The Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) has opened a social media department to promote the Maldives on networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Head of the MMPRC, Mohamed Maleeh Jamal, told Minivan News that the new ‘Digital and Social Media’ department would aim to establish the Maldives as a “strong presence in the social and digital sphere.”
“Social networks have been under-utilised in the Maldives [as marketing tool] in the past,” Maleeh said, adding that the department would also work on search engine optimisation for the destination.
MMPRC staff will be trained to use the networks for marketing purposes and would attend the Digital and Social Media Conference in London in November, he said.
Dismissing potential criticism that the new approach was a ‘Department of Facebook’, Maleeh explained that social media was a cost-effective marketing tool that would enable greater sharing of positive messages about the destination, especially given its popularity with international – and tweeting – celebrities.
“Honeymooners are a key market for the Maldives, and social media users are quite young. It is good if we can occupy a space in their mind when they are booking their honeymoon,” Jamal explained.
Furthermore, “all other major destination promoters are is doing it, and we don’t want to be left out,” he said.
The Maldives was very social media-savvy, Maleeh noted, with a ‘social media population’ of around 50,000.
“If one person sends out a positive message, that is worth millions of rufiya in word-of-mouth marketing. Visitors are also very loyal – 25 percent are repeat visitors,” he added.
According to Facebook statistics, there are 123,280 active Facebook users in the Maldives – a third of the population. The vast majority of these – 113,760 – are under the age of 35. Sixty percent of all Maldivian Facebook users are male.
While Facebook has been popular in the Maldives for many years, Twitter use has exploded following the controversial transfer of power on February 7. Tags such as #mvcoup are full of furious exchanges between bloggers, activists, politicians and office holders.
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If I go to facebook search bar and search Maldives, I already sees 100s of facebook pages promoting Maldives before Ruder Finn came up with the idea!!
Why don't MMPRC come out with a broader plan to address the pressing concerns of tourists coming to a politically unstable country now ruled by former dictator and his regime (as the international community knows it) and also plan to mitigate the impending doom that will follow when the opposition thugs up their game to the max come 2013.
It is disturbing to know the heads of MMPRC is so narrow minded and with tunnel vision when they make such a big deal out of creating a department in a state owned enterprise to advertise on Facebook and twitter when teenagers in maldives 2-3 years back have been doing the same with their laptops inside their bedroom.
Please do not come up with such silly Press Releases to show that you either do not know what to do or you have nothing to do. It is irony when Maldives Makreting and Public Relations Corporations gets their Public Relations this wrong.
The whooe point of social media is that you can not manage the content... If thousands of these young Maldivians wish to communicate the recent political problems more effectively they can now do it to a bigger audience. His is a PR own goal.
More money being spent by the Jewish company Ruder Finn. Is this the best they can do to keep up the $150,000 a month contract of our money???
Social media is doing a very good job explaining he coup and illegal government we now have = facebook kula yellow
Facebook and Twitter means freedom of expression and opinion. Maleeh and the illegal coup government know nothing about this!!!
Is this the kind of crappy ideas that Rudder Fin comes up with?
hehe this is all Maleeh and the gangs idea not RuderFinn's. he always thinks he knows about marketing and PR. this gang from MATATO, like thinks they know it all. maleeh is still the secretary general of matato. didnt even resign. where is the conflict of interest. magaameh viyyaa dhookoh nulaathi...kuda dhuvas kolheh maleeh haha. tic toc
Maleeh should open a new department to handle the ofice correspondence. Why do we let these 'experts' waste our tax money? Perhaps it doesn't matter. The money may come from Champa, Universal and Villa. Who cares ?