Ooredoo Companies Take Social Media Lead

Ooredoo’s Social Media Initiatives Drive Leading Customer Experience; Asiacell in Iraq Reaches Major Milestone of 1 Million Facebook ‘Likes’

Mobilk - Ooredoo companies across the world are investing and extending their social media presence to deliver a leading customer experience as customers increasingly use social media to connect with their communications provider, friends and family.

Social media has proven to be the most effective way for Ooredoo companies to reach out and interact with customers in line with the brand’s three key values of “caring, connecting and challenging”. Reflecting this trend, the number of initiatives, social media partnerships, dedicated Facebook pages, and online communities supported by Ooredoo companies has increased exponentially in the past three years.

Ooredoo’s strategy has been to work with the leading social media companies, in addition to connecting and interacting with a diverse range of communities across its international footprint. This has led to large followings on social media accounts and strong take-up of innovative social media services online, and on smartphones and feature phones. 

Dr. Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, Ooredoo, said: “Social media is increasingly at the heart of the service we provide for all our customers. We are already seeing our online presence as the most popular way for customers to contact us with questions and requests, and we’re looking to offer new services in the coming months to transform the whole customer experience. Social media is moving beyond simple customer relations – it is about building a whole new type of relationship with our customers.”

At an international level, the company has launched the new “Play for Dreams” online portal this month, with its global brand ambassador Leo Messi (www.playfordreams.com).  Ooredoo premiered the portal with a series of short films, capturing the moment when it teamed up with the Leo Messi Foundation to bring dreams to life for a special group of children.

Companies are using social media in innovative ways to enable customers to care for their friends and family. One prime example from Ooredoo companies is a Mother’s Day Facebook application from Wataniya Mobile Palestine. Hundreds of customers living in Palestine and throughout the global diaspora used the Facebook app to design a Mother’s Day greeting card that was delivered to mothers in-person in Palestine.

Around the world, communications companies are connecting with new and exciting forms of online communities. Supporting Tunisia’s digital innovators, Tunisiana has sponsored the first-ever Tunisiana Web Awards. Currently the company is organising the first Tunisiana Digital Meetup to bring together social media influencers, and an awards ceremony for its Facebook Developer Challenge.

Further engaging with key social media players, Nawras held its first-ever Tweetup in 2013, taking Oman’s leading Twitter users on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Nawras campus. Nawras received recognition for its efforts at the Pan Arab Web Awards 2013, where CEO Ross Cormack was named “Telecommunications Man of the Year,” and Nawras won “Best Website”in the telecommunications category. 

Nawras also recently won two prestigious Bronze Lion Awards at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The two awards recognise Nawras for their unique promotion of Nawras Wi-Fi at the Muscat Grand Mall in Omans capital.

Challenging its youthful customer base, Indosat reached more than 3 million social media users to help design a birthday celebration for the lead singer of JKT48, an Indonesian pop group and brand ambassador, while more than 400,000 social media users participated in a Twitter contest related to popular Korean actor Lee Min-ho.

By partnering with leading social media companies, Ooredoo companies have enhanced the customer experience and local and international communication. Many Ooredoo companies have seen strong take up of services including Gmail SMS Chat, enabling customers to have SMS conversations with their Gmail contacts, and using SMS to update Facebook and Twitter. In Tunisia, many Tunisiana customers have used Facebook for featurephone, which delivers a near-smartphone customer experience.

Throughout its footprint in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, Ooredoo companies are among the market leaders in number of social media fans and followers. 

Asiacell in Iraq is now the first communications company in the Arabian Gulf and Levant regions to reach 1 million Facebook “likes”, while Nedjma won “Best Facebook Page” at the first Algeria Web Awards 2012, and is the country’s most popular Facebook page with more than 590,000 “likes”. 

Named as the top social media brand in Qatar, Ooredoo has more than 275,000 Facebook “likes”, and more than 67,000 followers combined on its Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube accounts. Ooredoo Qatar has also seen more than 40,000 customers download its trend-setting Ooredoo mobile application. 

Dr. Nasser Marafih concluded: “Social media is evolving and transforming every day, and we want to stay on the cutting-edge of these developments. The strides taken by Ooredoo companies in recent months are only our first steps towards providing an entirely different online experience for all our customers.”