascribed to Twitter, followed by Online News Sites and Blogs.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the posts were negative in sentiment, by sharing the news (e.g. “Shaima Alawadi Dead: Iraqi Woman Who Was Severely Beaten In California Home Dies http://t.co/36s2lOXv via @huffingtonpost”) or expressing the inconceivability of the incidence and of the overall situation concerning racism: “Shaima, a Muslim woman was beaten to death in California in her own home for wearing a Hijab. This world actually disgusts me… #RIPShaima”.

Especially within the Arabic language the hate of the muslim religion was questioned:

“مروه الشربيني قتلت في ألمانيا شيماء العوضي قتلت في أمريكا والسبب إرتدائهما للحجاب هل نجرؤ على قول أن الألمان والأمريكان إرهابيون؟”

(Translated: Marwa Al Sherbini was murdered in Germany , Shaima Al Awady was murdered in the USA and the reason why was because she was wearing Al Hijab, can we dare to say that Germans and Americans are terrorists?);

“اثرت بي كثيرا قصة شيماء العوضي التي قتلت بكالفورنياالهذه الدرجةوصل الحقد علينا في قلوبهم يقتلون ام لخمسة اطفال بسبب حجاب على رأسها”

(Translated: I was so sad to hear Shaima’s story, do they hate us that much? They murder a mother of five kids because she is wearing Hijab).

However, some of the entries were more positive in tone, by expressing condolences to the family and looking forward to a better world or calling for justice, like: “RIP Shaima Alawadi. My thoughts & prayers are with your family. I hope that whoever committed this heinous crime will be brought to justice” or “رحمة الله عليج شيماء العوضي” (translated: May GOD bless your soul Shaima Al Awadi).

Moreover, 10% of social media users compared Alawadi’s death to that of Trayvon Martin (17 year old), by identifying both as hate crimes and drawing a parallel between a hoodie and a hijab. Martin was killed in February by George Zimmerman, who said he was acting in self-defense and has still not been charged to this day – Martin was unarmed but was wearing a hoodie.

Sunday saw the likes of thousands of users tweeting for the cause with words like “A teenager murdered for wearing a hoody. A woman murdered for wearing a hijab. Our hearts ache for you. #RIPTrayvonMartin #RIPShaima”.

According to our Buzz-Analysis, Twitter was the key platform in spreading news and conversing about the death of Shaima Alawadi mainly by using the Hashtags #RIPshaima, #JusticeforShaima, #ShaimaAlawadi and #MillionHijabMarch.

The Hashtag #RIPshaima was even listed on the Twitter trend list for the UAE, which resulted in people engaging about the incident and spreading the information: “I’m going to start a twitter campaign to show interfaith support for Shaima Alawadi (and her fam)- anyone interested in joining in?”.

Similarly, Facebook was used as a discussion platform, instantaneously by Sunday morning there were already three pages launched, where users expressed their feelings about the death of Shaima Alawadi and Monday morning saw the likes of an additional 3 pages. The various pages already had up to almost 3000 likes:

In addition, there were numerous discussions and articles in the blogosphere, which surrounded the death of Shaima, such as an online campaign for justice, and various other empathic statements and even Pinterest had content related to her passing.

In conclusion, as proven in the results of our buzz-analysis, an incident like the death of Shaima Alawadi was heavily discussed within the social media environment – it was powerful enough to spill over from traditional media channels onto the blogosphere with thousands of social media users fighting for justice. We can attribute the volumes to the fact that the story around Shaima Alawadi is not only representative of the tragedy of an individual but is addressing the wide and emotional area of racism that is felt by the masses.

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that dominate current discussions on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the death of Shaima Alawadi , covering all countries. The mentioned posts and comments were captured in both English and Arabic from the 21^st of March 2012 until the 25^th of March. The keywords for the search were: “Shaima and California”, “Shaima Alawadi”, the Hashtag “#RIPshaima”, all in different spellings and as well the correspondents in Arabic.

Category:

Buzz Reports, Conversations, MENA, Monitoring, Sentiment, Social Media, The Social Network, Twitter, UAE, Uncategorized

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March 18, 2012

Interested about Pinterest? Then this Buzz Report should be just the right thing for you!

