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Rediscovering the power of digital communication

The two-day Internet Show starting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday is testimony to how integral a part of marketing the web has become.

Industry experts are excited about it as the platform offers them a chance to share case studies and insights on how businesses could be driven by their target audience.

Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10 per cent of all internet time.

Social media has become a business phenomenon and its growth has been driven by global communities that have been networked on websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

However, the growth in popularity of social networks – and the resultant broadening audience – is only half the story. The staggering increase in the amount of time people are spending on these sites is changing the way people spend their time online and has ramifications for how people behave, share and interact within their normal daily lives.

“It provides us a great opportunity to educate people and our clients about the benefits of digital marketing. We as an agency also offer free digital seminars because we realise that education is the key and that is why the Internet show is something that is so attractive to us,” Flip Media CEO Yousef Tuqan Tuqan told Khaleej Times exclusively.

“Brands are now realising that people do not believe in what they see, they believe what the others believe. Consumer driven branding is the new wave which is now driving more user generated content. Facebook ‘Places’ app opens up a whole new dimension of marketing. Brands can now connect with consumers 24x7 and also know where they are”, Yousef says.

Consequently, global media and advertising industries are faced with new challenges around the opportunities and risks this new consumer medium creates. Social networks provide competition to traditional publishers for consumer attention and at the same time, facilitate new ways for publishers and advertisers to connect with their audiences.

Uday Subramaniam fromidoyourjob.comsays: “Our participation at the ADNEC event is crucial for us as it is directly tied up with the launch of the Beta version of our website. The Internet Show being the first of its kind in the region, we feel that being a sponsor would leverage our position among other prominent Internet businesses in the region and provide us the exposure we require to showcase our services.idoyourjob.comaims to be the gateway to the service industry in the Middle East.Our participation in this show is to reinforce just how serious we are about providing a quality online B2B marketplace in the region.”

Consumer engagement within social networks has the potential to change the way consumers are targeted, not just through the web, but through all forms of traditional media.

“The Internet Show is an excellent forum for the digital industry to collaborate and grow their respective businesses. At this event you can seek expertise from a specific field, obtain key industry learnings by attending relevant seminars and meet digital industry professionals. Key insight about the internet from digital research experts such as Effective Measure is also on display at partner stands such as Khaleej Times,” Dinesh Arasaratnam, Commercial Director, Effective Measure MENA says.

While a few billion dollars of ad revenue can’t be wrong, the prevailing wisdom is that the current level of advertising activity on social networks is not perfectly in sync with the size – and highly engaged levels – of the audience.

The Internet Show will offer a platform to discover how businesses can engage, empower and develop themselves by aligning their strategies with industry trends.