Murdoch University, Dubai empowers women at The Women’s Lunchbox 2012

Murdoch University Dubai's The Women's Lunchbox 2012 panellist

Murdoch University, Dubai's debut Women's Lunchbox 2012 set a precedence for all academic institutions as it launched in true Murdoch style with a panel discussion on one of the most talked about topics; Social Media: Return on Investment.  A ballroom of 200 women from various disciplines was filled to the brim as women expressed delight to have been invited to an event where they were given a platform to excel and network with like-minded professionals.

Hosted and moderated by Dubai One's Katie Fielder, the event began with an insight into the social media success story of Coca Cola. The audience were treated to a short interview with Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communication and Capabilities, Coca Cola, who revealed that they reply to all their tweets on Twitter. 

The panel consisting of 5 women, and experts in their respective fields, revealed how they measured return on investment within their industries. The debate seemed to favour a return on influence with Expatwoman editor, Gail Potter claiming ExpatWoman.com used “Facebook as an additional tool to keep people informed”. Marketing Manager of Friesland Campina, Mahitab Hamed provided in-depth insight to a product aimed predominantly at women. She also highlighted “Sharing Golden Moments in a way that can be translated to video was the way forward for Friesland Campina”. Mahitab also made it clear that social media wasn’t simply about ROI.

Representing social media experts whose job it is to ensure companies get a return on investment was Akanksha Goel, founder of one of the largest social media agencies in the UAE, Socialize. Responsible for implementing social media strategies for Mirdif City Centre, Mall of the Emirates, and Phillips amongst others, Akanksha revealed “social media has to be integrated with traditional marketing tools. The use of varying social media platforms differed across all industries and Return on Investment was simply a sub-set of Return on Influence”.

As the debate took on a life of its own, it soon became clear that having a social media presence was vital if organisations were to keep up with their tech savvy consumers. Organisations could not rely on inbound marketing methods solely to generate revenue, and hence advertising spend on traditional methods was still catered for, albeit reduced. Representing the Dubai School of Government, Aisha Ali told the audience that DSG were a non-profit organisation that used social media to “educate the wider international community on current issues and it wasn’t a revenue generating platform”. The Dubai School of Government, recognised for producing The Arab Social Media Report, drew on the role of women's use in social media. Were there any trends? Could social media be the key to women's political and economic empowerment in the Arab world?

Complementing the use of social media as a forum to interact in real-time was Chef and TV Presenter, Saba Wahid. Drawing from her experiences as an individual who travels all over the UAE to participate in all sorts of culinary events, Saba said “having a presence on the web was imperative and she found Twitter and YouTube the best means of social media for her”. Interestingly, the food and beverage industry seemed to showcase a popular use for YouTube as their primary social media driver. Mahitab, Saba and Meghna confirmed that visuals were far more effective than simply "writing" to their consumers.

Murdoch University, Dubai also revealed they would be hosting the next Lunchbox in late September 2012 and were looking to gauge an even wider audience for a new trending topic.