In this Industry snapshot, Imfluence CEO Mike AlNaji shares how MENA doesn’t have an audience problem, diving into what brands actually need to do to earn the attention of the MENA audience, including the need for storytelling, creating agile content, building community and treating social beyond a last-minute, under-resourced task.
Social media has become the new storefront. But are brands in the region actually building for it, or just showing up?
Many brands are still showing up rather than truly building for social. Presence is the baseline now and visibility alone does not create impact. The brands that are succeeding are those designing social ecosystems around storytelling, creators and community, backed by consistent, intentional social media management every single day.
There’s a lot of noise about brands needing to act like media companies on social. Is that realistic, and what does it actually look like in practice for brands in the MENA?
The idea that brands should act like media companies is often misunderstood. It does not mean producing endless content, but understanding audiences and creating content that people actively choose to engage with. In an attention economy, relevance and speed matter more than volume. Brands that build agile content capabilities and adapt quickly to what resonates will always have an advantage.
Influencer marketing has matured significantly. How does it fit into a broader social media strategy now rather than being treated as a standalone tactic?
Creators are no longer just amplifying brand messages. They are trusted voices that capture attention. The most effective strategies integrate creators into the broader social media ecosystem so their content supports organic storytelling, paid media and brand credibility rather than sitting in isolation.
MENA has one of the highest social media usage rates in the world. Are brands truly capitalising on that or are they still leaving opportunity on the table?
High usage does not automatically translate into effective engagement. The challenge is not reaching people. It is earning their trust and time. Brands that combine strong social media management with creator-led storytelling consistently outperform those still treating social as a broadcast channel.
With Al reshaping content creation and audience targeting, where is the line between efficiency and authenticity?
Algorithms are evolving to reward originality, which means generic AI-generated content will struggle regardless of how efficiently it is produced. At lmfluence, we use AI to sharpen our social media management, improving research, scheduling and analysis, but the human voice behind the content always leads.
Most brands claim social media is a priority. Why does the output rarely reflect that?
Priority without infrastructure is just intention. Most brands claim social media matters but still treat it as a last-minute task, under-resourced, under-strategised and measured by the wrong metrics. The output reflects the investment, and in most cases the real investment is not there. Posting consistently is not a strategy. What separates brands that genuinely perform on social is the decision to treat it as a discipline, with dedicated management, clear creative direction and accountability to results that actually matter. Until that shift happens internally, the gap between what brands say about social and what they actually produce will remain wide.
