Islamic finance needs social media

There are 1.2 billion Muslim mobile phone users, according to the Thomson Reuters/Dinarstandard study on the global Islamic economy 2012, and let’s assume 10% use smartphones. There are close to an estimated 500 million Muslim youth under 30, and they are social media-savvy, faith-inspired, connected to the Internet via their phones, and they are the middle class in the wait.

So what is the Islamic finance strategy to connect to them so that they become intergenerational loyal customers?

If we look at leaders in the Islamic finance hubs, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, we see leaders that are active Twitter users (as of May 3, 2015):

Sh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum: 58 following, 3.9 million followers, 3,101 tweets

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak: 140 following, 2.4 million followers, 8,140 tweets

[Barak Obama: 643.1k following, 58.7 million followers and 13.4k tweets]

[Sami Yusuf, performer: 19 following, 430.8k followers and 12k tweets]

The important point is, both leaders have large followings and connect to their followers by tweeting. Twitter provides “access” to leaders, and leaders to constituents, where followers can favourite, retweet or comment; hence the former, via their social media team, have an immediate or real time pulse on the sentiments of the people beyond traditional offline media sources on laws/regulations, developments, accomplishments etc.

[I have not examined Facebook, LinkedIn or other media platforms, but safe to assume they are probably more active as many of the “(wo)men on the street” use Facebook over Twitter.]

Islamic banks

There are lessons for Islamic banks/CEOs’ connectivity to the depositor customer. Because it’s an Islamic bank, there is not a only a spiritual connection but, more importantly, a spiritual journey with the bank by the customer. Their reason for choosing an Islamic bank over a conventional (or a window) is because of the high value accorded to following Islamic principals on financing, funding, investing and insuring.

A sampling of Islamic banks and their CEOs for tweeting is mentioned below. First, it's a positive signal that such CEOs are on Twitter, as they have to inspire internal staff and external customers. Second, to be fair to them and the banks, smaller numbers may be due to a variety of reasons: lack of dedicated time (can have a social media team for the bigger banks), not “new news”, confidentiality and the embryonic nature of social media in the respective country.

[I have not included their last dated tweet, but it’s another indicator of connectivity to their community. Some of the numbers (as of May 3, 2015) are surprising low, hence readers should check on their own devices.]

Dubai Islamic Bank: 81 following, 2,939 followers and 1,702 tweets

Adnan Chilwan (CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank): 7 following, 1,265 followers and 115 tweets

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank: 1,092 following, 7,334 followers and 2,868 tweets

Tirad Mahmoud (CEO of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank): 72 following, 457 followers and 1,008 tweets

Noor Bank: 59 following, 5,306 followers and 1,380 tweets

Hussain Al Qemzi (CEO of Noor Islamic Bank): 141 following, 107 followers and 1,102 tweets

Alizz Islamic Bank (Oman): 40 following, 746 followers 436 tweets

CIMB Islamic (Malaysia): 39 following, 3 followers, tweets are protected

Badlisyah Abdul Ghani (CEO of CIMB Islamic): 13 following, 220 followers and 78 tweets

Fajr Capital: 596 following, 1,566 followers and 382 tweets

Iqbal Khan (CEO of Fajr Capital): 285 following, 1,054 followers and 242 tweets

Kuwait Finance House: 5 following, 118,000 followers and 27,000 tweets

Al Rajhi Bank: 1 following, 356,700 followers and 20,000 tweets

Bahrain Islamic Bank: 0 following, 679 followers and 2,081 tweets

Qatar Islamic Bank: 47 following, 10,200 followers and 4,560 tweets

Meezan Bank (Pakistan): 68 following, 1,084 followers and 232 tweets

Bank Asya (Turkey): 7 following, 11,600 followers and 3,278 tweets

IDB Group: 0 following, 2 followers and 0 tweets

IDB Group Thiqah (business community and financial services web portal): 26 following, 50 followers and 283 tweets

Irti IDB Group (research/training group): 30 following, 11 followers and 22 tweets

Inceif (global university for Islamic finance): 2,368 following, 3,280 followers and 2,410 tweets

Daud Vicary Abdullah, CEO of Inceif: 610 following, 1,956 followers and 6,296 tweets

IEDC Dubai-Dubai Islamic Economy Development Center: 241 following, 1,765 followers and 3,653 tweets

Abdulla M. Al Awar, CEO IEDC Dubai: 45 following, 125 followers and 20 tweets

Rushdi Siddiqui: 69 following, 670 followers and 3,895 tweets

Again, the numbers may be low, but it is a good beginning point as one can only go up.

I have not included names of institutions and leaders from other Muslim lifestyle sectors like halal food/beverage, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, travel, media/recreation and logistics.

Lessons

Some of learned lessons for me on Twitter include:

- Need to tweet continuously

- Need to provide insight on industry developments, especially the vision

- Need to tweet on your subject matter as becoming generalist will result in “unfollowing”

- Do not attack competitors, hard sell your products and services or talk about awards won as credibility will be lost

- Use hashtags intelligently as this will result in retweets or favourites and add to followers

- Follow news concerning the sector and comment

- Follow people, including leaders, competitors (including conventional banks), economists, stock exchanges, research houses, e-commerce payment players and developments, etc.

Social media is here to stay, grow and develop, and the young customers will be your best brand ambassador or your worst nightmare. They can also be forgiving and insightful if you are connected to them. – May 6, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.