Promote a country on the Internet - what governments in the Middle East can do
In an earlier article Votes from the Internet - the Most popular Middle Eastern Gulf country, I talked about the popularity of different Gulf countries using a keyword research tool. Dubai is the clear top choice. To push the idea forward, here I’d like to talk about what governments can do to promote their country on the Internet
Why should governments care about online promotion? It is important from Nationals identity perspective!
The Middle East gives a not-so-good impression to foreigners. Let’s look at the numbers
Top keywords associated with the Middle East or Africa or Iraq
It is a pity that all the top 10 keywords related to the Middle East, Africa and Iraq are negative associations. Because of sampling methodology, this may not represent the views of most Internet users, but it does reflect the views of a large number of Internet users. To change how their countries are perceived by foreigners, governments in the Middle East should act
Other benefits from promoting a country online
To name a few, governments can benefit from
- Increased foreign investment
- More tourists and higher tourism spending
- Improved foreign relations
What governments should do - use online marketing techniques like businesses do
It is not rocket science. Governments can take simple steps to promote their countries online
- Create English websites for government departments. Websites of many ministries are in Arabic. One example is Kuwait’s Ministry of Planning. It provides very useful information about the Kuwaiti economy for businesses and potential investors. Yet the information is only in Arabic. The English version has little information, and it was updated in 2001
- Advertise on the Internet targeting specific keywords. Dubai is attracting lots of Internet traffic. If another Gulf country wants to increase its exposure, one good way is to target keywords related to Dubai. If a place like Qatar is competing with Dubai for businesses and tourists, it should advertise on search engines, and aim to display Qatar websites when people search for Dubai keywords. These are the top 10 keywords on Dubai that other Gulf countries can target
- Dubai
- Cheap flights Dubai
- Dubai map
- Burj Dubai
- Jobs in Dubai
- Dubai jobs
- Dubai hotels
- Jobs opportunities in Dubai
- Map of Dubai
- Dubai hotel
- Create portals to promote their countries. If I google Qatar, Qatar Airways shows up on top. This shouldn’t be the case when a government is serious about promoting its country. On this aspect, Gulf countries can learn from Singapore. If I type Singapore on google, the first result is an official government portal promoting tourism called Uniquely Singapore. The third result is called Singapore Infomap, an all-purpose portal for foreigners interested in playing, working, studying and doing business in Singapore. It is run by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts
Online promotion needs to be met by offline delivery
If a government really takes the steps to promote their country online, perhaps a country like Bahrain can match the popularity of Dubai with relatively little efforts, at least on the Internet. More importantly, online marketing should be met by actual experience. From the moment when visitors come to a country, they should be able to experience good hospitality. Again, Dubai’s e-Gate is a great success
Read what other bloggers write about the Middle East, some posts touch the government’s stance towards the Internet (good and bad, un-censored and un-official, but these are the stories they tell over the Internet)
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