ictQATAR Releases Social Media White Paper!

In a newly released white paper, "ictQATAR: Creating a Strategic Presence in Social Media," ictQATAR presents its social media journey and details its eight-stage strategy for enhancing its social media efforts, as well as twelve tips for creating an effective social media strategy.

Qatar Living is mentioned in the Paper, with a special case study on the site's success and ictQATAR's experience with it. Over one million posts have been made to Qatar Living in 1645 days - a great achievement for sure.

The paper includes specific case studies on social media usage by ictQATAR across a variety of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Qatar Living and Qatar Shares. It is meant to serve as an example for other organizations, specifically government bodies, on how they can effectively use social media to engage their key audiences.

"ictQATAR has found social media to be an extremely powerful way to connect with our stakeholders and receive valuable feedback and insight on a variety of programs and initiatives. It has truly helped us build a dialogue with our constituents," said Howaida Nadim, ictQATAR's Executive Director of Communications. ""We hope this white paper will encourage more organizations in Qatar to integrate social media into their outreach plans and tap into the powerful two-way communications it enables."

In the white paper, the eight-steps outlined for ictQATAR's social media efforts were:

1. Establishing a Share of Voice
2. Developing Clear Social Media Goals
3. Identifying Key Social Media Sites and Focusing on Them
4. Setting a Content Strategy
5. Selecting the Right Tools
6. Engaging and Facilitating Conversations
7. Monitoring Progress
8. Establishing a Growth Strategy

ictQATAR plans to present the white paper to numerous government and non-governmental organizations to help them understand the benefits of social media and demystify some of the concerns about engaging in it. The white paper will also be presented to at numerous universities in Qatar, specifically to marketing, communications, media and IT students.

The white paper, "ictQATAR: Creating a Strategic Presence in Social Media," is available online at www.ictQATAR.qa To request a hard copy, email [email protected].