Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer-finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds, and more. We conducted thorough analysis on social media in finance within the MENA region in 2018. This article is based on insights we got through monitoring online public activities about financial topics like wealth management and several types of accounts, loans, insurances, and more all across Instagram, News websites, Blogs, and Forums in the MENA region. All data in this article is generated through the Crowd Analyzer tool. 

Social Media In Finance Activities

The top 4 countries on social media in finance were Gulf countries leading the activities with a total of 81.77% of the total. GCC countries in total owned 87.81% of the activities.

Genders and Business Accounts

• Business Accounts

Business accounts were the most participating accounts in the Finance. Bahraini business accounts were the most active in their market, as they composed more than 75% of the content. Even though they still owned the majority of content in UAE, Emirati business accounts ranked least active among other monitored countries by publishing slightly more than 59% of the countries buzz.

• Male Users VS Female Users

Female accounts activities had been the minimum in every country while male users kept almost the same rate of activity across the monitored countries, which ranges between 20.5% in KSA and 24.22% in Bahrain.

Language Preference Across Different Countries

Language is very diverse across countries. Although all monitored countries are GCC countries, the density of used languages reveals a lot about the market, and assists in knowing how prospects in these countries should be targeted. For instance, Arabic composed 72% of content in Bahrain. On the contrary, only 17% of UAE’s content was in Arabic. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were split with their content split in half between the two languages.  

Users of Which Country Expressed More Sentiment?

Kuwaiti users had the highest number of sentimental posts with 30% of their activities expressing opinions on social media in finance. The lowest sentimental activities came from Bahrain that had almost 90% of its activities as neutral. Overall, positive sentiment was extremely higher than negative sentiment.

Online Platforms & Financial Services

Which Platforms Were Preferred by Different Genders?

• Business Accounts

Business accounts were the most participating across all channels in social media in finance, their highest participation was in news websites, owning 85% of their content. Meanwhile, their lowest participation, which was still a majority, was on Instagram with 57% of Instagram’s content being owned by business accounts. Male

• Users VS Female Users

Male users’ activities dominated over female users’ participation in all channels. Female users barely did not exceed 4% of the content on all platforms except for Instagram, where female users owned 15% of the platform’s content.

Which Platforms Contained Users’ Opinions?

The most commonly used platform to express opinion on social media in finance is Instagram, which had 22% of its content sentimental. On the other hand, blogs included the least sentimental content by having no more than 8% of their content sentimental.

Positive content on Instagram was almost double the negative content on the platform. While forums had almost equal percentage of both sentiments. Blogs had 5% negative content and 3% positive content.

Business Accounts & Individual Users

Which Channels Did Each Gender & Business Accounts Prefer?

Business accounts as well as individuals used Instagram to publish their finance-related content. Leaving Instagram aside, news websites were used in 3% of business accounts and male users. Blogs and forums were used by 2% of business accounts and male users. 1% of female users were active on news websites, an equal number to those used blogs. While 98% of female users used Instagram, none at all used forums.

What Did Individuals Express? (Sentiment analysis)

While sentimental content composed 29% of male users’ content and 26% of female users’, this seems like enough content to measure the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of individual online users. The majority of sentimental content actually expressed a positive sentiment. However, male users aren’t as satisfied as female users, as 12% of their content was negative, compared to 8% for female users.

Which Language Did Individuals & Business Accounts Use The Most?

• Business accounts

Business accounts posted in Arabic and English almost equally. Their buzz was composed of 54% Arabic content, while 46% was in English. We assume that this should be the case as financial services are meant to target different segments with different language preferences.

• Male Users VS Female Users

Female users preferred to publish 59% of their content in English, while male users were more prone to use Arabic, composing 70% of their content in Arabic.

Arabic, English, & Financial Services

How Did Business Accounts & Genders Contribute to Each Language?

Activities in English were owned by an equal percentage of females and males and business accounts were the highest by 64%. In Arabic, 57% of the activities were made by Business accounts followed by 33% for males and finally 10% female users.

Language Preference Across Different Channels

While Instagram was the most utilized platform for finance, it’s only expected that the majority of activity in both languages will be on Instagram. 91% of Arabic content was published on Instagram compared to 96% for English content. News Websites were the second most used in both languages with low percentages of 3% and 2% for English and Arabic respectively. All the content published on Forums was in Arabic.

Check out more exciting insights in our recent blog article on social media in the FinTech sector 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.

Satisfied? Unsatisfied? What Does The Sentiment Reveal?

How Did Each Gender Contribute to Each Sentiment? 

Male users dominated sentimental activities (both negative and positive) while business accounts were responsible for 68% of the neutral sentiment. Business accounts in general do not reveal much sentiment in their content, as most of their content is about services they offer or promotions. On the contrary, individual users are more prone to show sentiment as they display opinions, and often use social media to complain or recommend products and services.

Sentiment per Channel

Instagram was the most sentimental channel for people interested in the financial industry in the Middle East. While, news dominated the neutral sentiment by 100%.

The Social Media in Finance is only one of 8 industries that were covered in the State of Social Media 2018. Download your free copy to access the comprehensive report with all the data and insights.