Social media has become a crucial element in today’s communications strategy, effectively supporting conventional media, said an expert.

“This type of digital media does not pose a threat to conventional media; on the contrary social media plays a great role by offering Arab users an interactive communications channel that connects them with main electronic portals of the traditional media, including dailies, magazines, radio and TV channels,” said Mohamed Elzubeir, managing director and founder of Mediastow, a leading media monitoring agency.

Speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the company for its research and evaluation teams, Elzubeir said that social media complements conventional media through maximization of traffic on websites by linking end-users of media content to these websites, be they newspapers, magazines, television or radio.

Elzubeir added that there is a significant increase in the number of organizations from the government and private sectors that want to adopt social media in their marcom campaigns.

While advertising in print, broadcast and OOH (out-of-home) media has been witnessing a decline in interest, uptake in social media as a marketing tool continues to gain momentum.

Elzubeir said the focus should now be on adding the social component to traditional media publishers and broadcasters in order to engage their readers and watchers if they wanted to bring advertisers back to the table.

“Social media works for any industry or sector that needs to engage with its customers or clients, in government or private sector, regardless of size,” he said.

“There is growing awareness amongst marketing practitioners in the region of the efficacy of social media in boosting two-way interaction, instead of using a monologue approach of the conventional media,” Elzubeir concluded. – TradeArabia News Service