Next to a collection of general information around it, you will find our analysis of posts since January in UAE according to Pinterest.

However in this Buzz-report we diversified a bit from the usual article format and experimented with the use of prezi. We would love to get your feedback on the new design of our Buzz-Report, as well as any other suggestions you may have.

You will have the best view after clicking on the prezi-frame by using the “fullscreen” option (click on “more” on the right corner of the prezi-frame and select “fullscreen”). And thereafter navigate by use of the left arrow key.

If you prefer the written version of the Buzz-Report, you will find it below the prezi.

We hope you enjoy it!

BUZZ – Report: Pinterest

If you haven’t already heard of it, Pinterest, the rising star of the Social Web was launched in 2010 and the online platform soon flourished gaining more and more active “Pinners”. But what actually hides behind those nine letters? And what makes Pinterest so alluring for millions of active users?

According to its website, Pinterest is a “virtual pinboard” that “allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web”, within clicks people can decorate their accounts with pictures showcasing their personal interests, for example in food, fashion or sports.

The Mastermind behind the site was Ben Silbermann, who loved to collect bugs when he was a child. This led him to the thought that other people may just have a similar passion for collecting, which served as the motivation to craft Pinterest .The development began in December 2009 and the site was finally launched in March of the following year.

A true story of success: Statistics show that 1.36 million internet users visit the webpage daily with an increasing amount of unique visitors of 2700% since March 2011. Today Pinterest drives more traffic than Youtube, Google+ and Linkedin combined (Shareaholic Blog, comScore & TechCrunch). In consequence: Pinterest can be considered as one of the fastest-growing websites in history – naturally it also caught our attention.

SocialEyez’ Buzz-Analysis from January 1st until March 14^th captured 760 posts based on the keyword “Pinterest” in the UAE. The daily volume of posts shows a rising buzz since January peaking at the end of February.

Pinterest was discussed mainly via Twitter, which resulted in plenty of users connecting their Twitter account to their Pinterest account. Although statistically the majority of the Pinterest users are female our captured posts show more male activity within the UAE.

One of the most frequently discussed subjects was the future and the popularity of Pinterest. For instance, “Pinterest – hot new network or another Quora?: Is Pinterest a flash in social networking pan? […]”. Likewise the posts contained the pros and cons compared to other networks and the subjective evaluation of Pinterest: “I don’t get Pinterest and I’m not really sure I can afford to get hooked to a new social/news/interest network.” or “Pinterest is fabulous! All the awesome pics you wanna share w/people w/out having to spam Facebook!”. Next to the personal aversion for Pinterest, users were complaining about the privacy and copyright issues: “I’d just prefer to pay for Pinterest so they make $ & there aren’t threats of future sale of my content & sneaky affiliate URLs”. As a last big topic there were numerous posts about how to use Pinterest as an online-marketing tool: “8 Strategies for Launching a Brand Presence on Pinterest […]”.

This area of focus is generally a big topic in the trending social media discussion, evidently due to Pinterest’s high marketing potential. That is why brands go online with Pinterest, set up pages, and form collaborations. Nowadays even other websites have started embedding “pin it” buttons inviting visitors to enrich Pinterest pages with pictures, Facebook integrated Pinterest in January which increased the number of Facebook users who visited Pinterest daily by 60 percent (Facebook Developers). Regarding those developments there should absolutely be no doubt why Times Magazine listed Pinterest as one of the “50 Best Websites of 2011”.

Scope Note:

The Buzz Report monitors trends and themes that recently buzzed on various Social Media platforms. This explicit search was conducted about the developments of Pinterest in UAE. The mentioned posts and comments were captured from the 1st January 2012 until the 14th of March.

If you are further interested in monitoring any special event, political development or a certain brand/product we welcome you to contact us at info@social-eyez.com. We also appreciate any suggestions and improvements for this Blog. Also follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook-Page to get regular updates regarding future Buzz Reports.

Category:

Buzz Reports, Social Media, Special Reports

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