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Social media played an important role in galvanising anti-government protests in Tunisia and Egypt. There is some evidence that Facebook is also gaining traction in Yemen, but the number of users is still very low and seems to be largely confined to the universities.

The Dubai School of Government has just published the Arab Social Media Report, the first in a quarterly series analysing social networking trends across the Arab world. It found that the number of Facebook users in the region almost doubled in 2010, from 11.9 million to 21.3 million.

Across the region as a whole, three-quarters of Facebook users were between the ages of 15 and 29. In Tunisia, Facebook penetration was estimated at 18% of the population, compared to 5% in Egypt and less than 1% in Yemen.

With the population of Yemen estimated at 24 million, that would mean 180,000 Facebook users, compared to 1.8 million in Tunisia and 4.6 million in Egypt. 

Yemen has a relatively low internet penetration rate, as well as lower levels of literacy and education than many of its neighbours, especially for women.

Yemen's political environment also differs from that in Tunisia and Egypt. Political parties operate openly and freely; not just to provide token opposition to the ruling party. The large anti-government protests on 3 February were backed by the opposition coalition of the Joint Meeting Parties, which has its own traditional means of organisation in addition to new media tools.

There were Facebook groups set up to publicise this demonstration, and at least one backing a pro-government rally on the same day. But, although some groups urged a follow-up anti-government rally on 10 February, only about 100 turned up, according to agency reports.

The Yemen Times published reports on these groups on 3 and 7 February. From these reports, and observation of related Facebook pages, it would seem that active participants are largely limited to university students numbered in the few hundreds.

The situation in Yemen is also affected by two other considerations. The first is an ongoing rebellion in the north and a simmering separatist movement in the south, each of which have their own perspective on the political situation and the central government.

The second is the fact that for many Yemenis tribal affiliations are at least as important as political orientation. An interesting example of this occurred on 7 February, when it was reported that "hundreds" of Facebook followers of Shaykh Hamid al-Ahmar, a leading opposition figure, had staged a show of solidarity outside his house in Sanaa. This came after an armed clash between bodyguards of the Shaykh and the governor of Sanaa, who is from a rival tribe.

Shaykh Hamid has a Facebook page himself but, unusually for a public figure, it is not openly accessible and requires visitors to register with Facebook first.

Steve Metcalf is a media analyst with BBC Monitoring.