Matt Upshall Blog Post 1

In our last few classes we touched upon the topic of the Arab Spring and the role that social media played in the situation. Most of our class seemed to conclude that social media was a factor in the Arab Spring that created opportunity, spread information and united groups to help implement change. I personally don't think the Arab Spring would have been nearly as effective without the help of twitter and Facebook.

Keeping this in mind, I see the Middle East is growing from an electronic standpoint and digital marketing trends are growing rapidly across the pond. Statistics show that the number of Facebook and social media users have skyrocketed in the last few years. Roughly 30.2 Million people in the middle east are active on Facebook and other social media. Saudi Arabia's percentage of twitter users jumped 240% in 2010, a massive increase for a year! With all the talk about how effective or not social media was to fostering change in the Middle East, do you think that this 240 % increase reinforces amount of power that social media holds?

In an effort to connect this to my major in marketing, the following link http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/130-interesting-digital-marketing-trends-in-the-middle-east discusses the current digital marketing trends in the Middle East. Recent Budget changes in the middle east reflect how and where the effort of marketers are going. Almost 30 % of all marketing budgets are directed towards the use of social media. Reflecting the important role that social media plays, not only pertaining to the Arab Spring but also as the most dominant way for Marketers to reach their target audience.