Social Media’s Impact on Entrepreneurship’s Ecosystem in the Middle East

Without a doubt, Social Media has a great impact on the development of the economic and entrepreneurial performance as well as the economic growth globally, especially after the increase of the number of social media users in the Middle East and globally. Which increased the impact of social media on the individual’s daily life, not only personally but also professionally, and also it became a huge source of inspiration for entrepreneurs from around the globe.

And lately, a lot of initiatives – in different sectors- in the Middle East were able to appear because of the impact of social media such as “Arab Social Media Influencers Summit,  where a lot of people showcased their experiments, projects, ideas, and talents.

(Source: A Look Upon Social Media in the Middle East 2014)

Egypt, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia are considered the first when it comes to social media usage, which proves the importance of social media in the Middle East, as it helped in changing our daily routine and helped in making the whole world appear as one. It also helped in changing a lot of concepts for example the recruitment process, now HR Managers can easily choose and hire the suitable candidates only through looking into their CVs online through LinkedIn.

As for Facebook, it’s not only a tool used for fun or connecting with friends but also you can use it to reach out for millions of people from all around the world and hence people consider Facebook as an important marketing tool. For example, people market their products online and have profit without the need to have an offline office. Moreover, some studies proved Facebook has a big influence on pushing people to buy products.

(Source: Social Media Mass in the Middle East)

The following image shows how Facebook is used in the Middle East, and also you can use social media in analyzing the customer behavior and hence you can take advantage of it and sell your products. For example in Cairo, some youth decided to beat the traffic and organize some bike riding trips on weekly basis through Facebook.

Also YouTube has shown a very high potential of being a substitute for the traditional media where a lot of people can post their own videos pricelessly. So these platforms can be used by entrepreneurs to promote for their products innovatively. One big advantage for social media is that the publisher can directly get the feedback continuously; moreover, you can watch the video whenever it suits you.

The Social Media has a huge ability in advocating the talent database, scaling up job opportunities, and supporting entrepreneurship in the Middle East. On the other hand, you can follow up on the exchange rate globally from your smart phone if you stayed connected.

However, this doesn’t mean that there are some disadvantages such as being a tool for the rise of rumors where it can affect the community and the funds in a negative way. But at the end that doesn’t mean that the social media didn’t play a huge role in supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and helped in changing a traditional economy to a knowledgeable one.