The automotive industry is the industry that involves a wide range of companies participating in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles of all shapes, sizes and uses. We conducted thorough analysis on the automotive industry on social media within the MENA region in 2018. The data in this article on the automotive industry is based on our analysis of the top 9 automotive companies' social media accounts and top 15 car brands in UAE. All data in this article is generated through the Crowd Analyzer tool. 

Activities Of The Automotive Industry on Social Media:

Top MENA Contributors to UAE Automotive Industry Buzz:

Although the monitored pages and brands within the automotive industry on social media originated specifically from UAE, users from several countries across the region, including non-Arab countries, contributed to the buzz by mentioning and interacting with these pages, brands, and topics.

As shown above, almost 61% of the user-generated content was published from UAE. The rest was composed  of contributions from other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the most active countries by contributing with 9.3% and 6.3% of the interactions, respectively.

Cars, Gender and Location

• Business Accounts

Of course, UAE Business accounts were the highest, making up more than 62% of the country’s overall buzz. On the contrary, Turkeys business accounts were the least contributing, representing slightly more than 22% of Turkey’s  activity.

• Male Users & Female Users

As one would expect for the automotive industry on social media, female users were not very interested in the automotive industry, as the highest contribution of female users came from UAE, with only 5.1% contribution to the buzz. The lowest female contribution came from Saudi Arabia, with only 1.2% of Saudi Arabia’s buzz published by females.

Turkey’s male users had the biggest contribution to their country’s buzz, where they make up more than 74% of online activities.

Which Language is Used in the Automotive Industry?

Turkey, being a Non-Arab country, of course had the majority of content published in English. Egyptians came second in using English to talk and post about the automotive industry. Also UAE users prefered to publish in English, as 63% of the UAE buzz was created in English.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait posted in Arabic. Saudi Arabia took the lead by having 81% of their content published in Arabic, while Kuwait had more than 69% of their online content in Arabic. Last but not least, Qatari users had almost 63% of their tweets and posts in Arabic rather than English.

Which Countries Were More Pleased?

Sentimental content is the content that displays an opinion; satisfaction or dissatisfaction in a service or a product. We measure sentiment for the automotive industry on social media regardless of neutral posts that do not display any opinion.

Countries with the highest sentiments

Users in Kuwait were the most expressive of their opinion. Whether it is positive or negative, around 30% of posts, tweets, and replies from Kuwait expressed an opinion about cars and automotive services. Qatar followed Kuwait with almost 25% of their posts displaying a sentiment. Egypt came in the 3rd place with 24.7% of its posts and tweets revealing a sentiment. On the other hand, the lowest country with sentimental activities was Turkey that had almost 89% of its activities as neutral.

Countries With The Highest Negative Sentiment

Even though positive activities were much higher than the negative ones, it is still essential for any industry to study the market and to meet its requirements. Saudi Arabia’s negative posts composed 30% of the country’s sentimental content. Qatar came in the second place with 17.3% of their sentimental content displaying negative messages. Egypt was the third country in terms of negative content, as 16.5% of sentimental content displayed dissatisfaction.

Online Channels, Social Media Platforms, & The Automotive Industry

Selecting the right platform for online marketing reserves a huge portion of the strategy. Different markets prefer different platforms. Hence, this section will further analyze the relevance of the each platform and channel to different genders and countries.

Aside from Twitter, which will be covered later in this section in the special addition about the Dubai Motor Show,  Instagram was the most utilized platform in the automotive industry. more than 89% of monitored content about the automotive industry was published on Instagram, followed by 5.01% on forums. It is quite insightful to know that 5% of users use forums to know more about the automotive industry and cars.

Genders’ Contribution to Every Channel

• Business Accounts

Business accounts took the lead over the whole buzz through composing the majority of online activities on forums, blogs, and news websites. It is essential to know that these channels serve the automotive industry to reach customers, especially that, as shown in the graph, individuals are very active on Instagram and forums mainly.

•  Male Users VS. Female Users

Male users were very active on Instagram, as they composed and interacted with more than 59% of the content on the channel. The presence of female users was barely evident on different online platforms. We understand that ladies are not as interested in the industry as the gentlemen. This is probably the rationale behind the different rate of activity.

Sentiment Contribution For Every Channel

As shown above, almost 61% of the user-generated content was published from UAE. The rest was composed of contributions from other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the most active countries by contributing with 9.3% and 6.3% of the interactions, respectively.

Males, Females and Business Accounts

Online content about the automotive industry in UAE was dominated by the male users generating almost half of the buzz. Business accounts followed up by creating 41% of the content related to the automotive industry.

Which Channels Did Each Gender Prefer?

• Business Accounts

Workers in any industry need to know which platforms are their counterparts using to reach their audience. Business accounts of the automotive industry were more fond of using Instagram, as well as News websites, and blogs. 58% of the UAE automotive activities by Business accounts were generated on Instagram.

• Male Users VS. Female Users

Surprisingly as well, almost 6% of female activities were generated by news authors. Unlike male news authors which represented only 3% of the activities by males.

Which Gender Showed More Satisfaction?

Business accounts took the lead over the whole buzz through composing the majority of online activities on forums, blogs, and news websites. It is essential to know that these channels serve the automotive industry to reach customers, especially that, as shown in the graph, individuals are very active on Instagram and forums mainly.

Which Language Was Used By Which Gender?

• Business Accounts

Business accounts preferred to publish the vast majority of their content in English. We would assume that with UAE being a very diverse country, it is safest to publish in English, to ensure reaching all customers.

• Male Users VS. Female Users

Female users, as well, preferred to publish in English. Although their activity isn’t at all high, however more than 71% of their content was in English. On the other hand, 60.3% of male users preferred publishing in Arabic.

Brief Analysis of Online Content In English & Arabic

 Activities in Arabic were relatively higher than activities in English with percentages of 56% and 44% respectively.

How Did Business Accounts, Male Users, & Female Users Contribute to Each Language?

• Business Accounts

Business accounts are responsible for 58.4% of English content. Business accounts still published some of their content in Arabic, as they composed 31.1% of the Arabic content.

• Male Users VS. Female Users

Male users, on the contrary, owned more than 64% of the Arabic content. Male users’ contribution to the English content did not exceed 32.5%. Female users had almost 9.2%.

 Platforms & Language

The Arabic language activities were mainly concentrated at Instagram with 94% followed by 4% on News. English activities on Instagram. 71.8% of the English Activities were created on Instagram. News and blogs gained together 26% of all English activities, unlike the Arabic language which was 5.5%.

Check out more exciting insights in our recent blog article on social media in the Ride Sharing industry which is also part of The State Of Social Media Report. With insights covering the overall state of social media within the Financial Technology (FinTech) sector in the MENA region.

How Much of Content Was Sentimental?

24.5% of the total activities within the automotive industry on social media expressed and indicated a sentiment. After analyzing the negative content, we were reassured that online users were complaining about car brands, as expected. Meanwhile,  online users who expressed a positive sentiment in their content where complementing the style of the cars, and some were recommending them.

Genders’ Contribution to Sentimental Content

• Business Accounts

Business accounts did not express any sentiment in their published content. However, their contribution was remarkable to neutral posts and content.

• Male Users VS. Female Users

Female users’ content composed more than 9% of the positive content in the buzz. While male users reserved the majority in negative and positive content, as they reserve their place as the main contributors to the automotive industry’s online content.

The automotive industry on social media is only one of 8 industries that were covered in the State of Social Media 2018.

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